1998 Ranger SAS Project

[LittleBigFoot]

Looks like you can cut and weld, run 63" chebbies in the rear. That's what i did.

 

[Toreadorranger]

Today I purchased new front and rear shocks....the old ones were worn slap out. I'll post pics of everything soon.

The biggest problem I'm running into is getting a different set of rear leaf springs....NOBODY makes them.....for some reason all the bigger manufacturers (skyjacker, etc) skip the year 1998.....welll doesn't that just figure. I can't even find an add-a-leaf method of getting my rear end up in the air. This was very shocking....rear leaf springs for crying out loud...FORD - What the heck were you guys thinking on the 1998 ford ranger!!!!

Springs from a 93-97 are the same as 98+ IIRC.

 

[CyberTech]

Springs from a 93-97 are the same as 98+ IIRC.

Thanks! - I'll look into those...that makes my life a little easier.

 

[CyberTech]

Alrighty - The truck made an hour and a half trip to the woods where I hunt....I have a few pics to post. The truck did great! I was happy....drove fine...now I did not do anything extreme out here...the land was dry as a bone to!!!!

 

[CyberTech]

pic of it going through creek...although dry

Here is a picture of the steering underneath...(I'll give a detailed explanation in a bit)

New Tie rod end (1995 ranger) to fit the 1995 ranger pitman arm (take out more play)

New shocks!!!

 

[CyberTech]

Steering - detailed:::

The steering worried me the most but turned out to work very well. All of the steering linkages were kept on the original front axle when I bought it from the salvage yard....the only thing I replaced was the tie rod end and the brake pads....other than that it was never messed with.

I made a plate (I'll try and get a picture of it on here) and mounted the Steering gear box from a 1995 Ranger to it. This was welded to the inside left hand side frame rail of the truck. The OEM steering joint fit into the gear box just fine. It had enough clerance from any other obsticles. I bought a 1995 pitman arm with a 2" drop from Skyjacker. Once the gear box was welded I replaced the tie rod end (yup - the 1995 tie rod end fits a 1990 jeep cherokee steering drag link). Put everything together and boom - ready to go. I took it to the alignment shop here in town....they did an alignment and adjusted accordingly. That's pretty much about it.

 

[CyberTech]

I'll probably go out again this Saturday to the woods to take some more pictures and hopefully get a little more testing in....I'll keep posting the progress.

I'll be working on getting the drive shaft hooked up this coming week....(no hurry). I'll also be ordering my add-a-leafs for the rear.

 

[escort_gts]

What kinda coils did you use on the front?

 

[wohlf 16]

Im am curious as hell as to how you made a older ranger powersteering gear box fit on your truck. I am doing a 44 swap on my 99 ranger (rbvs under construction wohlf 16s build) and I really would rather use a box on the inside of the frame instead of the outside but I just couldnt figure out how I was gonna make room for it. If you can give some details and some different pics of how you accomplished this I would really appreciate it. By the way I check just about every day on this build and I am very impressed at how clean and safe your build is looking. Keep up the good work!

 

[liftedredranger]

why did you not do a custom long arm???? dont get me wrong your truck looks good but long arms give way more flex

 

[colinrmitchell]

I like this build. I can't believe that the stock linkage on the Jeep axle worked so well. That is a benefit I had in my build, that the rod ends were threaded the same size. The Jeep rod end that came with mine was too small for my Pitman arm.

 

[GOODOLEBOY84]

rear lift

you can get toyota leaf springs from trail gear i got there 3" springs for the rear and it gave me about 5 to 6" of lift and they are soft also pretty much a bolt in deal

 

[CyberTech]

What kinda coils did you use on the front?

6" Skyjackers

 

[CyberTech]

why did you not do a custom long arm???? dont get me wrong your truck looks good but long arms give way more flex

I may actually revisit that later on. Instead of a build type stage I'm in a tweak type stage. Bigger Badder Better.

 

[CyberTech]

On the gear box....I cut out a piece of 6" by 8" square (or so) 1/4" thick steel plate. I stuck the gear box on it and figured out wear the holes were. I drilled out the bottom holes on the gearbox and left the top hole alone. Now - the tricky part was that I fabricated out of steel flat bar a piece that went on the bottom of the gearbox that the bear box rested on...(looked like a miniature bench seat). This way I could get to the nuts if I need to take the gear box off. I mounted the gearbox on to the plate and bolted in in. I then took everything and placed it on the inside of the frame until it lined up as best it could.....clamped it down and welded the crap out of it. The top bolt (that I did not drill out on the gearbox).. that hole lined up just above the frame...this way I could weld a piece of flat bar to the outside of the frame with a hole in the top. This way the bolt (6" long) went through the flatbar....above the frame (with a spacer between the small flat bar and the plate the gear box is mounted on)...through the plate and screwed into the gear box holding it securley in place.
After that it was a matter of hooking everything up.....high pressure and low pressure line, pitman arm and the steering wheel linkage.

I'll post some detail pics in the next day or so...maybe you can then visualize what I had to do.