94 b4000 axle swap/offroad build

[kris97ranger]

lol. sport trac? maybe even just sport trac cab on this frame

 

[kroussinoffroad]

i wish... well this build thread is on this truck so I promise you that until I find an explorer i'll continue to wrench on this truck. the wife was jokin around that once i do find an explore the kid will be graduating highschool. in which case i wont need the extra seat's
would still do the ext cab for storage tho.

 

[kris97ranger]

lol we have a 93 ex siting out back being sold at scrap price. probally could get the whole truck for 200-300 but im up in ontario... so that probally doesnt help you

 

[kroussinoffroad]

yea that's a little too far.

all the IROK"s are now mounted on wheel's and grooved. Just need to paint the center's of the last two i cut. Debating about ordering centercap's but will probably just wait till a later time.

still need a set of spindle hub's and a set of lockout's. and the part's shipment that is scheduled for monday the 28th

I'll be on call next week so i forsee little to no work being done in the garage. the Spring Mud Fling is at the end of april and i'm really hopin to have all the truck's done for it. but progress is VERY slow right now.

 

[4.0B2]

you'd be lost with all that space of the ex.. lol. i was driving our ex the other day and was amazed by the amount of space it has over my b2.. its crazy. i couldn't imagine a single cab to an ex!

 

[kroussinoffroad]

even driving a B2 over the single cab is crazy

 

[4.0B2]

oh yea, i posted up on slo-vo's about how i had no room but i have 2-10's, 2 amps, tool box, duffel bag of more tools, college books, extra clothes, cooler of gatorade/vitamin water-- at all times...

oh yea and my lil spare donut tire! hahahahahaha


in my truck, it all stays dry and everything.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

the only thing stay's dry in my truck is the headliner hahaha. however the only thing I keep on the inside is some jumper cables, bottle jack, jacket, tool bag and a q-bean. that is bout all i can cram behind the seat and still have it all the way back. i'm 6'3'' so having the seat moved forward at all is out of the question.

here are some pic's

Tire's all grooved up
left will be the rear's, right will be the front's

these were the rim's prior to painting the rim's as showen before with the black center's

sweet sticker I found for the tool box

 

[kroussinoffroad]

all the bracket's showed up today. so hopefully will start swapin out the axle this week.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

rear axle is in and nearly ready to rip just need to figure out the driveshaft. front dana 30 is out and ready to put the 44 in but i just lost all motivation for some reasone.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

accomplished alot tonight, I will need to post a ton of picture's once I get a chance. however i am trying to get it up and runnin for saturday since the annual spring break-in has been moved from the end of april to the begining due to the abnormal warm condition's. it's a 30 mile trip normally involving 20-40 truck's good people good food and good time's i'm really crossing my finger's that everything go's well tomorow night and I can have it all together and a test drive on it before saturday.

 

[dangerranger83]

Man I need to get my truck out and do something with it, but no where close to go. Get pics. up before taking it out.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

i will try and get some pic's once it's all done. hopefully it'll be a short day at work, I need all the time i can get to work on this thing.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

Soooo....

The truck was finished on time to go wheelin. finished it at 6 A.M. ofter working on it throught the day,night, and morning. only adjustment needed after the swap was pinion angle. Somehow I had it set with the pinion pointing at the ground. still Need to go back and redo the steering and trac bar. and make some tweak's and adjustment. but it did GREAT

the rundown is
77 F-150 Dana 44 ground the factory bracket's off
used ballistic coil/link mount's
Rusty's upper link bracket's
steering is done using factoy F-150 drag link
and booty fabbed tie rod using old SAS component's
trac bar tie's into the same location on the frame as before.
and tie's onto the axle under the coil spring perch, does have some bump steer im not gonna lie

rear is same 77 f-150 9'' using ballistic perche's and shock bracket's
shock's in factory location. driveshaft's somehow worked out to use the factory ranger shaft's pretty sweet if ya ask me.

over all it wheeled amazing. the snow was very-very-very deep and made most stuff impossiable by the end of the day. had to stay at camp to get out this morning after everything froze again. 3 truck's went in our group and from what i hear only a total of 5 truck's went on the run (not including us) out of our group the damage at this point is
:Broken winch line on buddy's Tj
:Broken winch on the other Jeep
:ripped my rear flare's off

so I faired pretty good, however i have some strange noises coming from the front axle (sound's like i may have smoked a new axle joint) and now she smoke's a little more after having to performe several high RPM run's. no one wanted to get behind me because i made it near impossiable to get thru. and as you can prolly tell it was a definate winch fest. unfortunately no pic's from the run as everyone forgot a camera. was laughing goin down road's in 2wd that my buddy's locked jeep's were spinning in 4wd. had a great time, got to stay at camp, and nobody died

so here is how she sit's after the run

AND here is the next project.

 

[escort_gts]

Nice job on the FW. You need to post more pics of the front axle, the mounts. I am thinking of a D44 in the future but don't want to use the typical wedge bushings.