Single swing steering on my 1994 ford ranger

[scotts90ranger]

I did full circlips on my front U joints and clearanced the shaft around the center joint and have had zero issues in a decade, but I don't have torque... On my explorer I plan to combine a D44 and D50 TTB for long travel so I'll do whatever it takes to get the joints to have enough travel and do full circlips or tack weld the caps in...

Looks good, I hope to do some tinkering on my Ranger once I get my shop done, it's getting there. I'm tired of the front tires hitting fenders (inner and outer) as well as the firewall... Whatever's going on under there I don't have bump steer or anything but the alignment wanders more than I'd like...

 

[Mackhedq]

Another update on my steering now. Still haven't gotten that alignment but I got bigger tires so ya know priorities right? After I got those tires they were hitting my radius arms and around round-a-bouts and cloverleafs my tire were folding under themselves. I needed more caster on my axles which is easy to do with the ttb really. I took measurements to the floor of where everything in my front axle sit. I lifted it up and took the spring off and loosened the radius arms up then set everything back into place. With my old radius arms they had 3.5 degrees at the knuckle.

I cut the radius arms about 8 inches in from the front bolt hole in and set them in place with a jack stand hold one half and the other half bolted back on the beam. Then I tacked some steel on to hold it in place and Brought it up to the bench

I plated the outside of the beams with 1/4 steel. This moved them in about 3 inches on each side to help with wheel lock to lock. They now just barely touch at full lock.
For caster on the knuckles I have 6 degrees which feels way better driving down the road. Less self centering but that's not an issue really with my single swing set up.

Heres the passenger side beam back in the truck. Since its about 20 degrees out now I cant paint anything until this spring. Up next for the front end it new rotors because i stretched one side and bearings for the idle swinger because the plastic bushing are wearing out already.

 

[ericbphoto]

You keep saying axles. But it looks like you did all this work on your radius arms. Results look pretty good.

 

[Mackhedq]

Well I think this is the final post in my steering set up. Its finally finished until I break it, I think the total build time took about 6 months on and off. For cost of just materials was about 500ish dollars.

On the left is the new hardware in the rack. its two 1.5" bearings with a 5/8". The right is the old set up. Its two bushings and a metal sleeve with a 9/16" bolt. The reason why I got rid of the bushing is because it was too soft and would cause the wheels to flex different directions on bumps. Fine for offroad but no fun on the highway.

Heres the bearings pressed into the idle swinger. I used a 1.5" .120 wall tube that I sliced down the middle to space the bearings apart. I packed the bearings and the space between them with wheel bearing grease. Then I took one of the old rubber bushings and cut the end off to fill the gap between the ears of the frame bracket. With it all bolted up there is almost no deflection in the wheels and everything is rock solid.


Im picking up another purple 94 ranger this weekend now to make into a low power drift snow drift machine. Also its got no rust so im going to swap the fenders and doors onto my truck!

 

[Mackhedq]

Well well well I'm back to add more now. Ive learned! kinda!..... So my original plan was to cut down my drop bracket 3" and then do a 3" cut and turn on the beams. As i was doing that I saw how much my radius arms were binding everything up and it was also why I kept destroying the pivot bushings too. Also I went wheeling a week or two ago and blew out the bearings in the idle swinger but ill cover that later on in this post but back to radius arms.

Here is how it looked before I really saw how bad my og arms are. So at full droop I was getting so much caster it was way positive. Probably what i was feeling around tight highway corners and "crazy" flex. I drilled the drop brackets up 3" and literally could not get the bolt in with radius arms attached. Then I unbolted my radius arms and couldn't get the back on..... Thats when i saw how fucked my set up was and something needed to change.

First thing I always do now it notes and measure everything. The tires hit the original beams and there wasn't enough caster so those are my main two issues. Then i checked clearances including the front diff missing the passenger side drop bracket.

So I cut the hiem joints out to reuse them off my old beams and used a angle finder on spindle bolts with a 0 degree alignment bushing. I bend the tube to clear the turning radius. I cut 3/4" holes in 1/4 plate for the bolting point top and bottom. With how its tacked up now it has 9 degrees of camber at ride height. I still need to box the arms, finish the passenger side and clean it all up. This is going to look way better and hopefully drive much better too.




Now on to my steering again. I went pretty hard in the snow and killed a few thing. I killed a locking hub and literally shattered the bearings in my steering rack on the idle swinger. Somehow the poor steering box is still holding on although its looser than a truck stop hooker. I had a gif to upload but its too big for the ranger station. I fished out all the bearings and ordered a 660 bronze sleeve for it now with a steel insert for the 5//8 bolt that will go 100% through the idle swinger to help with all the nasty side load. I'm thinking aluminum washers on the outside to keep it tight and they can be replaced as the wear.

 

[Mackhedq]

More photos! So here is the unfinished new radius arms vs the old one cut in half. Still need to add shock mounts and plate it in

Next up some travel photos. Not all of this will be use-able with my coil spring and shock set up but its just nice to see it all work. Almost zero binding besides at the very very top. The beam hits the floor at -1 degree of caster and full tuck was like 20 degrees I think, my digital angle finder died after one week sadly.... It will be strapped shorter so my coil spring doesn't just fall out and to keep the stock from fully extending. Hopefully when time and money is better for me I can get some 14" coil-overs for this and really get all this travel to work. Next up is the passenger side beam which will be easier without all the diff hanging off it. When i was over there i noticed my drop bracket was actually bent backwards. Ill need to take it off and striaghten it then weld some braces on it so it doesn't just straight up let go next time i wheel.

 

[JOLENE_THE_RANGER]

edit: never mind i read stuff wrong. looks good!

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Are those the M7100 billstein shocks?
How do you like them?

 

[Mackhedq]

Are those the M7100 billstein shocks?
How do you like them?

I like them. They seem to work pretty well but I also haven't tried any anything else before. So I have nothing to compare to besides auto store stuff.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Sorry for the late reply, does the stuff on your dash vibrate off when you hit washboards or rocks?

 

[Mackhedq]

Sorry for the late reply, does the stuff on your dash vibrate off when you hit washboards or rocks?

It definitely isn't the smoothest im sure stuff would fall off still. I still feel ive got a long way to go on getting it really dialed in but every time it gets a little better when I chop and adjust something most of the time.


Here is my fix to the idle swinger now. A oil-embedded 841 bronze sleeve bearing with a hardened steel bushing in it. Thank you McMaster for literally having everything in 2-3 days. They were both 3" and I had to take them down .1" for a tight fit then pressed them in, Im not entire sure if ill be able to take them out if anything goes wrong. There is almost no play in these at all and it swings very smooth, Ill have to see how fast I can break these and how they hold up to the Minnesota road salt.

Radius arms now. There's 9 degrees of caster built into the arms which equals out to to 0 degrees at full droop and 20ish at full tuck. I also have 3 degree camber bushings on the beams for more adjustment and im going to bring it in later this week to get it aligned. Ive gotta get limit straps and remake coil bucket. I actually bend the buckets up and reenforced them this time around with 1/4 steel. On top of that the way i have it set up now causes some binding in the springs which is limiting some travel, I was thinking something like jeep style upper coil spring bucket it has the post that goes down the middle of the coil spring and use the limit strap to stop the spring from completely coming out. I'm also going to make an hdpe plastic donuts to go on top of the spring as a little spacer and keep noise down. Another thing I ran into and didn't think about was caliper clearance. My shock mount hit the caliper and brake line, I just cut them off and re-welded them further back on the radius arms.