ForOffRoadDriving's 94 Ranger Build

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Good job on the T-bird man. Those seats do look extra comfy! Trucks looking great too!

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

its been a few days since my last post but ive made more progress on the t-bird this week, i got the header panel changed out (after getting a cracked replacement one the first time), installed a new tensioner pulley (after getting a bad bearing in the first one i picked up), and i installed a kenwood CD player in it (after buying the wrong connector the first time, needed one for the premium sound). i brought home a headlight cleaning kit and let Terra work on her lights while i stripped out the interior of my ranger and installed some sound deadening on the floor (they must have marked the packages wrong because i got an extra 18" in the first roll).

by an act of pure luck i ended up using the longer roll on the passenger side, where the exhaust runs, and then used the second roll which was shorter on the passenger side. i also added a new self-adhesive heat shield to the bottom of the passenger side floor pan because i must not have cleaned the floor pan well enough when i installed the first one and it started falling off.

i didnt take any pics of the interior of the bird while i was doing it and i appologize, but since the bird didnt want to come out of park when you depressed the thumb button on the shifter, i decided to tear apart the center console and see what i could see. after 3 hours of cleaning spilled coffee and what im guessing was pot resin off from the shifter assembly and surrounding cables and components i was able to lubricate and reassemble everything and now it shifts like a dream. as much as i hate to say it on here, this T-bird has been more fun for me that her sport trac ever was.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

ive been slowly getting my camping gear and dirt bike stuff ready in order to go up to the silver lake dunes next week. ive been putting in 9 hr days at work and then coming home and working on the bird until 2 or 3am all week so my preperation has been a little behind. im going to try to get it back together tonight so i can look over the trailer tomorrow before we leave on monday.

last night my buddy with the caprice stopped by and said his car was making a clunking noise so i got under it and looked around. what i found was a pair of missing sway bar bushing bolts, which allowed his bushing brackets to bent open and the sway bar dropped down. 20 mins with a hammer and some pliers and i had him back in business. apparently when he took his car to the wheel shop to buy the adapters and have them install the wheels they told him that the kit i put on his car was no good, so they chraged him $700 to put the "correct" kit on it, which consisted of removing the new lift springs and doetsch extended shocks and then going to O'reallys and buying stock coil springs and cheap ass gabriel shocks and then putting the twist in spring boosters to achieve the taller ride height. they kept all of his old stuff (which he payed $1500 for) and told him that it all got destroyed when they removed it. i know one of that blackfricans is riding around on his nice kit with an extra $500 in his pocket from ripping my friend off, but thats what you get when you deal with Niggaz. I think it sucks because thats the whole reason i offered to lift it for him, so he wouldnt have to deal with that kind of shit, but hes happy and doesnt know any better so what ever.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

i got my dune flag mount made up last night, i think its going to be one of the best home made mounts out of our bunch.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

im back from my little vacation and i brought lots of pics with me! to outline the trip we left on a monday morning and stayed at the Hide Away camp ground in Mears, MI for 3 days and played at the dunes every day for at least 6 hrs a day. on thursday morning we packed up camp and headed north to Irons, MI where we stayed at a friends cabin and rode the ORV trails for the next 3 days. we all had a blast but were happy to come back home after riding every day and being on the hot dog and beer diet! ok enough chit chat, on to the pictures!

before i left my youngest brother, Keith, transfered the title from me to him and then rebadged the "Rescue Ranger", it is now the "Danger Ranger"!

this pic is from the rest stop that we all met up at early monday morning to make sure we all knew where we were going incase any one had to pull off and managed to get separated during the trip north.

heres a pic from our potty stop about 1/2 way to our destination

a pic of some ranger ass, i got to look at that ass for the whole trip!

once we got to the campground and set up our sites, we decided to take the red ranger out to the dunes to see what we could see.

