The same process can be used for any leaf spring vehicle. S10's are easy to get commercially made bars for, but other projects might be more difficult to source.
It's been on my to-do list for a couple weeks, just had to sit down and get it edited. I've been in block sanding hell, so a break from that was welcome.
@@wilsworkshop I can't say I envy you sanding.. Lol! Guess I'm gonna have to make nice with someone who has a lathe for sleeves and spacers now. Have 2 vehicles to outfit with "cow tracs."
Awesome work and glad to find the video again. How did they end up holding up? Only asking because I was looking at wall thickness of some of the tubes and thought they sounded a little thin at .058 even though it's Chromoly I know they have some steel afcos that are .095 dom just thought I'd ask your opinion
I've been daily driving them about 60-70 miles a week and beating on them regularly. They still look new and traction is great. I was a little worried too but most of the force is "front-to-back" with the way they work, not much load trying to bend them. Speedway sells them for 4-links which have the same stress load direction and I trust Speedway to generally not sell junk. If it was a 500 or 600+ HP build I'd probably go thicker to be safe.
It came from the Explorer I pulled the axle out of, 1997-2002 disk brake. But I assume the earlier explorers with drums have the same bracket for the U-Bolts.
nice I got a 1990 GMC s-15 and put a 5.7 Vortec in it and turns 12 sec. in quarter-mile my biggest issue has been hooking up to street what rear end did you put in your ford what year explorer?
It's a late 90's disk brake rear, I go over it in my axle narrowing videos. With the clutch locker and traction bars I get zero wheel spin on dry pavement, it hooks up great and just launches. Granted I only have the stock 300ish HP, but it's still impressive for such a light vehicle rear with skinny street tires.
@@wilsworkshop I bet I'm looking for one those now gonna be hard I bet 1990s stuff is getting harder and harder to come by thanks for getting back to me
yep I made the bushings on the lathe, but I only had to drill the hole through them and face the ends off flat. The outside diameter was 1.5 in so I happened to have stock laying around that was that size. With some effort they could be made on a drill press if the ends are cut pretty Square , it's just drilling a hole through the center as good as possible. total cost for everything was around $125.
Awesome video I got a 98 S10 I want to put a 5-3 in it I've learned a lot on your videos awesome videos keep going
You'll be glad if you do it. It's a pretty easy swap, just a lot of little details that eat up time if you want everything to act OEM-ish.
nice work!
Shoulder bolts are an option for your extra long bolts.
Yep, they would work also.
Thanks a heap for this upload!
It's been on my to-do list for a couple weeks, just had to sit down and get it edited. I've been in block sanding hell, so a break from that was welcome.
@@wilsworkshop I can't say I envy you sanding.. Lol! Guess I'm gonna have to make nice with someone who has a lathe for sleeves and spacers now. Have 2 vehicles to outfit with "cow tracs."
Awesome work and glad to find the video again. How did they end up holding up? Only asking because I was looking at wall thickness of some of the tubes and thought they sounded a little thin at .058 even though it's Chromoly
I know they have some steel afcos that are .095 dom
just thought I'd ask your opinion
I've been daily driving them about 60-70 miles a week and beating on them regularly. They still look new and traction is great. I was a little worried too but most of the force is "front-to-back" with the way they work, not much load trying to bend them. Speedway sells them for 4-links which have the same stress load direction and I trust Speedway to generally not sell junk. If it was a 500 or 600+ HP build I'd probably go thicker to be safe.
What year ford did use to make your Franklin bracket? This has been very helpful thank you
It came from the Explorer I pulled the axle out of, 1997-2002 disk brake. But I assume the earlier explorers with drums have the same bracket for the U-Bolts.
nice I got a 1990 GMC s-15 and put a 5.7 Vortec in it and turns 12 sec. in quarter-mile my biggest issue has been hooking up to street what rear end did you put in your ford what year explorer?
It's a late 90's disk brake rear, I go over it in my axle narrowing videos. With the clutch locker and traction bars I get zero wheel spin on dry pavement, it hooks up great and just launches. Granted I only have the stock 300ish HP, but it's still impressive for such a light vehicle rear with skinny street tires.
@@wilsworkshop I bet I'm looking for one those now gonna be hard I bet 1990s stuff is getting harder and harder to come by thanks for getting back to me
Can you list the bolts sizes, thread pitch, length, etc, that you had used?
did you make your solid bushings on a lathe? or just off the shelf parts.
how much did you have invested. great work btw :)
yep I made the bushings on the lathe, but I only had to drill the hole through them and face the ends off flat. The outside diameter was 1.5 in so I happened to have stock laying around that was that size. With some effort they could be made on a drill press if the ends are cut pretty Square , it's just drilling a hole through the center as good as possible. total cost for everything was around $125.
What's the od on bushings
Mine were 1.5" OD, but I read there's two different sizes, so it's best to measure yours to be sure.
Would you consider making a set ?