daily doubler build

[Bray D]

I made a return trip down to SMORR this past weekend to meet up with Kage and company. It was a wet weekend full of hardship, haha.

Since rain was forecasted for the entire weekend, I decided to rock the full doors. It changes the wheeling experience entirely. Far more constrained and 'blind' to the obstacles you're climbing. It was nice being dry though.

We had a pretty good day of wheeling, up until around 2:30p. We were running a creek trail and I found a hole that swallowed my truck up, unexpectedly. Hydrolocked the engine.

After pulling the plugs, I tried to turn the engine over to purge the cylinders. The starter just clicked. Tried running jumper cables to my battery; didn't work. We ended up pulling the truck to purge the cylinders, reinstalling the plugs, then pull starting it. Luckily there wasn't any engine damage. Ran like a champ.

With a waterlogged air filter and starting issues, we drove back to camp. I aired up then drove straight to an Oreilly's that was 25 miles away while the other guys loaded up and headed home.

My starter was under warranty, so I replaced that first. No luck. Pulled the battery and had it load tested. Checked out good. Double checked all of my grounds, they appeared in good condition. Cleaned my clamps and battery terminals, still just clicked.

I ended up disassembling my ground terminal clamp to find that it was corroded on the chassis side. I ran in and bought a 5 dollar terminal clamp and it fired right up. Phew!

I drove back to SMORR, lit a fire, and enjoyed some chili dogs and brewskis before crawling into the tent.

I woke up to more rain, but I was able to break down camp without getting too wet, and I was on the road home by 9a. Drove the 385 mile trip home without issue.

Definitely one of the roughest wheeling trips I've had yet. All in all it wasn't terrible though. Much thanks to the guys that were with me for helping me get the truck out of the woods alive.

In other news, my freshly rebuilt trans (early 2014 rebuild) has killed yet another set of bearings. It sounds absolutely terrible. I attribute it to the high mileage on the trans internals themselves (approaching 300k miles on the trans gears/shafts) as well as possibly low quality bearings. Regardless, I'm in the process of sourcing a different trans all together. Looking to swap in a replacement m5od and be done with it.

Enough of my babbling, on with the pics!



















I threw together a compilation video as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSn5gs0CLUI

 

[Bray D]

Out with the old, in with the 'new'. I dressed up as a mechanic and got my trans pulled out on Halloween.

I went with an aftermarket trans from SmartPartsAuto. Initial impressions are good. It appears they refurbished the case as well as the shafts in addition to your standard rebuild. The only thing I'm a bit miffed about is the paint on the case. I wish they would just leave them raw alum.

The paint looks nice now, but it'll deteriorate to a less than appealing state in short time I'm sure (portions that were in contact with brake fluid/ATF simply wiped off).

The top plates on their trans and mine are slightly different as well. Mine has a single port on the left side of the case for the reverse light sensor. Their case has that port on both sides of the case. I just have a plastic plug in their 2nd port right now. I'll have to find a solid replacement in the near future.

I have about 35 miles on it so far and it's smooth as glass. No leaking from the plastic plug either. I need to bleed my clutch a bit more, but other than that it's good to go.

 

[NEVERDONE86]

I kinda miss the cliffs but I hated washing all the mud out of my truck. Somehow it seemed we only went right after it rained.

 

[PlumCrazy]

I'd use your old top cover. The 95+ cover has a shorter throw (pivot is raised .25" or so)....the NSS port was a gen 2 thing.

Sent from XT907 using Crapatalk

 

[Bray D]

Interesting. I assumed all of the cases were the same across the generations. Apparently not. I'll keep the top plate with its respective trans. I'm not sure if swapping them would affect my warranty in some way. The slightly longer throw won't be an issue. I drive it like a grandma anyways, haha.

 

[PlumCrazy]

I love the shorter throw on the trails for flipping fwd to reverse quickly. I had a trans with the extra NSS hole, I just filled it with epoxy. Did you have to turn the old trans in for a core? If not you could use it to build a hybrid trans using 2.3/3.0 gear set (assuming you still have your original trans). These things are pretty simple to rebuild once you figure out how it comes apart.

EDIT: I wonder what synchros the rebuild has in it....the newer trans got a friction enhancing coating. It looks like the brass has been dipped in rhino liner.lol I noticed a night and day difference when I built my last trans with the newer style parts.

 

[Bray D]

Both my old and new trans are hybrids already. I've considered keeping my old trans to rebuild and keep/sell, but if I send it back they'll give me 250 bucks. I've already paid to have it shipped back, so I'll probably go that route and pocket some money.

 

[Explorin94]

Both my old and new trans are hybrids already. I've considered keeping my old trans to rebuild and keep/sell, but if I send it back they'll give me 250 bucks. I've already paid to have it shipped back, so I'll probably go that route and pocket some money.

That sucks about the transmission. Should have called I have 2 more M5OD's on the floor in the shop. 1 rebuilt and the other that needs to be rebuilt. You know I would have taken care of ya.

 

[Bray D]

That sucks about the transmission. Should have called I have 2 more M5OD's on the floor in the shop. 1 rebuilt and the other that needs to be rebuilt. You know I would have taken care of ya.

I hear ya man, and I appreciate the offer. I thought I'd start 'fresh' this time and get a trans with a warranty. If the bearings kick the bucket again, they should replace it and I won't have to feel like I'm burdening my buddies, haha.

For the record, I think every bearing in my previous trans was toast. My input shaft had a good 1/4" of play in it. I don't want to throw the bearing company under the bus, but I was surprised it didn't last longer than it did.

 

[Bray D]

Trans is still doing good. No worries on my end.

I wrapped up my snow plow build as well. It's a heavy bastard, but should work well for clearing our lane this winter. Started as an old Western Unimount.

 

[036speed]

Thumbs up. Even more function added

 

[kris97ranger]

I love that thus truck is so versatile. Makes me laugh when people say rangers arnt "trucks" because you cant work them

 

[Bray D]

Thanks guys. I think it'll work pretty well. I'm still anxious to see how much snow it'll truly push, but I guarantee it'll push more than I could with a hand shovel, haha.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Could you have used the D44 radius arm caps that have provisions for sway bar?

 

[Bray D]

Look again, that's exactly what I have, haha. I notched the 'rib' and recessed my 3/4" tabs up into the cap then fully welded.

Didn't want to use those tabs though, as they're not perpendicular to the axle tube. They're parallel with the RA, which angles toward the center of the rig.

You could use them, but the tab on the cap wouldn't be parallel with the tabs on the plow frame.