My '00 build thred, w/questions

So Ive decided to chop up my truck and put a solid axle underneath it. What I have for axles is a Dana 44 and a 9" from a '77 F-150. The guy I purchased them from actually took them from the truck with the full intention of putting them under a Jeep Cherokee but found a D60 and a 10.25 instead. He had everything from the radius arms to the upper spring buckets. I spent several hours cleaning the 30+ years of dirt and grime from the axles. I planned on using the stock radius arms (modified to allow better flex) so I ditched what seemed like the original C-bushings for new ones. I went with the 4º bushings, in hindsight I should have went with the 7º, oh well. The back half of the radius arms are to be chopped off and a new arm will be sleeved and welded to allow for a heavy duty heim joint to be threaded in.

I am leaving the axles full width. They are exactly 6" wider than the ranger. I plan on running 315/70R17 Goodyear Duratrac. With the wider tires and the wider axle I needed a wheel that would "tuck in" a little. I needed 17" to clear the steering components. It barely cleared. I had the knuckles reamed out to accept the GM 1 ton TRE's on the top and connected them using 1.5", 1/4" wall DOM tubing.


The 98-00 Ranger for some stupid reason used the rear ABS exciter ring as the vehicle speed sensor also so unfortunately I couldnt just "pull the ABS fuse and take the light out of the dash". I am fortunate to have a good friend who runs a machine shop so I asked him to machine the 9" to accept the 8.8 exciter ring. He did a great job even milled in a notch for the key. The case has to be filed along a rib to allow for clearance of the teeth. I drilled a hole in the top of the housing to accept the sensor and from what my micrometer says I am about 1-1.5mm between the sensor and the teeth. Does anyone know If that is close enough to read?







I originally was only going to have 6" of suspension lift and with the 2.5" of the tires would be about 8.5. I found out that with that set up you would only get about 4.5" of travel before the axle hits the frame. So I did what any man would do. I jacked it up another 2.5 inches! The problem was I had already ordered the springs from a custom spring company in Grand Junction, CO. But I ordered them to the 6" height without the block so I am just going to add the block to get the extra 2.5. The springs ran $230 a pack plus $50 shipping. I have heard about the chevy leaf spring swap but I didnt want to deal with older springs and if I am going to buy new springs I might as well get what I need. Just keep in mind for anyone thinking about going the same route I did. You will either buy your springs for flex and articulation and ride quality or you will buy them for hauling stuff and have a stiff ride. You cannot get both.

The biggest problem I am running into now is I have a steering box from a '79 F-150(I got a good deal on a rebuilt one) and with it mounted pretty much right up against the radiator the pitman arm sits too far behind the drag link about 2-3 inches behind. Does anyone know where I can find a shorter pitman arm? It is currently about 6 7/8" from eye center to eye center. With my tucked wheels my turning radius isnt going to be that great anyway. Or if anyone knows if the pitman arm can be clocked without turning the wrong direction?

I have pics I am having a hard time loading them right now. I will post them when I can.

Any thoughts and helpful ideas would be great!!

looking good

I can't help you with your questions unfortunately but I just wanted to say great job on the tone ring adaptation, thats pretty clever. I think I'm going to take the easy way out and just use a GPS for a Speedometer for now when mine gets back on all fours being as my thirdmember is already together. Thanks for posting the information for whoever might want to go that route or have questions reguarding this issue!

Ozziemo, do you have a build thread on your truck?

cmequestionu said:

Ozziemo, do you have a build thread on your truck?

Click to expand...

I don't currently but I'm taking pictures as I do things and plan to put one together after I finish the SAS.

I look forward to seeing it. When do you think you'll be done?

After doing a little research I found that a fsj pitman arm is 5.5" ec to ec. It is clocked wrong but a modufication of the splines is possible to make it fit. I will try it this weekend and report back.

I would have extended (or cut short at the tcase) the wires and ran the VSS in the tcase instead of machining into the 9" (less custom parts), but that works too
SVT

There were a couple of ways I could have done the vss but I figured this way I can have the abs work if I wanted (as soon as I can figure out the front sensors)

So, I got a yj pitman arm from craigslist and it lines up exactly with the '79 steering box splines. Unfortunately the tre hole is too small and has to be reamed out. Other than that it works perfectly.

there's a myriad of arms for the f series. 2wd 3/4 ton vs 2wd 1/2 vs 4x4 with factory lift 350 vs vs vs vs....and year to year they vary a bit its crazy how many there is, i dont remember how many i have counted just comparing them at the junkyards.

i do see the jeep arms get used though with these boxes and have done it myself


you can also change the direction of the box to make it rear steer or front steer to help in the mounting situation.

i have to ream due to tie rod selection myself, damn reamers are handy.

Looks like we are doing pretty much the same build. I was thinking of doing the same thing with the tone ring, but knowing I am eventually swapping tcase out for a 203/205 I am just going to hold off and go w/o a speedometer for a while.
Rig is looking good and would like to check it out sometime since you are not too far from me.

Correct me if I am wrong but I beleive your vehicle speed sensor is in your trans on that year. The only thing your tone ring controls in your truck is the ABS. The speed sensor does not only tell you how fast your going it also tells your trans so it knows when to shift.

It seems you are right Eric, I found out yesterday that the speedometer still works after the swap.

I am glad to see you got it done. You wouldnt happen to have any more of the material you used for your radius arms left over? The guy I had bend mine bent them in the wrong direction and snapped them when bending them back. I have to wait until he gets more material in (he was doing this as a favor and was using pieces he had left over from previous jobs) my only other option is to buy a whole 20' stick for two 22" pieces at the tune of $300.