ibeam swaybar brackets ?

[rab]

1st off i have a 83 2wd ranger that came with no front swaybar and want to add one from a latter model ibeam truck, i guess probably the biggest one i can find, i cant remember what year it was off of but i have a old post floating around somewhere about it...
Also i have already upgraded to the 89-up drop dream beams

Well i need to get the brackets that mount to the ibeam.
so are those brackets the same on all 83-97 rangers?
Is there a difference in those brackets 2wd vs 4wd?
Are they still available from ford?

 

[snoranger]

The 87-89 STX has the largest stock front sway bar.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

On the 86 2wd ranger I own, the sway bar is mounted behind the beams. They tuck in on the inside of the radius arm and cross over under the radius arm crossmember. It's about an inch thick.

 

[rab]

so does anyone still sell these brackets?
also all the ranger (ibeam years) front bars i seen mounted on a bracket that mounted onto the beam.

 

[snoranger]

so does anyone still sell these brackets?
also all the ranger (ibeam years) front bars i seen mounted on a bracket that mounted onto the beam.

In late '87 they changed to the front mount sway bar.(At least on the STX, I don't know about the lower models.) Go check your local junkyards and see what you can find... Grab the bar and all the brackets you need from either style sway bar. Any year TTB/TIB bar can be adapted, if it's not a straight bolt on. I had to flip the 4wd STX bar upside down to work on my '90 2wd.

Also, if your looking for better handling, try to find a 1" rear sway bar from a BII. Mine came from a '90 2wd BII, I don't know what other years they were available.

 

[adsm08]

Sno, the change was made for the 88 MY.

Up to 87 the sway bar tucks inside the rear of the beams, and is in the brace between the buckets.

In 88 they flipped it and bolted it to the frame in front of the axle. Despite having a whole bar of the later design I can't get it mounted to my 87's frame because the holes are in the wrong spots. The spacing is too far for the brackets but too close to re-drill properly.

 

[rab]

I think the front mounted bar is the way i want to go. Now as far a grabbing one from the junkyard, well they salt the roads pretty bad here in WI so getting those bolts loose that go thru the radius arm and i beam are pretty slim esp. when I'm at the yard without a way to heat them up, also there are not many older rangers left cause of the salt also. its a possibility but a slim one.

so does anyone possibly have a ford part number for these brackets?

 

[1great40]

I think the front mounted bar is the way i want to go. Now as far a grabbing one from the junkyard, well they salt the roads pretty bad here in WI so getting those bolts loose that go thru the radius arm and i beam are pretty slim esp. when I'm at the yard without a way to heat them up, also there are not many older rangers left cause of the salt also. its a possibility but a slim one.

so does anyone possibly have a ford part number for these brackets?

All I ever found available were the bushings not the brackets, I had to go used for them. The greatest bone yard tool you can own is a battery powered impact wrench, it doesn't make any difference whether you tighten them till they snap or they back out, you get your part.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Here is a pic of the swaybar on my 86 2wd Ranger. it connects at the radius arm and runs backward and then across under the radius arm two piece crossmember to the other radius arm.

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[AllanD]

The issue with putting an "front mount" sway bar in an I-beam truck that didn't come with one from the factory is the way the end-link brackets mount to the beams...

They are big C-shaped brackets that mount to the beams with the same 3/4" diameter bolts that mount the radius-arms to the beam and the threaded tip of that bolt is used to attack the coil spring to the beam as well.

My honest recommendation for adding an in front of the axle bar to to a TIB ranger is swap on '95-97 beams that already have end link brackets...

which is to say, use installing a sway-bar as an excuse to upgrade to the two-piston brakes...

OR use the brake upgrade as an excuse for the sway bar...

 

[JoshT]

Yeah I think he's already got thebeams covered...

Also i have already upgraded to the 89-up drop dream beams

Those brackets that wrap around the front of the axle are what you need. It'll be a job to pull at the yard unless you can find one partially disassembled already.

I'd give ya a hand looking, but got no pick-n-pull yards near here any more. The regular yards tend to not carry Rangers, what they do get are usually newer SLA trucks.