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

[Bird76Mojo]

I knew I loved this thread for a reason. Now, hurry up and finish this thing! lol

 

[Uncle Gump]

15:1 is no where near correct. Maybe 1.5:1?

I put a 1.2:1 ratio Wright rack in one of out street legal off road buggies. It was damn scary to drive down the street. One small twitch and you changed lanes.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I knew I loved this thread for a reason. Now, hurry up and finish this thing! lol

It’s going to be some time. Got a lot to do. It’s a frame up build.

 

[Yotaismygame]

15:1 is no where near correct. Maybe 1.5:1?

I put a 1.2:1 ratio Wright rack in one of out street legal off road buggies. It was damn scary to drive down the street. One small twitch and you changed lanes.

It’s correct..

 

[Uncle Gump]

Well I guess I don't know as much about rack and pinion steering as I thought I did.

Because a 15:1 rack and pinion would require 15 complete turns of the steering wheel to get the rack from stop to stop.... at least that's my understanding of how they work.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Well I guess I don't know as much about rack and pinion steering as I thought I did.

Because a 15:1 rack and pinion would require 15 complete turns of the steering wheel to get the rack from stop to stop.... at least that's my understanding of how they work.

1994-04 Mustang Manual Rack & Pinion - 15:1 Quick Ratio (Non-Modular)

1994-04 Mustang Manual Rack & Pinion - 15:1 Quick Ratio (Non-Modular)

www.flamingriver.com

 

[Uncle Gump]

The 3.3:1 vs. the 4.0:1 ratio makes a bunch more sense to me. All the aftermarket rack and pinions I dealt with used that formula to advertise their offerings.

Please forgive my ignorance... carry on.

 

[Ramcharger90]

I haven’t got that far yet. I’ll have to do a complete custom steering shaft with 3 joints in it going through a heim joint on the frame to clear the headers on the v8. But I’m also adapting electronic power steering to the stock ranger column. I could post a pic of the rack installed this weekend. I got the suspension all off and cleaned up the rails/painted them. Plus I now have the rack, bump steer kit and rotors. Hopefully I have time to test fit the motor too

Nice, I am gonna do the mazda 3 electric power steering with a fox rack, It was recommended by @PetroleumJunkie412 who I dont think is on here anymore. He said the voltage can be controlled by the top post on the alternator. I also wanna go 4 lug so I can run 10 hole wheels. I have a trick flow top end kit I wanna put on my 306. I will mostly be convinced to use the frame I just got as a mock up and use 2x4 120 wall steel by my friend who build T's and model A's. But im gonna wait to do this project after I get the Notchback where I want it, Also I still want to build a T bucket or model A. I also have an 88 ranger I am collecting parts for to run a 353T Detroit diesel...... so I am just gonna run my 5.0 ranger as a daily driver like I have been doing.....

 

[Yotaismygame]

I went with a chevy equinox column so I can use the ebay controller. Picked up the whole column for cheaper than what you can find just the motor on ebay.

 

[Yotaismygame]

First engine mock up. Really makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere. If this truck was at my house not my Dad's shop I would be working on it non stop that's how excited I am about it right now. Much more room in certain areas than I thought there would be. A heads up if running a LS with truck manifold there will be some clearance issues. Clearly meant for the car mani. Next I need to get the transmission in and mounted so I can move to the rear suspension and set the pinion angle on the axle properly.

Some clearancing needed here.

Confirmed with AJE these are oriented correct.

Had to sledge hammer this left corner to fit the intake manifold then had to cut the crossmember. Wish I would have left a little more. Ill also have to cut that mount off in front of the Map sensor so I can flip the sensor around. No room behind it.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Tremec driveline angle app: https://www.tremec.com/menu/tremec-toolbox-app/

 

[Yotaismygame]

Well I've run in to two problems that have really slowed me down. One is very specific to this kit. The other is just the parts I chose for this build.

First I ordered a manual 15:1 unisteer sn95 steering rack and sn95 bumpsteer kit. Turns out the inner tie rods are too long. It was recommended from mustang owners who run AJE stuff I use Fox body inners. Well the ones I ordered clearly wont work. Then I found some from Flaming River that look correct but for $55 each! And on top of that the outer tie rods/bumpsteer kits are specific for Fox bodies and Sn95. They each have there own thread pitch. I would have to try and return my bumpsteer kit and get another Fox Body set. I decided to take the inners I have and drop them off at a machine shop to be shortened and re-threaded. Might not be cheaper but will be more convenient. Moral of the story buy a rack for a Fox Body not SN95!

