Lowering

[Flash]

Is it possible to drop the rear on a '03 Marauder about 1-2"? What controls the rear air suspention?

[Logan]

Not sure anyone's dug into it all that much yet. I know I haven't..

[cutt]

i had a lincoln before and there was an adjustable height sensor in the rear to let the compressor know when the car was at the desired height. if it hasn't changed you might want to look under it and check.

[Flash]

Cutt,

Was there just one sensor? is it in the middle area of the rear axle [underneath] or near one of the air bags?

Thanks,

[03 Merc]

Flash,

You might want to try one of the Crown Vic / GM boards for that info. www.blueovalnews.com has a CV / GM group and will link you to the others...

[MercCougarXR7]

My first post on this board - it's a great site :).

I'm not a Marauder owner, but an enthusiest - I've doctored my Marquis up to look a bit like one, even fooled some sales people before :D! Hey, immitation IS the sincerest form of flattery, right?

As for the suspension:

The rear air suspension is dropped by adjusting the sensor on the 'rear, lower, left' control arm.

Loosen the nut and pull the sensor down. The car will think the car is riding high, and will lower itself to adjust for the 'increased' height.

For the front though - hopefully Eibach will come out with a kit for the Marauder. I had BAD luck trying to get a correct height spring to fit my Marquis. After installing an F150 spring, the car went too low, and the fenders chewed into my tires!!!

And if you're looking for CrownVic/Marquis boards, www.crownvic.net is THE place to check out!

[mensrea]

When I dropped my car off with Kenny Brown I had a chance to take a look at his crown vic mods. I know he is already working on getting lowering springs for the Marauder. I don't know how long until he will be selling them though. Check out this link, you will find springs for $250.00 as well as a host of other mods for the crown vic. The lowered stance feels MUCH better than stock. When they drove the Marauder the first thing they commented on was how high it sits. My car should be done in a month so I will let everyone know how it turns out.


Kenny Brown springs (http://www.kennybrown.com/Crown_Victoria_Parts_Page.htm)

[Flash]

MercCougarXR7,

Looks like the Mercury people recognized a good thing when they saw it, Beautiful Marquis you have.

Found the sensor. very adjustable. The bottom bracket is adjustable, moved all the way to the left and it dropped 2 1/8", too low, looked like I had 5 bodies in the trunk. It didn't drive very well either, the front needs to come down at the same time. Finally settled for 1" down, looks OK rides good.

I would like to Thank all of you for your replies and help.

[MercCougarXR7]

I think Ford copied my idea ;).

Thanks for the kind words Flash, but mine is NOTHING compared to the beauties you guys drive around in. Heck, mine's only worth maybe 10% of what yours are.... But, in a few years I'll be picking up a used Marauder :).

Glad you found that sensor, my one concern about this whole idea, is how the rubber of the spring can stand up to being 'bloated' around the bottom. But, if you can afford a $35,000 car, you can afford a new set of springs in a few years :p!

Take care of your Marauders!

[cyclone03]

I too found the rear a little too high,so heres the fix...............
Saftey First! Open the trunk and turn the air suspention off.
Grab a tape measure and measure the frame hight from the ground to the bottom of the frame.I measured from a flat part on the frame in the front just behind the front wheel-note that the frame has a doubled area I measured just behind the doubled area, 5 1/4" to the ground,oh plus 3 1/4" for the body of the tape so it's about 8 1/2"
I then measured the rear 9 1/4".
Next find an 8mm wrench and an 11mm. I used 1/4" drive sockets.
Slide under the rear of the car,don't jack it up.Find the sensor,it's located on the left WATTS link support arm.The WATTS link is located forward of and attached too the rear end housing.The arms run diaganally across the car,left to right.The sensor is mounted on the left arm.
Then looking forward loosen the sensor mount and slide it toward the left of the car.
Slide out from under the car,turn the air back on and start the car.Note nothing moved. :confused:
Get in the car and drive it up and down the driveway or slowly around the block,park the car EXACTLY in the same spot and note how low the back is now!AGH!
Turn off the suspention switch and slide back under the car and move the sensor to the right about 1/8"tighten it up turn the switch on and start the car it should go up about 1/2" or so,repeat untill you got it where you want it.
Mine now has 1/4" of rake front to rear.
As for the front it's a little more work I'm sure............

