My backyard build (56K warning)

[dude772]

must resist...



can't...



now that's dirty mouth...clean it up with stride gum

hahaha smart ass!

I had to bite the bullet today and spend some money. And by some, I mean alot. I ordered a detroit locker for the front diff, 4.10 gears, and an install kit from rockspyder4x4.com. And I sent my friend on a road trip to pick up a 2003 Ranger FX4 Level II rear axle so I can gut it and put the goodies into my axle.

I am hopeing to have this all installed by this weekend so I can show that mud hole whos boss!

 

[dude772]

Torsen and 4.10s are in the rear! I couldn't test it out because it took me so long to set the gears. But driving home from work it felt so much better than 3.55s!

If everything was perfect, and I had lots of money, I would have gone 4.27, but its not perfect and I dont have lots of money. Plus 4.10 is good for me.

I had a really hard time getting the depth of the contact pattern right. And the axle shaft on the drivers side isn't quite the right length, the groove for the c clip is off by 1/8" and well... I ran out of time to be able to grind it to what would work, so I hope that axle breaks that way i have a chance at getting it out someday... haha.

And since I was in such a rush all night to get the gears done, i wasn't able to take any pictures. But i ordered a ballistic fab diff cover, when that comes in, i will take a few and double check the contact pattern.

 

[dude772]

Well after 3000 km of driving. And working out some bugs and taking a 12 hour round trip road trip its time to go back to the drawing boards.

Well, its vacation time, took the truck for a long ass drive to a friends place little over an hour past Ottawa. And Well there were some troubles. They started with everyone else wanting to leave a day before schedule. That means alot of Ranger prep work didn't get done.

After the long drive up, i found out that my coolant was low by a gallon, and the transmission was leaking alot more than normal.

After beating the shit out of the truck going on several trips up the mountain it started making creeking noises that were new(ish) and then it developed a new stalling problem going over bumps.

on the way home I lost the ability to shift. And i was very angry at the point.

Coolant leak - Frost plug leaking

Transmission leak - Tail housing bolts 4 of 6 missing 2 remaining are loose. The Advance Adapters transfercase adapter bolts are 3/4 of an inch too short! they only hold on by 4 threads!

Creek noise - frame is cracked and bent

Stalling - The wireharness for the engine is attached to the shock tower thats bolted to the frame where its cracked and bent. The harness is streched and being pulled by the shock mount.

No shifting - The short bolts again

I also found the exhaust crushed again along with the oil pan, and the cat converter was rattling.

I decided that the easiest way to fix the truck was to stip it all down again. Cab off engine, trans, transfer off and start again.

 

[dude772]

And to do all this fancy frame repair/ modification I bought myself a fancy new welder. Its a plasma cutter, tig, arc all in one from everlastwelders.ca same guy that sells winches at titanwinches.com. His name is Duncan, great guy to deal with and knows ALOT.

While I was taking apart the truck I had a new view on things. And i discovered why things aren't working nicely for me between my engine and front axle. Its all because I followed what someone had said. I took 6" out of the passengers side. That caused the diff housing to be more in the center, gave me clearance issues with the engine. So for anyone doing a SAS swap, I recomend taking 3" out of both sides and calling moroso to get lifetime warrany custom axle shafts made.

But since im already down this road I'm going to lift the truck more to gain clearance and move the engine slightly higher. And if that doesn't work, then its time to seriously consider a dry sump system.

And for anyone considering a SAS or 5.0L swap. I DO NOT recomend anything that James Duff sells. The springs I got from them have sagged ALOT in only 3000 kms, and the long tube headers I got were junk and were not assembled correctly. After I recieved them and complained they wouldn't take phone calls or reply to emails. I do recomend the Advance Adapters headers.

 

[dude772]

And just for fun a couple pictures from my trip.

And here is where I slept for 3 nights untill it rained.

 

[dude772]

I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me to the shop. This is boxing in the frame in the front and mounting the bumper to compensate for the body lift.

The bumper had to be trimmed slightly to clear the frame, plasma cutter took care of that

 

[dude772]

More frame work. I didn't like the engine cross member. hung too low, and was actually also starting to crack. So Heres the start on fabing up a new one.

