My 2000 Green Ranger 5.0 lowered AWD

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I feel you on that. Dad's got a shop with a 15x30 pad that I borrow for bigger stuff like the engine swap, but it's pretty inconvenient trying to work on things over there. Here at my house I've got nothing but dirt. Part of it is covered with a carport, but still over dirt. I'd like to begin the process of pouring a pad and putting up a shop and fortunately I don't have anyone to answer to on that. My dreams are about the same, concrete floor and decent sized garage, built for the future addition of a lift. Some place to work out of the weather, and so that I don't have to finish and/or pack up everything in one day. For my purposes something about the same depth and twice as wide as dad's shop would be great.

Unfortunately I'm probably going to have to tear out my kitchen to replace some flooring in the near future, which will probably put all of it on hold. Due to the way this manufatured home is built that means a complete remodel in at least the kitchen, maybe other areas if I find the damage is more widespread. So I've got to decide which comes first and how much of a bill I can afford to run up. I'd prefer to avoid touching anything like a home equity loan to do any of it.

My parent's house has a two car garage, but when we were building the house I was told in no uncertain terms that while my parents are still alive, I will never be doing mechanic work in the garage. I get it, dad wants the garage spotless, and a garage that you actually work in, never quite is. In my parent's plan was a stand-alone garage/workshop in the neighborhood of a 30-40' deep and 50-60' wide, but dad got too busted up before that got built and it hasn't happened. We did build an equipment shed with a pair of garage doors, but one side is dad's one lawn tractor and accessories, the other bay has dad's skid steer (it needs some hydraulic lines and a little bit of other stuff).

I picked up a steel building, it's something like 18'x28' but I'd like to lengthen it another 8-12' at the minimum. Ideally I'd add a lean-to on one side. I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to get away with, but even if it's just adding 12' to the length of what I have, it will be a million times better than working outside on gravel.

I get it, I prefer to pay for stuff as I can afford it rather than owing someone for it.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Wonderful thread! Keep it up, big guy!

Thank you sir!

 

[Lefty]

My parent's house has a two car garage, but when we were building the house I was told in no uncertain terms that while my parents are still alive, I will never be doing mechanic work in the garage. I get it, dad wants the garage spotless, and a garage that you actually work in, never quite is. In my parent's plan was a stand-alone garage/workshop in the neighborhood of a 30-40' deep and 50-60' wide, but dad got too busted up before that got built and it hasn't happened. We did build an equipment shed with a pair of garage doors, but one side is dad's one lawn tractor and accessories, the other bay has dad's skid steer (it needs some hydraulic lines and a little bit of other stuff).

I picked up a steel building, it's something like 18'x28' but I'd like to lengthen it another 8-12' at the minimum. Ideally I'd add a lean-to on one side. I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to get away with, but even if it's just adding 12' to the length of what I have, it will be a million times better than working outside on gravel.

I get it, I prefer to pay for stuff as I can afford it rather than owing someone for it.

A garage has certainly made life fun. Even my friends that have garages come come over. They like to hang out, of course, but they also like the fact that it's pretty well organized. And if it's not cars, it's boats.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

A garage has certainly made life fun. Even my friends that have garages come come over. They like to hang out, of course, but they also like the fact that it's pretty well organized. And if it's not cars, it's boats.

My buddy Paul has a two car garage up in the city. I've hung out and done a lot of work on vehicles there. I have a bunch of my tools there too. But his garage is full of quads and tools, so any work is done on the pad out front of the garage or on the other side of the alley in the gravel parking area there. That's actually where the pics of the rear frame swap early on in this build thread were taken. We used to do cookouts there all the time until both of us ended up with health problems and now it's a little more hit and miss.

 

[Lefty]

Funny thing about garages: many people don't park their cars inside. They wind up being used for cold storage.

 

[snoranger]

dad wants the garage spotless

It’s definitely spotless… there isn’t a spot in that garage for another thing.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It’s definitely spotless… there isn’t a spot in that garage for another thing.

Err... well... there also is that... which is not entirely my fault...

