[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by enkeivette

Yeah, the arms prob look the same on your Exploder. Since the ball joints are pressed in and we can't screw with them, I plan to cut the end of the arm off, place a pipe on top of the ball joint, weld it to the arm, weld the arm to the top of the pipe.

No pics, haven't done it yet. I'll see if I can get a paint illustration.

I have a press if you find that you need one.

[enkeivette]

Before

After

[enkeivette]

If it were any other car we could just swap out the balljoint for a longer one and the problem may be solved. But not only is this balljoint a bitch because it presses in, it also does not have a threaded stud. The stud is notched for a bolt that slides into the spindle.

I guess I should ask Autozone if I can raid their selection of ball joints, but it seems impractical that I would find something.

[blackax]

eek thats gonna be a lot of stress on the weld. I would look in to moveing the a arm mounting points

[94cobra69ss396]

Remember, I now have a solid front axle on my Explorer. No more A arms for me. How did your friend lift the front end? Does he still have the torsion bars or did he go to a coilover?

[enkeivette]

Originally Posted by 94cobra69ss396

Remember, I now have a solid front axle on my Explorer. No more A arms for me. How did your friend lift the front end? Does he still have the torsion bars or did he go to a coilover?

Stock suspension, we just put in Silverado 2500 coils. Gave it about a 3" lift. And he has a 3" spindle lift and a 3" body lift on 35s. Looks cool, doesn't actually have all that much travel though.

[94cobra69ss396]

That thing must ride stiffer then the rear of Ben's Vette. I wouldn't cut the upper arm and space it down because you will change the geometry of the control arms. If the upper arm is touching the frame then you are already at full droop just at ride height. Can you get me some pictures of it?

On a side note, I'm going to start looking at building new extended upper and lower control arms on Eric's Explorer while retaining all wheel drive. Hopefully it will all work.

[enkeivette]

Originally Posted by 94cobra69ss396

That thing must ride stiffer then the rear of Ben's Vette. I wouldn't cut the upper arm and space it down because you will change the geometry of the control arms. If the upper arm is touching the frame then you are already at full droop just at ride height. Can you get me some pictures of it?

On a side note, I'm going to start looking at building new extended upper and lower control arms on Eric's Explorer while retaining all wheel drive. Hopefully it will all work.

I'll ask my friend to send some. What would you do? He doesn't want to cut the springs and give up ride height. Should we move all of the control arms out an inch or so? Is there enough adjustment in the stock steering to reach out another inch on each side?

It does ride stiff. We put in Exploder leafs with add a leafs, it's stiff as a bitch. The Bilsteins make it tolerable though.

[94cobra69ss396]

Extending the arms won't keep it from hitting the frame at droop. Get me pictures of it.

[enkeivette]

Can you weld iron to steel?