Dans 94, RCSB, 4.0, 4x4, 5spd

[Dantheman1540]

Tried to install my lockrite today to find out that it’s the wrong part. Somehow a 2311 is in a 2310 box. Therefore I had to order another which should arrive tomorrow.

Before that I got some decent travel measurements. Around 15” of travel except on the passenger side where I need to clearance the axle window.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Front locker is in! The new/correct one fit better….. however the side pieces that were too small before were now ever so slightly too large and although they would fit into the carrier with a couple taps of a hammer. I could not get them to spin as they should to install everything else. So I put them in a vice and took various grit 1/2” sand paper belts and worked them down by hand. Was a fairly long process probably took a full hour to get them both to fit and spin easily, then to polish them down to 1500grit before beginning the actual install process.

After that it went together very well and thankfully I did the C clip eliminator mod when I did the beams the first time so it wasn’t all the difficult to jam everything back together. I don’t have any obstacles close by to test it on, but when the hubs are locked in I can hear it ratcheting on turns. Also the steering is slightly heavier with the hubs locked and T case in 4x4, nothing drastic or negative feeling but I can tell it’s there which is good after all the work I just did.

Can’t wait to get it out and tested in the wild, will definitely have to hit some mud and have someone video just so I can see both front tires slinging together as they should. This is my first front locker in anything I’ve ever owned so I hope I can keep parts from dying

 

[Uncle Gump]

You're missing the best sticker of all...

TRS Vinyl Decals Archives - The Ranger Station

 

[Dantheman1540]

You're missing the best sticker of all...

TRS Vinyl Decals Archives - The Ranger Station

I know I know! I keep meaning to order some, just gotta figure out which one I like the best.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Have gone thru to look and read your work on how the ranger has been built, and I'm truly impressed. Saw your new rims and I have always like that style. I've considered those on mine, for some reason I'm attached to the old school outlaw ll rims. I am liking your ranger. Haven't been around as often as I can, due to health issues ...

Your ranger is a favorite of mine. Glad to see your front grille is still chrome. Most by now would have painted it. Will you leave it chrome or paint it? I prefer the chrome look on these rangers lifted.

I'm sure you have heard the saying about chrome..it doesn't get you home.

Black grilles and bumpers don't get you back.

Gray is a may

It's all in the driver.

Thank you for the kind words!
The chrome grill ain’t going anywhere, especially now with the bright aluminum wheels. I’m not a fan of the all black out look, it’s too common and kinda boring I guess.

The outlaw2s were something I was considering but I never saw a set come up at a decent price used. My other consideration with these is that as the clear coat gets worse on the 5spoke face I could have just the center section powdered and the lip polished. Would give it kind of a cool JDM vibe which would still be 90s era correct I suppose.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Loaded down and headed two hours south to do some swamping!

 

[Dantheman1540]

Pretty dang cranky, made it almost two hours down the road and actually off the toll road onto some back roads when I felt the whole truck jerk to the right. Limped to a Wawa until I realized it was closed for construction so I limped back out to the road and down to a McDonald’s. Passenger wheel bearing killed itself, not sure why, all the locking hub parts were appeared fine and at first I thought I could possibly tighten it down a hair and keep on trucking. But no, the inner bearing was 100% phucked and as soon as I touched the rotor it dumped its guts out.

Lucky for me I have a bunch of spare seals and bearings in the tool box along with grease and all the tools required to remedy this scenario……. Except a grinder to cut the seized race off with uhhggggg. So I have a buddy who was coming wheeling on the way with a HF grinder so I can get this back together and on the road.

 

[Uncle Gump]

My plan is to pack a M12 right angle die grinder in my overlanding tool kit... because shit happens.

You sure you have the spindle nuts and locking washer figured out? You were just in those wheel hubs weren't you?

 

[Dantheman1540]

My plan is to pack a M12 right angle die grinder in my overlanding tool kit... because shit happens.

You sure you have the spindle nuts and locking washer figured out? You were just in those wheel hubs weren't you?

