Quick question guys, the 97 explorer I have has these type of upper control arms for the differential they have a bracket that bolts to the frame. My current differential from a 96 v6 does not have this.
Can I just put this diff along with those lil arms and the bracket in the ranger? I would have to drill the holes on my frame for the bracket.
Do you guys know what I mean??
What you are showing in the pics that you are calling control arms are actually traction bars that are on some of the explorers, but not all of them. They don't really fit the ranger because the leafs are under the framerail on the expo and outside the rails on the ranger. So the welded tabs on the axle are further away from the frame than on the expo so the frame side mounts you pictured will be like 4" away from the frame.
The can work if you cut off and reweld the axle mounts closer to the frame rail.
The explorers that had the traction rods usually also had a lateral damper that bolts to the three holes on the diff pumpkin and over to the passenger side inside framerail. This can be fairly easy to make work as the damper can be pushed in some to make up for the frame distance difference.
The axle from an explorer does bolt directly into the ranger, but ontop of the leafpacks, so it will lower you about 4"... You have to cut off the perches and weld them on the bottom to mount it like the ranger axle underneath if you want to keep stock height.
There are plenty of tutorials on the web about swapping the axle, brakes, shocks etc... But I haven't seen much info about using the traction bars or lateral damper on the ranger, it wouldn't be too hard to make work. I have a done a few expo axles swaps into rangers, and was going to try to use the bars/damper on the axle I put one in my daily b2500 but with beltech shocks and using the expo sway bar the rear is so tight and the truck is so light it doesn't really need any more help like the top heavy expos do. It stays flat in a drift and doesn't wheelhop on burnouts, so I never bothered to try.
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