My 99 Ranger Build Thread

[bobbywalter]

well, in my case they will match my flatbed fenders but be open in the front.......i started to make a set but they ended up on a different project.

figure i need a engine cage at least so they will be strong enough to rub on trees. at least some sort of crossover...

but until i put the turbo on my diesel i dont want to waste the material....of course if i start working in pa again...they will be hastily built in a few hours and installed in a manner not suited to abuse...but enough to keep the law at bay.

they will be stand alone with the fender trimmed to sit on them. it will happen someday.




here is the bed to get an idea....the sides and wheel well is made from scrap well pipe. posted in a flatbed thread today so its handy.

 

[RJLougee]

Long overdue update....

On the "what I got done side":

New ball joints installed in the front knuckles.

I got a nice piece of 1/4" plate cut for the trans cross-member. It's all bent up, but no pic right now...:

Got all the rear FF assy mocked up on the bench to figure spacing. This is the back side, showing the weld on mount:

And the first draft/view of the front axle looking at setting the correct angles between the pinion, knuckles, steering, etc... With the housing level (based on the spring perch being parallel to the ground). The front tie-rod is set to 6 degrees up (generally considered neutral).

In the continuing saga of "When it rains it pours"... I was prepping the buggy last week for the Set Them Free Offroad event in Salida and had the remote reservoir fitting break off and spit oil/nitrogen out all over me... That pretty much launched me off the deep end for the rest of the afternoon, so I got little done. On top of that, I decided to do a rear disk brake conversion that took WAY TOO LONG to accomplish.

Anyway, I'm back home now and will be working/updating soon.
Joe

 

[RJLougee]

Latest Progress

Got some more done today, didn't realize how much I haven't posted up. Time to fix that.....

My thoughts to this point have been to build at max bump (aka up-travel). This way, if everything clears, it'll be fine at ride height.

For the first pic, I have the front axle set so the front driveshaft is about 36" at full compression. The axle sits in between the front/rear sumps.

For this, my thoughts are to have both driveshafts roughly equal length. On the short side, the WB would be @109" (at full bump). On the long side, @120". Lose a couple at ride height, so maybe 118"?? I'm thinking I'll end up @115"

In any case, I've got clearance between the driveshaft and trans/shifter:

Mocked up the front axle, checked inner shaft length and got the inner 'C's tacked on where **I THINK** they should be.

Joe

 

[RJLougee]

Got started on the rear axle. Mocked up and ready to cut the ends off for the full-floater conversion.

Got the ends cut off and the inner flanges mocked up. Unfortunately, the flanges do not fit over the end of the axle tubes. Seems these axle tubes are @3.085" outer diameter and the flanges are 3.040" inner diameter. So I'm going to have to turn the inner out to about 3.1" to give a little wiggle room to make sure they're centered when we weld them on.

Got a simple 1/4" plate bent up to weld to the top of the housing for the upper link mount to attach to. I'll add some bracing/stiffeners so it won't get all bent out of shape.

And last, but not least, the Trail-worthy Fab RCI 2161 fuel cell bracket arrived.

And the brackets/mounts for mounting the cab to the chassis one of these days... I'll use the short ones in the front for the cage/radiator area and the longer ones with the rubber bushings for the mi/rear of the cab.

 

[mavereq]

It doesn't look like you cut off much tube with those semifloat housing ends. What's the distance from that ruffstuff flange to the WMS? Are you going to end up at the same width?

Nice build. I have a hp center section for mine. I'd like to go ff but I'll probably wait until I upgrade to 35 spline.

I'm still undecided on what I'm going to do with my fenders. I'll probably just cut them out and leave them bare. I'm moving my axle as far forward as I can before 37's hit the running lights. I might even shave the running lights a bit.

 

[RJLougee]

It doesn't look like you cut off much tube with those semifloat housing ends. What's the distance from that ruffstuff flange to the WMS? Are you going to end up at the same width?

I took @2.5" of tube off each side. That leaves the housing at 55.5". On the Ruffstuff, including the flange, the outside/WMS measurement is 5.5". My plan is to recess the tube in the flange @.75" each side, so that should leave me at @65" WMS. Since the front is right about 67" WMS, I think that will work out perfectly and is what I'm shooting for.

Got the trans X-member built/installed today. I'm not 100% this is the way forward, but I need it held in place to bring the frame up to ride height (which was todays goal!).

Axle center-line is sitting at 18" above the ground, about right for a 37" tire, @6" of up-travel before interference at the low spot of the oil-pan. Should allow @8" of droop with a 14" travel shock. Top shock eye is 25" above the top of the axle. So a 14" travel shock should fit fine, I just have to offset front or back to get it to @28" at rest.

Mocked up the lower link for this side, just kind of getting an idea of how things will fit. The front/uppers will be the challenge. I may do a wishbone concept...

The top of the frame is at 28" above the ground and the bottom of the cab mount is at 29" as it sits in this pic:

Top of the center/cab sits right at 75" above the ground. So that would probably be worst case scenario on 37" tires. Not bad. For me, as long as I can drive it in my garage (83" door) it'll be fine.
Joe

 

[mavereq]

The front uppers always seem to be the hard part. I'm interested to see what you come up with.

 

[Grunizzle]

Dude this is going to be awesome! I want a hi 9 now lol

 

[RJLougee]

The front uppers always seem to be the hard part. I'm interested to see what you come up with.

One idea I'm throwing around in my head is running the uppers out towards the end of the axle and running the lower as a wishbone type arrangement attaching at the center point of the axle, on the bottom side. Kind of something like this:

 

[RJLougee]

Don got the inner dimension of the flanges lathed out for me and now they fit nicely over the axle tube ends, with a little wiggle room, PERFECT! Here it's mocked up with the axle centering jig:

Before I burn them in, I need to figure out where the calipers should be. Since the Ford D60 spindles are specifically keyed to fit one way, I need to plan where the calipers are going to go. Additionally, I don't think I want to run the big, double piston calipers and will probably order up some brackets to fit Chevy calipers on the back.

 

[mavereq]

Where did you get the jig?

 

[RJLougee]

Where did you get the jig?

The ends and other parts of the jig itself, excluding the bar, came from Leadmineproducts on Ebay. I had him add the screw on adapters for the D60 spindles as well. One like this:

www.ebay.com/itm/322556873774

The main bar came from Online Metals. Fastenal was recommended; however, they were twice the price vs. Online Metals, for exactly the same thing.

No progress pics to show for today, but I did look at all the rear disk brake axles I have and all of them have the calipers roughly centered on the back side of the rear axle. I'll probably put the calipers in the same position, maybe just slightly above center-line to keep them out of the rocks a bit and still allow easy bleeding of the calipers. All the research I did pretty much says that unless:
1. You're worried about how the ducting is going to keep the brakes cool.
2. Or trying to keep the brake weight centered as much as possible on the car.
It pretty much doesn't make much difference where the calipers are, as long as they clear suspension components and road obstacles.

I did decide I did not want to use the double piston calipers front/rear on this, just seems overkill for what should be a 3300# vehicle. Now I need to order up some conversion brackets and/or weld up brackets that will allow me to use what I have.
Joe

 

[mavereq]

I already have a 1.5" bar. I just need the rest.

 

[RJLougee]

I already have a 1.5" bar. I just need the rest.

His stuff is set up for a 1.25" bar, not 1.5".

There is a guy on Pirate who makes the pucks and all for 1.5". Found it:

http://www.kickassoffroad.com/

 

[mavereq]

Thank you