BlackBII's white ranger

[ericbphoto]

Just move them closer together and start welding.
????

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[BlackBII]

Here's the column mocked up with the electric motor. It looks like it's in the way of the throttle pedal but there's plenty of room

 

[BlackBII]

Here's the completed column. As you can see, I basically just cut the column in half and added the electric motor in the middle. The same goes for the steering shaft itself. It's the factory length so it attaches to the engine bay shaft the same as before, which will make it easy to revert back should I need to.

Mounted

The next step will be wiring it up to see if it actually works.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^ I've missed a lot of your thread. What is it? Some kind of power assist? What benefit over stock?

 

[BlackBII]

^^^ I've missed a lot of your thread. What is it? Some kind of power assist? What benefit over stock?

It's an electric power steering unit from a 2002 Saturn Vue.

Lots of benefits;
-No more power steering fluid leaks or annoying Ford whine
-I'll have power steering even if the engine dies
-It's adjustable, so I can adjust how much steering assist it provides when 4 wheeling vs on the highway

It won't be a problem with the 4.0, but when I had the 2.3 the power steering would rob so much power that it would sometimes kill the engine while crawling over rocks.

Overall it's just a better setup

 

[BlackBII]

2.3 vs 4.0 engine mounts

The 2.3 ones are yours turbo91 if you want em

 

[BlackBII]

So I have electric power steering now, which means the old leaky and noisy hydraulic pump took a one way trip into the garbage, where it belongs. I want to have A/C and use a factory length belt so that replacement is easy, which means I'll need a pulley where the pump used to be.

Pump is MIA

Made a bracket that bolts where the pump was and added a pulley

And mounted. I think this will work fine

And now the 4.0 can go in. Finally.

 

[BlackBII]

And the fun begins! Swapping the 2.3 M5od internals to the 4.0 M5od

This requires a 55mm wrench or large pipe wrench and a 32mm wrench or socket.

Finally get to use my giant 55mm wrench

This bearing comes off easy peasy with a pry bar on both sides. Be careful you don't chip the teeth. I placed some wooden door shims beneath the pry bars when I did this.

The rest of it is just simply removing parts until you end up with an empty case

This weekend I'll pull the other transmission apart and swap the internals, and then the drivetrain can all be put back together and the interior is next.

 

[ericbphoto]

Cool. Looks like you're making fast progress. Thanks for the pix of the gearbox "explosion".

 

[BlackBII]

Cool. Looks like you're making fast progress. Thanks for the pix of the gearbox "explosion".

Eh.. Fast is relative. Lol. Like most people, if I had the time and money this could be done in a month, but work and life gets in the way.

I've owned this Ranger for 4 years and it's just now getting to a point where I want it. I still need to do the interior, lift, paint, etc.

 

[turbo91xlt]

2.3 vs 4.0 engine mounts

The 2.3 ones are yours turbo91 if you want em

That reminds me I still gotta pull my 2wd 2.3 m5od apart and convert it to 4x4 for a spare

 

[BlackBII]

Disassembly of the 2.3 M5od. This one needed a bit more persuasion.

Here's all the parts of the trans, from left to right in the disassembly process if anyone is curious. This is how I disassemble most stuff like this. It makes it easier to put back together.

 

[BlackBII]

Here's some pages from the factory service manual for reference

 

[BlackBII]

And that's done. One M5od hybrid. 4.0 case with 2.3 internals.

With this out of the way I should start making some real progress. Dash and wiring is next.

 

[BlackBII]

Picked up this sweet shift knob. I had zero luck finding a new factory one so this will have to do. Just need to find a way to thread it on..