Yoo! I’m looking to to swap my 1995 ford ranger xlt 2.3l rwd rear axle with a ford explorers rear axle in order to get brake calibers. Are the axles interchangeable or is their high fabrication needed to do this swap besides brake lines? In addition to this how can you tell if the Ford Explorer has a lsd? Thank you!!

 

Welcome to the forum

No, its not a straight swap, explorer has spring perches on the underside of axle, Rangers mount on the top, so cutting and welding is needed
Also shock mounts need relocation
If you can find 2010/11 Ranger rear axle it will have disc brakes and will just bolt in, but hard to find and usually $$$


The drivers door label on Fords will ID the axle that it was assembled with
Axle Code Numbers seen here: https://www.therangerstation.com/tec...le_codes.shtml

A letter and number denotes LSD, 2 numbers is OPEN

Also some axles will have an axle tag, as seen above, but.............grain of salt some people do swap tags to sell axle for more $$


There is this rear disc conversion, article here, which is pretty much bolt on: https://www.therangerstation.com/tec...nversion.shtml


And if you don't mind lowering the rear of the Ranger a few inches, 3"+, then this article might be helpful for explorer axle swap: https://www.therangerstation.com/tec..._welding.shtml