thefinn2003

truck in question is an '88 xcab v6 manual with 3.4 swap, 2" downey springs in back and bone stock front end. i started a thread a while back on my swap, but then forgot to post more pics. guess i'll have to finish that.

anyway, i cranked the t-bars a touch, but of course it sits low in front. i also have the typical diff problems, and 27 year old worn-out everything. so i'm gonna rebuild the whole front end. i have a couple diffs sitting around - one ADD and one just like i got - that i'll combine to replace my ailing stock unit. and i was just planning on replacing a bunch of parts with stock: half shafts, wheel bearings, axle bushings, steering joints, etc. then i was gonna throw in a set of bj spacers and maybe a diff drop and call it good. all pretty straightforward.

but here's the deal: can't i get some more travel out of this thing without doing something radical? i don't like solid axles. i don't wheel hard. i like ifs. and it's a dd, so i don't want to throw a whole lot of money at it (3.4 swap set me back more than i expected).

i'm familiar with what people are doing with cmdiffs, and that sounds cool. so my question is this: has anyone done a center mount diff without long arms? are there interference issues? i'd love 12" travel, but i'm not interested in increasing track width. and i like it where it's at with about 2" lift on my 31"s. gf hates me spending money on it anyway.

so can't we get like 8" or so out of the stock front end by relocating the diff, and just using longer half shafts and ball joint spacers? i'm not averse to fabbing a diff mount. but i don't want to have the truck down for a month while i experiment on it just to find that it doesn't work.

cheers,

ian.

horunner1x

I'm getting 7.5+ from my front. Completely stock arms with fox shocks and fox air bumps. It's only limited by ball joint bind so I have the bumps bottom about 1/8" before the bj's bind. You don't need to CM the diff to get more travel unless you want to hack the frame to suck in the arm mounts and then lengthen the arms and shove the motor back into the cab more.

Get some aftermarket shocks and build your own shock hoop or buy one from total chaos and weld it in. I used Ford F-250 shock towers from the front and welded them to my frame. After that get yourself some Ford Explorer rear bump stops and trim them into pyramids and use them in place of the rock hard donuts that come stock on the 4x4s. Also you can trim the droop stop down till it's about 1/4" thick before you get CV axel bind. That's super easy and adds a bit of travel. But remember all the travel in the world won't help without properly tuned shocks. Hope this helps a bit.