I started by removing the plate i welded to the right side, the plasma cutter made very short work of it! Then i made a new plate the same size as the mating surface fort he motor mount. Bolted the plate to the mount and the mount to the engine, lined up the left mount and transmission mounts. Once i was happy with where it was, unbolt the motor mount from the engine and lift it all out again. then finish cutting and welding things into place. Next was to cut out the left side and prepare the cross member but trimming what i wouldn't need anymore before it was not accessable. Then bolt the plate to the mount again and go threw the same process making sure things stay lined up.

 

[dude772]

Had to trim and beat the piss out of the right side to make sure the header flange will clear. Next step is to remove whats left of the old engine cross member and fab up a new bolt on so that the oil pan is serviceable without pulling the engine. And to build a winch mount/ front hitch reciever. Then engine back in.

 

[dude772]

Good bye factory cross member, kindda looks like a Bronco frame now.

 

[dude772]

Well, today I feel like i have accomplished alot, expecially for just working on it for the afternoon.

I re-designed my exhaust slightly. I made it serviceable in seperate parts with 2 bolt flanges. The reason I did this was because I had some noise coming from one of my cat converters. But to replace it would involve some major ugly work to weld it all in. Plus theres the matter of the cross over pipe getting dinged all the time and having to patch it. Well, kill 2 birds with 1 stone! Weld on 8 flanges total to make the cats a bolt on and then the front pipe will also be able to come out seperately easily. I'm very happy with that idea! But what I found while I was putting all this together is that somehow my cats have become hollowed out!? What in the hell would make the ENTIRE catalytic converter disappear without a trace!? Well good thing they are serviceable now! haha


After that was all sorted out it was time to check my to do list and start the process of getting it all back under the cab. Which is a HUGE pain in the ass by yourself at 2 - 3 in the morning! It was the scarriest thing I have ever done in my life! I really would have been alot more comfortable if there was someone there that was able to spot me and keep and eye on the whole thing. But regardless, it got done!

Front bumper lines up nicely for the first time in ... uhhhh well a long f***ing time!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the progress and the height difference the new bronco graveyard springs made. They make the back look like the box has a load of stones in it.
But I also ordered new blocks to take care of that problem.

 

[dude772]

Everything is back together! Even some things that were only kind of together before it broke. Took it for a drive today, needs an alignement, the throttle cable needs adjusted a little bit, and the engine harness is screwed up somewhere near the passengers inner fender where the frame cracked. I un raveled it to check it out, but i didn't see any damaged. Must be a wire broken in the insulation.

Made a Winch mount last night too with 1/4" wall square tube and 3/8" plate. Nice and beefy.

Yes that oil filter has been mounted since this picture.

 

[dude772]

Then it was time to go back to where I busted the frame for a real test of my work. 6 hour drive there and alot off hard driving in the bush! Only broke the stud that holds the left front spring to the axle.

Now the story behind the video is that we had alot of fun fishing at one of the lakes on the mountain. But we had more fun loading the boat back onto the truck. Since it sits so high, we didn't really want to lift it. So I decided that it would be alot easier to just back the truck into the lake and slide it onto the truck like a boat trailer. but we didn't get a picture or anything because no one had any kind of electronics including a watch. So I had to go back and do it again without the boat.



I had alot of fun. Time for a few repairs to finish it off and then Im back in action!

 

[jhammel85]

Thats a beast of a truck. I read your build all the way though, great work!

 

[dude772]

Thats a beast of a truck. I read your build all the way though, great work!

Thank you very much, I appreciate that alot.

 

[dude772]

Well now that I've been driving this beast for quite some time now. Its time for something strange to break in some strange way.

I was on my way out to pick up a plow for the old red explorer, and when I started backing up to unload the crap from the back of the truck it started to make a REALLY loud knocking noise. So I look underneith to investigate and what did I find? The transmission was twisting but the engine was still! there was a huge crack accross the bellhousing, from drivers side to passengers side!

So now its time to swap the internals to a new case and try again. While I am in there I am going to change up a few things about the exhaust to keep it from leaking all the time, going to shoulder the pipes so that they slide into the next one and bolt together with the flange, instead of just the flange and gasket.

Any ideas what may have caused this or how to prevent it again?