89 4x4 Conversion results

[MichiganLarry]

After about 3 weeks, countless busted knuckles and lot of swearing we finally rolled out my youngest son's "new" truck. My oldest got this truck to drive when he got his license 2 years ago as a 2wd. We have gotten most of the bugs out of a 20 year old truck over the last 2 years. My youngest son bought it when the older one purchased his 1975 Chevelle last summer that now sports a 300+ hp 350.

This is the Ranger the way it sits right now.

It should get him through the Michigan snowy winters now!

 

[venom97]

sweet ranger!

 

[jaymegriffiths]

so was this a fairly simple swap? i have an 88 2wd and an 88 4wd, would you suggest swapping the 4x4 stuff into the MUCH better running 2wd, as the 4x4 cannot be insured, nor driven.

 

[Downey]

it should be pretty straight forward if you have another truck just swap over the entire front end and tcase and drive shaft. you also need to swap over the brackets for the ttb arms

 

[MichiganLarry]

Make no mistage it is a BIG job. Very doable but also time consuming. Took 3 of us about 3 weeks of nights and weekends.

Swapping the engine crossmember is the hardest part of the job. Lots of grinding rivets off.

 

[Downey]

^^^ really did you disassemble everything and put new parts in and everything?

 

[MichiganLarry]

We didn't disassemble everything. We changed all u-joints, fluids and wear parts.

 

[Downey]

that smart. im sure you could get everything under the front end in a weekend if you left as much of it assembled and slid it right in and bolted it up. but i cant understand taking longer when replacing parts. def the way i would have done it

 

[MichiganLarry]

You really have to pretty well disassemble the whole thing anyway.

 

[fastpakr]

Downey, it sounds like you don't understand that the engine crossmember is completely different on the 4wd vs 2wd trucks. To swap it out, the engine has to be removed, the old crossmember cut out, and the new one bolted/welded into place. This is NOT a weekend job.

 

[MichiganLarry]

Downey, it sounds like you don't understand that the engine crossmember is completely different on the 4wd vs 2wd trucks. To swap it out, the engine has to be removed, the old crossmember cut out, and the new one bolted/welded into place. This is NOT a weekend job.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

in theory it COULD be done in a weekend, but that would be with no pee breaks, 16 hour days, at least 2 friends who are "ranger technicians", all the proper tools, and absolutely no hang ups. i can only do a job like this maybe once a year and thats enough for me. on another note, that is one clean truck, it looks like you guys did a great job on it, its just too bad that our michigan winters are going to gobble up this piece of precious metal.

 

[MichiganLarry]

Agreed. I COULD be done. IF both trucks are the same wheel base, IF you don't run into and problems, IF you have a professionally outfitted garage, IF everyone involved had done it before and could tackle a part of the job by themselves, and IF all the stars are aligned and the FORCE is strong in you.

 

[fastpakr]

Sounds reasonable - with all those things lined up in your favor, you'd definitely have a fighting chance of making it in a weekend.

 

[feellnfroggy]

I did it in an hour.....with an optima redtop welder.








No, not really. I'd love to learn though, one day one of yall shgould move to knoxville, so we can wrench together.