What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Saddle Tramp]

Finally put the new shocks absorbers on. Took my time and am happy that I doused everything with PB blaster for a week before starting. It definitely helped.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Chipped away at my list. New 65 series battery is mostly installed, had to make some adjustments to the battery cables. Also had to bend the bracket for the ABS because the battery was hitting the one bolt.

Front sway bar installed with new poly bushings and end links, using the Explorer 34mm bar since it’s significantly beefier than the Ranger one. 98-01 Explorers had these and they mount exactly the same as the 98+ Ranger ones. 95-97 Explorers could have 36mm, but they mount different.

Built my second leaf pack. Few odds and ends. would have been nice to get more done, but I think that was good progress today.

Seems strange to me the Explorer would have heavier sway bars and torsion bars than the same-year Ranger. Especially with the torsion bars, some members here have said their stock Ranger torsion bars sagged over time.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Seems strange to me the Explorer would have heavier sway bars and torsion bars than the same-year Ranger. Especially with the torsion bars, some members here have said their stock Ranger torsion bars sagged over time.

Explorer is also heavier, if I'm not mistaken. Wouldn't you want heavier sway and torsion bars on a heavier vehicle?

 

[Vindictus]

My 2wd '11 came with a 34mm sway bar from the factory

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Seems strange to me the Explorer would have heavier sway bars and torsion bars than the same-year Ranger. Especially with the torsion bars, some members here have said their stock Ranger torsion bars sagged over time.

I believe the idea is the Explorers have a heavier curb weight. Never mind that a Ranger might be called on to haul more.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Between the rain I worked on the green Ranger. Started out with doing some parts searching. Wasn’t having much luck and decided to do a little cleanup and organizing in my fabric shed where I’ve just been throwing boxes in from working on the Ranger. Found the mounting plate for the air box plus the bolts, so I wire wheeled the bolts and in it went with the bottom of the air box. Wire wheeled the bolts and put the new rear brake hoses on too. Also came across a tote with some butter tubs I use for parts bins. 7 were empty and the 8th, well, it was chock full of 9/16” Grade 8 nylock nuts!

So now the leaf springs can go in. Also machined myself an EGR block off plate. Couldn’t find the one I should have had so whipped one up out of some 1/2” aluminum. New grill came so of course I had to see how it looked. New driveshaft flange yoke came. Amazon didn’t say where it came from, but it was about the only one I could find that measured right. Looks beefy, but they overdid it because the joint would’t fit. Also found the holes for the caps were machined too tight too. So after doing some custom machining, got the U-joint in and on the rear driveshaft. Tagged a couple little things that weren’t big enough for the list too.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I believe the idea is the Explorers have a heavier curb weight. Never mind that a Ranger might be called on to haul more.

That was my point. Both should have had the same diameter sway and torsion bars, at least as an option for the Ranger.

 

[rubydist]

The center of gravity of the Explorer was significantly higher than that of the Ranger, so it exhibits much more roll on cornering, hence a larger sway bar. Plus the Ranger is expected to be used as a truck, not a race car, so it gets in situations where the front suspension is supposed to flex, also a reason for a smaller bar on the Ranger.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Doing truck stuff today.

 

[Blmpkn]

Hauled another GM boat around the state last night.. 69 riviera

 

[ekrampitzjr]

The center of gravity of the Explorer was significantly higher than that of the Ranger, so it exhibits much more roll on cornering, hence a larger sway bar. Plus the Ranger is expected to be used as a truck, not a race car, so it gets in situations where the front suspension is supposed to flex, also a reason for a smaller bar on the Ranger.

This makes sense. But the Ranger ones needed to be stiffer because of the sag some members report they have on theirs. I'm glad my Ranger's front suspension has coil springs.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Feeling a bit under the weather today, but I went out anyway. Not much progress. Did a nice job on the rear axle hard line until I realized that it would only work until the first time I hit the bump stops so now it’s not so nice after re-bending it to clear. Also put two more quarts of gear lube in the rear axle. Not sure how much is actually supposed to be in there, most of the stuff I read said 2.5-3 quarts. I now have a little over 4 quarts in there and I’m still not to the fill plug. Of course, I also again don’t have any more on hand. Thought I had bought enough originally but I’m not sure where it all went, thought it was in the truck and when I filled the front axle I was wondering what I did with the rest. Just bought another two quarts and here we are again…

Then when I went to move to the front of the truck I watched the wind drop a dead tree across the road. So I went and told mom what happened and grabbed a chainsaw and went to work. Dad comes out and promptly falls, but of course just insisted he was fine and wouldn’t let me check him or sit down. Thankfully a couple people stopped and helped clear branches and all.

