The torch up in there makes me REAL nervous...Plastic and old grease/oil everywhere, etc. If I can find a 26mm impact socket somewhere, I'm going to borrow a 3/4" impact wrench to try. I tried massive pipes and whatnot, broke some more extensions, and the tension rod itself was bending along with control arm. They are seized. Do these have anything to do with alignment? Just get the front nut off, and leave the "behind" ones alone and add new bushing, then reassemble? On a side note, in keeping with the theme of the universe keeping my down, by only key for my DD Explorer disappeared from existence while I was at work Mon. Stupid P.A.T.S. key, without an original no-one can make/program me on, and Ford basically said Go F yourself, the car's more than 10 years old, we won't do it. It is basically a zombie I've been babying around for months trying to get my 7 back on the road. It's got cracked heads and is consuming oil/anitfreeze and is a real POS. I promised myself I wouldn't dump any more money into it...Now it's a permanent fixture in the parking lot at work and eventually will be towed away I imagine. Now I got nothing to drive, and no convenient way to get to where my 7 is at to complete it...
Thanks again for the help.

 

Guess the title should be as above...I still got some question on the rear while I'm thinking about it. How the heck are you supposes to properly torque the watt's linkage and the top trailing links/frame mount? I can only get a hand wrench on the nuts for the front of the top(short) T.links. I could get Driver's side pretty tight, but pass side, I can only get like a 1/25th of a turn at a time, and nowhere near as tight as I'd like it. Also can't use a torque wrench on the watt's lingages, either.
AND, I got a three position sway bar for rear from Andy'sAutoSport (it's a Whiteline bar) and I can't get it mounted. The way their hardware attaches to the frame mounts, they don't end up anywhere near perpendicular to the frame as it should be, and won't mount. Anyone have experience with these bars? After waiting weeks for a reply from customer service, they say send it back. I don't want to send it back, I want to mount it!

 

if its bending and not giving you any play and youve tried everything then you might just have to order new ones, cut the bitch and put it on a press to take the old bushing out. but try every thing you can but dont get a hurnea over it. on the other note of your explorer, i know at certain dealerships you can get one for about 80 bucks unprogrammed(they might have to ship it from a different dealer tho) and if yoyu can borrow a obd2 scan tool that can access the ign. comp( i know that a snapon ethoes can do it, or verus if you kno someone with money.) you can program it yourself following the precedure on the scanner. i worked for ford dealership and even with the new ids software it will program any key cuz the code is in the ignition lock not the computer, the comp just opens it to communicate that it wants a nother key made. **** if you can buy two of them and do it so if you lose one. you can program up to ten.

 

your gunna have to use sum tapping oil( like to make threads) to help you with that one to get the trailing tightend with a ratchet wrench and spend time gettin it little by little. for wat part of the watts linkage are you tryin to get? the main bolt that holds the bracket you can get with a torque wrench or ratchet. the links that go to it have to be put on first then the entire bracket! as i belive they interfere with the rear end right???( hope thats wat you mean)

and the swaybar im not sure about that as i have the adj. racingbeat one but yeah mine barely lines up perpindicular too. i think all come with that kinda problem. so long as the endlinks are long enuf then just tighten them down good and you shuld be good to go.

 

The double eye link is so far away from the bar, that if I do attach it, the eyes almost come off the bushings inside them, doesn't look like it would work properly or last. Just looks totally wrong...I hope someone here has fitted that specific bar and will chime in what they did. Thanks again.

 

Finally had to drop the [tension rod brackets/sway bar/control arms] all as one giant assembly. When I first did, though, I forgot the FMOC lines, one was under the bar, so the whole damn thing was hanging from that oil cooler line bung...
Anyway, then I finally torched the crap of the the nuts and finally got the tension rods apart. Chunks of the old cotter pin was embedded in the treads and stuck in the hole and screwed up the threads pretty good, made the nut REAL tight to get off towards the end. ALso smashed up alot of threads behind the rear nut.
[#1]So what size of tap/die or whatever do I need to find or borrow the clean up the threads? What do I need to ask for?
Also, I'm ready to assemble the front strut tubes, control arms, tension rods, and camber plates. Do I not use ANY hardware from the original strut? None of the washers that were UNDER the old cartridges? None of the upper washers and whatnot? I will put the bump stop on. I tried assembling the Tokico's into my strut tubes and tightening with the supplied nut. The big nut screwed all the way down, but the cartridge was loose inside. In one Tokico box, there was a Tokico hardware bag. It only had the big nut and the small top nut. The other box had a ziplock hardware bag with the big nut, small nut, and a spacer. So I only got one spacer.

[#2]What is the proper way to install them? Nothing in the strut bottom, just slide the cartridge in all the way and spacer and then big nut? Absolutely nothing else? Except for filling the tubes with oil? It doesn't seem like there's any room for oil in there. Put some oil in first? Or after bottoming out insert inside? Is it only like 1 ounce or so?

[#3]And then the slotted camber plate just goes on top with the supplied silver bolts and nuts?

[#4]Did I remove the correct, what everyone is calling the "web" of material to install the respeed bar? I found alot of mention of this mysterious "web" but couldn't find any pics of EXACTLY what and where to remove material from, I assumed it was this tension rod bracket. SO did I Fudge it up or it's ok?

 

bump

 

Not sure why you had spacers under your old strut. You say that it still moves around; is it moving inside the strut tube? or is the entire strut moving in relation to the camber plate (like the top nut is not fully tightened)?

The only spacers I used were some small copper washers that go onto the strut shaft, and sit righ at the top of the shaft below the threads. These ensure that you have enough threads on the strut shaft to tighten the assembly. Without them, you will have slop.

Hope this helps...



.

 

It's moving around inside the strut tube with the big nut on top tightened all the way down. I compared the Tokico's to the originals, and the originals' body is shorter, guess that's why there were all the spacers under the old cartridges.
What about oil? Amount? Add before cartridge, or after? Completely full?

 

for the heat transfer right? any thin motor oil shuld be fine. and yes like an ounce or so. you can put a little in before and the rest in after the cartride. just enough to where it spills out

 

Look guys, I'm in WAY over my head here...Anyone have any answers to #1,#3, and/or #4?(see post 31) And in regards to #2, does anyone have the spacer/spacers I need?
Hoping to get my car on the road soon(for the first time in 11 1/2 months)...