Has any one done a IRS swap into a 96 explorer?? as the rear is to ruff a ride with the 4" drop.
Any info would be great thanks

 

I've got a '98 Expy and my son has an '04 Mountaineer, I've looked at both and That is a swap I don't think is worth the effort and it looks like an awful lot of effort. If you want an IRS buy the Expy that has it.

 

got to much into my exploder i just need to soften the rear and i aint given my 5.0 up for a mod

 

I think even if you went with an IRS and kept the 4 inch drop you'd have a rough ride. You're taking a lot of travel out of the suspension that way and would likely be using stiffer springs to compensate and keep it from bottoming out as easily. That's going to give you a rough ride, even with the IRS, I'm not sure the engineering involved to properly integrate the IRS would yield enough improvement in ride to make it worth it. And if not properly engineering, you may get a slightly softer ride but at the expense of a vehicle that's less safe. Since the entire chassis and frame were redesigned to make room for the IRS and still lower the center of gravity there was virtually no need to retain mounting points or design theories from the solid rear axle Explorers, and probably no chance of drop-in compatibility.

-Rod

 

i understand i think i would end up fabbing a tube setup like a cobra

 

I think an easier swap might be to use the whole set up from a Mark VIII (aluminum gear case and hub housings) or a '89 to '97 T Bird that has an Iron gear case and hub housings. You can find a Traction lock with 3.23s in a lot of the automatic trans SuperCoupes. It might be easier than using the later Expy set up. Let us know how it goes and take lots of pics. Both of these cars are plentiful in the bone yards.