Made up the one hard line for the transmission to radiator, came out fairly nice. If you remember, I made new hard lines that came from the transmission up to the front of the motor out of 3/8” aluminum, so that’s as far as I had to go with my line to the Radiator. Even color coded the ends (using -6 AN fittings). Then I got to work puzzling out how to fit the cooler in front of the radiator for the transmission.

Putting it behind the bumper, it fits, but would require two 90* -6AN fittings which I don’t have and last I checked were on back order. Putting it more or less where the factory one was would require some custom brackets and cutting the header panel to clear everything and I’m not sure how to put support back in there for the header panel. Option 3 requires minor trimming of the header panel which shouldn’t be too difficult to whip up a support for and sets the cooler back close to the core support and I’ll just have to hole saw two holes in the core support for the lines. I’m thinking that’s probably the winner. Least amount of modifications and doesn’t require parts I don’t have. In case you’re wondering why any of this is a problem, I got a trans cooler from an 07 F-150 which is actually nicely sized and takes threaded O-ring connections so a simple adapter and we have a nice, large cooler that is adapted to -6 AN.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Feeling a bit under the weather today, but I went out anyway. Not much progress. Did a nice job on the rear axle hard line until I realized that it would only work until the first time I hit the bump stops so now it’s not so nice after re-bending it to clear. Also put two more quarts of gear lube in the rear axle. Not sure how much is actually supposed to be in there, most of the stuff I read said 2.5-3 quarts. I now have a little over 4 quarts in there and I’m still not to the fill plug. Of course, I also again don’t have any more on hand. Thought I had bought enough originally but I’m not sure where it all went, thought it was in the truck and when I filled the front axle I was wondering what I did with the rest. Just bought another two quarts and here we are again…

Then when I went to move to the front of the truck I watched the wind drop a dead tree across the road. So I went and told mom what happened and grabbed a chainsaw and went to work. Dad comes out and promptly falls, but of course just insisted he was fine and wouldn’t let me check him or sit down. Thankfully a couple people stopped and helped clear branches and all.

Made up the one hard line for the transmission to radiator, came out fairly nice. If you remember, I made new hard lines that came from the transmission up to the front of the motor out of 3/8” aluminum, so that’s as far as I had to go with my line to the Radiator. Even color coded the ends (using -6 AN fittings). Then I got to work puzzling out how to fit the cooler in front of the radiator for the transmission.

Putting it behind the bumper, it fits, but would require two 90* -6AN fittings which I don’t have and last I checked were on back order. Putting it more or less where the factory one was would require some custom brackets and cutting the header panel to clear everything and I’m not sure how to put support back in there for the header panel. Option 3 requires minor trimming of the header panel which shouldn’t be too difficult to whip up a support for and sets the cooler back close to the core support and I’ll just have to hole saw two holes in the core support for the lines. I’m thinking that’s probably the winner. Least amount of modifications and doesn’t require parts I don’t have. In case you’re wondering why any of this is a problem, I got a trans cooler from an 07 F-150 which is actually nicely sized and takes threaded O-ring connections so a simple adapter and we have a nice, large cooler that is adapted to -6 AN.

You might look at jic fittings. They have the same specs as a/n but not as close tolerance in manufacturing. And 1/10th the cost.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You might look at jic fittings. They have the same specs as a/n but not as close tolerance in manufacturing. And 1/10th the cost.

Unfortunately I don’t have a good local place to get either AN or JIC right now, everything I’ve got so far has been mail order

 

[Blmpkn]

Unfortunately I don’t have a good local place to get either AN or JIC right now, everything I’ve got so far has been mail order

Isn't there a summit in Penn? Or am I thinking Ohio? Isn't that right next door? Lol.