 

[Lefty]

There's a half dozen different tool boxes in mine that others have left there, an extra air compressor, two mig welders too, and a great big fan for hot summer days that somebody left behind. I once had 4 flashlights. They're all gone. I don't know where, and for some strange reason, there are no break off knives or 7mm sockets to be found.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So, after getting it back on the road, it was time to start working out bugs. The first of those reared it's ugly head really quickly. In my struggles to get it ready, I blew a fuel line, the pressure line from the tank to the filter. I managed to patch it after a bunch of fiddling around and was wishing at that point that I would have gone ahead and replaced everything with -6 AN when I had it all apart. Since I was up against the hard deadline of going to the TRS fall event (2023), it wasn't getting replaced then. More problems showed up when I tried to haul the Choptop out to the event.

I made it out to my friend Lisa's in Ohio and limped in puking trans fluid because my OD cancel circuit shorted out and blew the fuse, a couple other electrical faults showed up, power steering was leaking bad, and a couple other things. Ended up getting a local hydraulic shop out there to make a new power steering hose and chased problems for a couple days before bailing on trying to make it. We ended up making a side trip elsewhere for two days, then I patched the truck enough to limp home. Got home to the power steering leaking again, turns out my adapter was messed up and not sealing right. A new adapter out of my spares and after shaving down a sacrificial deep well socket to a thin wall, I got things sorted with that finally.

Chased a bunch of other random small problems but mostly just drove it because I was tired of not driving it and tolerated a bunch of problems. After my patched fuel line blew out for the umpteenth time, I decided enough was enough though. Propped the bed up and replaced the lines with the -6 AN PTFE stuff. Because of how far it sat up off the tank, I made a piece of 1x1" angle that bolts to the crossmember by the pump to keep from snagging the bed on the fuel lines. I don't seem to have a pic with the angle on there, but it just sits across the top of the crossmember on the right and goes up past the fuel fittings but not far enough to interfere with how the bed sits.

Also ended up pulling the bed off and patching the front of it with part of another bed that I salvaged years ago. It was a quick and rough patch job, I intend on looking for a not-rusted-out bed at some point.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Since both my hitch and rear bumper were rotted out plus my hitch was way, way too low for my liking after lowering my Ranger, I decided to build a custom hitch bumper. Took a little bit of playing around to figure out exactly what I wanted, but the basis was a piece of 5" C-Channel that I nipped a pair of 23* pie cuts on each end so I could bend it around. Then I started adding all the bits that I wanted. It didn't come out quite perfect, but I started to rush on the build and that's where it happened. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result and I can always build another. It's mostly 1/4" steel. I didn't weigh it, but I'm going to say that it's roughly the same weight as the factory bumper and a Class III hitch. It's actually probably better than a regular Class III since I ran the braces farther back the frame rails and put some side plates on. Oh, yeah, BTW, that’s a junk license plate, I use it for figuring out plate position.

Managed to get the bed back on but I didn't have the Choptop ready to go in time for this year's TRS fall event, so I just took the Ranger. It made the trip just fine, other than I still have a front end vibration that I haven't been able to nail down. I suspect it's probably part of the issues I had with lowering the front end and not currently being alignable. I really need different upper control arms to handle the lowering, then find the next limiting factor. I pulled the factory bump stops when I started lowering and I'm currently about the limit of the upper ball joint and the torsion bar keys. I have a set of 08-11 keys, but the upper arm and ball joint have to be changed. Front shocks may or may not be a problem. I'm also having a suspicion that I may want to see about flipping the tie rod ends since they are starting to get a bit of an angle. Lower ball joint may or may not become an issue, but that's a relatively easy fix by just notching the arm, a little cut and weld action.

 

[Lefty]

Since both my hitch and rear bumper were rotted out plus my hitch was way, way too low for my liking after lowering my Ranger, I decided to build a custom hitch bumper. Took a little bit of playing around to figure out exactly what I wanted, but the basis was a piece of 5" C-Channel that I nipped a pair of 23* pie cuts on each end so I could bend it around. Then I started adding all the bits that I wanted. It didn't come out quite perfect, but I started to rush on the build and that's where it happened. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result and I can always build another. It's mostly 1/4" steel. I didn't weigh it, but I'm going to say that it's roughly the same weight as the factory bumper and a Class III hitch. It's actually probably better than a regular Class III since I ran the braces farther back the frame rails and put some side plates on. Oh, yeah, BTW, that’s a junk license plate, I use it for figuring out plate position.

