Canadian Expy
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Caution its long read but worth it, if you plan on lifting. 
Reasons why not to lift your Expy 11”. So I’m not done yet building the Expy but close, Just for background I blame Walnuts for all my problems ( he’s not on here so it’s easy that way) . I always liked his Expy it was supposed to be 11” lift with 37”s. MY plan was 11” with 38’s or 40’s. So to start the Expy was re-geared with 4.56, I would have gone with 4.88 if I didn't step down to a 34” tire for winter. The 1st lift was 3” body from performance Accessories, and then I added a 2” levelling kit, front keys and rear coil spacers. That got me 5” and I ran 35” no problems. Then someone on here pointed out a cheap 6” Fabtech kit on EBAY, I jumped at it, after I got it, the kit sat around for a long time waiting for my money tree to grow, once I thought I had enough the project started, and the problems.
So maybe they are not problems but some unexpected bumps in the road (expenses), to start I replaced all ball joints and tie rods (which I wanted to replace with bullet proof steering’s, but $$$ stopped me) axle bearings and CV shafts (I want better CV but they need to wait for the money tree). Next I wanted to clean up the frame and remaining parts and paint, I was lucky enough to find matching paint to the Fabtech Blue. So these things are starting to add up, but I planned on them and think if you’re going to run big tires you should have solid parts. So this is where the fun started I broke a lower control arm trying to get the torsion bar out, lucky scrap yard was $100 Ford was $500-700. The spindles that Fabtech sent did not match up with the front brake caliper mounting bracket, in that the bracket needed to be ground down in order for it to fit. Next the strut bars (they mount behind the rear lower control arm mount and go to the Trans cross member) that came with Fabtech kit where to short (it depends on year and Trans) need to order new longer ones, lucky Fabtech has them and sent them for free. The shocks that come with the Fabtech Kit, no longer where long enough, they fit 6” lift and that it’s no longer (built in bump stop), so off to find longer shocks, ended up with longer Fabtech ones. (Have brand new shocks for sale) The new shocks came with different bushing so they needed to be pressed out and new ones added.
Now came the rear, with a leaf spring rear it’s easy, but coil is a whole new ball game. Fabtech sells longer upper trailing arms to help rotate the rear diff to get proper angle, but after speaking to Fabtech it seems my aftermarket PMT arms are the same length. ???
Problem is with the lift the rear diff has no angle at all, so the driveshaft won’t work, it actual binds against the rear flange. So what to do??? Well I continued with the rest of the install the shocks don’t fit, so put in longer ones, problem is the tube is larger and the shocks hit the coils because no rotation on the diff.??? During the tear down I notice the rear track bar has a rust hole forming at the one end (need to replace in the near future) The Fabtech kit tells you to drill new lower holes for sway bar mounts, problem my truck is 2” higher so the hole won’t line up with the swat bar end link.??? And any lower there is no place to drill. The kit also comes with a track bar lowering bracket that attaches to the frame, again not long enough. So what to do???? I need the diff to rotate up this the biggest issue at hand, the only way to do that is longer upper trailing arms, also now with such a tall lift 8” of suspension the rear axle is now forward in the wheel opening by a lot and looks terrible and not sure the tires will fit. What to do… very frustrated at this time and money is getting tight.
So after looking all over the net for ideas, so few people build these trucks and when they get big they seem to flip to SAS and leaf rears. I knew that Zone Off-road and formally BDS made a kit that included a rear diff bracket that attached to the frame and moved the trailing arms back. So a after a few emails I found a guy at Zone that was nice enough to look for that part, though he did say they don’t make the kit anymore and he didn’t think they had any parts left (I did tell a little white lie and tell him I had a used Zone kit and it was missing that part, figure if I told him I had Fabtech kit he tell me tough Shit) the guy was great, best customer service ever!!! After few nervous days he found an old BDS rear box kit with everything but the coils, perfect!!! I got the kit more money and shipping (CDN taxes), the brackets worked perfect in rotating the diff up and moving the axle back under the center of the wheel opening. The kit also came with another drop bracket for the track bar so I added that, so track bar is dropped at the frame and lifted at the axle. It also came with longer rear sway bar end links so I mounted them in the lower hole I drilled and they worked. I also had bought a G2 extra capacity diff pan, which only worked after the sway bar got dropped more, it needed to rotate the sway bar up. Now the new bigger shocks also worked as the diff rotation allowed room for the shocks to mount and not hit the coils. The kit also came with a spacer between the rear flange and the driveshaft mount, which allowed the rear shaft to fit and not pull out of the transfer case to far. So mount 38”tires and off I go?!?!?