[left_right]

cyclone03,

After adjusting the sensor, just open and close one of the doors with the key in the ON position. The air suspension should adjust to the new height. You don't need to drive it around the block....

[mtnh]

don't forget that your headlights will be out of aim, and probably you will need to watch your lane changes on the highway, since you just trashed your car's optimal setup. Welcome to rice-land!

[cyclone03]

oh come on mtnh,I'm sure the 1inch drop in rear ride height " just trashed your car's optimal setup" I noticed that the Kenny Brown Panther was much lower than my Marauder.

"Welcome to rice-land! " Hardly!

[mtnh]

Okay, maybe it's not riceland, but, exactly what does this lowering the car an inch (if they bother to measure it) do that is *good* for the car? Raise the headlight aim? Change the entire polar moment of the car in a positive way? Nahh, it just lowers a car and deviates from factory setup in a non-positive way.
Sorry, but I just don't buy lowering the rear end of a car. You should see my son's Nissan Frontier 2WD truck. An arbitrary 3" drop was done to the rear leafs, and some tweaking of the front torsion bars, oops, got one side lower than the other, so what... Well, drive that thing! It won't even go straight with a perfect FE alignment. Maybe I am just biased. The Marauder looks perfect from the factory
and besides that, the headlights are aimed to go along with that setup.

[Logan]

Holy hung up on the headlights batman!

It takes a couple minutes to re-aim them, not that you need to with a 1" drop in the rear. The Marauder ships with a higher than average front to rear rake mostly due to the taller rear tires.

I don't see anything wrong with dropping it back level. Dropping it below level would screw up the handling, but level? Not a problem. If anything, the slightly lower center of gravity would be a good thing.

[cyclone03]

Thanks Logan.
My rear drop gave me 1/4" higher rear fender lip compared to the front.
You can still see the top of the rear tire.
As for headlight aim,I drove it last night and I can't tell any difference. Nobody flashed at me either so thats a none issue.

[Sean]

If anything, lowering the rear end of the car does it more good than harm. If you will take a look at the weight distribution, the car is heavier in the front somthing like 54%??? i think.. You are lowering the center of gravity, evening out the weight distribution by lowering the back. Moving the battery to the trunk will also help with handling (1 percent change in weight distribution towards 50/50. The panther platform is a little light in the rear anyway, so i see no reason why this wouldnt work. Great idea, and keep up the good work guys! :cool:

[Logan]

I've been thinking about relocating the battery....My problem is too many ideas, not so much time. :)

[Sean]

my problem is to many ideas, to little money, i have plenty of time.

[LincMercLover]

Umm... why would you want to lower it? :confused: I think that gives the car personality. My opinion, but I don't like the height of the P2... Grant it, it would help weight distribution, but I don't think it'll play THAT much of a factor...

[cyclone03]

I've looked over the front and I would agree that lowering the front ,correctly,may involve more than just a spring swap.
All the suspention members line up in parallel very well.Shorter spring I'm sure will have a neg.effect on all the nicly built in stock geometry.
I hate having to spend money on something Ford should have taken care of.I don't know why Ford builds all there cars so high,it's not by law as they say because the chevys are not that high.

[GarageMahal]

Personally I have always appreciated a taller car. At 6'6" I find their height comfortable to get in and out of.

Also, the added ground clearance is a bonus up here where we often get 4 plus inches of snow at a time.

jta

[03 Merc]

Cyclone03,

I was talking with a tech this morning at my dealership and mentioned lowering the rear of the Marauder. His advice was be careful as they have seen GM that were lowered have problems with air suspension bags...apparently they can crease / tear if they fold up. I suspect these are true "loooow" riders, we have a bunch around Atlanta, but you might want to watch for it... just a thought...

[cyclone03]

Yea I checked on that,With the little I dropped mine it seems to have only recreased the bag about 1/4"lower.
I also figured with 500 miles on the bags they should still be flexable enough to handle the change.
Now at 75,000 miles I don't think I would change the ride hieght.