AJE Ranger K-Member Who's Done It!?

[Yotaismygame]

Doesn't seem to be hardly any info out there on this. Without saying too much I'm currently building a 95 2wd splash as a track oriented street truck. Why? ...Why not! The kit is a bit expensive but when you take into what all it upgrades on your truck it isn't too bad. Steering, suspension, drop in engine mounts, tons of brake options. All things I want for my build. Originally planned on coil-overs, beams etc etc to get the truck low enough and to handle decent. I wanted to upgrade the brakes too. Figured I would have to come up with something on my own for that.

The AJE kit would solve all and bolt in. Truck will be v8 turbo, triangulated 4-link in the rear with a 8.8.

 

[stmitch]

https://www.facebook.com/Coyoteranger/posts/1320

This is the only one that I've personally seen in the wild. It belonged to a guy I know. It may have even been the first kit AJE sold to the public, because I think he said he got a bit of a deal on it in order to more or less be a guinea pig, take some measurements, and deal with them reworking something . He had a growing family and the truck just sat after the swap so he sold it. I saw it for sale again a few months later in the Cincinnati area. That was probably a year ago.

It does seem like a nice kit that opens up a bunch of doors for engines, brakes, coilovers, etc and it supposedly does all of that while taking a significant amount of weight (~100-150lbs?) out of the front of the truck. If I were building an I beam truck with performance goals, I'd seriously consider it.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I bit the bullet and ordered the kit this weekend. Their 15% off sale got me. I called and talked to somebody in the shop and he made it sound like quite a few of these kits have sold and many guys in a certain racing class were using it.

 

[Curious Hound]

I bit the bullet and ordered the kit this weekend. Their 15% off sale got me. I called and talked to somebody in the shop and he made it sound like quite a few of these kits have sold and many guys in a certain racing class were using it.

Cool. Maybe you could take pictures and do a build thread for us so others can learn more about the kit.

 

[Yotaismygame]

Cool. Maybe you could take pictures and do a build thread for us so others can learn more about the kit.

I've thought about it. I'm basically doing a complete frame up build. I've done build threads before and some youtube and it gets a little annoying. Sometimes building something just for yourself and keeping it to yourself is nice. At the least I'll post pics of the kit.

 

[Yotaismygame]

Cool. Maybe you could take pictures and do a build thread for us so others can learn more about the kit.

Eric since you've been a member for some years where on this forum would you recommend I post a build thread if I did one?

 

[Curious Hound]

Eric since you've been a member for some years where on this forum would you recommend I post a build thread if I did one?

I would recommend Here

or

There

 

[Yotaismygame]

Kit finally came. Took almost 7 weeks. They said it would be 4-6 so no issue there really. I'll post some pics once I start the tear down/ install.

 

[88xltranger]

Sounds like you and I have a lot of the same goals in mind. Keep me/us updated on this. Im in the process of changing to a much better job and it should put me in a place to get this kit and some other things I've had in mind for awhile.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I will. Been some set backs with this build. One I landed a smoking deal on a car so the money and time have been spent on that the last few months. It’s almost done though. But on top of that I dropped my block off at a machine shop who is now about six weeks past when they said it would be done. Need to get re-motivated and get the front end cleared out for the new parts

 

[88xltranger]

2020 is the year of setbacks. If all goes well 21 will see major progress

 

[Yotaismygame]

2020 is the year of setbacks. If all goes well 21 will see major progress

Did you get yours installed? I tore apart my front end yesterday down to just the big engine crossmember. Coil buckets and everything else is gone. Mr. air chisel is my best friend. Now when my kit came I just briefly looked in the box and tossed it in the corner. Took it all out yesterday and the kit I received has very few similarities to the one pictured on their site. They also sent me the wrong engine mounts but talking with AJE this morning they are sending the correct ones out. While talking to a nice lady over there I asked for instructions and she didn't think there was any for this kit. I get the basic layout but being my kit is something I've never seen anywhere else it's really hard to understand how it goes on the truck. Someone from AJE is going to call me today or tomorrow to talk about it. Ill snag pics here soon.

 

[Yotaismygame]

Did a little mock up at my lunch today. Right now it's looking like the battery tray will be in the way, and my master cylinder is really close. Was not aware those two things would/might be an issue. See how my kit is different? The one I got bolts to the side of the frame rail with one bolt on the bottom. The one on their site bolts just from the bottom and inside of the frame. Overall I understand how it goes together, but the lake of specifics really bugs me. I'm just guessing on what stock parts need to be removed/ looking at pics on the AJE FB page. I've read similar frustrations from mustang guys using AJE products but at least with them they have enough people using it they can share what needs done and help each other out.

 

[blownranger1]

Doesn't seem to be hardly any info out there on this. Without saying too much I'm currently building a 95 2wd splash as a track oriented street truck. Why? ...Why not! The kit is a bit expensive but when you take into what all it upgrades on your truck it isn't too bad. Steering, suspension, drop in engine mounts, tons of brake options. All things I want for my build. Originally planned on coil-overs, beams etc etc to get the truck low enough and to handle decent. I wanted to upgrade the brakes too. Figured I would have to come up with something on my own for that.

The AJE kit would solve all and bolt in. Truck will be v8 turbo, triangulated 4-link in the rear with a 8.8.

Thanks for the pics you posted

 

[Yotaismygame]

Thanks for the pics you posted

Didn’t really want to share so much but being this info is not the internet yet I can take you guys along for the ride so future people have some kind of idea of what to do.

Taking out the engine crossmember ended up being harder than i thought. You’ll definitely want a plasma cutter or a torch. From the outside it looked like just some rivets and and couple welds needed cut. Turns out it’s also welded on the inside where you can’t see. After lots of banging with a sledge hammer and head scratching I ended up just taking chunks out until I saw that weld then ultimately cut the whole thing out. I might not of had to take all the rivets out like I did. Hoping to mock up the K-member today and I’ll know more then.

Talking with AJE who really hasn’t been very helpful it’s recommended I use a mustang master cylinder. It’s slightly shorter . Went ahead and ordered that.