CrankyJew's Dirt Cheap 1992 d30 SAS

[crankyjew2d2]

howdy yall-

been a while away from TRS. had a 1994 ranger splash that was rolled, followed by a 2002 fx4 that was wrecked. Currently my dd is a 2004 sport trac, with about 4" of lift on 33's.

the itch to get back into an early ranger and build a trail rig has been strong.

picked up a 1992 one-owner recently. 4.0 auto, 4x4, reg cab long bed. the truck is in phenomenal shape given that it's spent it's whole life in western ny. less than 100k on it. body mounts are solid, the body is very decent. old man kept it inside and kept a cap on the bed.

the plan- jeep xj dana 30, leaf springs, skinny 35's. I'd like to go 4.56 gears.

why a d30? similar width, same wheel bolt pattern. the xj axles were non-disconnect, high pinion, better u-joints. i found one locally for $60 with 3.73 gears.

why leaf springs? I like how simple, old-school and clean they are. I got a set of superlift (i think) full size blazer springs for free.

I'm a welder-fabricator - I work 7 days a week most weeks. I'll be buying most of the brackets from Rusty's. shackle frame mounts, spring perches, u bolts and plates. I'll be fabricating a front crossmember, a new trans crossmember, and steering linkages.

shocks, driveshaft, and rear axle will be sorted out once the truck is sitting under it's own weight again.

I plan on running either a Blue Torch Fab or M.O.R.E off road dana 30 crossover steering setup.

I'm looking to build this truck into a SIMPLE, durable, CHEAP, trail vehicle. it won't be a mudder, it won't be a rock crawler.

here's how the truck sits now. I'll do my best to take pictures as I go!

 

[prerunner]

Nice score!

 

[crankyjew2d2]

thanks!

started breaking down the dana 30 this weekend. also got the hub bearings and axles pulled out, and started grinding down the welds.

rust!

does anyone know if 83-88 fender flares fit the 89-92 style? the wheel wells look the same to me but there's different part numbers.

 

[crankyjew2d2]

small update!

the ranger appears to have 3.07 gears stock. picked up a 4.10 geared 8.8 from a 97, with the bigger brakes. might be limited slip, not sure yet.

the cherokee axle i had ended up having 3.55 gears, not 3.73 as was sold to me. also appeared to be a low-pinion axle, thus may have been swapped from an older jeep into the previous owners cherokee. I decided this axle would be too much work to get to the point where it would be useful. So, found a 4.10 geared YJ axle, with brakes and steering, and I'll be using that instead. I'll swap my one-piece axleshaft in and delete the vacuum CAD system.

will be ordering shackle mounts, spring hangers and other small things soon! (from ruff stuff)

 

[BlackBII]

Nice truck!. Looking forward to seeing some more progress with the new YJ axle.

 

[crankyjew2d2]

alright, some progress- been a while!

got both axles stripped, de-rusted, and primed. scrapped the XJ d30 and sold the stock 8.8.

the new YJ d30 has new axle seals, ball joints, cad-delete, and a mountain off-road enterprises high-steer knuckle installed. going to weld up some gouges in the tubes, slap some paint on it and call it good. I plan to run heim joints from ruff stuff for steering.

the 8.8 is in! mini-spool for now. upgraded to 5/8" u-bolts. eventually, once the front in in and rolling, the rear will get shackles and add-a-leaf. possibly chevy 64" if I can find some reasonably.

cleaned up and ready to go. what are yall's opinions on the mini-spool? this truck will spend very little time on the streets, and i don't plan on running over 35" tires.

out with the old...

in with the new... need shocks.

 

[swynx]

if you have a limited slip carrier i would say go with extra clutch packs, thats what i did and i love it. in low traction areas it acts like a spool, in parking lots and driving around i never even notice it; supposedly from reading around the net it will also unlock before breaking parts, which is a plus.

 

[crankyjew2d2]

my previous post was perhaps misleading- check out the first photo. My axle was open- I have already installed a mini-spool.

 

[crankyjew2d2]

small update on the dana 30- primed and ready, pretty much. waiting on some heim spacers from ballistic, to make the ruffstuff heims fit the MORE knuckle bracket.

 

[farmer]

I street drove a couple of locked rear trucks, prefer it over the Detroit in the current truck. Locked makes is predictable, once you figure out how its going to act. The 94 was locked 4.56s on 35 Mud Kings and it was a tank in the snow

 

[crankyjew2d2]

the welder I was going to borrow to weld this all up took a shit on us. somebody used it in the rain and blew a board. I'm a welding instructor, so can get a pretty sweet deal on welding gear and equipment. Picked this beauty up and built a cart. Brand new miller multimatic 215. an unexpected expense for this project, but worth it. very pleased so far.

got some cheapo rear shocks in, and broke a rear leaf shackle mount driving around the farm. replaced both and threw in new rear eye bushings and 6400's while I was there.

pulled the front bumper off. cut out the old crossmember and started on the new front mounts/crossmember.

getting there...

 

[crankyjew2d2]

wow, got a lot done this past weekend.

put the old turd up on stands and got the d35 ttb out. amazingly, everything came out with an 18v rattle gun. I'm not used to that up here in the rust belt.

something's missing.

got a rear crossmember made up and springs mounted. as I mentioned, they are old skyjacker lift springs for a full size chevy. I pulled two leafs out. I'm using the shackles that came with them for now, once everything else is sorted out I'll make some legit ones.

got the axle under it and sitting on it's own weight!

There is additional gusseting that these pictures don't show.
Just got my steering pretty much finished tonight.

still need:

Brakes
Front driveshaft
Figure out how to pull 6-8" of lift out of the rear axle...
Exhaust-it was in the way, no there's nothing past the y-pipe right now..

 

[Petemoss]

I like that your doing leaf springs on the front. Going to be very cool.

Sent from my SM-G530R4 using Tapatalk

 

[crankyjew2d2]

I like that your doing leaf springs on the front. Going to be very cool.

thanks! drove it around the farm a bit this afternoon. i'm getting real excited.

got steering and brakes pretty much done this past weekend. using parts store chevy k2500 front brake lines in front, relocated to bottom of old coil bucket, with stock YJ brakes.

steering is ruffstuff heims with 1-1/2" dom. seems to be pretty good. I haven't made my own steering before. clearance is a pretty tight between the tie rod and the springs. probably going to drop it back below the knuckle for now.

I have a lead on some 1/2 ton chevy rear 4" lift springs. we'll see. may pull the bed and do that soon so I can stop sitting like a prerunner.

 

[crankyjew2d2]

Found some 1998 chevy c1500 springs at a junkyard this weekend. $60 each, they pulled them. nice. the stock bushings aren't great, but also not awful, and I don't feel like replacing them right now. They should be fine for a while.

I got all six bed bolts pulled out with very little drama. on a truck this old, in this part of the country, that's just unheard of. when I body lifted my 04 Sport Trac, I had to cut them. I'm not used to vehicles that aren't 90% rust.

Got the old springs cut out, front mount rivets burned out, and bracket bolted back up one bolt hole set forward. new (old) chevy springs went back in with very little drama. same bolt sizes, same width, very cool. Didn't take many pictures of the process, but here's where we are now!


I ended up reusing the bed bolts... crazy.

I extended the rear brake hose with a parts store hose... I think it's from a dodge neon. hard sayin.

here it is back on it's own weight and I'm very pleased with how it sits. I had a set of 33x10.5 bfg's sitting around.

Took it for a spin around the back 40. Really need to figure out shocks.