jimmyspy's 02 4x4

[Jimmyspy14]

So after meeting up the Jim and a few other forum members at the Dearborn Meet & Greet, I'm gonna try and be more active over here (I frequent a few of the "other" ranger forums). Seems like a build thread is a good place to start.

Ok, this is about the third build thread I've put together, so bear with me if I leave some steps out. Aslo ignore the FRF banner on the older pics, I stole them from my build thread over there... haha


I bought the truck a little over five years ago from a shady little used car stealership. Here she is in all her 5 owner, 2 accident, 120,000 mile glory.

First "mod" I did was a radio shack CB radio, so I could play trucker.

Next came a new set of shoes. 265/75/16 Hankook Dynapros. I absolutely loved these tires.

Then I blew up the transfer case doing dumb stuff. I went through a miserable winter in 2wd before swapping in a junkyard BW1354

Shortly after that, I moved the Dynapros over to a set of Cragar Black D-windows.

Rare shots of me doing maintenance (my MO is to wait until something breaks... I'm trying to be better haha)

Had a shackle collapse on me, so on went new shackles and spring hangers

Broke the frame doing dumb stuff

Fixed the frame

Made a "custom" rear cross member after the factory spare tire carrier/crossmember rotted away on me. I'm in a constant battle with rust.

Made a front hitch out of a class III receiver I had laying around. I believe it came off of an econoline van.

This photo also shows the Harbor Freight lights behind the grille. Those went on at some point in here. You can also see all the cancer on the core support. That gets addressed later on (spoiler alert).

Scored a explorer roof rack from the junkyard. You can also see the 06+ mirrors in this pic. Some jacka** broke off both factory mirrors and caved in my passenger door. In later pics you can still see the wrinkles in it that I couldn't get out. I was not a happy camper -___-

Broke a leaf spring. Don't know if this was from doing dumb stuff or not. Probably was.

So, I put on a set of junkyard explorer springs and belltech 6400s. I was also able to ditch the factory lift blocks.

Then I bought a car. 2006 Ford Focus Zx5 5spd. This was probably the best "mod" I've done for the truck to date.

Bought a superlift. Found it on Criagslist, BNIB, for 800 bucks. Some guy had purchased it and then decided torsion keys were a better option. I wasn't about to talk him out of it. I also picked up a set of 33x12.50 Duratracs on DC-IIs from CL to go with the lift (not pictured)

Installed said superlift. Sorry, no install pics. I put the lift on in the driveway, in December, in northern Ohio.... pictures weren't high on my priority list haha

Made some "custom" sway bar end links

Had a local shop make a double cardon front drive shaft with a slip joint. You can also see the Neapco adapter on the tcase.

Bought some expo power/leather seats

Bought a new to me bed from a local junkyard (old one was rotted all to hell). Not rust free, but way better than what I had.

Found some more rust (shocking).

Fixed the rust (please excuse my piss poor welds). Cut out all the cancer and replaced it with fresh 18ga sheet metal. As I type this, I'm reminded that I'm going to have to do the passenger's side at some point

Bedlined the floor before putting the carpet back down.

Got the interior back in. (somewhere along the line I picked up a full length expo center console from the junkyard)

Painted the rockers with bedliner and mounted a flag pole in the bed. Cause Murica (The tailgate has since been replaced. There's a good story to go along with the "bullet holes" that were it haha)

Installed a JL audio 8" sub

Built a pintle mount

Replaced the drivers side valve cover gasket (still need to do the passengers side)

Bought some stuff

Well, that brings us up to Jan. 2017 (give or take). And my laptop is about to die, so I think this is a good stopping point for now. Stay tuned for future installments...

 

[bobbywalter]

best mod for the truck was the focus....

thats nice.




looking under the valve cover...how many miles at that point....??

 

[Jimmyspy14]

best mod for the truck was the focus....



thats nice.









looking under the valve cover...how many miles at that point....??

I got wayyyy more confident when I didn’t have to drive the truck the next day. Lol.


170-175,000 miles or so.


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[Jimmyspy14]

Ok, so we left off with coil overs and things being purchased. I got a good deal on the coil overs from a member over on FRF (brand new, never on a truck) and that got the ball rolling... slowly. To be honest, I had everything sitting in the garage by February, but didn't "break ground" until late April. But, that's the life of a shade tree mechanic. The shocks are Fox 2.5 emulsion coilovers (I can dig up part numbers if anybody needs them) and the shock brackets are RCD originals that have been around the block a few times.

The truck was also in desperate need of a new core support, so I figured as long as we were tearing some stuff apart, we might as well tear it all apart.


Started off stripping most of the front clip off the truck.

These next few really show how bad the core support had gotten. The Ohio winters had not been kind

So here you can see that the passenger front body bolt is broken off. I hadn't touched it up until this point.... This truck has had an interesting life.

Old Core support removed.

Old vs New.

I had to order new body mounts from Tasca, which took FOREVER. So, I got impatient and moved on to the Coil over swap. I can only imagine what my neighbors were thinking at this point... haha

Here are the passenger side shock tower gussets and upper limit strap mount.

