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

[SenorNoob]

I'd prefer to flip/spring under it. Just thinking on the stock flat spring it'll be too much drop. Anyone have info on a rear spring with more arch? 4wd spring maybe?

Hell, I guess I could mock it up with axle on top of the springs. Could always go with a longer shackle to fine tune it....

If ya really want more arch, 80-96 F150 2wd springs (P# 43883) are supposed be a couple inches more than stock. (They're also significantly stiffer! 1600lbs vs 1100) But new stock springs have a fair bit of arch already.

 

[Killakittie]

Update on the driveshaft.

I took it to the driveshaft place when they opened at 8:00 this morning, then got home about 1:15. The good news is it’s all fixed, spinning like a top!

And maybe I should put this in the “today I learned” thread, but it still seems appropriate here. Today, one day after my 70th birthday, I learned again you’re never too old to learn something new (and what a dummy you are).

I never knew, I never even suspected, that when you put the universal joints on the driveshaft, they all have to line up in the same orientation. Not knowing that, when I put the front driveshaft back in, the U joint was at about a 45° angle from the U joint in the rear, and that was the cause of the vibration.

I always like to learn new stuff, and I actually learned $385 worth. Considering the 300 K+ miles on the truck and drivetrain, and the weird stuff I’m doing with it, I went ahead and had it all checked for being straight and balanced anyway. But it was an expensive lesson to learn.

When it was all done, and I was just shooting the breeze with the guys in the shop, one of them said “did you know you could replace that with a one piece driveshaft?” I wonder why nobody on the forum mentioned that…

This might sound like a really stupid question but how to you line up the u-joints on a one piece driveshaft? Can't it only go on one way?

 

[Blmpkn]

IIRC, flipping the axle from under spring to over spring yeilds about a 3" drop. If the springs are worn, replacing them with new ones will negate some of the drop and might get you where you want to be.

An axle flip is good for 4" at least up until 97.

 

[Briansshop]

Installed a Hurst shifter on the M5OD. Dam it's super tight and short throws! Haven't driven it yet,still dicking around with the suspension.



Mocked up the rear with a spring under set up,the axle hit the bump stops before the frame lifted off the jack stands. LOL. I'm wondering if the overloads have been flipped over in the spring pack. They bend down at the front/back. Kind of doubt it because the truck was bought from an old Dude,one owner.

Normal?

 

[JoshT]

Today I sidcovered that the O/D overeide switch is actually, a sugestion rather than a hard on/off.

Working on getting the tuning finished up on my V8 swap Ranger since the window for adjustments runs out next week. Not much for me to do other than sit in the seat, press the throttle pedal, and take datalogs. WOT phase of the datalogging happened today and I learned something new about a V8 explorer's computer control system. It doesn't care if you engage the O/D override button, it'll turn that off by itself.

Part of logging was to get a run at WOT without going into OD. They say ideally this would be done on a Dyno, but I don;t have one of those available so I had to use an alternate method and visit the "track". Put truck in drive, turn off O/D via switch, and mat the pedal. Well turns out that at approximately 90 the computer overides the over ride and turns on the O/D regardless of what you want. Not exactly happy about that, but its the best I can do and will send off and see what the tuner says.

FWIW I ran out of "track" at about 110 and the truck feels like it has more. I don't need or want more, this is intended to be a cruiser, not a racer, but it feels like it has it. Part of the problem with not being able to get more is brakes. Being AWD at current, the stock 98 Ranger brakes can't hold it back for a launch. I'll attempt a brake stand launch, but I'm not freereving then dropping into gear, transmission is already bad enough as is. Next brake change an upgrade is planned. Don;t care about launch capability, but with more go, I also want more woah.

Since that method wasn't working out due to OD issue, I switched to the other alternate which was to make the pulls in 2nd gear. That got me somewhere. A 2nd gear "launch" sucked, but I was able to make solid runs without it going into OD.

I have a feeling that they are going to say that either the runs didn;t work, or the tune is good. They've been happy with everything up to this point and I really don't care about WOT performance since it'll never be raced. Still after feeling how it did today I'm curious to see how it'll perform once I address the transmission, gears, and tires. Going to get a performance rebuild on the 4R70W (or stock rebuild with shift kit), 3.73 gears, and probably something a little smaller and lighter than the AT tires on it now. Night also ditch the AWD t-case in favor of going back part time 4wd.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Installed a Hurst shifter on the M5OD. Dam it's super tight and short throws! Haven't driven it yet,still dicking around with the suspension.



