Armadillon's FW Ranger D44/Ford 9"

[97TrailRigDD]

I had to use a flat pitman arm on my 44 swap to clear the track bar and tie rod. Got the longest one I could find at the u pull it.
These pics are with wheels turned all the way passenger.

 

[armadillon]

i thought i scribed to this already

you may commence to working now that i am lol

You are overflowing with kindness. Thank you, Dominus.


I got my 7/8" Chevy 1 ton Tapered Inserts in the mail today. I'm waiting on all 4 tierods ($25 Shipped!!!). The TRE's didn't come with jamnuts or bungs, but I found all 4 bungs/tube adapters for $28 shipped and all jamnuts for about the same.

97Trail, what vehicle did you snag that pit arm from? I'll have to check your build thread, but it looks super level to me. What kind of lift do you have going on there?

 

[97TrailRigDD]

It either came off a f150 or a b2 not sure, they all fit. I have coilovers on the front.

 

[armadillon]

Man, all of these parts are really coming together. I need small things like track bar bushings, u-bolts, shocks, and brake pads/shoes/lines. I probably need to redo all seals and bearings, but for the actual swap itself I think I have everything.

Obviously some problems are going to pop up. For one, I haven't welded since high school. I was going to use our big ass buzz box and arc my coil buckets, shock towers, etc on but I'm hesitant. I don't want people to make fun of me like Ranger Kip (love ya buddy!) for shoddy welds.

Off to the junkyard tomorrow to score my rear axle backing plates, drums, u bolts/2" lift block, and also Super Duty springs for my brother's front D60.

Here's my list of what I have so far:

Tyres:

Crappy 32x12.5x15s for my rollers

Front:

Dana 44 (from a 1979 Ford Bronco)
3.5" EB Coils
D44 radius arms and caps (IF the caps ever come in. PlumCrazy sent them but they may have gotten lost in shipping)
1.25" RuffStuff heims with misalignment spacers
4 degree C bushings (Must I have the 7 degree?)
Lower spring perches and retaining dish
Upper Coil bucket with spring retainers
F250 Shock towers

Steering (per BillaVista):

The TREs of course:
ES2233L for pass side will ream the hole for 7/8" spacer
ES2234R for driver side
ES2027L for pitman arm (high angle)
ES2234R for pass side (mounts to ES2233L in the reamed hole)
^ $25 for ALL TREs together from bradnel8 on Pirate4x4 but no jam nuts
4x 7/8" RuffStuff Jam Nuts (2RH + 2LH)
4x 7/8" Tapered Inserts for the TREs
Stock D44 Trackbar Bushings
^I'll be using DOM for the draglink and tierods and I'll use the stock trackbar/panhard, sleeve it, and using just stock bushings.
Pitman Arm drop amount will be figured after I mock everything up. I'll be using a tapered insert on it if I go with a drop pit.

Rear:

Ford 9"
63" Chevy springs (snaked from a Chevy 1500 in the yard. $14 each or so)
3" Axle leaf spring perches (Super cheap! 10 bucks for both online from Ebay)
Superior 13-4100 Chevy/Dodge 2.5" wide shackles from Autozone/O'Reilly/Wherever
Probably a 2" lift block but I need to do my lift math
U-Bolts

Brakes:

I need pads for the front and shoes for the rear. Unsure which to buy from RockAuto. They don't really mention what quality the pads are. I'll need to turn the rotors if there's enough width. I usually purchase new drums, but this time I'm gonna see if I can cut some expenses.

Extended brake lines for the front. Lots of info on TRS about them, I'll just need to do some digging I'm sure.

Driveline:
I'm still 2WD I know it won't last, but I'll worry about adding the transfer case later. I need to check if my stock rear driveshaft will attach to the Ford 9 and see if I need to extend or shorten it. If I have to do either, I'll probably wait til I find the transfer case. I'll grab U-Joints whenever, shouldn't be difficult to find those of course.

There's a bunch of little questions I need answered but I want to research the hell out of them before asking you gents. One of which is shock length. I wish I could figure out how long of a shock I'll need, but I need measurements first. I probably can only find out once everything in the front is installed.


Any thoughts gents? Anything glaringly obvious that I'm leaving out? (Lockers and gears will come later)

 

[scooter]

As far as shock length, if your fabing your shock mounts, then you can run whatever length shock you want.
I ran like 12-13in rancho 5000's on the back and the 14" King air shocks front.

Now i am running the longest rancho shock they make, and top the out pretty easy on the front.
I can get you part ## if'n you want em.

 

[armadillon]

I would love the part numbers if you got them. I honestly have no idea how much travel this setup is going to allow me to have. I figure quite a bit from checking out some other build threads, but yeesh, it's awful not being able to make measurements now.

 

[scooter]

I would love the part numbers if you got them. I honestly have no idea how much travel this setup is going to allow me to have. I figure quite a bit from checking out some other build threads, but yeesh, it's awful not being able to make measurements now.

Search noob!!!!










Ill get you part #'s tomorow.

 

[scooter]

Rancho # RS5036 is the longest travel shock Rancho makes (i think). Iirc its a 14-15" travel.

 

[armadillon]

I'll search your mom, how bout that! I'll start pricing those shocks and probably pick them up in a few weeks.

In other news, my Ford 9 didn't come with any rear brake assembly. I was doing research to find out if the 8.8 drums would swap over. My research was for nothing because I found a 9" on the back of an 82 F-150 at the pick and pull with drums. I was able to grab the backing plates and hardware, the ebrake cables and the drums for $52. The higher price was pulling them in the Texas sun. I've got a raging headache and a little nausea from sun poisoning.

Also picked up a random wooden shop table from a friend. Should make a good addition to the garage here at the apartment.

I have almost everything I need for the rear now. A little research and I'll order my U-bolts. I might need a 2" block to level out, but I don't think that would be too difficult to find.

It's crazy how quick all of it's coming together! I wish I could start working on the truck, but I have to work on Labor Day. FML.

 

[97TrailRigDD]

Your upper shock mount would need to be up by the hood to fit a 15" travel shock. With the ford shock towers you can probably fit a 10" or maybe 12" shock.

 

[scooter]

Your upper shock mount would need to be up by the hood to fit a 15" travel shock.

Wrong.

 

[97TrailRigDD]

I guess if he wanted 3' of clearance under the frame it would work.

 

[brinker88]

Wrong.

^ This. Im running a 15" travel shock on my TTB no less

 

[railman]

Wrong.

^ This. Im running a 15" travel shock on my TTB no less

all depends on how you set up your suspension....

with a sky-high rig....use the stock location....

on a low COG build....may even be above the hood...

also depends on what kind of wheeling or DD duties ya have....a crawler typically uses only 3"-4" of up travel....

so really...nobody is wrong....

l8r, John

 

[brinker88]

Yea, you've got a point. Im running around a 4.5" suspension lift with a 3" BL and its barely peaking into the engine bay.