2002 Ranger Edge 4x4 Lift Identification and Tire Size Questions?

[pjtoledo]

there are nuts on the back of the wheels. there is a slight color difference between the outer and center sections.
I'm not talking about the spacers.


on a side note, I wonder what's holding the left side hub/bearing together?

 

[pjtoledo]

I was unsure on that too but the old tech collection has identical looking ranger/bronco as the 88-92 upgrade rim. Just got rusted bolts on mine instead of the shiny guys.

different wheels, tech section have 10 holes and buttons to simulate 2 piece wheels.
you have 12 holes.
anyway, you have good looking wheels.

we in the rust belt are soooo damn jealous of clean west coast vehicles.

 

[Snoranger]

They really look like they have a bigger bolt pattern from the picture...

If you look through the center of the wheel, you can see the smaller Ranger lug pattern.

 

[Uncle Gump]

on a side note, I wonder what's holding the left side hub/bearing together?

They probably cut the stub axle off the CV and stuck it back into the bearing and torqued the axle nut back down. Otherwise you would think the hub/adapter/wheel would just pull out of the bearing.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

It's definitely gone, I suspect it fell out on the drive home from the lot, it was 100% there when I bought it. I'm floored the thing just fell out. The axle bearing is rusted but nothing looks busted up, it's almost like they just didn't torque the nut down (if it had one) and it slid right out. You saved my ass on that one!

Having it towed to a reputable 4x4 spot today to get them both replaced and check for damage. Hopefully get some tire quotes while it's there. I'll let you guys know if they're able to identify the wheels! Thanks for all the input, saved me some serious heartache Uncle Gump!

 

[Uncle Gump]

That's what we do here Mr. Wizard...

I (personally) would inquire about some wheels too. Some 15x8... 5 x4.5 with a 3.75 backspace. 33x10.50x15 tires (kind of a pizza cutter look) would fit and look awesome IMHO.

Hard to say what happened to the axle... is the stub still going through the hub? I'm not sure it could actually fall out. Unless it actually broke and there was no nut on the axle.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Here's pictures of the output and the hub interior. I can't see any obvious damage unless those interior fins by the woodruff key are sheared? Is that the stub that's on there and it's keeping it in place? Definitely not sure it was even on there anymore and I missed it. I didn't jack it up but it's not shaking and doesn't look misaligned at all with weight on it. Bizarre. Taking it to South Bay 4x4 in Torrance, CA, Frank came highly reccomended up there. Definitely going to consider the wheels as well!

 

[Uncle Gump]

There is no broken axle stub in the wheel hub... at least that I can see.

On the diff... it almost looks to me like someone put a plastic shipping plug in there and then drove a seal into the diff to hold the plug in place.

I assume this is a picture of the passenger side....

The big nut in the center is the axle nut on the stub shaft of the axle. Do you see the same thing on the driver side? If so... the stub broke off within the hub.

Just looking at the two pictures... I doubt the axle was there when you bought it.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Sounds like it was gone, the mechanic said it looked like someone stole it. The drivers side has a circle locking hub looking thing that covers the nut access so I think you hit the nail on the head. Stoked you caught it and I didn't damage anything! Mechanic also agreed on the wheels and said spacers are the devil, thanks for the tips!

 

[Snoranger]

Sounds like it was gone, the mechanic said it looked like someone stole it. The drivers side has a circle locking hub looking thing that covers the nut access so I think you hit the nail on the head. Stoked you caught it and I didn't damage anything! Mechanic also agreed on the wheels and said spacers are the devil, thanks for the tips!

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with running good quality wheel adapters that are properly torqued. I ran them on my ‘90 for 100k+ miles, then swapped them onto my ‘01 for another 100k+ miles of abusive driving. The only time there’s an issue is if you buy cheap adapters or don’t torque them.

 

[Uncle Gump]

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with running good quality wheel adapters that are properly torqued. I ran them on my ‘90 for 100k+ miles, then swapped them onto my ‘01 for another 100k+ miles of abusive driving. The only time there’s an issue is if you buy cheap adapters or don’t torque them.

I agree with you...

But given the choice... I will run adapter-less every time.

 

[1996xlt]

Good looking truck! 32''s should fit easily on your truck, but you may need to trim the flares on bottom of the fender to keep them from rubbing at full lock.

 

[DRanger024]

I ran 33x12.50's on a 15x8 with 4.00" backspace on my old '02 with a 3" body lift and mildly cranked torsion bars with no trimming and no rubbing. There's no reason a 33 wont fit your truck.

 

[09fx4guy]

Nice truck man. If I may throw my .02 cents in...

You can run the spacers if you want, but if you are going to wheel with it, I would get rid of them, since you don't know if they are the properly made ones, or the cheap junk ones.

A 33 would probably fit, but what gear ratio does it currently run? You can check the tag on the rear axle if it is still there, or check the door tag and see what axle code is listed.

I run 31's (265/70R16) with 4.10 gears and it performs quite well. But I can imagine that if you had 3.73 gears and tried to use 33's, it would not be too fun.

If you have 4.10's, you can run 32 inch tires ok. 33's would be about the max with 4.10's

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Thanks guys, pretty sure I've got the 4.10 with 8.8" but I'll have to verify when it's out of the shop. I'm unsure but I think the flares are already trimmed, the PO has some weird aftermarket ones on there already. Will have to check how aggressively shaped they were or if they're just cosmetic.