91 stubby ranger build thread

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Got quite a bit more done. The bump stops I ordered wont work, I ordered a few other ones. The jeep brake lines wont work so I ordered some other ones. I tightened everything up, greased, I have to do some more trimming on the truss the track bar mount hits, after getting my caster set to 7*. Hopefully these next days off ill have the front pretty much done. I have to order shocks still. Not sure if I want to try something different or go with bilstens again. I really like the reviews on the new ones Duff has, waiting on an email about lengths now. I got all the wiring and the fuel filter kinda in. I have to build a better mount for it, may relocate it back also. I'm not sure how I want to do it yet. Its leaning up against my 3rd link bar

I really love the look of 37s..... Its amazing how much from a 35 to a 37 changed the look. its really night a day....

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Was in the process of getting my sway bar mounts axle side welded on and ran out of wire on the welder. Had to order shocks anyways. So I flipped it around and started on the rear axle. I bought off set spring pads to move it back, only need an inch. I'm also adding an anti wrap bar to it. Then regear and Detroit locker. Got my bump stops on and everything looks good on the front. If id had front shocks I would of took it to town, but olwell.

 

[Blmpkn]

Please don't ever paint the body a solid color. The mismatched panels really make the look imo.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Please don't ever paint the body a solid color. The mismatched panels really make the look imo.

This cab is trash, I've got a whole 89 cab thats pretty nice and one color lol I don't know if its because this cab had cab lights on it at one time or what but the passenger side window pillar/upright is got bad rust in it, from the inside. . . super weird. the people before me silicone the whole roof, filled the drip rails completely full of silicone. Most of it is gone now, with the low hanging trees and all that ive been under lol I body swap is in the future. I keep trying to find a 91-92 body that had a 4.0 in it but thats been impossible to find something thats decent anyways to make my wiring job easier. Well see what I come up with. Cab swap is on next winters project list. .

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Got some more done, Got my gears and my Detroit locker in my 8.8. New wheel bearings and seals, new park brake pads and rotors. Played with my gear pattern a little more after this also. I will say the 8.8 was way easier to setup than the D44. I did order a carrier/pinion bearing pulling tooling that made things night and day but anyways got it slid back under the ranger. Just have to set pinion angle, and install my anti axle wrap kit, since I'm running extend spring perches now. Which I hope controls the axle wrap. I was getting bad axle wrap before the extended perch's lol hopefully it doesn't limit flex to much. I'm thinking I should of just 4 linked it but when leafs work they work good if tuned right. Thats a lot more work for a DD and Trail rig when I want to.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Note the wear marking on the out side of the gear set was my glove, I had a heck of a time putting pressure on the gear set. Would of been nice to have an extra set of hands.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

well got it back together and took it to town. A few miles of dirt road with bumps test for death wobble pretty fast. Which I had had none, It was solid up to 45 over the bumps. Needs an alignment pretty bad, I have it close of a tap but it needs more adjustment. I didn't take it down the highway. Figured Id do a couple 11 mile trip into town to get the gears though its first couple heat cycles. I might just change my diff oil early, the 8.8 cover is leaking must of not got it sealed good enough, I have a yukon cover for it anyways and then do the 500 mile change then.

I was pretty happy with how it drives, No steering stabilizer or anything like that, pretty straight down the road, and way more planted feeling, I really like these wild horse EB coils they were worth it over those rusty offroad xj coils.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Took the ranger out for its first run. It was a good run, nothing real extreme. The local jeep club likes to drive for a hour and sit for a hour so It was good gear break in drive. Only issue I had is one of my trail gear joints came apart. Didn't know it until I crawled under it to check everything out at the end of the day. Got that fixed and let the wife drive it to work. I really love the lockers and the 513 gears. Wow did that make a difference.

