Lil Digger 92 Explorer

[BATTEN]

Decided to start a thread for my explorer. I had been wanting something 4wd for a while. 4 seats were a necessity and preferably a straight axle. I came across this 92 sas’d explorer on marketplace and went to check it out. It was hideous but had potential. Ended up picking it up for cheap and drove it 45 mins home. It rode absolutely horribly on the street, but was driveable.
4.0, 5 speed, HP Dana 44 in the front, and full size 8.8 in the rear. Had brand new walkers with 35” coopers which were pretty much worth the cost of the whole truck Here’s what it looked like when I brought it home. No bumper, Toyota emblem zip tied to the grill, and the lower section of the body spray painted black. Uglier than shit

 

[BATTEN]

Got it home and threw a new starter in it. Found a junk yard bumper and ranger grill and slapped those on.

 

[BATTEN]

Flexed it out on my driveway jump before taking it wheelin

 

[BATTEN]

Took it out for the first time without any idea if it would fall apart or not. Went to a place called Chiva Falls which is about 25 or so miles from my house, 20 of which being dirt. Other than riding like shit, it impressed me. For being open diff and small tires it went up everything I pointed it at. Didn’t get many pictures, but I took the “hard lines” the whole way back to the water fall with no issues.

 

[BATTEN]

The whole point of me buying this thing was to have a cheap rig to go drive over rocks with. Unfortunately it snowballed and here’s what’s happening now

It rode like shit from the beginning. The front springs were too long, it was on a modified stock leaf pack, and the steering was horrible. The pan hard mount moved when the wheel was turned. The drag link angle was wack. The whole front end was just really shittily thrown together.

There was a piece of flat stock from the cross member to the pan hard bar mount to help hold it in place, worn out heims, etc

 

[BATTEN]

I took the explorer to my buddy Tyler Jameson at Arizona Chassis Engineering. He re-did the whole front end. New steering brackets and linkage, and mounted some ADS 2.5 coilovers. Threw a locker in the front, and welded the axle tubes to the center section. The plan is to take it back to him within the next week or so and have it do the rear. The plan is f67s with the axle slid back to clear 37s, 2.5 ADS bypasses, and a canti-lever set up.

 

[BATTEN]

I threw the new license plate on today, sprayed the wheels with some Alloy Armor, and mounted the 37s

 

[BATTEN]

This thing looks so much better on 37s. Really liking how it’s coming together.

 

[Raceranger97]

Looks awesome! Curious how well it flexes with the bronco style rad arms and shorter c/o? We are about to straight axle my employees Ranger that way.

 

[BATTEN]

Looks awesome! Curious how well it flexes with the bronco style rad arms and shorter c/o? We are about to straight axle my employees Ranger that way.

I am too. I flexed it out on my driveway jump (the same one as the photo earlier in this thread) and it seemed to flex about the same as the previous coil spring set up. I’ll update once I’m able to get it out somewhere and actually stretch it out.

 

[troysladeck]

Decided to start a thread for my explorer. I had been wanting something 4wd for a while. 4 seats were a necessity and preferably a straight axle. I came across this 92 sas’d explorer on marketplace and went to check it out. It was hideous but had potential. Ended up picking it up for cheap and drove it 45 mins home. It rode absolutely horribly on the street, but was driveable.
4.0, 5 speed, HP Dana 44 in the front, and full size 8.8 in the rear. Had brand new walkers with 35” coopers which were pretty much worth the cost of the whole truck Here’s what it looked like when I brought it home. No bumper, Toyota emblem zip tied to the grill, and the lower section of the body spray painted black. Uglier than shitView attachment 30048

Looks like @gascapkevin ‘s explorer

 

[gascapkevin]

I don’t know why people love spraying the bottoms of these black . The all white looks so much better

 

[BATTEN]

Went and drove over some rocks with @troysladeck this weekend. The front of the explorer seems to flex about the same as it did prior to the coil over install. The rear is set to get done after thanksgiving. Most of the parts are sitting here ready to go. The plan is to get this thing pretty dialed in before KOH. As of now I’m planning on going out the first weekend for the TT race

On a side note, these explorers are so impressive near stock width/height. Troys explorer went damn near everywhere mine went. Only limiting factor it seems is ground clearance.