1999 Ford Ranger Solid Axle Swap

[Boggin]

first of all...thanks!

and like i just said above, i will be lowering the front to match the rear. that means ill be taking off and getting rid of the 4" full size bronco lift springs on the front. cant tell you when exactly that will be, but hit me back if you really want em and they're yours when i take em off.

ok when you get em off let me know,, thanks man!

 

[bozone802]

bumper's done, and ranger is rocking a set of 41x14.5r20s

 

[chrwilkins30]

Do they rub?

 

[wahlstrom1]

Good luck keeping it together one 41's, but looks good! What width rim are they on, I'm waiting for mine... and I'll shoving them on 8.5s until I get them beadlocked.

 

[slammer67]

That looks sweet. I dig the bumper too.

I wish I had the axles for that big of a tire, they look killer on those rims.

 

[Josh40601]

does look bad ass. 41s seem to be a bit too big, but still looks cool as hell.

 

[bozone802]

Do they rub?

2.5" spacers make them just about the same as the 37s, so yeah they rub like a mother****er

 

[bozone802]

does look bad ass. 41s seem to be a bit too big, but still looks cool as hell.

haha yeah 41s are WAY too big! i cant even go wheeling right now unless i cut the shit out of my fenders otherwise my fenders are gonna cut the shit out of the tires. and theyre not my tires or rims, im borrowing them from a buddy who has in jeep in pieces at the moment. but theyre kinda fun. one of my tires is getting patched at the moment so im rocking the 41s till i get my own tire back, hopefully tomorrow

 

[Boggin]

Awesome, im in love with it

 

[Josh40601]

haha yeah 41s are WAY too big! i cant even go wheeling right now unless i cut the shit out of my fenders otherwise my fenders are gonna cut the shit out of the tires. and theyre not my tires or rims, im borrowing them from a buddy who has in jeep in pieces at the moment. but theyre kinda fun. one of my tires is getting patched at the moment so im rocking the 41s till i get my own tire back, hopefully tomorrow

lol. Thats good. The Iroks look so bad ass.

 

[bozone802]

broke again...

so i have broke and fixed a bunch of crap in the last couple months and i still have some things left to fix and haven't had much time to post about anything.
but i have a shifting problem that i can't figure out.
if you have a minute please go over to the thread about it:
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1073750#post1073750
thanks to anyone who can help

 

[bozone802]

if you were thinking of running half-tons... don't

First of all, thanks to everyone who liked my bumper. i has served me well so far and taken a lot of shit.
first thing i broke this spring was my dana 44. i bounced my tire up in the air and when it came down i broke all the factory welds holding the axle tube to the differential housing and also cracked the diff housing.

pulled my axle off and welded her up. couldnt even find the proper high silicon wire to weld with, but i went for it anyway. i just welded this shit out of it and peened the shit out of those welds and its held up so far! almost 3 months.
i was in vt so i borrowed a buddies welder and he helped me with the grunt work. i didnt take us too long to get that thing back together and ready to wheel.
the first time i just welded around both sides of the axle tube and not the plug welds. just put silicon over them to seal them, but of course they leaked everywhere.
so after a while i got pretty sick of it, it was getting pretty bad so i welded up the holes and siliconed them again anyway.
what it looks like this morning:

so i come to learn after all of this that lots of people just go ahead and weld the axle tube to the diff right off so this sort of thing doesnt happen. the also truss it. that sounds like bs to me, **** 1/2 tons... one tons here i come!!!

 

[bozone802]

Mettowee NY

Mettowee mud boggers in whitehall ny have an awesome trail network. it was well worth it to go pay $25 and rip around all day long.
i shredded a sidewall on one of my mtr's, it was not repairable. so for most of the day i rocked this bald 35 (passenger side)

i also choked my exhaust and it pretty much fell off. that got me through the day hanging by wire.

also bent my radius arm...

got really bad axle wrap

and im not sure exactly how it played out, but in some string of events i bent the shit out of my crossmember under my gas tank and also bent the shit out of my driveshaft.

i cut both ends off the driveshaft, got a new tube with the same diameter and twice the wall thickness.

and i took care of the crossmember with some leftover 1.75" .120 wall tube. bent it and welded it to my sliders and frame because that was just the easiest thing to do.

as for my exhaust, i cut it off behind the last o2 sensor and made a new one from there back. my room mate put a 5.3 vortec in his FJ60 and put a 3" exhaust on it, so there were some 3" scraps laying around the garage. i took 7 pieces of scrap and turned them into my new exhaust. i even had a sweet turndown for the back end. i widened the inlet and outlet on my flowmaster so i could keep it and relocated it so i wouldnt bash it on rocks anymore. the most important part is that the pipe actually goes OVER the crossmember now. im glad that all happened because i have wanted to change that forever.
here it is all done: you can see how many pieces i welded together because the paint only stuck to the parts i hit with the grinder.

well thats all for now,
till next time...

 

[bozone802]

by the way even with all the crap i broke and bent, ranger wheeled all day long and i drove it back on the trailer when i was done.
oh yeah! that ranger is one tough son of a bitch!!!