No ….So what else stopped me well the tires are MTZ 38”x15.5 x20 on 20x12 Fuel Hostage rims, they rubbed the front of the running boards and front lower valance so out came the cut off wheel to trim them back enough to not hit when turning and going over small bumps. (N-Fab bars in the future) Next the torsion bars need to be cranked down so the CV shafts where at reasonable angles until I can afford to get better custom high angle shafts. Finally I take it for a longer trip and get vibration at 35mph, as stated in Fabtech and Zone instruction the rear may need a CV shaft, I had my stock unit rebuilt because the angle didn’t look bad but I still get a vibration, so waste of money there…. Live and learn. So when the money tree grows some I going to get a new CV shaft built from Tom Woods Shaft. I also need to get either a new red top or a pair of new yellow tops, I boiled over my red top after not knowing it had de charged sitting and I guess when I hooked it up it didn’t like being charged quickly by the Alt and boiled for 2hours on a highway drive (didn’t notice till we came to a stop and smelled rotten eggs). So would I Recommend what I did??? NO not really, and not just cause I want the biggest Expy, but the rear was such I problem that and you can’t get the parts I did (there sold out of everything now). Also my Expy will never off-road, the tires are too big for the front opening, they’d rub if you really offloaded. I would either do a smaller lift tire comb 3” Body and 6” Fabtech with 37” would be nice or 5” lift with 35”. If you want 38” or bigger and it’s not going to be a street Queen like mine, then SAS would be better money invested including rear leaf or custom trailing arms, I would go with leafs….. Do I regret it??? Yes and No I wish I didn’t have to spend the extra money and time to do it plus there are still things left to do, But I get the Expy I always wanted, although I did want 40” tires (I almost bought them at Bloomsburg instead, thank fully I didn’t they would not of fit at all) I also gets lots of looks and compliments. So if you have lots of time and money and want a street Queen go for it, otherwise DON”T! I’ve built numerous lift trucks before this was the hardest so far.
What’s next, well new Rear CV driveshaft, front axle cable disconnect and brown wire mod. (I’ve not ruled out CV Shaft Vibration but don’t think so) N-fab Side bars, new rear track bar, high angle CV shafts, maybe bulletproof steering tie rods and hydro boost braking , I put all new calipers, pads and rotors but 38” don’t stop that great and towing it’s not much better so that will help
Well I’m off to water the money tree!!!! Thanks for reading ….
Reasons why not to lift your Expy 11”. So I’m not done yet building the Expy but close, Just for background I blame Walnuts for all my problems ( he’s not on here so it’s easy that way) . I always liked his Expy it was supposed to be 11” lift with 37”s. MY plan was 11” with 38’s or 40’s. So to start the Expy was re-geared with 4.56, I would have gone with 4.88 if I didn't step down to a 34” tire for winter. The 1st lift was 3” body from performance Accessories, and then I added a 2” levelling kit, front keys and rear coil spacers. That got me 5” and I ran 35” no problems. Then someone on here pointed out a cheap 6” Fabtech kit on EBAY, I jumped at it, after I got it, the kit sat around for a long time waiting for my money tree to grow, once I thought I had enough the project started, and the problems.
So maybe they are not problems but some unexpected bumps in the road (expenses), to start I replaced all ball joints and tie rods (which I wanted to replace with bullet proof steering’s, but $$$ stopped me) axle bearings and CV shafts (I want better CV but they need to wait for the money tree). Next I wanted to clean up the frame and remaining parts and paint, I was lucky enough to find matching paint to the Fabtech Blue. So these things are starting to add up, but I planned on them and think if you’re going to run big tires you should have solid parts. So this is where the fun started I broke a lower control arm trying to get the torsion bar out, lucky scrap yard was $100 Ford was $500-700. The spindles that Fabtech sent did not match up with the front brake caliper mounting bracket, in that the bracket needed to be ground down in order for it to fit. Next the strut bars (they mount behind the rear lower control arm mount and go to the Trans cross member) that came with Fabtech kit where to short (it depends on year and Trans) need to order new longer ones, lucky Fabtech has them and sent them for free. The shocks that come with the Fabtech Kit, no longer where long enough, they fit 6” lift and that it’s no longer (built in bump stop), so off to find longer shocks, ended up with longer Fabtech ones. (Have brand new shocks for sale) The new shocks came with different bushing so they needed to be pressed out and new ones added.
Now came the rear, with a leaf spring rear it’s easy, but coil is a whole new ball game. Fabtech sells longer upper trailing arms to help rotate the rear diff to get proper angle, but after speaking to Fabtech it seems my aftermarket PMT arms are the same length. ???
