This is my first post so please bare with me please.
I just inherited my moms 2002 ford excursion 7.3l with 129,000 miles. My mom isn't the best with vehicle maintenance so this thing was ragged on for the 12 years she drove it. The suspension is pretty trashed and I am planning on doing a icon 7" lift or saving up for A while and putting it all torwars a full traction 8" coil over kit. But there are A few more important things I have to fix first.
So my question is what are the best cheap upgrades for my new X because almost all the cheap autozone shocks that were recently put on are trashed and the steering stabilizer is beyond trashed. Im thinking about buying a set of 4 Rancho RS9000XL and just a rancho stabilizer. Is it worth it to buy those now and wait until I get my new lift or are there better cheaper shock option? Your help would be greatly appreciated and im glad to finally get this build started.

 

Best upgrade I have done to my 2003 is a Hellwig rear swaybar. It will immensely help eliminate rear steer and that Buick wallowing ride feel.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001G9CJQW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1417897324&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40

 

Welcome to the club bud. I see you're relatively nearby, I'm out in Houston and there's a few others on here that are as well. Could come in handy for any wrench parties in the future!

First thing I'm going to do is point you towards the Tech Sticky thread at the top of the Excursion forum, all of your questions have plenty of coverage and a variety of ways to go about doing it.

In a nutshell, the stock springs are found to be lacking by many of us on here. Nearly everyone agrees that the stock rear 30mm swaybar off the Super Duty's is a great upgrade and can be found at scrapyards. As exbxtoy already mentioned, the Hellwig is another very good solution.

You're fairly close to Buda, if I remember correctly. There's a HUGE Super Duty graveyard out there that has good prices on a ton of parts, I plan on making a trip out there once I have some money saved up. You should have good luck there finding a swaybar for the rear, and if you're interested in the V/B or X/C swap you might find the springs there as well. You'll learn about that after reading through the Tech Sticky.

Not trying to be lazy, but the amount of knowledge and information in that sticky is unreal and will help you out in more ways that I can begin to list. That and these questions get asked almost daily, in fact there's another thread further down this page covering almost the exact same thing.

 

Replace the steering box if it has any slop in it! Most say tighten it, but IMHO that is just a bandaid. A remanned box isn't to expensive and if you are doing the rest of the steering linkage a new box will compliment the rest of the work.

All springs are not equal! Use OEM springs. Well worth it!

 

X2 on the Hellwig and X3 on Matt he can (when he has the time) help you with just about anything. between him and Toreado you have the dream team down there

 

Is this the new designed version. I saw the newer ones vs the older ones and newer are alot beefer looking

 

Do the factory spring swaps and the Ranchos, wish I had gone this route.
Then, save up $4,000, and do the sick lift to romp through the mall.

 

I went through about just about every option you can think of. Here's what I would do in the following order:

1) Heavier springs. They don't have to be new though new ones are pretty cheap. If going used be sure and replace everything rubber in the suspension. It is worn by now.
2) Steering linkages and steering box.
3) Front sway bar links.
4) Add a rear sway bar.
5) Shocks. I went with Rancho. Worked fine but can't say I see an improvement over the factory shocks.

This will have the truck riding better than new and eliminate most of the creaks and bumps. Fix it. Don't try to patch it with band-aids. After you get it working properly then start looking at bells and whistles. You will be happier with the results and probably spend less money in the long run.

 

If you are patient we offer a spring rebate on shocks, FYI.

9000's?
I am on the F-250 platform but I noticed a difference night and day.

 

> 9000's?
> I am on the F-250 platform but I noticed a difference night and day.



Ok, let me revise that. With the heavy duty springs and the truck empty I did not notice that much improvement.

 

Gotcha. I haven't been in an Ex in a while honestly.

 

not a fan of the Rancho 9000s. Within two weeks three of the four adjustment ***** had seized up. During the summer. Should have went Bilstien. Just my experience.

 

Thanks man, sorry i haven't been around my computer or phone for a couple days. Im actually in Buda alot so i really need to go look for that graveyard because im missing A couple small things like climate control buttons.

 

yeah that sounds good. My original plan was A full prerunner build with king 3.0 shocks but theres nowhere to prerun in texas and theres no real prerunner suspension for the big *** excursions.

 

I'd be interested in this graveyard in Buda as well. I'm in Waco but go to SA regularly and had no idea! Then again I'm fairly new to being a truck guy.