Yea, I'm thinking I'll get 1.5-2" easy with the explorer springs.. plus my shocks are original at 92k miles so that's not helping. I'm going to be removing the lift blocks so it should come close to evening out. I'm about an inch taller in the rear anyway, so hoping I get close to level doing that.

 

I blame Obama.

You're going to love them. You'll be able to take off fast, and stop fast. Definitely worth it. Do you have a 28 spline or 31?

 

31 spline 8.8 FTW

 

I should probably do Disc's. I plan to keep the truck for a bit.

How hard was it to come by the backing plates and calipers?

 

The calipers really you can get at the parts stores, they're just gonna charge you a core. The backing plates you can get from a junk yard, or maybe off of a mustang forum. I guess the big upgrade there is to go from v6/GT brakes to Cobra, so a lot of guys are selling their stuff. If you get them out of the junk yard and want new ones.. take them into the parts store and turn them in for the core charge and get brand new ones for cheaper. I got all my stuff from someone on one of the Ranger forums. Got pads, rotors, and brake lines off of amazon.

 

So.. explorer leaf springs and Bilstein 4600's installed in the rear. Will post some pictures tonight when I get home. What a major difference in the way it rides and handles.

I removed the 2 1/2" lift blocks, and replaced really worn out leaf springs and shocks. My rear end on both sides before this measured at about 40 1/8" on both sides. They both now sit at 39.5". My Front sits right around 39, so it sits pretty much level and perfect.

 

Nice! Glad you got it all done. It always seems like you run into a ton of problems when working on your truck lol guess that's just the way automotive repair goes sometimes or most of the time I should say

 

Forgot to ask, did you paint the 4600's? lol

 

Yea I was in a hurry so I cleaned them, hung them up and sprayed them with a few coats of black.. It won't last, because I didn't prep the surface at all really... But in the meantime I don't have to look at the yellow.

 

Are you gonna keep them black when you do the final paint job?

 

Yea I think so.. I may just keep touching them up as needed. I need to wire wheel everything eventually and POR the frame and stuff

 

As promised.. pictures of the explorer leaf spring swap. I pulled these out of a 98 I think with about 120k miles.

I decided to start on the driver's side. I got the front leaf spring bolt out after about 30-45 minutes of messing with it. Then I got here.. and I spent somewhere around 5 1/2 hours trying first to get the leaf spring bolt out.. then the shackle bolt.


Got pissed and took the bedside off to get better leverage, got it off.. and pics of all the tools and crap I had laying out to get this done. You can kind of see the explorer spring next to the old ranger spring. And a teaser of a future mod.


Finding u-bolts on a weekend was a pain in the ***, and they aren't cheap. I paid $41 for u-bolts.. I paid $27 for the explorer leafs at the junk yard (50% off sale).




And since I couldn't get the shackles off of the leaf springs.. I bought new OEM style shackles.. they are just Dorman OEM replacements.



My lovely rusted off exhaust hanger


Tried to remove the driver's side shock. Top came off easy... bottom snapped



And.. Bilstein 4600's. Yellow is really ******* gay. Along with gay blue on top of it. Disregard messy bench.. I've been lazy


So I fixed some of the gayness.. I am gonna remove or replace the boot with a different color.. didn't care about the overspray


Installed:



Measurements I took when I was doing my t-bar crank.. the blue is the final number after removing the 2 1/2" lift block, adding the new shocks and explorer springs

 

Nice swap,

you will like the explorer seats when your get them in

 

Thanks. It might be a little bit before I get them in.. Need to do some research on the wiring, and pre-tensioner swap, and I want to clean them and dye them black before I put them in. Also, my center console needs some work, mainly the arm rest needs refinished and I'm gonna paint it black also. Want to have it looking how I want it before it all goes in.

 

I never hooked up the power on mine because I wasn't sure if I would keep them. I just set them where I wanted them and then securely wrapped the wiring up.

 

Yea, I'm just OCD, and wiring them up doesn't bother me too much. I cut pretty far back on the wiring harness, so I just need to wire up one end of the harness and then plug the seats in when it's all done, and it'll look sort of stock, just one extra plug. Gotta figure out what each wire does I guess.

 

Haven't updated this in a while.. haven't done much since the brake swap. I bought a full size : https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...ze-mod-146291/

I also put the original grille back on and the STX/Sport one is in a box for now. I was going to sell the ranger, so I put the original on, then decided to keep it and I was too lazy to change it back out. Also, put some R-F stickers on it.

Last week I was on searchtempest.com (craigslist) and I found some parts out in Kansas I wanted.. guy was asking $450, and I talked him down to $350 and I would drive out and get them. So.. for $350 plus about $150 or so in gas.. I got this stuff:








If you can't tell.. it's a manual transmission w/ manual transfer case (twin sticks) from a 2003 FX4 Lvl II. Also got the 31 spline rear axle and driveshaft out of it.

The shifters look like they are the stock FX4 ones but they're missing the shift ***** for them. And I need the floor plate, and boots as well. Bunch of other little things will need to be gathered up too, so this stuff is probably going to sit in my garage for a long time, it was just too good of a deal to pass up.

The 31 spline will go on sooner, maybe early spring/summer time. I just swapped the disc brakes onto the 28 spline, so I need to gather the parts to do it to this axle too, which I'll probably do before installing it on the truck. Trying to decide if I should just get the Currie industries bracket and do the mustang brakes again, or if I should just grab some brakes off of an explorer rear. Probably cheaper to do the explorer route. Then I'll sell the 28 spline w/ the discs on it probably. I threw away all the old drum stuff when I took them off.

 

Dibs on that grille if it ever goes up for sale

These are the brakes I went with: Powerstop

 

I doubt I'll ever sell it, but I'm always keeping an eye out for them, so I'll snag one if I see it.

Does powerstop have a whole kit? I'm leaning towards the Currie brackets even though they are pricey so I can set it up exactly how I have it now.. the parking brake shoes inside the rotor plus the ebrake cable set-up seems like the biggest pain in the *** about the explorer option.

 

Nice find

 

Nice grab on the 31 spline 8.8.

The only thing I haven't liked about it is the fact that replacement axles are a PITA to come across in the junk yards and cost over $200 new from Ford.


Seems like you got yourself a decent parts lot for the price though.

 

I thought I had first dibs on the grille. What happened to #modlyfe

 

Not sure what all you mean by a whole kit, but all I bought from them were rotors and pads. Their website shows a "1 click kit" that includes "premium hardware," pin bushing kit, and high temp lube.

 

I meant like the caliper brackets and all that. I found a website where I can get a 31 spline mustang GT disc brake kit, with literally everything for $570 shipped but thats pricey. I could do the explorer stuff from a junkyard for cheaper but the ebrake setup is a completely different animal

 

Shouldnt you be able to use explorer shafts and have them shortened?