Mocked up the rear with a spring under set up,the axle hit the bump stops before the frame lifted off the jack stands. LOL. I'm wondering if the overloads have been flipped over in the spring pack. They bend down at the front/back. Kind of doubt it because the truck was bought from an old Dude,one owner.

Normal?

I’ve seen the overloads in both that position and reversed. I’ve also seen overloads that are pretty flat. I put them curve up on my F-150 to take advantage of it, since it’s my workhorse.

My green Ranger I did packs I built (I might swap to 1,750# packs), plus a Chevy drop shackle to get my Explorer 8.8” in spring under to stay off the bump stops. I still nail them on hard bumps. No shackle and I was on the bump stops. Axle flip gets you a lot of drop on a Ranger. I’m thinking of going to air bumps or something. I’m AWD, so the front can only go so low before lots of things become problematic. I did do Explorer shock mounts and moved the passenger side shock mount on the frame to the rear plus did the Explorer traction bars. Really like how that worked out.

 

[jballard81]

Got the condenser back into my 94. Also figured that while the fan and clutch were out now would be the best time to change out the high pressure power steering hose.

There's a leak somewhere around there, that was hopefully it. Also, rockauto didn't have the low pressure hose available when I placed my order.

Reinstalled the radiator, hoses along with my newly bent up cooler hose. It's not the prettiest and it needs more tweaking but it's back in at least. Compressor is the last component to be changed out.

Need to borrow a vacuum and gauges and hopefully have that AC kicking by this weekend!

 

[sgtsandman]

Installed a Hurst shifter on the M5OD. Dam it's super tight and short throws! Haven't driven it yet,still dicking around with the suspension.



Mocked up the rear with a spring under set up,the axle hit the bump stops before the frame lifted off the jack stands. LOL. I'm wondering if the overloads have been flipped over in the spring pack. They bend down at the front/back. Kind of doubt it because the truck was bought from an old Dude,one owner.

Normal?

My overloads are flat but I also don't have the OEM springs anymore either. I seem to remember my OEM ones having a bit of a curve down.

 

[Rick W]

This might sound like a really stupid question but how to you line up the u-joints on a one piece driveshaft? Can't it only go on one way?

I stayed with the two piece driveshaft. With my weird usage, the two-piece works better when I carry a heavy load. And I was joking about going to a one piece, cause half a dozen guys said that what I should do.

If you think of the U joints like a clock face, from the front to the middle to the back, all three have to be clocked the same way. If the U bolts are at 12 o’clock and 6 o'clock, and the U bolts on the second one down the line are at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock, apparently that will give you a vibration.

Apparently, the same is true on a one piece driveshaft. I’ve been around a long time, and I didn’t know that.

Edit: on my two piece driveshaft, the front driveshaft ends with a U joint that fits into the driveshaft on a spline, with a bolt down the middle. That’s so you can get the midshaft bearing off. When I put it back together, I had that removable one at a different clock setting than the one up by the transmission.

if you have a one piece driveshaft, or you consider the rear driveshaft in my situation, the U joints are welded to either end of that driveshaft. So you are correct that you can’t put it in wrong, but if you’re fabricating that driveshaft, the two U joints still have to have the same clock setting. If you make a one piece driveshaft, and the clock setting is off, the vibration comes from them fighting each other a little bit as they twist.

 

[Rick W]

Installed a Hurst shifter on the M5OD. Dam it's super tight and short throws! Haven't driven it yet,still dicking around with the suspension.



Mocked up the rear with a spring under set up,the axle hit the bump stops before the frame lifted off the jack stands. LOL. I'm wondering if the overloads have been flipped over in the spring pack. They bend down at the front/back. Kind of doubt it because the truck was bought from an old Dude,one owner.

Normal?

It’s not polite to challenge old dudes regarding them being normal…

 

[superj]

That shifter is nice. I put one in my ranger and it made such a difference in hownthe truck feels

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I stayed with the two piece driveshaft. With my weird usage, the two-piece works better when I carry a heavy load. And I was joking about going to a one piece, cause half a dozen guys said that what I should do.

