'93 back half and long travel build

[RanchRanger]

Hello everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post. I'm a farmer and rancher from rural Montana and last week I picked up a 93 ranger "prerunner". It has a 4.0 and auto from a 98 ranger, full cage, fiberglass, and tubing from the front to back over the stock frame. Underneath the front is camburg 4.5" beam kit with king 3.0 coilovers and 2.0x4.0 bumpstops. The back has a deaver 5 pack, flipped shackles, and currently has some stock shocks from a f-350 . I'll probably never go racing due to the distance but I have plenty of room to get crazy right here at home. I'm very fortunate to have most of the necessary metal working tools to do most anything and during the winter months I actually have some spare time. I'm planning up a four link and need some direction, there is literally no one in the area that has a clue about these things. It currently has a ford 8.8 with lockers, 4.56 gears, and disc brakes, I also have a 9in with posi from the factory and drums laying around. Not sure which ill use yet, which ever one i chose I'll do a homemade truss for. To start I was thinking of building some temporary brackets with the leaf springs still on that would allow me to take the springs off and leave the axle location in place. Giving me room to make the lower and upper links and brackets. I've been doing a lot of research on design and such and here is where my questions come in. I plan on doing 1" uniballs on the forward lower links and and 1-1/4 heims on the back. I have a lathe and plan to make delrin cups or doughnuts for the uniball to fight link wobble. Now when building the link mounting the coilover and damper above the center line would make fabrication of the links much easier than beneath the center line. Will the delrin cups and top mounted coilover be a problem or do I just take more time on the the lower links and build for below the centerline. Another question is where to put the front lower link mounts. Idealy they would be at the center of the u joint to fight axle plunge. Although I have a sbc 406 and two wheel drive turbo 350 in a shed somewhere, and i know at some point I'm probably going to get the urge for and engine swap. Oh and getting back to the back half. I was thinking that once the rear axle is mounted I would then chop the back off and start building upper shock mounts and possibly a small flat bed, although it will have some tubes going through it. I have a lot to think about and any comments and welcomed. Thank You

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The folllowing link was taken from the Tech articles page. It's at the top of every page third button from the left.
http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2007/4_link_tech.htm

 

[RanchRanger]

I read that thread before and have been reading it over and over now. The problem i run into is that it is meant for a triangulated 4 link with the spring/shock mounted to the axle. I really wish i could see a long travel 4 link in person but that is probably not going to happen. My design is for the spring to be mounted to lower links that run parallel to the frame. I followed the rules of the thread best i could with the exception of the instant center being forward of the Vertical line of the front axle, and the angles of the links to prevent rear steer. My anti squat came out at 76% I have no real idea what to shoot for with that since 20 threads on the internet have 99 different theories. Ill try to upload a pic of my first attempt. Thanks

 

[RanchRanger]

So I downloaded sketch up today and started playing around with it. Things seem to be working out. Anti squat came out to 72%. Looking at things it appears that from ride height I will have about 15 inched of bump travel. This is accounting 4 inches of clearance for tire compression before the frame smacks the ground. Just wishing I could ride in a 4 link compared to springs just to see if this is what I'm looking for.

 

[Redneckracer]

What are you doing with your rear springs when you four link it