adsm08's Ranger build up

adsm08 · Jun 30, 2016

Well, I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. I spent a lot more time than I initially planned on side work today. What I thought was a dry squeaky spring isolator on my friend's van turned into two ball joints and tie rod. And I had to jack my pressure regulator up to 140 to get the ball joints to pop out. They looked original.

Anyway....

All the brackets and the passenger's frame rail are primed and painted on one side. If the paint is dry enough to handle tomorrow morning I might get to painting the other sides, but I work at least the next 4 days, so it might be a while until I get back to this.

adsm08 · Jul 11, 2016

Been busy the last few days working on wiring. It's not fun, but it has to happen.

Saturday, this looks familiar:

That thing looks nice and neat. If you open it up and take it out of the track it becomes a Gordian Knot of wiring. So I went to the garage and hacked it to bits, took the stuff I needed, and threw the rest in the wire bin.

Fast forward to today:

Basically what I did here is I took the SOHC injector harness apart, cut out the injector plugs, got the crank sensor plug and pigtail out, and so on. Then I wired all the injectors together on both sides to make it batch fire. Then I went back to an OHV injector harness I had and opened it up. Then I salvaged the sections for the coil and the O2 sensors from it and put them in the one I am building. Then I started putting in sections of convolute tube and taping it all put with Coroplast. I am going to route the wires from the driver's side across the front of the engine behind the thermostat housing, and run it all out through the little section between the housing and the passenger side head. When I am done this will be plug and play to a batch-fire EEC-IV harness.

Mark_88 · Jul 12, 2016

Wow...not sure if I went through this before but that's the best tear down...as in most complete...that I've ever seen.

Good work...makes me wish I was able to hang onto mine because that was what I wanted to do with it...

If I was into envy...

adsm08 · Jul 12, 2016

Thanks Mark. Tear down is over, reassembly has begun.

1qaz · Jul 12, 2016

What Mark said! :icon_thumby:

BTW what is the correct name of the part bolted on at the front of the frame?

adsm08 · Jul 12, 2016

I'd call it a shield. It was on the 2wd frame, but is not on mt 4x4 frame. I painted it and put it on because I need as many pieces across to keep it rigid and I can get while I patch the hole and get an engine cross member in place. I'm only going to keep it there if it doesn't interfere with the front axle.

97RangerXLT · Jul 12, 2016

My 97 4x4 has this piece. Looks like it is there to protect the steering linkage from when you hit large debris from the road.. (animals, small children, parking stops, etc...)

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

adsm08 · Jul 31, 2016

Picture time, picture time, won't you see some pictures of mine.

Its a frame, mostlyish.

Some asshole got under it.

Axle, I meant axle.

Moved outside temporarily because I needed some more space.

The tarps are more to deter snoopers than to keep rain away.

This space is intentionally left empty.

And now it's full again. Gotta fix that hole. Also thinking about ways to fix the design flaw that keeps any leaking oil from getting on the passenger side.

Plate on the back of the hole.

Then we made a bigger hole.

And we made a plate.

Ugly as sin.

B-E-A-UTIFUL

I gotta punch some holes for the shock/coil tower. I might have to get some new bits first. My current set almost didn't make the first set of hole.

alwaysFlOoReD · Jul 31, 2016

That's where the front cross-member goes? That would help in case your welds suck....

.....meant in a good way.

adsm08 · Aug 1, 2016

The welds don't suck. I didn't actually do the welding, I had a friend help me, who preferred to not be pictured. The patch work does intersect some with the area where the engine cross member attaches. In the picture of the welding, before the outer panel was put on, we left a gap and used two pieces on the inside. That is for the cross member to sit in, and then it will get welded to both the inner plates and the outer one.

This will actually be stronger than it was when it rolled off the line, since that part of the frame is now thicker, and a few tooling holes have gone away.

Tyler46 · Aug 2, 2016

Love where your project is going. Just a big red flag on that welded section of frame there..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

adsm08 · Aug 2, 2016

Tyler46 said:
Just a big red flag on that welded section of frame there..

Oh?

Tyler46 · Aug 2, 2016

Well yeah, you cut that weld out and re-did it didn't you?

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adsm08 · Aug 2, 2016

Tyler46 said:
Well yeah, you cut that weld out and re-did it didn't you?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, here is what we did.

There was a hole, and a large area of weak thin metal behind where the passenger side coil bucket was. This area happens to include the spot where the rear of the engine cross member welds to the frame. That is kind of an important thing to not change the metal depth around.

My friend just happened to have a decent sized chunk of 95 FSB frame in her garage, so I cleaned that metal up real good and treated it with phosphoric acid to get into some of the depressed areas that the wire wheel wouldn't touch.

Then Saturday we welded two plates made from Bronco frame to the inside of my frame, extending outside the bad area. We left a small gap for the engine cross member to drop into when it gets put back in, so as to retain the proper, and even, frame width.

After welding the two plates to the inside we drilled out the holes for the coil bucket in them, so the positions weren't lost or altered in any way. Then the bad section of the original frame was cut out, the hole measured, and another plate of proper size made from the Bronco frame. This was then welded into the hole, and the welds ground flush, re-welded, and ground flush again until we had a good smooth surface with no pits or gaps around the seam. I'm not sure of a better way to do that, since gaps and pits around the weld would be weak spots, and if it isn't flush the coil bucket won't sit right, which will make the whole truck sit wrong at the end.

I am still not sure where your red flag is.

ford4thot · Aug 2, 2016

Don't stress, adsm08....I know that member from elsewhere, he's proven himself to be an idiot.

Glad I don't have frame issues. Looking good

adsm08's Ranger build up

What design should i put on my diff cover

Blue Oval

A face (gimme more specific ideas)

Words (gimme a specific idea)

Other (gimme a specific idea)

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