The 8 Year Project

[tcm glx]

Lookin good........what shocks are you running? What did it cycle? Super stealth

[SteveG]

Thanks guys. Randy, The front portion of the leaves are the same length as the factory leaves, so the wheel should be in the right spot. The front tires on the other hand, will need some adjustment since I pushed the wheels forward and the right wheel moves at a different ratio than the left due to the shorter beam. In other words, I wish I was installing one of John's kits so I could bolt it on and be done!

Tony, The shocks will be 2.25" Fabtech shocks. I'm not positive on the lengths yet. I have a pair of 10" travel shocks and a pair of 13.something" travel shocks. I'd love to not have to cut them down but we'll see.

[SteveG]

Goofing around and checking full droop before I pull the leaves again. Available wheel travel is at least 15"... plenty. Mounting rear shocks on these is nowhere near as easy as Broncos, though, so we'll see how much I end up with.

[johncharlesb]

It looks good as always Steve. Are you planning on running 31s on stock wheels?

[Becks_Bronco]

This is going to be awesome Steve. Looks like you've got a really clean exploder to start with

[SteveG]

Are you planning on running 31s on stock wheels?

Yup. The rim and tire package will stay the same. A 33x10.50 would be a good tire for it, too but isn't necessary. This is meant to be a convenient daily driver that can also work well (and stay comfortable) in the rough.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Looking good Steve!

[philofab]

Any updates? I finally got my Explorer back on the road again. Still needs a ton of little stuff, AC compressor, window regulator, door handles, and a deep cleaning.

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[SteveG]

Nice, Philo. No interesting updates. I'm going to correct the wheelbase (matching left and right) by offsetting the radius arm pivots. The left side will stay where it is and the rear will come back .375" which should put it where I need to be. I need to have the rings for the pivot bushing part of the radius arm brackets machined to my specs. I hope to have that done next week. Once that's done, the front will move into final assembly.

This evening I finalized the location of the driver side coil-bucket and got it bolted in place. Gotta get this thing done... getting so close I can taste it.

[philofab]

FYI, I can get you factory Ford radius arm mounts/brackets for 1976-1979 Ford
F-Series trucks for $25 each. These are NOS.

[SteveG]

Good to know. I think the pivot brackets are sorted out. I was hoping to install the updated (to the early stuff) bushings tonight and take some final measurements but none of the parts stores had the rubber bushings like I want. Everyone stocks Neoprene and similar hard materials... no bueno for flexy suspensions.

[philofab]

Good to know. I think the pivot brackets are sorted out. I was hoping to install the updated (to the early stuff) bushings tonight and take some final measurements but none of the parts stores had the rubber bushings like I want. Everyone stocks Neoprene and similar hard materials... no bueno for flexy suspensions.

UHaul has the Ford made rubber ones... $3.50 each or so. We have so many truck parts it's not even funny. Need a gas gauge for you 60s or 70 pickup? We got that too. Most of my 71 will be restored with UHaul parts through our parts system.

[SteveG]

Good to know. I think the pivot brackets are sorted out. I was hoping to install the updated (to the early stuff) bushings tonight and take some final measurements but none of the parts stores had the rubber bushings like I want. Everyone stocks Neoprene and similar hard materials... no bueno for flexy suspensions.

UHaul has the Ford made rubber ones... $3.50 each or so. We have so many truck parts it's not even funny. Need a gas gauge for you 60s or 70 pickup? We got that too. Most of my 71 will be restored with UHaul parts through our parts system.

Hmm. Can you ship me a set?

[philofab]

Hmm. Can you ship me a set?

PM me your mailing address.

[SteveG]

I know all of you are way smarter than this, but damn it do I hate it when I have a plan, execute it (or mostly execute it) then realize I'm REALLY over-thinking it, doing it all wrong and just making the task MUCH harder than it has to be.

So to correct wheelbase (matching the two sides), I had these radius arm bushing pivots made for the right side (short beam).

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These would sandwich the pivot bracket plate and allow me to move the right side radius arm pivot back without having to cut the bracket apart and re-work it (which was going to be tough because it's a pretty tight fit against the trans cross member. I thought it was genius until I got it tacked together and figured out my measurements weren't quite dead-on. Crap. Now I gotta have more parts cut. And since I'm paying someone to do this, it sucks even more!

The solution: Why the hell didn't I do this in the first place!? The left side used a one-piece... ring? Sleeve? whatever you want to call it. I welded it to the front face of the bracket plate, the rear half of the bushing is recessed into the plate... works great. Simple, simple simple.

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So, here it is. Hole saw the bracket to the O.D. of the sleeve, use a sleeve just like the right side, put it all together, adjust the wheelbase as needed, weld in place and be done!

Thanks to Chris Wilson for showing me this trick. Works great!

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[AussieRod]

There are those rare occasions we cant always see the woods for the trees

[philofab]

Wait... You can actually drop the transmission without removing the radius arms? That's dumb. I think the other 99% of Rangers/Explorers are better since it takes an extra hour to work on anything transmission related.

[SteveG]

Heck yeah. Unless the radius arms pivot under the middle of the truck, I don't see any reason to tie it all together. Modular is where its at!

[SteveG]

We stopped at a yard sale yesterday on the way home & I scored 4 limit straps. Best of all, they just happen to fit the front just about perfect with no drilling or modifications. Hopefully they can work in the rear as well.

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[SteveG]

Shock mock-up has begun. These are 10" travel shocks that were planned for the front but fitment at full bump is a tighter than I'd like (about .25" of compression left in the shock when the front end is bottomed out). An 8" travel should would probably work better but I ain't got parts for those. I might use a welded lower bearing instead of the aluminum rod end and bushing to shorten the shock a bit.

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The end product should look something like this.

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