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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 1,552
- Age
- 37
- City
- Plattsburgh, NY
- Vehicle Year
- 1995
1999
- Transmission
- Manual
so after only ever seeing a rbv in my yard i deiced to work on something a bit different.. i own a 2wd slammed yellow ranger, a lifted black ranger an a 88 b2 tuff truck.. they have all been custom built an its been a great experience i needed a new project... well my pop owns a 93 4x4 ranger, a 93 4x4 explorer 2 door an just picked up a 85 b2 to turn into a tuff truck.. well i decided to build up the explorer.. i said hell. no one in this area has one . all my friends are mostly ranger owners, we all have a lifted ranger, a lifted explorer is gonna look sweet...
it was bought back in 00 with 40k on it. fully loaded.. 235s 3.27s a4ld well since hes owned it nothing has really been touched on it so the maintenance department has been a little weak. It now has 84k. Hes one of those guys, if its not broke dont fix it.. so i started gathering components to lift it. i picked up some 4inch pivot brackets from another member on here took the 4inch r/c coils an rad drop brackets out of my black truck ,got some 4inch lift shocks from my buddy who sold his f150 and bought a new rear axle from another member over at rps that came out of a newer explorer. 3.73s ls disc.
then i was searching craigslist an picked up some 33.12.50.15 procomp tires and black cragar wheels for 100 bucks.. 3 of the tires are in great shape an ones bald. but for 100 bucks how can you go wrong..
well as you know once you start to tear into something you find other problems that need to be addressed.. so after getting the axle mocked up an the spring perches re welded to a spring over position i needed to bolt up the sway bar an shocks.. well sway bar was too short an the stock shocks were too long.. so i cut off the sway bar an bolted the shocks to the top of the sway bar mounts . worked out great! then i had to i had to work on making new leaf spring mounts.. i made new shackles 3 years ago for it an apparently you cant buy left spring mounts from ford any more. so i had some chunks of 2x6 1/4 wall box tubing that i used an cut out some mounts..
inorder to bolt up the new mounts the gas tank needed to be dropped. so what else do i see wrong.. gas tank straps are rotted. get gas tank dropped build some new straps out of 2x 1/8th flat bar an get everything back in place. get new axle bolted up calipers bled drive shaft hooked up an i start it up an i smell fuel.. well fuel lines at the sending unit were DESTROYED.
so down to the parts store i go an order a new one for 100 bucks..
came back an started tackling the front, went fairly easy considering its been apart not too long ago, get the new brackets an everything bolted up noticed the driver brake line looked pretty gimppy, no biggy i had a new one for it in a bag that was never put on.. once you change a brake line what needs to be done? brake bleeding.. the bleeder valves on the calpers were Non existing so off to the parts store i go an order up some new ones.. now ive got great brakes! i decided to tackle the exhaust an get rid of the leaks.. cat flange muffler flange took the torch an grinder cut cat off punched out the flange bolts. got some new bolts an muffler putty an no more leaks! noticed a little leak look at the collectors an yeah.. the flanges are just about non existing so i kinda "dont" remember seeing them haha. after that was finished had one last thing to do was replace the speedo gear.. its a bad thing when the housing falls apart before you get it out of the vehicle.. luckly a friend had a spare..
take it down the road it its got a bit of bump steer. i think this will get fixed once i get a drop pitman arm for it an i also noticed a vibration at about 25 miles an hour
.. once you hit about 32 it goes away. change the front rear shaft u joint an it helped a little but its still there.. all in all theirs still a few more kinks to work out.. has a 2inch rake with a 6inch lift out back from doing a spring over conversion an the front is at 4inches. not too bad for a weekend 
it was bought back in 00 with 40k on it. fully loaded.. 235s 3.27s a4ld well since hes owned it nothing has really been touched on it so the maintenance department has been a little weak. It now has 84k. Hes one of those guys, if its not broke dont fix it.. so i started gathering components to lift it. i picked up some 4inch pivot brackets from another member on here took the 4inch r/c coils an rad drop brackets out of my black truck ,got some 4inch lift shocks from my buddy who sold his f150 and bought a new rear axle from another member over at rps that came out of a newer explorer. 3.73s ls disc.
then i was searching craigslist an picked up some 33.12.50.15 procomp tires and black cragar wheels for 100 bucks.. 3 of the tires are in great shape an ones bald. but for 100 bucks how can you go wrong..
well as you know once you start to tear into something you find other problems that need to be addressed.. so after getting the axle mocked up an the spring perches re welded to a spring over position i needed to bolt up the sway bar an shocks.. well sway bar was too short an the stock shocks were too long.. so i cut off the sway bar an bolted the shocks to the top of the sway bar mounts . worked out great! then i had to i had to work on making new leaf spring mounts.. i made new shackles 3 years ago for it an apparently you cant buy left spring mounts from ford any more. so i had some chunks of 2x6 1/4 wall box tubing that i used an cut out some mounts..
inorder to bolt up the new mounts the gas tank needed to be dropped. so what else do i see wrong.. gas tank straps are rotted. get gas tank dropped build some new straps out of 2x 1/8th flat bar an get everything back in place. get new axle bolted up calipers bled drive shaft hooked up an i start it up an i smell fuel.. well fuel lines at the sending unit were DESTROYED.
so down to the parts store i go an order a new one for 100 bucks..
came back an started tackling the front, went fairly easy considering its been apart not too long ago, get the new brackets an everything bolted up noticed the driver brake line looked pretty gimppy, no biggy i had a new one for it in a bag that was never put on.. once you change a brake line what needs to be done? brake bleeding.. the bleeder valves on the calpers were Non existing so off to the parts store i go an order up some new ones.. now ive got great brakes! i decided to tackle the exhaust an get rid of the leaks.. cat flange muffler flange took the torch an grinder cut cat off punched out the flange bolts. got some new bolts an muffler putty an no more leaks! noticed a little leak look at the collectors an yeah.. the flanges are just about non existing so i kinda "dont" remember seeing them haha. after that was finished had one last thing to do was replace the speedo gear.. its a bad thing when the housing falls apart before you get it out of the vehicle.. luckly a friend had a spare..
take it down the road it its got a bit of bump steer. i think this will get fixed once i get a drop pitman arm for it an i also noticed a vibration at about 25 miles an hour
.. once you hit about 32 it goes away. change the front rear shaft u joint an it helped a little but its still there.. all in all theirs still a few more kinks to work out.. has a 2inch rake with a 6inch lift out back from doing a spring over conversion an the front is at 4inches. not too bad for a weekend 