I didn’t realize they made a M12 grinder, that might be in my Amazon cart now.

I’m 100% positive I have the order of items correct, they did not back out this time. This is actually the side that’s still rocking original bearings from before I bought the truck. Although I did repack them and replaced the seals when I did the beams. I’m not sure if I’m overtightening the inner lock nut, I know it’s 16inlbs and I usually do hand tight by just holding the socket because my smallest Trq wrench is a 20-200inlbs. As soon as my buddy gets here with the grinder I will put this side on a tad looser than normal and see if that helps. I also bought new grease as I’ve been using a tub of grease I’ve had for years, I’m gonna pack them even better than I normally do although I’ve packed trailer bearings many times and never had and Issue with those.

I also added some Redline XTREME wheel bearing grease to my Amazon account along with 4 new timken bearings and a wheel bearing packer tool thingy. Looks pretty slick.

 

[lowspeedpursuit]

Even if I specifically tightened to 16in-lbs, mine always get tighter when you send the outer locknut, I guess thanks to play in the lock rings and spindle keyway?

IMO, the key to avoiding overtightening is "maximum torque to rotate the hub is 25in-lbs". Throw one lug nut on the rotor and spin it with a bike wrench, and if it's >25, set it up a hair looser and try again.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Bike torque wrench? Pic or link?

 

[lowspeedpursuit]

I bought a Neiko 03727A to do pinion preload on diff rebuilds. It's just a small beam-style torque wrench, but if you want to buy one same-day in real life, the easiest place to find it is often a bike shop. The downside is "bike wrenches" are 1/4" drive, so you also need 1/4" female to 3/8" or 1/2" male adapters to do anything useful.

 

[Dantheman1540]

I have a torque screwdriver for firearms that goes that low but it would have to have adapters on adapters to reach 1/2” drive and then that’s throws the torque reading off. I guess I’ll look for something on Amazon I’m sure they sell a 1/2” drive TRQ wrench that goes low enough I just don’t have one.

Truck survived the rest of the day and did fantastic where we went to play, despite only playing for about two hours due to rain. It’s ok because I’ve never seen the place so flooded and I’m not about to hydrolock a motor in my truck or the two mostly stock quads I hauled out for friends to ride. I did however feel the locker helping a bunch and heard it when trying to do sharp turns in the narrow trails.

I’m so far extremely pumped on these new RT tires, I didn’t even air them down and had plenty of traction. Being an RT and not an MT tire I was expecting them to “gum up” and need a lot of wheel speed to clean out but I stayed in Low range the entire time and even at 5mph it was slopping stuff off very very well.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Quite an adventure you had there...from start to finish. Always good to have extra parts, your ranger looks great with those new rims and tires. Love the ranger pictures, the stance is perfect .

Thank you! I’m very pleased with the stance as well, I thought having the body lift would really make it look silly but I rarely notice it and despite half its lift being a body lift, it has a ton of belly clearance. I’ve been scheming of how I want to remake the Tcase/trans cross member and other skid plates. I want to tuck in some of the remaining low hanging fruit.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Not directly ranger related but I’ve been jonesing to do some fabricating and decided today was as good a day as any.
Basically this 5x12 trailer I got for $100 a few years back has been rocking some Lincoln town car wheels I got for free for awhile now and they have done great but are getting old enough I worry about blow outs. I’m a sucker for black steel wheels with chrome caps and funny enough my bigger car hauler trailer is actually on Tahoe PPV wheels and gets towed by a Tahoe. So how perfect to have Ford PPV wheels and be towed by a ford. Not to mention having a spare 33” in the ranger that fits both and truck and trailer is nice.

Long story short the 32”s didn’t fit the small crumpled factory sheet metal fenders so I hacked them out. I had a 12’ stick of 12”x1/4” plate that worked perfect after cutting and bending them into place. Then some old scrap diamond plate for the back panel. Only got onesie don’t today because I’m still sick as a dog and working slow, but I’m stoked with how it came out.