I replaced my orginal ranger 8.8 rear end with an explorer rear end and would like to know the corrrect procedure to position it to tighten up the rear sway bar. I have so far put weight onto the rear end to get it to actual ride hight and then tighted it up. Is this correct, if not how should it be done? I didn't think to measure the angle of it on the original rear end before I removed it. Thanks for any help.

 

There should be mounting points on the frame and the axle, you simply bolt it to these mounting points. There doesn't have to be weight in the bed (unless it sits too high for you to be able to bolt it) as the truck must have freedom to move up and down as necessary when driving. A sway bar doesn't control up/down movement, just side/side movement.

 

I am not installing a sway bar on the truck for the first time, it has a factory one. What I did was replace the original rear end with an explorer rear end. The explorer has welded mounting bracket on the axel but the ranger is held on with u bolts so the mounting bracket can be positioned all over. Maybe it doesn't really matter, I just didn't want to get into binding issues or create weird handling problems. I have driven it some since hooking it up and have not noticed anything weird yet. Thanks.

 

I'm attempting to visualize your setup, since my aftermarket one didn't hook up that same way.

The Explorer axle swap is super common, but should have required you to remove brackets and what not and weld them back on the opposite way, did you do this with the sway bar brackets as well?

 

I got new axel spring pads and welded them on the top, got new shock mounts and welded them on and cut off the old explorer sway bar mount brackets. I don't know if you have looked at the rear sway bar on the rangers but you should see that they are held on with u bolts. The brackets could slide up or down the tube on each side and spin all the way around it, if the sway bar is not attached.

On a side note, the swap went pretty good. Tires are still inside the rear fenders, maybe the sidewall is just barely or even with the outside edge of the fender. I rolled the inside lip best I could to try and prevent any rubbing or cutting in case I put a heavy load in and get the tires inside the rear fenders.

 

Yep mine attaches via U-bolts as well...sorry I was thinking the top as opposed to the bottom...long night.

My instructions for my swaybar said to bolt everything up loosely, then load the bed down fairly heavily (I got four friends to stand in it), check to make sure nothing is binding or contacting, then remove the weight, tighten down.

Despite that, I left one friend in the bed (probably only 150 pounds or so) centered over the axle and tightened it down. Worked good for me.

 

I think I did it correct, I just put the normal weight of the truck onto the springs, got everythink lined up best I could and tighten everything up. I still have less then 100 miles on it since the swap so I will need to drive it more.

 

Torque it down again after the first 500 miles, just like lug nuts, as it may work loose some (mine all needed a bit of tightening).

 

posted this to the wrong thread sorry