Lower limit strap mount. You may notice that it's very close to the sway bar mounting hole. There is enough room to sneak the end link in there, but I don't run the sway bar.

Mocking stuff up.

Painting stuff.

Passenger side assembled.

Drivers side pretty much assembled.

It's a really tight fit up there. Ended up "clearancing" the UCA a little.

Broke a brake line.

More assembly stuff.

Painted some stuff.

Body mounts had finally come in by this point. Had to lift the body up a little to line things up.

New core support in place.

New body mounts.

Front receiver back in.

Bracket for the new grille lights (I decided to finally retire the harbor freight lights and go with LEDs)

Front clip back on. Getting everything lined back up was a bit time consuming, but it turned out OK.

Back on the ground and off to tireman for an alignment. The bumper did go back on... eventually.

So after all of the front end work, I decided it was time to address some of the wiring issues the truck had. The factory harness was unmolested, but all of the aftermarket stuff was a hodge-podge mess of wires and splices and power stolen from everywhere.


So, I moved everything into the cab (under the center console) and installed an accessory fuse panel (There had been one under the hood for a while, but it wasn't well thought out). Those blue wires are for the sub. I was a little worried about interference, but so far so good.

Here's how I mounted the fuse panel. Just a piece of sheet mat and some aluminum angle.

And here's how things look with the relays mounted and the wires ran. Not as clean as I had hoped, but so much better than it was. I would like to take another crack at it, as its a little messy, nothing is removable, and I really need a larger fuse panel (only one slot left in the current one).

This is the switch panel I mad up (also out of sheet metal and aluminum angle). It's a little large for where I have it mounted, as it gets in the way of the seats forward travel. But, at 5'6", I'm the shortest person that drives the truck anyway.

So previously, I had wires running through every hole and grommet I could find in the firewall. This looked awful, was a big chafing risk, and caused a lot of leaks (of both cold and water) So, I took a panel mount fitting for 1" conduit and punched a new hole in the firewall. I topped it off with a 90 degree elbow turned up to keep the elements out. Moving forward, I made need to step up in diameter or add another one, as the 1" is about at capacity now.

Since I was playing with electricity anyway, and the no name battery that was in the truck and all but given up on me, I decided to put a big-boy battery in the truck. Went with a Diehard Advanced Gold series (re-branded deka battery) from Sears.

So the truck was pretty much all buttoned up and road worthy by this point, but still didn't have a horn (I don't believe the bumper was on yet either) and had only been driven around town. But, the dual clutch auto trans in my moms Focus took a shit, and I volunteered my daily beater (also a Focus) for her to drive. At this time, I was in the middle of a scholastic semester down at the University of Cincinnati, so the ranger needed to become long haul worthy on short notice. I was a little worried, as I hadn't put many miles on her since the coilover swap. But she made the 400 mile round trip with ease (and ALOT of gas Averaged like 15 on the highway lol)

Here's a pic of the f250 horn I threw on during my rushed preparations.

After that, the "mods" tapered off a for awhile, and I enjoyed driving the wheels off the truck. I put a few thousand miles, and a few wheeling trips, on it since this last round of work, and everything held up extremely well.



Scored a set skid plates from the junkyard. These came off of a third gen ranger. Fun fact: 3rd gen skids are not a direct swap to a 5th gen. I now have a full set of factory skids ready to go on... at some point.

Not really build related, but this picture is kinda cool to me. My old man has had this John Deere ad hanging in the garage since I was little, of a father working on his tractor in the barn and his son working on his pedal tractor in the driveway. This isn't exactly the same, because these aren't tractors, this wasn't my dad's truck, and I wasn't working on a "toy". But, I still thought it was kinda cool, although perhaps a little demeaning to the ranger haha

Picked up a set of Bilstein 5125s. The coilovers up front really exposed the short comings of the rear end setup. My plan is/was these shocks and a set of skyjacker FRS36 leafs. (I still haven't messed with the rear end set up a whole lot. Still running belltech 6400s, expos leafs, and the 3" superlift blocks. I did get the shocks on though).

Picked up some goodies.

To be continued. We're almost caught up.... I promise. haha

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

 

[Uncle Gump]

That truck has come a long way from the day you drove it out of the shady car lot.

I noticed you referenced a set of Hankook Dynapros in your trucks earlier days. Those tires have made my short list... Care to share what you "absolutely loved" about them?

 

[Jimmyspy14]

OK, last installment(ish). We left off with some things being purchased. They were for a rear bumper project. After looking for a rear bumper with a swing out tire carrier for a ranger, and being sorely disappointed, I decided to build my own.

I started out by cutting the general shape out of a piece of 3/16th plate (don't hate on my "top of the line" work station lol)

I opened the corners up later on so they wouldn't dig into the bedside

Then I cut pieces of 2x6x3/16 tubing to make up the body of the bumper.

Here's all the tube tacked together and tacked to the top plate

Here's all of the pieces for the frame tie-ins. These were cut out of 1/4" plate.

Frame tie-ins welded together and mounting holes drilled.

Frame tie-ins on the truck

"Test Fitment" (I was really just getting excited to see it on the truck haha)

Next, I cut all the required holes in the tubing for the LED pods, clevis mounts, and the bumper mounting plates.