Next up is the transmission I'm using. It's not even close to fitting! Finding strong manual transmissions that don't cost a fortune is tough for an LS. I opted to use an adapter kit from LOJ to use a Nissan frontier 6spd. I don't want to get into the specifics of that but anyways.. The bell housing is huge and no where near fitting. There's major contact right where the gas pedal/drivers foot would be. I'm still in the middle of trying to figure out what to do here. There's options. One of which is expensive but awesome. Have you guys seen the new TKX Tremec transmission! I've been drooling over it...

Last here's the wheels I will be running. I got a smoking deal on a close out sale. $500 to my house for them! They are ESR 18x10.5 ET15. So they stick out 12mm more than the other wheels I've shown. They barely clear the coil springs in front. I think 10mm spacers would do the trick but I ordered 1" spacers anyways. I'm going for a wide low stance btw. I wasn't sure how they would look on the truck but the for the money I didn't care too much. 18's definitely seem like the way to go compared to the 17's.
Here they are sitting on top of two 2x4's. Running 295/40/18's all around. So imagine that.

 

[Yotaismygame]

@Bird76Mojo While doing some research on clutch parts I came across a thread you were in talking about transmission swaps. I test fit the TKX bellhousing and it fit with little clearancing so I ordered the transmission. Now for the clutch I'd like to retain the stock Ranger setup just to simplify things. From what I can find the stock master has a 5/8 bore and I just need to swap out the fitting on the end to run a line to the Hydraulic throw out bearing. Hoping this works. If not a 97 ford f150 has what looks like the same type of master but is a hair bigger at .7" which is just under 3/4". Any thoughts?

 

[Bird76Mojo]

I used the stock clutch master cylinder with the Tilton 6000 series slave and the braided AN hose, and AN adapter. All purchased through Modern Driveline. I did have to make a clutch pedal stop to remove a small amount of pedal throw so as not to overstroke the slave cylinder. You wouldn't know it wasn't a completely stock clutch setup if you drove it. The pedal stop bracket is a simple piece of angle iron with two holes drilled in it for mounting. I used one factory hole in a bracket on the pedal box, and drilled on more hole beside it with a compact 90 degree drill.

The entire setup has been flawless except for the cheap Chinese flat-faced bearing used on the Tilton 6000 series slave ($50 each and only available through Tilton) but the 2nd one I installed has been good so far. I had the adjustable depth slave cylinder adjusted to the best of my ability, but I suspect after the new clutch and pressure plate broke-in, the clearances changed, leading to that bearing wearing out prematurely. The suitable clearances are in the thousandths after all..

I went with the T5Z from Modern Driveline with the front mount / rear socket tail housing so I could keep the stock shifter location and stock shifter boot. The #6900 Hurst shifter lever that MDL sold me worked for a couple years, but was within mm's of the dash, so I bought a Hurst #7236 shift lever and it's a perfect fit. I'll be selling that Hurst #6900 on here sometime soon.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I used the stock clutch master cylinder with the Tilton 6000 series slave and the braided AN hose, and AN adapter. All purchased through Modern Driveline. I did have to make a clutch pedal stop to remove a small amount of pedal throw so as not to overstroke the slave cylinder. You wouldn't know it wasn't a completely stock clutch setup if you drove it. The pedal stop bracket is a simple piece of angle iron with two holes drilled in it for mounting. I used one factory hole in a bracket on the pedal box, and drilled on more hole beside it with a compact 90 degree drill.

The entire setup has been flawless except for the cheap Chinese flat-faced bearing used on the Tilton 6000 series slave ($50 each and only available through Tilton) but the 2nd one I installed has been good so far. I had the adjustable depth slave cylinder adjusted to the best of my ability, but I suspect after the new clutch and pressure plate broke-in, the clearances changed, leading to that bearing wearing out prematurely. The suitable clearances are in the thousandths after all..

I went with the T5Z from Modern Driveline with the front mount / rear socket tail housing so I could keep the stock shifter location and stock shifter boot. The #6900 Hurst shifter lever that MDL sold me worked for a couple years, but was within mm's of the dash, so I bought a Hurst #7236 shift lever and it's a perfect fit. I'll be selling that Hurst #6900 on here sometime soon.

Perfect. Sounds like we have the same idea. I ordered the TKX transmission. If you haven’t seen it yet check it out. Looking like I’ll use the center shifter location which I’ll only need a slight bend in the shifter. Going to use a 4an fitting on the stock master and a full LS7 clutch assembly. I won’t know what shifter will work until I get the transmission mounted and get the seats I’m using mounted. It’s looking like the stock transmission crossmember will work with a little modification