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Hello - Front Suspension Help?

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Old Aug 13, 2018 | 06:17 PM
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Hello - Front Suspension Help?




Hello -

I purchased a Ford Excursion 7.3L 4x4 sight unseen for work. I use to burn up Yukon Denali's every 2 years (I put 50-60K a year on a vehicle), so last year I googled "top" power trains ever made and came to the conclusion this was it.

Any how, I was NOT aware that the prior owner (it was a one owner truck), installed aftermarket quad shock system in the front. And that the truck was "lifted". I do not need a lift, and also feel this affects my fuel economy. It does not have poor ride quality, or any issues that I am aware of it, I just want the truck back to stock height. At least as close as possible.
I have taken this to THREE Ford dealerships and none have offered a solution as to how to remove. (They could just be lazy, one did say for $5000 he would cut it out and install factory back)

I then started asking how to "lower" it while keeping the quad shocks in place, they all told me that is not possible.

Why couldn't I just buy new shocks for the front and coil overs for the rear? I am not familiar with suspension set ups.
I feel if I knew what "shocks" to buy, I could lower it down. The rear is also raised with the suspension.


Could someone tell me what it is? Who makes it? How to lower it without cutting it out?

Here are some photos.
 
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Old Aug 13, 2018 | 07:29 PM
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pirate4x4_camo
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Welcome to FTE and nice looking Ex.

we can get your excursion suspension all sorted out easy enough, no big deal.

but first we need some measurements and pic to determine what was done and what needs changing.

lets start off with the basic ride height measurement.

parking on level ground with no trailer or payload, Measure all 4 wheels from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender arc. Post those measurments up for us.

picture wise we need a clear picture of

1. Front leaf springs, best pic is from under the vehicle shooting towards the inside of the tire.
2. Rear leaf springs same thing but also need to make sure we can see the loacation where the axle attaches to the leaf spring.
 
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Old Aug 13, 2018 | 08:05 PM
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pirate4x4_camo
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While you are out getting measurments and pics, here is a little background on the Ex and suspension 101

as I am sure you know the Ex was built on the F250 superduty platform but since it was targeted to suberbia soccer nonsmoking for decided it needed to fit into a standard height garage door and built the Ex lower, they accomplished this by using diffrent leaf springs, The F250 has 8” off suspension travel and the Ex only has 5.5”

while that is fine and dandy when they are new all springs sag over time and when your springs sag 1” now the front axle is almost riding on the frame. This causes many issues but the biggest issue is it changes the front alignment geometry and the result is many Exursions wander when driving down a flat straight road because the sagged springs have reduced the caster alignment to below acceptable settings. The other big problem is the suspension bottoms out easily since it sits almost on the frame with sagged springs.

the fix to that would be to replace the stock leaf springs fairly often OR switch to the F250 springs which have more travel and a taller ride height. This gives a margin of error and enough suspension travel even when the springs are sagged.

The downside of this “fix” is your excursion no longer fits in the garage because of your “lift kit “
the upside is you don’t have to replace the front leaf springs constantly and your handeling stays consistant even as the taller springs sag.

Dual shocks, ya they are kinda dumb and not really needed for a street driven truck. to add insult to injury whom ever installed yours looks to have a used a pair of finger nail clippers to trim your inner fender well leaving you with a hacked looking setup. However, if your setup ride quality is acceptable then consider leaving it alone.

The fix is easy, take off the dual shock bracket and reinstall a stock mount. Then get new inner fender liners.
dealer cost on the stock upper shock mount is about $250 each or readily used for about $50
OR
use the double shock mount you have and just mount 1 shock. You will need new shocks though as dual shocks are valved diffrent internally, if you just took one off your ride would be very bouncy.

To actually lower your ride height to stock height we need to see what has what has been done to your leaf springs to know what needs to Ben undone
 
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Old Aug 20, 2018 | 05:39 PM
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I am sorry it took so long for these as I am on the road for work constantly. Thank you for your help with this. Even if the suspension in the front can't be "removed", can I purchase a shock or coil over x4 to lower it a little more?

The measurements on both front and rear center of hub to fender is roughly 24".

Here are photographs of the suspension front and rear.
 