Put my spare engine on my stand, and i'm gonna go through it, need to get the pistons out and check to make sure everything is standard sizes and order what I need. I believe this engine has never been into, it still had Ford intake gaskets top and lower, so hopefully nothing special. The 4.0 that is in the ranger leaks bad, Eats engine oil, I mean it burns 2 qts every 2 fill ups of fuel. It might be just heads but I really don't want to dig that far into it. This spare engine didn't have any issues other than the normal lift ticks, which hopefully new hydraulic lifters, cam bearings and new oil pump fix that. It should be a pretty straight forward freshin up. Well see anyways.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

I might also add It drives amazing at 65-70. Anything more I get a real bad vibration, I think its my rear drive line, I set it up to put a CV drive shaft in it, So the rear diff is pointing at the transfer case. I plan on ordering the Behemoth shorty box for it in the next couple weeks so, ill have to build new drive lines then. I dont have anything stock that will fit. so ill have to get some custom drive lines made.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Got spare engine tore down a little more. Everything is OEM. Gonna order bearings and piston ring set. Hopeful that will be good enough. Going to run a ball hone down the bores since I can still see cross hatching in all the cylinders still. One thing I found weird is none of the bearings or piston are not stamped (STD) I was able to look up the ford part numbers and they say they are Standard size. But I just thought it was weird nothing was stamped standard. Olwell, Ill be waiting for parts. Clutch is getting bad in the ranger. And I just don't want to do this again, so It will get the rebuilt engine and the clutch at the same time.

Ive had a drivers side lean on this thing since I put the flat bed on it. I bought another new Rough country leaf spring hoping that was it, but it looks like ill have to drop the other side down a little bit to make the ride hight the same on the rear. I don't really under stand why its off, everything is new but something is off. Olwell, I look into it more one of these days. I set toe to 1/16th. Drives better now.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I don't have much to update other than my spare engine ended up needing to be bored and I didn't want to wait so I found a new/used engine. My transmission was also found to have issues (pulled half a shim out of it and a lot of metal came out and the oil was only a few days old) so I found a HD M5R1 and I got that bolted to it. I found a doubler on here that just came in. so I'm going to do that and have new drive lines made since my rear is not the best. Since the weather was good and I got the motor and trans swapped. It came from a 96 so I swapped my old stuff around. I need to run it some more, I put new lower/upper intake gaskets and valve cover gaskets on it. It seems like its not running the best, I don't know Ive found that somethimes you need to take these things on a five mile drive so the computer relearns everything. I got no cel so well see after i get it mobile and take it for a drive.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Wish I had an engine hoist like yours...

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Wish I had an engine hoist like yours...

It defiantly is handy to have around. I replaced my well pump last year with it, saved me several thousand bucks. I don't use it a hole lot anymore. I used to run my own mobile equipment repair business and I have hopes to give it a go again. I'll keep it around until that day. It was nice weather so I just did it at my house instead of the the farms shop. To be truthful Id rather do it with the shop truck lol my crane will lift almost 9,000 pounds. haha

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I don't have a hole lot to update on. I guess I did a lot. I decided to hold off on the duel cases for now. I had a camping trip I really wanted to do and With this dual case for the top bolt I have to grind into the rear case to get one of the bolts to line up and I really want a spare case to mock this up before I do funky stuff. I bought a roof top tent and decided to see if I could fit it and I will say it fit pretty nice on there really.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well don't have much to update about. Other than I fixed my Idle issue Finally!!!!! I mean I'm glad I didn't give up but for F^<ks sake. After pulling my upper intake off again, going through everything. Another IAC and just about done dealing with it, I swapped in a 93 4.0 throttle body and It Idled way worse. 2k push in the clutch and it would idle up. Before I got it down to 1K with everything I had swapped. Did some research and found the throttle body off the 96 intake (the engine i put in was a 96 and I had the whole intake manifold still) would work so I swapped it and bam, 750-800 rpms. The rpm falls like it should now and cold start it doesn't idle as high as it did and it kicks down right away after a min or so like it should.... With everything ive done with this dang thing, I can't believe it ended up being the throttle body. Olwell

Took my other boy camping one night. I really like being on the river, it was way nicer than being on the very top of the mountain like the last outing. Here are some pictures.