About time I whore my truck(and a few of my friend's rides too)...

[Fx4wannabe01]

dunno.....long story...lol....silver trucks current owner used to own a green lifted '00 2wd. new owner of green lifted 2wd is red trucks owners girlfriends brother. brother didn't like the cut and billeted grille, so red truck owner put it on his truck, then carried over the billet to the new 01-03 2wd grille shell. Silver truck owner modded and installed that billet in the 98-00 4wd shell. It doesn't fit right and quite frankly, the pics make it look like it fits better than it really does.

 

[07rangerfx4]

you got 4:88 right? how much for a gear swap bc i wanna run 35s in the future

 

[Jay FX4]

All those look sweet!! And I can't believe that the red one is a 98. Who makes the grille on it?

There's a few companies that make billet grilles for the Ranger. T-Rex and Carriage Works come to mind. There's more, too. That one might be a different brand.
And speaking of the red truck, where's his flares? Getting painted?

 

[Fx4wannabe01]

you got 4:88 right? how much for a gear swap bc i wanna run 35s in the future

yeah...4.88. I put out $700 total for just the gear swap. (400 forgears, 150 per axle to install). BUT..I did my searching found the cheapest repuatible company to buy my Yukons from, completeoffroad.com. And I talked around and found a really really good installer that only using Yukons and works out of his house...his name kept popping up. Never had any gearsets go back for warranty in over 10 years. I brought my axles to him out of the truck, as it was cheaper to do it this way...plus I was upgrading my rear axle anyway, so my truck was never down. I paid $150 for my 38k used '05 LII axle and $100 or $75 for my 30k used Sport Trac front axle. So grand total I'm out is right about $950.

You drive your truck to a shop, they do your swap, you drive home, you'll be out at least $1000, $1200 easily. I find that this sort of job, the prices vary so much from shop to shop, just like muffler shops.

And speaking of the red truck, where's his flares? Getting painted?

He's got the stock '00 and older flares that he painted red a long while back...but he's on the hunt for the better looking 01+ style flares to smooth out and paint. He did all the paint work on the silver truck. What you see are smoothed out stock XLT textured pieces that were color matched.

 

[Toms01PSD]

How hard is it to pull the front axle out from under the truck? Did you have to take out the t-bars and front suspension? Or did you just remove the CV axles and the front driveshaft and just drop it down? An indepth write-up would be nice. I'm thinking about regearing soon. Sweet truck by the way. I've always liked yours.

 

[Fx4wannabe01]

THANKS!!



It's not that hard to remove the axle w/o unbolting all the suspension. CV's and front shaft come off. Wheels as well. unbolt upper shock mount or pull the shock out completely. unbolt the sway bar....unbolt axle from frame and it pretty much wiggles right out fairly easily. I think I may have unbolted the upper balljoint from the knuckle too.



I don't have the patience to take pics and write notes while doing jobs like that. lol. We did both my truck and the red truck when I swapped to 4.88 and he went to my old 4.10 axles. All on a hoist too...was a breeze.

 

[Toms01PSD]

I figured that was about all it took. I realized it only has like 2 or 3 bolts it mounts to. I found some gears on here and i'm looking for gears for the rear too. While I had the front out i'd also like to put a locker in it but I don't have the $550 for a locker.

Question for you: Did you buy the master install kit when you had the guy swap gears for you, or did you just have him replace the R&P and nothing else?

 

[Fx4wannabe01]

When I bought my gears, I bought a rear master install kit because I was going to be using a high mile Explorer rear... BUT... I found my Fx4 LII axle that only had 38k on the clock...so everything was still tight. I dropped off all that I had(rear master install kit, 2 gearsets, and the notched center pin). On the rear, he checked and went ahead and reused the carrier bearings but used new pinion bearings along with the new crush sleeve. On the front axle, He re-used the stock carrier bearing and pinion bearings and crush sleeve. It is possible to reuse bearings, but no matter what you're gonna need pinion seals.

 

[Toms01PSD]

Hopefully the guy will take my offer for his 4.56's for the D35. Then it's another $260 for 4.56's on the rear and the install kit. Damnit this trucks expensive.

 

[Fx4wannabe01]

Then you'd hate to see what I've put into mine over the years.... haha.

 

[Toms01PSD]

I would. It wouldn't be that big of a deal except the fact that I had to do head gaskets within the first week. Found a nail in my master cylinder line because the rear lines were cut. Seems to me like everythings gone wrong and now I want to beef it up and I has no moneys!

 

[REDRUM]

I'd like to see some pics of the billstein coilovers that replaced the torsion bars on the red one. They all look great.

I run 33's on the stock 3.73's with a manual and i've put 65K on it since the lift and wheels with no problems.

 

[87xjmike]

those trucks are way to pretty, go get em dirty and post back up with some trail picks Remind your buddies on why we spend money on "offroad" parts for our rigs.

reason 1- to go offroad
reason 2 - pussy

 

[mattpresley]

RUN THE SUBURBAN OVER

 

[Jay FX4]

Why, oh why, did you repost ALL those pictures just to say a 4-word sentence?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?