AJE Ranger K-Member Who's Done It!?

[Yotaismygame]

Why heck yeah! That will help, as well. Thank you!

I'm media blasting my manifolds tomorrow in preparation for coating (going to do the turbine housing and piping as well, but doing it a little at a time). I'm using 2.25" mild steel for the crossover and merging into the V-band turbine inlet.

Those vband turbines housings sure seem convenient. If the housings for a s300 bw weren’t so expensive I would have gone that way. I ended up using 2.35” for the crossover. Only because I had a Bmw oem exhaust which is stainless laying around. Cut a few radius’s and straight pieces out of it and bingo one cross over. I’ll grab that steering shaft pic tomorrow when I’m by the truck again

 

[n2xlr8n]

Didn't get the engine / trans in, but the front suspension is in and the truck is on the ground.

Just to give an idea of how crappy these "frames" are- with the stock bracing (the one in the way of belts in front, and the one in the way when you put a transmission in)...the span between the outer bolt holes in the AJE shock towers with the truck in the air is 40.625". With the truck on the ground, it's 40.375. Not very rigid No wonder we need a strut tower brace



Anyhoo, I'll get the engine / trans in next weekend and start figuring out where everything is going to route.

Have great week, everyone!

 

[Yotaismygame]

Oh damn, I’ve never put mine on the ground without the shock tower brace. The towers move way too much for me to feel comfortable doing that. Not much holding them on without the brace.

 

[n2xlr8n]

Oh damn, I’ve never put mine on the ground without the shock tower brace. The towers move way too much for me to feel comfortable doing that. Not much holding them on without the brace.

The tower brace didn't come close to fitting (the brace outside bolt hole ctr-ctr is 40.500"), and it's too long frt to rear, so I had no choice. I could understand it if my Ranger was 2nd hand with little knowledge of its history, but this truck has been in our family 31 years.

I'll talk to AJE again tomorrow and report back. Suffice to say this kit may work on some year Rangers, but it's certainly not a slam dunk on a 1990. So far, AJE has been good about making it right.

 

[Yotaismygame]

Mine is pretty difficult to get on. But it’ll go. With one side loosely bolted on the otherside will always be too far forward. About .75” . A c-clamp does the trick.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I actually thought about building my own temporary brace for quick removal/install during this build but instead I’ve just left the brace on as much as I could. Hopefully it only needs to come off one more time for this build.
I got you some pics. Not sure they’re very useful.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I noticed too your towers are either assembled different than mine or different all together.

 

[n2xlr8n]

I actually thought about building my own temporary brace for quick removal/install during this build but instead I’ve just left the brace on as much as I could. Hopefully it only needs to come off one more time for this build.
I got you some pics. Not sure they’re very useful.
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Those are GREAT pics! Where did you mount the threaded portion of the rod end?

I noticed too your towers are either assembled different than mine or different all together.

I'll look again at yours- I did notice when I saw yours that it was different from the first AJE Ranger kit I ever saw- an acquaintance on a forum put a Coyote in his (96?) Ranger and it was very different from both of ours.

Thanks again for the killer pics- as you can tell my rack is not far off, so I'm interested to see if I can use the stock shaft and a short double-D section to connect them.

 

[Yotaismygame]

Those are GREAT pics! Where did you mount the threaded portion of the rod end?




I'll look again at yours- I did notice when I saw yours that it was different from the first AJE Ranger kit I ever saw- an acquaintance on a forum put a Coyote in his (96?) Ranger and it was very different from both of ours.

Thanks again for the killer pics- as you can tell my rack is not far off, so I'm interested to see if I can use the stock shaft and a short double-D section to connect them.

I haven't made the mount yet for the heim joint. But it's looking like I just need a tab welded to the K-member. Mine will be a little different than yours since I adapted electric power steering to the end of my steering column. Any header you use will be right in the way of the stock column. I couldn't even start building the driver side manifold until I removed the column. My memory is a little fuzzy about this though. I'm waiting to finish the steering shaft once I pull the motor one last time. I still need to come up with some kind of firewall boot for the shaft too.

I remember that coyote swap thread. Aside from this thread and the old pics AJE posted that's the only info I could find for this kit. Not sure why they changed the design. I was a little upset when I had to trim my battery tray forcing me to relocate the battery. Not something I had planned on doing.

 

[n2xlr8n]

Spoke with Jim @ AJE and discussed the strut tower brace and the caster/camber plates.

- As @Yotaismygame stated, one must assemble the kit loosely due to the flexible nature of these frames.

- My caster / camber plates were not finished correctly- they barely rotate when loosely assembled. I'm throwing them away and having a set machined.

Overall, the support from Jim at AJE has been pretty good.

 

[Yotaismygame]

- My caster / camber plates were not finished correctly- they barely rotate when loosely assembled. I'm throwing them away and having a set machined.

Overall, the support from Jim at AJE has been pretty good.

On my towers that top plate is on the bottom side. Not sure if they changed the design or they are just assembled different. Mine came pre assembled so I just ran it how it came.

 

[n2xlr8n]

On my towers that top plate is on the bottom side. Not sure if they changed the design or they are just assembled different. Mine came pre assembled so I just ran it how it came.

Lightbulb moment- that makes sense. Mine came pre-assembled as well, but I was thinking the top plate would sit on top of the towers..it appears I'm wrong.

I'll try them like that. I was wondering how the strut tower brace was going to sit flat over the top of the plates.

 

[Yotaismygame]

I was wondering how the strut tower brace was going to sit flat over the top of the plates.

Exactly my thinking too . But like I said I didn’t know if they changed the design.

 

[n2xlr8n]

Well......
I had a bit of time today and attempted to install the dummy engine and trans. I started by orienting my mounts as @Yotaismygame.

It didn't go as planned, due to the motor mounts not lining up with the block without firewall interference:



I'm going to reorient the mounts with the pointed / slotted end of the mount down and rearward and try again, but I think that will situate the engine too low in the chassis, even with a Holley 302-1 pan:



I planned on a bit of filing away powder coat, maybe elongate a hole or two, but I didn't expect this. Maybe that's what lowranger96 didn't say about the AJE kit- I could tell he was fighting it due to him being a guinea pig, but thought surely they would have the bugs worked out by now (that was 2015 or so when he helped develop the kit). I'll contact AJE again and see what they have to say about it- I'm not going to take a sledge to my firewall.

At this point I'm thinking this kit was never tested for fitment on a first gen Ranger.

 

[n2xlr8n]

AJE is making up a set of mounts for a 1st gen Ranger with a LS and sending them out when they have plate available.

I'll update when I have the engine/trans installed.