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Old Aug 20, 2018 | 05:40 PM
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Rear suspension






 
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Old Aug 20, 2018 | 06:06 PM
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The front is 1” over factory ride height. To lower it you will have to buy new front leaf springs.

the rear is sitting at factory ride height but they installed aftermarket spring with a huge overload spring and removed the bump stop and anti wrap bar. Looks like they also installed a “helper spring” in the form of a RAS”

the ras RAS is that goofy looking device that sits onto of the leaf springs and hooks to the rear shackle.

Your Excursion doesn’t have coilover shocks or even a coil spring suspension, if you really want them there are conversions available but the excursion uses leaf springs. To change ride height you need to change leafs in the front and blocks and or leafs in the back. It is easily doable and a popular modification around here.

 
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Old Aug 20, 2018 | 06:40 PM
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As Pirate said, your truck is 1" higher than stock. Its not really a "Lifted" truck. Other than hacking up the plastic inner fender it looks like you have some pretty decent parts installed. Changing your front shocks will have nothing to do with the ride height. That is dictated by your springs or blocks.

You stated that it rides and handles well. My suggestion is to leave well enough alone. IF it is not performing well then look into new springs, shocks, etc.. I don't think 1" of height would effect fuel economy that much.
 
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Old Aug 23, 2018 | 10:22 AM
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Looks like a Helwig rear sway bar too... but that does nothing for the ride height.

In all actuality... your truck is set up quite well and the way it is now, is probably superior to stock. 1" would be hardly noticeable to an untrained eye. In fact new springs may not change anything until they ''settle".

What size tires do you have? they look stock...

PS... front sway bar link bolt is lose on the driver side at the sway bar.
 
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Old Aug 23, 2018 | 12:18 PM
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Can you post an exterior shot showing your Ex and the stance as it sits on the road?

Stewart
 
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Old Aug 26, 2018 | 08:39 AM
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Thank you for all the feedback. I clearly know nothing about suspension. I am thankful the prior owner installed quality items. My lack of knowledge just had me nervous as my prior trucks were all OEM Denali Yukons. The truck does run and drive flawlessly. It just appears to sit "higher" than all others. But I like the reason why as towing my camper, driving through swamp, and running over fences is something I do regularly for work.

"Stewart H" I will get a photo posted up of it later today when I get done driving.
Thank you

*I'll make a new post about my Superchip later after I research what some others are having issues with on this forum.
 
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Old Aug 28, 2018 | 10:48 PM
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Here is the photo you requested.
 
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Old Aug 28, 2018 | 11:15 PM
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Dude that thing is beautiful! It sounds like someone put in what my brother in law called a leveling kit. I've seen the term used before but don't know much about them. When he told me what he got done it sounded purely cosmetic so I didn't look into it. But it seems this guy tried to do it to your rig too. But he had it done more functional. I guess the stock truck has a tiny rake that makes it so when you put a load in the rear or are towing your lights won't point to the sky. At least that is my understanding. It looks great!
 
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Old Aug 29, 2018 | 03:13 PM
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My rig had a big lift/tires on it and dual-front shocks up front when I bought it last summer. Took me awhile to get the time to remove it, but the lift is off now. I didn't find a single-shock setup near me (truthfully, I didn't look that hard) so I simply removed half of the dual setup. So far, its working out fine but I haven't done any major road trips since doing so. I'll know more after this weekend when we pull our camper from our home in SW Montana to northern Idaho (4-5hrs each way) for a last minute play trip with my boys. I wanted to return it close to factory ride height, but didn't want springs to sag a few years down the road. The BDS springs up front were swapped out with F250/350 springs, but I kept the rear springs (minus the 2 biggest leafs). On the dual mount up front, a long bolt goes through the tops of both shocks, so I took the rear-half of the shock mounts off and used a shorter bolt to keep the top of the single shock attached to the front-half of the shock hoop.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2020 | 12:49 PM
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I’m a big believer in coil overs. Every single one of our cars has coil overs or some variant.

I don’t care if you are moton or jrz or kw I’d be appalled if they reacted in the same way as the manufacturer of this kit. Does anyone else have recommendations for a good coil over kit for those that don’t go the pro comp route?
 
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