Problem is with the lift the rear diff has no angle at all, so the driveshaft won’t work, it actual binds against the rear flange. So what to do??? Well I continued with the rest of the install the shocks don’t fit, so put in longer ones, problem is the tube is larger and the shocks hit the coils because no rotation on the diff.??? During the tear down I notice the rear track bar has a rust hole forming at the one end (need to replace in the near future) The Fabtech kit tells you to drill new lower holes for sway bar mounts, problem my truck is 2” higher so the hole won’t line up with the swat bar end link.??? And any lower there is no place to drill. The kit also comes with a track bar lowering bracket that attaches to the frame, again not long enough. So what to do???? I need the diff to rotate up this the biggest issue at hand, the only way to do that is longer upper trailing arms, also now with such a tall lift 8” of suspension the rear axle is now forward in the wheel opening by a lot and looks terrible and not sure the tires will fit. What to do… very frustrated at this time and money is getting tight. So after looking all over the net for ideas, so few people build these trucks and when they get big they seem to flip to SAS and leaf rears. I knew that Zone Off-road and formally BDS made a kit that included a rear diff bracket that attached to the frame and moved the trailing arms back. So a after a few emails I found a guy at Zone that was nice enough to look for that part, though he did say they don’t make the kit anymore and he didn’t think they had any parts left (I did tell a little white lie and tell him I had a used Zone kit and it was missing that part, figure if I told him I had Fabtech kit he tell me tough Shit) the guy was great, best customer service ever!!! After few nervous days he found an old BDS rear box kit with everything but the coils, perfect!!! I got the kit more money and shipping (CDN taxes), the brackets worked perfect in rotating the diff up and moving the axle back under the center of the wheel opening. The kit also came with another drop bracket for the track bar so I added that, so track bar is dropped at the frame and lifted at the axle. It also came with longer rear sway bar end links so I mounted them in the lower hole I drilled and they worked. I also had bought a G2 extra capacity diff pan, which only worked after the sway bar got dropped more, it needed to rotate the sway bar up. Now the new bigger shocks also worked as the diff rotation allowed room for the shocks to mount and not hit the coils. The kit also came with a spacer between the rear flange and the driveshaft mount, which allowed the rear shaft to fit and not pull out of the transfer case to far. So mount 38”tires and off I go?!?!?
No ….So what else stopped me well the tires are MTZ 38”x15.5 x20 on 20x12 Fuel Hostage rims, they rubbed the front of the running boards and front lower valance so out came the cut off wheel to trim them back enough to not hit when turning and going over small bumps. (N-Fab bars in the future) Next the torsion bars need to be cranked down so the CV shafts where at reasonable angles until I can afford to get better custom high angle shafts. Finally I take it for a longer trip and get vibration at 35mph, as stated in Fabtech and Zone instruction the rear may need a CV shaft, I had my stock unit rebuilt because the angle didn’t look bad but I still get a vibration, so waste of money there…. Live and learn. So when the money tree grows some I going to get a new CV shaft built from Tom Woods Shaft. I also need to get either a new red top or a pair of new yellow tops, I boiled over my red top after not knowing it had de charged sitting and I guess when I hooked it up it didn’t like being charged quickly by the Alt and boiled for 2hours on a highway drive (didn’t notice till we came to a stop and smelled rotten eggs). So would I Recommend what I did??? NO not really, and not just cause I want the biggest Expy, but the rear was such I problem that and you can’t get the parts I did (there sold out of everything now). Also my Expy will never off-road, the tires are too big for the front opening, they’d rub if you really offloaded. I would either do a smaller lift tire comb 3” Body and 6” Fabtech with 37” would be nice or 5” lift with 35”. If you want 38” or bigger and it’s not going to be a street Queen like mine, then SAS would be better money invested including rear leaf or custom trailing arms, I would go with leafs….. Do I regret it??? Yes and No I wish I didn’t have to spend the extra money and time to do it plus there are still things left to do, But I get the Expy I always wanted, although I did want 40” tires (I almost bought them at Bloomsburg instead, thank fully I didn’t they would not of fit at all) I also gets lots of looks and compliments. So if you have lots of time and money and want a street Queen go for it, otherwise DON”T! I’ve built numerous lift trucks before this was the hardest so far.
What’s next, well new Rear CV driveshaft, front axle cable disconnect and brown wire mod. (I’ve not ruled out CV Shaft Vibration but don’t think so) N-fab Side bars, new rear track bar, high angle CV shafts, maybe bulletproof steering tie rods and hydro boost braking , I put all new calipers, pads and rotors but 38” don’t stop that great and towing it’s not much better so that will help
Well I’m off to water the money tree!!!! Thanks for reading ….
