Rocky Mountain Ranger '92 SAS

[crawlin91]

1992 Ranger DD/wheeler/hunting and exploration rig. The 20 year old suspension is sagged out, the shocks are on their last leg and the 31" BFG ATs rub up front on bigger bumps. Time for a build up and some major improvements.

Specs:
4.0, m50d, 1354E, standard cab long-box

Current picture of rig:

Plans:
Front Axle:
’96 XJ high pinion Dana 30 SAS w/ 4.56 gears, Detroit Truetrac, truss, inner-C gussets, HD lower control arm mounts and skids. WJ knuckle swap for bigger brakes and improved steering with over the knuckle cross-over steering and one-ton TREs, custom longarms, etc.

Rear Axle:
’93 Ford Explorer 31 spline 8.8 with disc conversion, 4” skyjacker ranger leafsprings, belltech shackles

Saginaw HD T-Bird ps pump swap w/ cooler and Hydro Assist
D.D. machine doubler
Flatbelly skid
Shortened frame and bobbed bed for improved departure angle.
BII gas tank
½ doors
Some interior mods
Rock sliders and bumpers, winch up front
interior cage

It had suffered some hail damage before I picked it up. I will live with the dents, but the windshield needs replaced sometime in the near future. Then I got rid of the faded red and white two-tone paint.
I ditched the topper, and trim, did a little prep work and painted it flat khaki.

I repainted a set of doors with tinted windows, Got rid of the stock decal with the flapwheel and sanded the rest.

Took it camping up off Boreas Pass near Breckenridge this last weekend. Our campsite was tucked off the road near 10,500ft in White River National Forest. Found a lot of traces of Elk and blackbear. It rained off and on while we were there and the burn bans were finally lifted so we could have a campfire.

Installed a cheap cd player, cb, tuffy lockable console box.
I also swapped the rails out on some waterproof seats and bolted them in.

 

[crawlin91]

I started with some work on my old 8.8
It is a '93 Explorer 31 spline drum brake 8.8 It has been regeared 4.56 with a new carrier (Detroit Truetrac) which is a solid body design with the helical gear limited slip internals hidden. This makes a small difference in how the shafts are removed/installed.
There is an access port on one side of the truetrac carrier held in by a snap-ring

remove the snap ring and access port cover I then the ~1" slug that holds the shafts in place. Push the axle shafts further into the differential and remove the c-clips. The drivers side shaft came out easily and I was able to remove the c-clip with needle nose, but I had to clamp the passenger side shaft from the flange to the backing plate to push it further into the diff so the c-clip would clear the carrier body, I used two strong magnets to pull the c-clip and finally removed the shaft.

I wanted disk brakes, I had problems with my old drum setup locking up in wet conditions and the newer explorer disk brakes bolt right onto the '93 housing.
So with the drum off and the c-clips axle shafts out I pulled the old drum backing plates off.

Remove the brake hard line and four bolts at the end of the housing and the drum setup comes right off.

I pulled the old axle shaft/bearing seals and regreased the bearings.

Installed new seals.

I made a trip to the pull and pay and picked up disk brake backing plates, caliper brackets, calipers, e-brake cables and a spare set of 8.8 shafts from a '98 Ford Explorer.

Bolted on with stock hardware

I pulled the old e-brake shoes off, since they came from a junkyard axle they were cracked and in real bad shape. First remove the retaining spring clips, then the adjuster spring and threaded adjuster(tensioner), then the large outside spring and I pulled the shoes and inside spring off as one unit.

To assemble, attach large inside spring to shoes and seat the shoes onto the backing plate tab

put the threaded adjuster back in

and now re-attach adjuster spring, large outside spring and finally retaining spring clips

insert shafts and c clips

...and fit new disk rotor. If I had known this swap were so easy I would have done it a long time ago. Ill post up a pic of attaching the cables when the axle is under the truck.

 

[RangerSVT]

Nice truck, nice build. Any plans of a camper tent that fits in the bed or folds out on top? I always wanted to try one of those...

SVT

 

[crawlin91]

Nice truck, nice build. Any plans of a camper tent that fits in the bed or folds out on top? I always wanted to try one of those...

SVT

Thanks SVT, one of those tents would be sweet, always wanted one, I was eyeballing them at the truck and jeep fest this summer. Im considering building a small off road trailer for longer trips and could put one on top of it.

 

[97-cobra/ranger]

Cool build. What size tires you plan on running? I like the color of the truck now. Did u use spray cans or an actual gun?

 

[crawlin91]

Cool build. What size tires you plan on running? I like the color of the truck now. Did u use spray cans or an actual gun?

I will be running 35x12.5x15 MTR Kevlar tires.

I used spray paint, Krylon Camo Ultra-Flat Khaki, I like the Desert tan look and I will probably black out the grill and headlight bezels eventually. I used probably 10 or so cans which was about 2-3 even coats. It's not perfect but it blends fairly easily and was cheap. I did do a lot of prep work and block sanding prior to paint, and used primer in places that I went to bare metal. Should be easy to touch up as well.

 

[crawlin91]

I painted my old 8.8 Ruffstuff cover to match

and tapped a Ranger gear box for Hydro assist.

 

[RangerSVT]

Did you disassemble the box before drill/tapping, or did you drill/tap with grease?

SVT

 

[crawlin91]

I completely disassembled the box first then drilled the holes and set it in the vise for tapping. I just happened to have the sector shaft in to check clearances when I snapped the picture. I flushed the box several times to clear all of the metal shavings.

 

[RangerSVT]

I need to do this a couple times. I also need to talk to PSC to see if my stock v8 explorer pump can handle hydro assist and hydroboost. I doubt it will, but I'm hoping a port job will give me enough flow...

SVT

 

[RangerSVT]

Question, I had a 75 f100 that i parted out a while back, and it had factory hydro assist, but i never looked to see if the box was tapped. It had some type of compression cylinder on the draglink that the ram's lines went to. As in when the compression cylinder sensed a load it allowed fluid to travel to the ram. Are you familiar with this? I'll need this type of gearbox for the sport Trac when I put the 60's under it. It would be nice if it would be done for me already, that way I can just get a reman unit...

SVT

 

[Ty84]

gonna be a really cool build, ill defiantly be checking in on this one

 

[crawlin91]

Question, I had a 75 f100 that i parted out a while back, and it had factory hydro assist, but i never looked to see if the box was tapped. It had some type of compression cylinder on the draglink that the ram's lines went to. As in when the compression cylinder sensed a load it allowed fluid to travel to the ram. Are you familiar with this? I'll need this type of gearbox for the sport Trac when I put the 60's under it. It would be nice if it would be done for me already, that way I can just get a reman unit...

SVT

Factory power assist, like this?
http://www.stangerssite.com/PSoverview.html
Most of what I have read is the factory assist rams arent very good.


Why do you need that type of gearbox?
Why not use a Fj60 or Fj80 box like this with a forward facing pitman arm? Or the IFS Toyota boxes with a rear facing arm, there is lots of info out there on how to tap them.

 

[RangerSVT]

Yeah, its like that setup. I wouldn't use the stock style ram. I was referring to that setup to see if the stock box was tapped, which doesn't look like it is in the link you sent. The older ford box that's shaped like the fj box is what the 75 ford had, and what i was thinking of using. When i actually get down to doing the swap, I'm sure I'll have which one i plan to use decided. I just really haven't begun to really research them yet...

SVT

 

[88_Eddie]

oh i see, you were just waiting to see what i screwed up on my D30 SAS so you could toss yours under there real fast lol.

looks good so far, i'm gonna grab a beer and pull up a chair for this