Josh40601's Build Thread. (D-ranged)

prerunner said:

Ah crap. I'll be having withdrawals for months now.


Thanks though, SVT.

Click to expand...

the truck actually came to California with me. We left the Explorer in Kentucky (but it will be out here in 2 weeks).

sorry for the lack of updates. It is running and driving really well now. Crazy what a few ground wires and 02 sensors will do. That's all it ended up being.

So bringing this up to date...

Made it to Cali, and dropped it off at my old mechanic/fabricator/friend that owns Coin Jar Offroad in San Marcos, CA.

He figured out the running issues, mounted the shock reservoirs, put my new tires on the front, and added some new shocks for the rear, but there was still some roaring noise coming from the doubler, so I decided to take it to the auto skills center on Miramar, where I originally began the build of this truck back in 08.

Back at Miramar, with my new MTRs on the front


pair of used 10" travel fox 2.5s for the rear




Pulled the cases, rebuilt them thanks to Border Parts in Spring Valley, CA



put everything back in, and went on a wild wire chase trying to find solutions to the last few things that were not working. After plugging in some loose connections, bad relays, and blown fuses, everything works

Then I drove it around the base for about 45 mins.







Still have some work to do, as the front suspension geometry isn't ideal for highway speeds. This has to be addressed as my next top priority now it is running and driving well.

As I said above, I will be shipping my explorer out here this week, and we close on our new house, which needs some updates, so D will have to wait a few weeks again.

Thanks, Josh. I have closure now.

Ex finally made it here, so I thought I would post up a pic of both trucks at the new house.



As far as D goes, I drove it around a couple of times and it is doing really well running wise and driving wise at the lower speeds. Still haven't hit the freeway yet, but I want to get the rear driveshaft, radiator hose, and pitman arm situated before I venture out there.

The house has been taking up most of the time since we are doing another reno, but I am still making time to tinker back with my babies now that they are both out here now.

so as i was mentioning above, the caster angle is still too far forward, meaning the pinion is still sitting too high, the ball joints are not in line as they should be, and the steering is aiming slightly downward. I already have the 7* C bushings, so it is maxed out in that aspect. The only real way to fix it is 1 of 4 options:

1.) cut the welds at the pressed on C's on the axle tube, rotate the axle down, reweld the C's
2.) lower the rear frame brackets to reduce the slope of the radius arms
3.) say **** it and cut all the shit out and redo it for a 4th time
4.) locate the near-impossible to find full width Ford dana 44 with weld on wedges, cut them off, clean up the axle, move all the guts from the axle that is currently installed, set the pinion angle to where I want it without the huge degree bushings, and weld on a set of wedges from James Duff.

Well, a friend of mine was cleaning out his storage unit and asked me to help him sell some stuff because he is stationed in HI, so I agreed. Just so happens he has a bare weld on wedgie HP Dana 44 :smokin: So option 4 is what I will go with.

I still need to fix the driveshaft issue with the rear end first, and replace pitman arm, and the lower radiator hose, but at least now I have options with the front end. I could 3 link it, 4 link it, go back to radius arms, etc. I haven't decided if I will keep radius arms, but I already have the weld on wedges in the garage, so it will be radius arm for a while still. I won't be able to dive into this until likely after the hammers, but man it was awesome snagging that axle.

not much for updates on this beauty other than everyone gives me compliments on my yard art and asking when I am going to take it out.

I have been rebuilding the Explorer for the last month to get it ready for KOH, then I have Tierra Del Sol in March, so the explorer is getting all the attention right now (well that and the house).

I did get new harnesses ordered, the radio installed, the missing trim pieces, and the axle tubes cleaned up.





next big purchase for this thing is the carrier bearing assembly and start piecing together a new rear driveshaft.