If you think of the U joints like a clock face, from the front to the middle to the back, all three have to be clocked the same way. If the U bolts are at 12 o’clock and 6 o'clock, and the U bolts on the second one down the line are at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock, apparently that will give you a vibration.

Apparently, the same is true on a one piece driveshaft. I’ve been around a long time, and I didn’t know that.

Edit: on my two piece driveshaft, the front driveshaft ends with a U joint that fits into the driveshaft on a spline, with a bolt down the middle. That’s so you can get the midshaft bearing off. When I put it back together, I had that removable one at a different clock setting than the one up by the transmission.

if you have a one piece driveshaft, or you consider the rear driveshaft in my situation, the U joints are welded to either end of that driveshaft. So you are correct that you can’t put it in wrong, but if you’re fabricating that driveshaft, the two U joints still have to have the same clock setting. If you make a one piece driveshaft, and the clock setting is off, the vibration comes from them fighting each other a little bit as they twist.

Here's what's happening. Unless the driveshaft is dead straight in relation to the transmission output shaft, the actual rotation speed of the driveshaft using U joints varies like a sine wave, faster then slower then faster again, etc. The "sine wave" gets steeper as the driveshaft angle increases in relation to the transmission shaft. That's one reason to limit that angle, for example if you lift your truck.

The U joint at the other end at the rear axle will compensate for the rotation variance if it is properly aligned with the forward U joint. Then the rotation speed is back to the same steady rotation speed as the transmission output shaft at the rear axle.

If the two U joints aren't aligned, the variance will be felt as a vibration.

This is why front-drive vehicles use constant-velocity joints, but those are expensive and usually unnecessary in rear-drive applications.

 

[Jazzer]

Driveline Geometry 101

Driveshaft Angle Explained This video will demonstrate the proper angles for a drive shaft in a stock Jeep or Truck and how the rules change when you add a suspension lift. The video below demonstrates what is happening to the shaft at different angles, how improper angles can cause speed...

4xshaft.com

 

[JoshT]

This might sound like a really stupid question but how to you line up the u-joints on a one piece driveshaft? Can't it only go on one way?

if you have a one piece driveshaft, or you consider the rear driveshaft in my situation, the U joints are welded to either end of that driveshaft. So you are correct that you can’t put it in wrong, but if you’re fabricating that driveshaft, the two U joints still have to have the same clock setting. If you make a one piece driveshaft, and the clock setting is off, the vibration comes from them fighting each other a little bit as they twist.

Slight correction there, the joints aren't welded to the driveshaft, the yokes (what the joint presses into) are. As Rick mentioned when they weld the yokes on the end of the driveshaft tube during fabrication, they can missalign them causing the experienced issues. Generally I hear this being referred to as being out of phase.

When people mention a two-piece driveshaft, they are generally talking about one like Rick has where you have two driveshafts (tubes) joined together with a carrier bearing and a joint between the two tubes. A one-piece drive is generally a single long tube with a joint on each end and no carrier bearing. When I say "a joint", that could be a single u-joint, a double cardian joint (two u-joints linked together), or a CV joint depending on the application.

In addition to manufacturing like he mentioned, not all "one-piece" driveshafts are truly one piece. Take some 4wd Ranger driveshafts like the one in my 99 Ranger as an example. It uses a single long tube, but on one end the yoke is a splined slip connection instead of a rigid welded connection. This slip yoke is because they use a bolted flange on both ends so the driveshaft can't pull out of the transmission, but some slip is still required for suspension articulation. The slip joke can be removed from the tube of the driveshaft and there usually are no key ways to ensure proper realignment. If that slip yoke is not reinstalled in the correct orentation it will cause the missalignment or out of phase issues that are described with the two-piece shaft.

The slip yoke getting out of phase on a one-piece is not usually an issue because there is little reason to separate it, but it does happen on occasion. There was actually a TSB on some F-150s to remove, clean, and regrease this yoke to fix a driveline noise issue, and there is the potential for it to be reassembled out of phase. People have found that following the TSB helps those same issues on other products (like Rangers), even though the TSB does not cover them, and a DIYer could definitely mess it up due to unfamilarity or mistake.

 

[SenorNoob]

This might sound like a really stupid question but how to you line up the u-joints on a one piece driveshaft? Can't it only go on one way?

The one piece shaft in the Rangers has a slip yoke in it. If you were to seperate that, it might be possible to clock it there. (I haven't tried. It might be keyed.)