'85 Ranger Restomod

[Curious Hound]

I did pick these up from a 96 today in case either of you need them. Otherwise, they'll get stashed for the day they are needed.

 

[Uncle Gump]

That wired extension piece might be the answer...

I was also thinking if your cables were back to how you originally had them and you could triple or so the length of this connector...



It might provide enough movement of the driver cable to apply the passenger side. I also think a spring on the driver cable would be needed to pull the driver side cable away from the equalizer.

Hope that made sense...

Either way you would most likely have to move the frame bracket.

 

[Shran]

One thing I am noticing after looking at your pics on my computer as opposed to my phone is that your passenger side cable is routed differently than any of mine. Mine go under the spring, up over the shock and are attached to the top of the diff by the clip on the rubber brake line, then up and through the frame. I don't know why it would matter or make a difference. FWIW I have found that a passenger side Explorer cable is the same exact thing as a p/s Ranger cable but the d/s Explorer cable is too short for a Ranger.

Also found that having your drum brakes or parking brake shoes with disc brakes adjusted correctly is absolutely critical... I had issues on the Explorer at first because I had the shoes adjusted way too loose and the cables appeared to not be moving at all.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

One thing I am noticing after looking at your pics on my computer as opposed to my phone is that your passenger side cable is routed differently than any of mine. Mine go under the spring, up over the shock and are attached to the top of the diff by the clip on the rubber brake line, then up and through the frame.

I don't have enough cable to get to the diff and then reach anything so I bypassed the clip on the diff seeing if I could get it to work.

My PS cable really wants to go above the spring, the mounts on the end of the axle kick it up slightly. If I didn't delete my lift blocks it would be perfect to let it go under the spring.

 

[Shran]

Interesting. My passenger side cable was a Ford one that I got from my '99 Explorer Sport donor.

The Explorer frame mount is also way back behind the front leaf spring eye, by the way, maybe that has something to do with your cable length.

https://fordsix.com/viewtopic.php?t=79981

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Interesting. My passenger side cable was a Ford one that I got from my '99 Explorer Sport donor.

The Explorer frame mount is also way back behind the front leaf spring eye, by the way, maybe that has something to do with your cable length.

https://fordsix.com/viewtopic.php?t=79981

That pretty much confirms my suspicions, I even see an existing hole in the frame just eyeballing that looks like it might work. For whatever reason I didn't get a pic of the Explorer bracket location. Any idea how far behind the spring eye it is?

On a factory Explorer setup you can kinda see how the able wants to come up but they have a bracket to pull it down towards the spring:



Left to its own it would really like to just go where my spring is.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Don't mind me, just greasing my springs...



Its kinda hard to get the grease to go in but eventually it does. I like the idea so far.



I also started putting the new front swaybar stuff on:



Possible difference between a first gen and second gen frame?



I will probably just shim it with washers until the world gets back to normal and I can source one from a first gen to see if they are the same or different.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well the fuel tank is behind that cable bracket so there is no way I could get to the nut on the back side without dropping the tank. So I have the brainy idea that I have a pickup box trailer with no fuel tank in it so it would be easier to just rob that bracket and use it. So I swipe dad's towbar (18 years later I still haven't put a hitch on the thing) and drag it out of the fencerow and up to my garage:



I get under it and what the crap? There is no way to get to it from the back side either!



Looking thru the fuel tank slot I discover that is a clip nut. Looking at the crusty thing with reservations I try it with the impact... the body is too low to get the impact on it even with a wobble.

So I killed an hour and a half to discover that it would be easier to take the bracket off of my truck.

 

[racsan]

nice “B”!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

nice “B”!

It is waiting for the weather to straighten out so it can kill weeds!



Anyway, convoluted story time... but with a happy ending.

So I decide to take the bracket off my truck and move it back so I break out the impact and give it a go... it turns a little and the clip nut breaks. The bracket will rotate some but there isn't much more I can do with it. Freaking nice.

I talked to dad, he suggested dropping the tank and torching the bolt off... so I will do that when I upgrade the fuel pump. In the mean time I have three cables laying on the garage floor. So I start looking for alternatives. Then I notice the front cable bracket behind the center cab mount looks identical.

So I drag my pickup box trailer back out of the weeds:



The tasty morsel I need:



Deriveted:



Installed:



The other bracket is in the way of everything... but it WORKS!









With plenty of tire clearance:



I adjusted them and they hold on the angle of my driveway... so I am pretty tickled with that.

Went to town for an ice cream run (wifey was making an apple pie) and I took the backway... the crappiest county road I could find to simulate Illionois' craptacular highways to judge ride quality with the new rear suspension. It used to like to kick the rear out to the left on a bump, some say it is because of the staggered shocks, some say it is worn out shocks... in my case it was clearly something else. I suspect the frozen shackle. Anyway it rode like a dream and tracked straight over the bumps with the same old staggered shocks it has had for quite awhile now (but I don't have a ton of miles on them)



Another oldie but goodie parked beside me at the store:





And while my wife had a dr appointment in Omaha last Friday I hit the JY for something "socially distant" to do, the BII I was hoping to snag the sway bar bracket brace out of was gone (computer lied) but I did snag a bedmat for $5 and a fuel pump connector (seems like a lot of work to get a used fuel pump but whatever)





And if I had the $$ I would have snagged another NP-205 for a future project...

 

[Uncle Gump]

Glad to see you got that together... took a bit of everything to make it work.

Maybe when the old bracket is out of there it will line up better. It just looks as though you have a hard rub on the spring hanger... maybe taking the PS cable over the frame opposed to through it might help with that.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It is a hard rub, going over the frame would just make a hard rub on the frame if I had enough cable to hook it up up.

The bracket needs to come off ASAP for it to be done... but here in FlatlandUSA parking brakes are not a do or die thing. I can rotate the rear bracket and kick it up a little too I think.

At least I can drive it now.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Today's find of the the day:







The dealer my FIL works at is building a new building, they decided to purge their old tools rather than move them so they threw them in a pile and told the guys what they don't want is getting thrown away. FIL knew I had a M5OD (he helped me pull it) so he snagged the tool kit for it for me.

I see the one missing driver is like $25 on ebay, I probably ought to snag it while I can. I haven't checked on the staking tool... it would be neat to complete the set.

Would have been really freaking handy to have like three years ago when I rebuilt mine...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

@PetroleumJunkie412 found a OHC/maplight in a steel roof truck like mine, I had one out of a BII with a headliner so we traded. He also sent a Mercades dual efan assembly he pulled the day my son was born 6 months ago. Yeah, wife was having fun with the contractions and all that (it was early on) and I was over in the corner lining things up for an efan via text...



So tonight I dug into to see what needs done to make it work. With a little work (pulling the fuse panel cover and instrument cluster) I found the connector:



Looks like some more of the PO's handywork with the speaker wiring to the right I didn't know about... anyway:

The harness that came with the maplight plugs into my exhisting harness. The ground wire is in the wrong place so the only wire that would do anything for the console is the power to the maplight. I will repin my connectors to match the donor truck (which I have already drawn up a pinout on)

 

[bobbywalter]

yourkillingme.