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Managed to get the bed back on but I didn't have the Choptop ready to go in time for this year's TRS fall event, so I just took the Ranger. It made the trip just fine, other than I still have a front end vibration that I haven't been able to nail down. I suspect it's probably part of the issues I had with lowering the front end and not currently being alignable. I really need different upper control arms to handle the lowering, then find the next limiting factor. I pulled the factory bump stops when I started lowering and I'm currently about the limit of the upper ball joint and the torsion bar keys. I have a set of 08-11 keys, but the upper arm and ball joint have to be changed. Front shocks may or may not be a problem. I'm also having a suspicion that I may want to see about flipping the tie rod ends since they are starting to get a bit of an angle. Lower ball joint may or may not become an issue, but that's a relatively easy fix by just notching the arm, a little cut and weld action.

looking good

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

@JoshT

Have you taken a close look at your steering? I was looking at my tie rod ends and it looks like they could probably benefit from flipping…

 

[JoshT]

As it's sitting now, it looks ok. Can't say what it'll do if I go lower.

Am I remembering correctly that you had issue with rear driveshaft length?

When I flipped the axle this week I encountered that myself. The driveshaft wouldn't compress enough for the axle to be centered on the springs. The flip brackets I got second hand had two locating holes drilled in them. The original offset DJM drilled holes, and a centered set drilled by previous owner. I initially tried to use the centered holes. Changed to the offset holes which moved the axle back between 1/2" to 1" and it installed ok. Can't say it won't bottom during driving, but I'll only be driving it onto and off of the trailer before it gets flipped back. It isn't staying flipped until I can get the front lowered more.

I'll have to think about the control arm offer. Once I get it tuned the rest of the modifications might be on hold for a while. I think I'm about to have to dig into some house repairs, soft floors and potential water leaks in kitchen and one bathroom. If that happens I won't be working on or spending money on this project until that's done.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

As it's sitting now, it looks ok. Can't say what it'll do if I go lower.

My steering fights me a little here and there, I’m thinking it may be happier flipped when I get it all the way lowered in the front, not that the joint will be at its limit, but rather the angle.

Am I remembering correctly that you had issue with rear driveshaft length?

You are correct, I ended up cutting about an inch and a half out of mine. I thought about drilling holes to move the axle back, but that would have caused other problems and I was concerned about still bottoming out the driveshaft at full squish. I carefully marked, cut, and welded, then took it to the one local-ish driveline shop to be balanced. I could have just had them do the work to shorten it, I thought their price was reasonable, but I was tight on cash and time (they wanted it for a couple days to a week if they did the whole job and they’re like a half hour away). They balanced it while I waited.

When I flipped the axle this week I encountered that myself. The driveshaft wouldn't compress enough for the axle to be centered on the springs. The flip brackets I got second hand had two locating holes drilled in them. The original offset DJM drilled holes, and a centered set drilled by previous owner. I initially tried to use the centered holes. Changed to the offset holes which moved the axle back between 1/2" to 1" and it installed ok. Can't say it won't bottom during driving, but I'll only be driving it onto and off of the trailer before it gets flipped back. It isn't staying flipped until I can get the front lowered more.

I'll have to think about the control arm offer. Once I get it tuned the rest of the modifications might be on hold for a while. I think I'm about to have to dig into some house repairs, soft floors and potential water leaks in kitchen and one bathroom. If that happens I won't be working on or spending money on this project until that's done.

No hurry, this isn’t something that’s going to happen quickly as far as the control arms go. I need to make some decisions on how to make them and what parts I need, have to get someone to machine some cups for the ball joints, then figure out the tube and all. I’m suspecting it will be just as easy for me to make two sets as it will be to make one when I get to it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

My steering fights me a little here and there, I’m thinking it may be happier flipped when I get it all the way lowered in the front, not that the joint will be at its limit, but rather the angle.

As with a TTB where the steering linkage should match the beam angle the TRE on a SLA should roughly match the angle of the lower control arm or you will get a similar result since you aren't moving the control arm mounting locations...