The shade tree ranger build

[Rotagotideas]

I am moving my thread over from another forum to TRS

Below is what I started with back in early May

Okay so it’s a no brainer that the stock ranger does allright down some trails, the occasional not too steep hill climb, and the occasional axle deep mudhole. Where it doesn’t do as good at is going down a bumpy trail at speed. I plan to make a few cheap & simple mods to help with that.
Info on current truck, it’s a 1991 4x4 Ranger with 410,000km on body & motor (2.9L) with newer A4LD swapped in last winter. If anyone says that 2.9’s aren’t reliable they are dead wrong! Gears are 3.73’s The body is dented up but not too rusty for it’s age and km. rear leafs have been replaced with ones from a 180,000km Ranger last fall, old ones were going inverted =(. Front springs are only a year old but have sagged to the point that if I wanted to make the truck come even close to level I would have to remove the rear 2” block

Parts bought:
3” BL Blocks
New body mount rubbers
Daystar 2” spacer


things to buy:
Adjustable camber bushings
Chevy 63” leafs – I will be running a tension shackle with overload leaf removed and possibly a Ranger leaf stuffed in the pack.
Longer travel shocks
New rear bumpstops.

What will get done is the following:
3” BL, new body mount rubbers, new shock mounts, new shocks, new bumpers.
Doing the body lift will give me the room I need for taller shock mounts for the longer shocks.
What I hope to get done in addition to the above items:
Chevy leafs with tension shackle, longer radius arms, new radius arm mounts, camber bushings, ball joints.

An 8.8 swap isn’t in the plans because I spent $100 in parts to redo my rear brakes on my 7.5 last winter (I’d sell it for $150 if it went up for sale) and the fact that for the price that the junk yards in my area want for a LS 4.10 gear 8.8 (they want $250) I could put together a half decent Ford 9” (crazy eh?)

Just finished pulling apart my front end, pulled the axles out, left the center chunk & the balljoints were still good so I left the knuckles on. Also prepped a spare fender to make a fiberglass mould for making my own custom fenders, 3" rise with 4" flare (for later aspirations ssh!)
Finished making a mod to the truck's Dana 35 because I had to take out the center chunk to replace the driver's side oil seal & spindle bearings. Small video http://youtu.be/yx_lRg0K66E
I took my truck into my buddy's work to give the truck an oil change & to give him an excuse to get off his butt and shoot the $h1t at the same time. Last time the oil was changed, 10w-30 was put in (back in April) which is a winter oil if you ask me. And my 410,000+km 2.9L didn't like it so this time 15W40 went in ( the thick stuff ) and there was a noticeable improvement. the lifter tick was quieter and the engine was running smoother.
unfortunately I forgot to bring the new modified Transmission pan with me so that we could change out the old one out. A4LD transmission pan's don't a have a drain plug because you don't change transmission fluid that often (only 120k or 180K intervals) so you are supposed to change the filter at the same time. But if you and your truck happen to go for a swim then how are you supposed to know if any water has gotten into your precious transmission? So by drilling & welding in a drain plug to the bottom I can now check by cracking it open and bleeding it untill there is no trace of water. The vent hose is stupid long on it anyway (made it so when I replaced the transmission). I will also start carrying a jug of hydraulic oil in my toolbox for emergency only top-ups of powersteering & transmission.
Old floor was junky and rotten, had so many holes in it that I couldn't belive that I didn't fall through it!
So I put in a new floor after cutting out the old one.

And also put in a new seat

Then sprayed some paint down


Now to buy some sheet metal screws to finish up the body mount hole and support the metal to the original supports
Recently purchased my new welding helmet and regulator for my $100 MIG machine that I bought from my Neighboor. Now just need some gas, which my dad is going to pay for since I'm going to fix his rotten POS trailer.
Oh and one more thing, I picked up some 31" mudders from a tire guy in Aylmer

I got all 4 for $550 and they didn't even have 5000km on them! They are nearly $1000 brand new! I love Kijiji but hate the fact that to get good deals I have to travel like a half hr or more to buy the stuff. Chatham SUCKS!
the truck has been sitting on jackstands for 5 days now.
took the axles out to have the U-joints replaced, and trying to unfreeze the caster/camber shim because I bought the daystar 2" front lift block. now I have to compress the spring to install the spring

NOTE: on the daystar 2" front lift block, the flat side of the block MUST point inwards towards the frame. This is so that when during a hard compression of the spring or in instances of bottoming out, the block will not make contact with the bumpstop or frame. failure to do so may result in breaking the block.

I am also trying to do a body lift by I have had to cut every bolt so far and I am making my own bolts out of 1/2 inch grade 8 ready rod . < My buddies & I use this on derby cars & trucks all the time>
The reason for making my own bolts was that I got the 3'' body lift blocks for 70 bucks and then I tried to price out some M12 (that's the metric spec that body bolts are) and they wanted $7 PER bolt at a tool & die supplier warehouse. So I said no way in hell and ordered 3, 3ft sticks of the grade 8 ready rod.

AND to top it all off my rubber matting that I will be covering my floor with is on back-order for a WEEK Nothing ever goes as planned for me.
And that brings us up to today. I am also going to try to bring the pictures over ASAP!

 

[chrwilkins30]

i wouldn't of cut any of the beam, Losing some strength. Those you really should use metal spacers up front. Not the daystar rubber.

 

[pwrranger88]

 

[jhammel85]

+1 :d

 

[Rotagotideas]

Body lift progres

I'll do ya one better than picts! VIDEO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeZR1SF3yZU
And excuse my $h!tty flux cored welds on the self made bolts

 

[pwrranger88]

for the front body bushing mount you can use a piece of 4x4 angle iron and just drill the mounting holes and for where the body bushing goes through use a iirc 1 and 1/8 hole saw. while you have it apart id replace the cab bushing summit has a set of poly bushing for around $60. and imo i wouldn't use threaded rod for the body lift i wouldn't trust it. id use at least grade 5 if not 8 bolts the bolts shouldn't cost that much . there is a list of the bolt size you'll need in the tech library.

 

[Rotagotideas]

it's grade 8 threaded rod, me and my buddies use this stuff for demo derby trucks and not one truck has had the cab come off the frame due to it! And my tool & die warehouse wanted too much money for all the bolts that I spec'd
I don't have much of any metal,
1 1/8 hole saw means spending more money ( for a tool i will only use once or twice )
I bought the poly bushing set for around $60 tax incl ( Socialist republic of Canada )
THIS IS A MINIMUM WAGE BUDGET!
being built under the shade of a tree!
on another note the body lift is done http://youtu.be/GVSoRpa5s7s

 

[Rotagotideas]

small update

new superior super strength U-joints have been bought and installed on my front axle shafts. With lifetime warranty! I might be putting that warranty to use shortly, going on a big Ultimate Adventure style of road trip.
they also don't really put enough grease in them u-joints so I put my own grease mix in additionally (wheel bearing grease, marine grease, and a tiny bit of powdered graphite all in one tube )
I need to have my passenger seat in and all the other stuff back together before the weekend, going wheeling. And also going wheeling the weekend after.
Gonna have tons of video footage from both weekends.