D35 TTB beam angle

[scotts90ranger]

FOUND EM! They were next to the scrap barrel by where I kept the stick welder when it was in the garage, under the pile of funnels of course... The 6' stick of 1/4" wall 2" tubing was where it has been so I knew where it was...

Now to work up a rough plan in my noggin, get some material in the shop, get the Ranger in the shop, get the shop clean enough to do a big project, take some measurements then get to fabbing a new transmission mount with removable center with radius arm mounts. I have ideas, just gotta make it happen, it's going to take a bunch of jack stands to make this happen conveniently I have 6...

I'm tired of the tires hitting the firewall so I'm going to scoot the front axle a little forward which will gain me like 2" of suspension travel just doing that, looking forward to the test run!

 

[BlackBII]

I moved my front axle forward a bit as well and it really helped. Do you know what coils you are going to be using? I knew my Skyjacker 6" coils would be sitting at 15" tall when the truck was at ride height, so I mocked everything up with the top of the beam about 15" away from the coil bucket and it made it easy.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've been using the thing for like 13 years with some random lift I got off craigslist, it had the good brackets for the beams but the cheezy drop brackets for the radius arm crossmember and some red coils... I'm just fixing what I meant to do years ago .

If the rain holds off long enough tonight I'll wash it off and get it in the shop tomorrow to start looking at, gotta get my plate stock and everything in one spot and get a spot big enough for the project and fabrication in the shop...

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've dug into the thing enough and taken some measurements to figure out the why of some of what it does...

The passenger wheelbase is about 1" shorter than the drivers side and the passenger beam angle is like 8 degrees while the drivers side is like 2 degrees. I'm pretty sure I know why it's like that but whatever, it still needs longer radius arms!

Have the radius arm bolts into the beam out so far and the springs out and stuff, about to drop the radius arm crossmember and pry the radius arms off... probably should have started with making a transmission crossmember but I guess I'm just going to do do it all at once...

 

[franklin2]

Having a different caster number side to side is one of the main causes of a vehicle to pull to the left or the right as you are trying to go straight.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I have the fully adjustable bushings, I think I accounted reasonably with those as it didn't pull bad, drove pretty well considering...

 

[901wd#2]

The early 84 maybe 85 transmission crossmember tucks inside the frame rails and clears everything.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've thought about that but the transmission crossmember needs to be where I want my radius arm pivots to be so I'm going to try to incorporate them together with a removable center section for transmission and transfer case servicing...

 

[scotts90ranger]

Here's a pic dump of how things went. Took me forever to stare at it and figure out how I wanted to do things, everything ended up being pretty abstract and random but worked out. The radius arms are pretty much what everyone that does the square tubing radius arms does just longer since I wanted to integrate the transmission crossmember into the pivots, lost a couple inches of ground clearance there but gained it where the stock radius arm crossmember was so a wash I think. In the pics I still need to drill the front and back into the frame to bolt them in and I still haven't done that but it's on the list. The transmission crossmember turned out pretty good but was not easy to get the angles of everything right. Considering about the only measurements I made were to get the wheelbase even side to side, the radius arm lengths even side to side and the beam angle I think it turned out pretty good! The top pic of the pivot bracket is before I added some more bracing you might be able to see in the pic of them painted. I ended up with no radius arm bushing bind at ride height.

 

[4x4junkie]

You did a nice job!
Only thing I might suggest is add a plate to the area right behind the end of the tube inside the driverside arm (boxing it in partway). This because the torque moment coming from the differential puts a ton of stress on that side and causes the arm to twist a bit. Mine eventually cracked right where the weld meets the edge of the arm (passengerside however has been fine).

(pardon my photochop welding skillz lol):

Apparently it seems I don't have any actual pics of this floating around... Tried to get some, but with the arm installed makes it a bit tough. Hopefully you can make out the plate I used (also where I had to fill the crack along the bottom).

 

[scotts90ranger]

Good to know! It's not quite too late to do that, less convenient but not too late , don't have the radius arm bolts in yet just the bushing nut tightened...

I don't have 4L torque (just more horsepower than a 4L) and don't deal with rocks (read the no torque comment) but would much rather do this once...

 

[4x4junkie]

This is on my BII (stock 2.9L). The 35" tires I'm sure also play a role though.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Hmm, could have sworn you had 4.0L swapped that thing since you've done everything else , so yeah, once past around 2k I'm past the torque of a 2.9L I think just takes a second to get there... but still same setup otherwise other than 10" longer wheelbase.

About to go rip into that, not sure if I'll work on that or wheel bearings or U joint or steering tonight...

 

[4x4junkie]

Naw, still runnin' the ol' 2.9L. The 5.13 axle gears (and manual trans) are what make it tolerable. I have said in the past though that if the 2.9 ever gives out, I'd definitely 4.0L-swap it. But after some ~350K... Still waiting for it to happen lol.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Have the start of a cardboard cutout for the gusset, will get on that tomorrow, gotta shorten it up a little and tape on another tab . Got the arm out just fine, had to take the steering joints apart but they needed to come apart anyway since I need to straighten out the kink in the passenger side link, one of these days I need to make myself a swingset but the stock setup seems to work so far somehow for me...