Clevis mounts welded in and mounting plates tacked in place

Then I boxed in the LED pod holes and welded in the mounting plates.

This one shows the tapped holes for the LED pods

So the rolled edge of the tubing against the flat plate posed a bit of a problem. I ended up just laying several heavy beads in the little valley and grinding them smooth. Quite labor intensive, but it turned out well.

Another test fitment and some eyeball measurements. The hitch receiver was also tacked on.

Then I got the receiver, safety chain brackets, and bracing welded in.

Final test fit before drilling the mounting holes.

After drilling the mounting holes, I bolted the bumper on and started in on the tire carrier.

Drilling the hole for the spindle was quite a pain. It had to go through 2 layers of plate and a few welds.

I don't have any pictures of the final welding on the carrier (I was in a rush haha), but here's the final product all painted up.

I really love the way the bumper turned out. It was a ton of work, and took forever, but it was well worth it. Although, I am very jealous of the aftermarket support the jeep guys get haha


Next project was replacing a leaking power steering rack. What a complete PITA that was. Speaking as en engineer, whoever designed that front crossmember shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions anymore. Removing the old rack and pinion is damn near impossible, as the mounting bushings need to be removed (yea, it’s that tight) in order to free up the space required to rotate the rack. That’s all well and fine, but after 16 years in norther Ohio, those bushings didn’t want to be removed. After trying every combination of finess, brute force, and cursing that I could think of (and taking a power steering fluid bath in the process), I broke out the angle grinder and cut off the old bushings and inner tie rods. This made removal much easier. Finding replacement bushings for a ranger is damn near impossible, but thankfully bushings for a 2001 Explorer sport work just as well (and are available at autozone).

New power steering rack. I went with an AC Delco reman from rockauto. For some reason, getting the new rack back in the truck was wayyyy easier than getting the old rack out (probably because it wasn’t cover in rust, dirt, and power steering fluid)

While removing the old rack, I discovered that the power steering pump was shot as well. The output shaft had almost 1/4” of in/out play. So, we replaced that too, along with the pressure and return lines. I replaced the passenger side wheel hub while everything was apart as well (this truck seems to eat hub bearings).

A couple weeks later, while doing some last minute prep for a wheeling trip, I got the new rear shocks on and replaced the rear diff cover.

Speaking of a wheeling trip.... On that wheeling trip, I had an issue with a tire haha

And blew a rear axle seal. (This has since been fixed, tire not so much)

Well, I believe that brings things up to date! I'll try to keep things up to date as I mess with stuff (it's been a long wheeling season and I've got a long to-do list!).

 

[Jimmyspy14]

That truck has come a long way from the day you drove it out of the shady car lot.

I noticed you referenced a set of Hankook Dynapros in your trucks earlier days. Those tires have made my short list... Care to share what you "absolutely loved" about them?

It's been a heck of a ride! haha


The Hankooks were great. They wore like steel, and hooked up very well on and off the road (for an all terrain). They were very mild mannered on the highyway, with minimal noise, and they balanced out well. They were a little stiff, but mine were load range E.

 

[Uncle Gump]

It's been a heck of a ride! haha


The Hankooks were great. They wore like steel, and hooked up very well on and off the road (for an all terrain). They were very mild mannered on the highyway, with minimal noise, and they balanced out well. They were a little stiff, but mine were load range E.

You pretty much ditto'ed what my local tire shop said. I'm a Hankook believer... we put a 100k on a set on the wife's edge. The replacement set of Hankooks are at about 70k and still look pretty good. I just can't bring myself to put E rated tires on my truck for the ride quality and the weight differences. Luckily they make the same tire in a 114 (C rated). Thanks for sharing your thoughts...

I'm diggin the spare tire carrier too... My future plans have something very similar on my truck.

 

[Ranger850]

You should Patent that bumper and sale the hell out of those things.

 

[Jimmyspy14]

You pretty much ditto'ed what my local tire shop said. I'm a Hankook believer... we put a 100k on a set on the wife's edge. The replacement set of Hankooks are at about 70k and still look pretty good. I just can't bring myself to put E rated tires on my truck for the ride quality and the weight differences. Luckily they make the same tire in a 114 (C rated). Thanks for sharing your thoughts...

I'm diggin the spare tire carrier too... My future plans have something very similar on my truck.

No problem!


Thanks! Now that I have it, I wish I would've built it sooner. I went far too long without having a spare tire.

 

[Jimmyspy14]

You should Patent that bumper and sale the hell out of those things.

I wish! haha I'm not sure how many more of these I'd want to build though. It took wayyyyyyy more man hours than I anticipated (like most of my projects it seems haha)

 

[deathbypsi]

wow Jimmy I had no idea at the amount of work you put into that truck! Even more impressive!

 

[Jimmyspy14]

wow Jimmy I had no idea at the amount of work you put into that truck! Even more impressive!

Thanks Brian! It’s been an adventure, that’s for sure. Haha.


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[bobbywalter]

flux core and rusty sheet metal.













yeah.....we do that.


i buy the insurance on the tires.... cause you have to.