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Explorer 8.8 swappers: I have questions

BLAKE

Member
It's been a long road getting this thing squared away, but it's cleaned up, narrowed and bolted on top of the leaf springs, sort of.

I did the mod where a small plate is welded to the Exploder shock mount plate to serve as the new location for the bottom of the shock. Like this:

That's out because now that it's in place I see that the angle is all wrong.


The only solution I can think of is re-drill the stock plates for the new, wider U-bolts. I don't love this plan, but it'd take a ton of re-engineering to make the Exploder plates work. Thoughts?

Question #2: driveshaft length. Anybody else done this and not had to cut the driveshaft down? I cut mine down an inch for the T-5 years ago, and just eyeballing it with the 8.8, I bet I need to take at least an inch out. Maybe more like 1.75in. Is this consistent with your experience? I had heard some need to trim it by an inch, some not at all, but it's way off on mine as it sits mocked up.

For a "simple swap", this thing has been a pain in the rear. Get it? "Rear"? Kill me.
 
I noticed the same thing when I did mine. I ended up finding some rod ends that threaded to the shock and ran my through bolt through the stock explorer mount. There isn't enough meat to redrill the mustang one iirc


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I had a 2 door explorer driveshaft shortened by an aluminum welder. Cut 1.5 inches out.


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Interesting. I've often heard it's difficult to find someone to shorten an aluminum driveshaft.

I noticed the same thing when I did mine. I ended up finding some rod ends that threaded to the shock and ran my through bolt through the stock explorer mount. There isn't enough meat to redrill the mustang one iirc

This sounds interesting. Do you have pics or a link? I'm having a hard time visualizing.

I agree that it doesn't look like there's enough material on the old plates, but I know it's been done before. It's not my preferred solution.
 
It's been a long road getting this thing squared away, but it's cleaned up, narrowed and bolted on top of the leaf springs, sort of.

I did the mod where a small plate is welded to the Exploder shock mount plate to serve as the new location for the bottom of the shock. Like this:
That's out because now that it's in place I see that the angle is all wrong.
From the one pic provided it looks to me like you could simply cut the top portion off the extension at the correct angle and weld on a flat top piece with a hole in it for the shock to mount. You may need to heat and bend out the one side's vertical bit a little to allow clearance to put a socket on the shock nut but seems a relatively easy fix.
 
From the one pic provided it looks to me like you could simply cut the top portion off the extension at the correct angle and weld on a flat top piece with a hole in it for the shock to mount. You may need to heat and bend out the one side's vertical bit a little to allow clearance to put a socket on the shock nut but seems a relatively easy fix.

That's easy to say, but with the plates next to each other, it's a fairly complex angle/position. I stared at these for a while yesterday and it was hard so I quit. Beyond my limited fab skills. I'm still not sure how to do this right.
 
Put an angle gauge on the shock when held in the correct position relative to the spring plate so you know the surface angle needed on the mounting tab. If you have an original spring plate with the correct shock mount you can also just take the measurements off it keeping things relative to the surface plane that rests against the springs.
 
Find a rod end that will thread onto the stud. Then put a bolt thru the rod end and the explorer shock mount. Basically your converting a stud style shock to a hooped shock.


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Find a rod end that will thread onto the stud. Then put a bolt thru the rod end and the explorer shock mount. Basically your converting a stud style shock to a hooped shock.
This is what Heidts does on their set-ups. Just keep your fingers crossed Sanborn never finds out.*

*the original design of the suspension was to have the load ON the plate not a side load on a bolt shaft. Bolts are not designed to carry a "shear" load so failure is a concern. Using a stronger bolt coupled with a higher clamping force (transferring some of the load) does work.
 
That was how I solved my dilemma that the op is dealing with. I considered that and ended up stacking a washer and the rubber on top of the rod bolt. It worked but I'll never know how it functioned lol.


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The only solution I can think of is re-drill the stock plates for the new, wider U-bolts. I don't love this plan, but it'd take a ton of re-engineering to make the Exploder plates work. Thoughts?

This is exactly what I did. I hogged out the bolt holes on the 68 stock plates. Since the Exploder u-bolts were is great condition and easy to remove, I re-used them.
No issues at all.
 
This is exactly what I did. I hogged out the bolt holes on the 68 stock plates. Since the Exploder u-bolts were is great condition and easy to remove, I re-used them.
No issues at all.

Seems like it wanted to do this but thought I wouldn't have enough meat left. Good to know it worked out.


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