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Original Poster: Dave18 Difficulty: 5 out of 10 Time to install: 8 hours Disclaimer: The Ranger Station.com, The Ranger Station.com Staff, nor the original poster are responsible for you doing this modification to your vehicle. By doing this modification and following this how-to you, the...

Yeah, in fact it's kinda funny because I go to show my friends all my hard work and it just looks like a stock truck haha. That was somewhat the goal though... trying to pick and choose the best parts Rangers came with from the factory to theoretically keep the reliability and gas mileage...

Here are some more pictures for fun. I just took it up Mosquito Pass today: I stopped on this flexy washed out rut section because I wanted a glamour shot, and was pretty sure I'd need to back down and take a different line. Surprisingly there was enough traction to crawl right up though! It's...

Everyone on this forum has been so helpful and encouraging! I really appreciate all the advice and guidance on this, the axle swap, and all the other random questions I've had. I'll try to get the truck out for some better pictures to post on here this weekend!

Well, I got the axle nuts installed and had a local shop align it and replace my torsion bars. I would have done the torsion bars myself, but my actual job has been getting busier in the last two weeks and to be honest I was just getting tired of wrenching each night haha! I had new code 1 bars...

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense I guess... They probably figure the camber is more determined by maufacturing tolerances between frames I guess. Unless you're swapping out control arms and steering knuckles like this I doubt it ever changes much... I guess I'll order those special cam bolts in...

Oh interesting... so the hub/bearing assemby sort of needs to be squeezed between the axle nut and the end of the outer CV joint section of the axle? I guess that makes sense now that I think about it... It's hard to picture what that sealed hub assemby looks like inside! That would imply that...

Also I just realized the nut does show up as Item 3 on that parts diagram I posted... it just isn't listed for sale by Ford (or not on that page at least...) Hmm.

Okay I got the other side built up last night and am pretty happy with how it looks! A couple mysteries have emerged, which I hadn't thought about until getting everything bolted up where I can look at it: 1) The end of the CV axles are threaded... is there supposed to be an axle nut that...

Okay, large progress has been made. I had a shop reroute the y-pipe so it fits between the transmission and driveshaft... They had to actually take about an inch of pipe out above the first cat, so the cat would sit slightly higher and allow room for the pipe to smoothly curve away from the...

Here's a picture of what I mean... I put the camera on the transfer case output flange, so this would be looking right down the driveshaft if it were there. It looks like that exhaust pipe could route either way, but it would need to cut inboard pretty hard right dowstream of that mini-cat in...

Well it just happens that a fab shop that specializes in crawlers just opened about a mile down the road from me! I talked to the owner and he was thinking it might be possible to route the left side of the y-pipe around the driveshaft without touching the cats... it would be great if we could...

Oh wow, you think so? I guess something like a simple y-pipe would be on the easier side for a shop that can do all that... I just have no experience with exhaust work, so I wasn't sure where the line was. I'll have to look for a good one somewhere nearby!

Well I've hit a pretty big snag - I did a test fit of the new diff under the truck, and it was clear that the front driveshaft will interfere with the y-pipe. I didn't realize it beforehand, but apparently the pipe is routed slightly differently on 4x4 trucks than on the 2wd. It must be specific...

Well it's been a while, partly because I got distracted by replacing the leaf springs, which I thought would be way easier than it was... I bought the springs, but realized there was some rust on the shackles so I decided to order new ones of those too. Then when it was finally time to replace...

Haha oh yeah... Thank God rust isn't a big issue here. I feel like any wrenching project in Colorado sounds like "cheating" compared to what you guys have to deal with...

I haven't gotten much done on the project lately since I was camping for a week around Memorial Day, and was pretty focused on getting ready for the trip for the week before that (not a bad problem to have!) I did finally get the last two bearings out of the old housing... for the inner pinion...

I haven't made much progress this week, but I did manage to press the inner pinion bearing off, and pull the old carrier bearings. I used the OTC 4518 5-ton puller set for both... On the carrier I was able to use a large socket and the forcing screw that came with the puller to remove the...

Thanks you guys, I really appreciate it! When I did the 8.8 I had a guidebook (I think it was mentioned in the tech section here on TRS), but I couldn't find any type of guide for the front axle... I'm hoping it all works similarly and referencing back to that book a lot. I'm a mechanical...

All of that happened a couple years ago, and I've been happily using the truck since - I figured I'd include it as reference/background if anybody was looking for conversion info in the future... Now I think I'm getting up to where I am now... I'll add updates as I make progress and there will...