1996 Ranger Prerunner "Green Goblin"

[GreenGoblinRanger]

I started by drawing out the parts needed to scale on cardboard and mocking things up in the design I wanted. Here is the pitman arm as it was put together.

I had 3 pitman arms to work with: OEM 2wd, OEM 4wd, and an aftermarket drop down arm that was already on the truck. I found the 4wd pitman arm to be most ideal for this setup of mine as it placed the lower heim joint as close as possible to the passenger side beam pivot point. It also gave me a center reference point to start with. I drilled out the ball joint taper and welded in a chromoly slug I machined on the lathe with an OD of .750" and an ID of .500". I tig welded it into place. Now I could begin making tabs.

 

[GreenGoblinRanger]

The top plate was easy and set the theme and design.
The bottom plate was a pain in the ass to bend, I did this by hand on my vise.
The drivers side gusset plate came out exactly how I envisioned and I was very happy with it.
The passenger side gusset plate was not to my liking, especially after I cycled the steering and found I had to clearance more of the plate itself AND to the nice bottom plate. I hated the look of this gusset plate and I forced myself to tack it on.

 

[BlackBII]

That's some really good work! Love seeing really good pictures of this kind of stuff.

 

[Jim Oaks]

That's one heck of a pitman arm

 

[Curious Hound]

That whole steering setup is some great engineering and a piece of art.

This message composed solely of recycled electrons. Go green!

 

[GreenGoblinRanger]

Here it is welded up. The spacers I machined to take the place of the heims and misalignment spacers while welding worked perfectly as each are .010" more than needed.

 

[GreenGoblinRanger]

The swinger arm and mounting.

From the very beginning I knew this was going to be a part of the steering project that would change a lot. I transferred the marks I made on the inside of the frame to a full size scale drawing on some calendar backing cardboard. I cycled the steering from lock to lock and transferred those two numbers to my drawing too. This allowed me reference points to work with.

For the design, shape, and length and most importantly location of the swinger I had two major choices:
1. Work with the 2.3L radiator outlet and water pump inlet and design the swinger and steering around these or...
2. Build the swinger to the exact specs I wanted that best worked with the steering and worry about the cooling/plumbing/radiator afterwards using the 4.0 radiator in order to move the water outlet away from the swingers path.

I gave option 1 a fair chance and made many full scale drawings and made a couple full scale cardboard mock ups. It could have worked but the swinger was going to be very short in comparison and I didn't like the positioning on the inside of the frame.

Once removing the 2.3L radiator and lower hose a bunch of room to work was gained and I committed to option 2.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Nice work!

Still interested in seeing the rear setup.

 

[BlackBII]

Really nice and clean fab work.

Is that pulse mig?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I don't really know what you are doing but it sure is pretty

(I know nothing about desert stuff)

 

[DannyG]

The fabrication skills are superb! Those welds are beauty to behold.

 

[Ranger850]

Here it is welded up. The spacers I machined to take the place of the heims and misalignment spacers while welding worked perfectly as each are .010" more than needed.

That's a nice bead run. Beautiful work. too bad nobody is going to see those welds.

 

[GreenGoblinRanger]

I pulled the swinger off to work on the bench. I wanted to include dimple dies into the side plates and I wanted those side plates to each be a single piece with smooth lines. I also wanted there to be plenty of clearance for the rod ends and the steering tubes themselves.
Using the new bench top band saw and press break I bought I created these pieces and welded them up.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Nice work