on the way out we realized that 20 psi was not low enough (i knew that because i read the sign and could also tell by the lack of bulge from the sidewalls, but my buddy was the pilot so we flew by his rules), so we dropped them to 12psi and walked right up the exit hill.

all i got on the second day was a parking lot pic of the only dune you could see, oh and some pics of the rest of the group airing back up infront of David Allen Racing

after a few beers i decided to take some pics of the flag mounts, just to show mine off (what a dick)

by the third day i was feeling beat from the sun so i decided i would go out and get a flag, a mount, and a sticker for my truck and then take it out in the dunes and chill at the beach with it. that only lasted so long, then i decided i wanted to ride my bike again.

this thing was really cool, it was called "the marsh monster" and it was playing water hole tester for alot of the jeeps that were splashing around. it made it about 1/4 of the way through a hole that had 6 jeeps line up on one side to cross it, but then it started to float and the first jeep in line chickened out and left the area, the next jeep definately got wet inside! (this is not that hole, just a shot i got of it on the beach)

after i got geared up and rejoined my friends who were already riding around

then we found a good jumping hill with low traffic

this dude saw us jumping and joined in

back on the beach again

when it came time to leave i knew i was going to have a problem, i just figured i would have made it farther before i got stuck

i ended up getting towed out by my friend Chris's GMC 1/2 ton, luckily no pictures were taken until we got back into the parking lot.

airing back up again

last night at the dunes, well not techinically the dunes but still in Mears, MI.

loaded up and ready to head north again

i saw this ranger on the first day we went out in the little red ranger, it has a V8 in it and that sucker could move! i didnt talk to the guy because he looked like he was busy rolling something up in his lap, so i just snapped this pic in the gas station parking lot while the rest of the group was fueling up.

this is the only pic i took when we got to the cabin in Irons. we played corn hole for a while, then had some kick ass camping dinner followed by many ice cold beers

 

[Robert_1967]

I just stole one of your pictures, might have to steal another one.





Robert

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

Which ones did you steal? I bet it was that ranger ass pic!

 

[Robert_1967]

Nah, it was the two light house's, once a long time ago, I had a chance to live at one, and was going to get paid to do it.


though the pictures of the whip mounts looked pretty sexy.


Robert

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

I dont know why i took pics of those, i guess i was proud of mine and just wanted to show what the alternative was if you went up there and had to buy one. i think they were charging $15-20 for those bare steel ones, and the flat piece of steel i had to buy for my truck cost me $10 + another $2 to have the guy enlarge one of the holes from 3/8 to 1/2. god damn pirates!

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

so my truck has been making a squeaking sound ever since i got home and unloaded all the gear, it was probably making the noise the whole time after leaving the dunes but with all the camping gear rattling around i didnt hear it. i thought it sounded like broken brake hardware and my fluid level in the resevoir had gone down a bit so i brought home a hardware kit and popped off the drums, expecting to find a broken spring or something out of place. i ended up finding a cracked brake line adapter (the one that goes from 1/4" to 3/16 at the wheel cylinder), which led to a "broke off flush in the wheel cylinder" condition, so now i need a new adapter and wheel cylinder. i decided i would grease all the u-joints and steering parts as well since i still hadnt found the source of my noise. the rear joint took a fair amount of grease before it oozed out the seals, but when i moved on to the middle joint the source of my noise became aparent. this will be the 3rd carrier bearing ive had fail on me in 30k miles, thats bullshit!

im thinking its time to start looking for a 1-piece shaft

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

Carrier bearing is replaced and my brakes are fixed, all is well now in ranger land..... for now.

 

[Flash Gordan]

Carrier bearing is replaced and my brakes are fixed, all is well now in ranger land..... for now.

Until the next carrier bearing fails.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

exactly - and i already need to adjust my rear brakes a little more, the pedal just isnt firm enough for me....i think im just a little too picky sometimes

 

[TheTopher]

Not firm enough for ya? Drop a viagra in the reservoir

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

^ that might be just the fix it needs, im telling you this truck better straighten up!