Ford Racing used to offer a “lightning-specific” bump stop kit but that’s long discontinued. It consisted of a bolt, nut, and some thread locker.

I found a member that had a spare kit tucked away and asked him to measure the nut and bolt for me. I took those measurements to Fastenal and had them special order the hardware.

All you have to do is grind or drill off your current bump stops and replace them with the nuts and bolts listed on the receipt. Some guys stack washers to make the correct height... but the nut and bolt make a cleaner, stronger bump stop.

 

That's a steering stop.

 

http://a.co/6MlS1II

I used these for my front bump stops with my Roush drop. There aren't necessarily more durable than stock; but they are shorter. They're also cellular urethane like '01+ stock so there's no jarring if you hit them. BTW, I also used similar rears from Belltech.

-Edward

 

Took some measurements today. The difference between front and rear is 1.5 inches on all three. Seems like my front is a hair low for a stock front end.

Center of rim to fender
Front 17.75
Rear 19.25

Ground to fender
Front 31.25
Rear 32.75

Top of tire to fender
Front 3.5
Rear 5.0

 

Well, I was chattin with Jblot from Tulsa yesterday. An interesting thing came up. You see above where my front tire center to fender measurement is 17.75? Apparently when he put a two inch drop kit on his truck, his same measurement was 17.125.

So, my truck is only .625 higher than his was with a two inch drop kit, and mine is stock. Hard to believe the front springs could sag that much in 65,000 miles. My 20 year old Ranger hasn't dropped a bit in the 18 years I've had it.

Don't know if I should just be happy I got a near two inch drop for free, and put on some shorter bump stops? And wonder if it will eventually drop down and ride them as well? Or get new springs?

Think I'm gonna do the former for now. See what transpires.

 

Didn't realize you were on stock springs. Did you buy the truck new? Any chance it was already lowered?

 

Bought the truck as the second owner. Came with a big notebook full of receipts for everything the guy did to it, nothing suspension wise. He was so anal about keeping receipts, I doubt he overlooked that. Anyhow, the truck is an 04 and was stinkbug high in the back when I got it. I did put two inch shackles on it back in 2010. Never did anything to the front except replace all the anti sway bar hardware. I don't believe it was ever lowered, because high as it was in the back, it wasn't that low in the front. I just think the springs have settled, but they sure did settle a lot. It's only about a half inch higher than another guy who had a two inch drop on his front.

 

Maybe your isolators ar worn out?

 

Well, on that vein, a lot of guys here just take them out in order to go a tad lower. I was wanting to do that, but it's a bit of a hassle, eh? So, if they're worn out, not much different than taking them off?

I don't honestly know. It rides a tad rough, but handles the curvy roads just fine. So I'm tempted to just get some shorter bump stops and see what transpires.

 

You could do that also. When I did the hotchkis tvs it came with new bump stop for the front. However when I did the qa1 shocks on the front later on I noticed that the lower control arm was making contact. So I went to the auto parts store and got even shorter ones. Rides even better then before. The qa1 are shorter then the factory bilstiens were. But since they are adjustable I was able to dial in a better ride.

 

The Bilsteins are gas shocks, and they tend to hold things up a bit, if you know what I mean. I have QA-1's on the rear of my truck, and would say it dropped a half inch when I took the Bilsteins off and put the QA-1's on.

Years ago I had a Trans Am that I had put lowering blocks on, and heated the front coils. Afterwards, the tires were constantly hitting the fenders. Took the stock shocks off and put some KYB gas shocks on it, to keep the tires off the fenders. It worked.

So, not doing that on the front. Don't want it to drop any lower. :ahhhh

This is just entirely unexpected to me, never thought I would get a free lowering job. I've got some pics of the truck when I bought it, December 2009. I think most would agree it isn't lowered.

 

That was in December 2009, truck had 34,000 miles on it. The pic below was taken in 2015. Fender gaps look pretty even. Now the front is 1.5 shorter than the rear. Don't know how that happened?

Oh well, I'll deal with it for now. Order the shorter urethane bump stops, see if it does, or doesn't drop further. And go from there. I'll get some more recent pictures the next time I have it out-and-about.

Thanks for all the input.