I think its been discused about adapting one for our use. I put brakes on my daughter's 98 Explorer last weekend and took these measurements. 59 3/8" mounting surface to mounting surface and 39 1/8" center to center on the perches. So if you wanted to use a late model wheel which usually has at least 5" back space The explorer will work with just relocating the perchases. To refresh, a stock 8" is 56 1/4" surface to suface and 42 3/4" center to center on the spring perches.
If people are going to go this route, I would suggest to pick up an 8.8 from an 87/88 thunderbird turbocoupe. The automatics had 3.73 gears and traction loc from the factory, and the manuals had 3.55 and traction loc from the factory. I picked up mine for less than 200 disc to disc. (has rear discs but four lug) I would take the 8.8 rear and combine it with the explorer axle tubes and perches.....One very low budget cheap fast setup.
pretty much all 8.8 axles swap. I would think you could swap the explorer axles into the turbocoupe rear to get 5 lug.
Has anyone done this? If so, what do you think? I am seriously considering this swap. Thanks, Country
I can tell you for a fact that most/almost all of the axles swap. I decided NOT to use the disc brakes from the turbo coupe rear, and swapped back in the 8.8 drum axles from the old rear and converted it to drum brakes. I know for a fact that a 5 lug conversion is common on these rears in the mustang crowd. I am pretty sure many people use ranger axles. I am curious too if anyone has done this too, as it would be a pretty hot set-up edit: now that I think about it, it would be easier to just find the turbo coupe rear, pull out the entire section with the gears, and swap that right into the explorer rear, so that you now have an explorer rear with 5 lugs, and the 3.73 gears, then relocate the spring perches, and you are set!!
I've never done it, but I've heard you can take 2 left side Ranger axles and 2 Ranger brake drums to convert a Mustang to 5lug.
Okay- Question If I were to use this rear end, what would I do for U-joints and a driveshaft? I mean would it be a custom driveshaft, or just use the explorer ujoints in the mav shaft? Curious here, because I am starting to search for an explorer rear. Thanks, and sorry for the beginner questions. Country
I didnt noticed what kind of U joints it used. If its anything special, just cut the end of the drive shaft off of the truck your getting the rear out of. Any place that does drive shafts can graft it on the end of yours. The biggest obsticle I see is the extra 3" width. You would need wheels with around 1 1/2" more backspacing than what your running now. I know you can buy premade spring perches, I'm not sure where. Probably Jegs and Summet carry them. That would be better than trying to reuse the ones on there. I've been looking for explorers around here just for the disc set up but havent had any luck. Here you can buy the whole rear complete for less than $100.
The complete disc to disc for under $100 dollars.........That's a deal! I plan to do a Mustang II conversion this summer, and would like to find a Lincoln Versailles or an explorer/T-bird rear so I could have discs all around. We'll see. Country
Just as an added note the Explorer rearends are ALL 31 spline so the axles definitely will not swap with car 8.8 rearends. The Rangers have 28 spline however.
gOOD pOINT cHARLIE That is why the rear disc off exploers only fit the 9 inch big bearing(31 splines) without major mods or improper fitment issues. Bear with me I have a super cheap alternative coming soon. Working on the tech article as we type.
