Kirbys 1991 Ranger Build Up and Solid Axle Swap

[Kirby N.]

Alrighty I'll keep you all updated. I got the ballistic parts, synergy and ruff stuff parts.

My buddy ed had a spare front end in his bone pile with some of the outer stuff I needed. Spindles, brake parts, axle shafts. I mostly wanted the spindles as they are so hard to find. I also ordered an empty carrier. I also bought a new set of rotors rather than have the old set turned. I plan to use later ttb hubs because I found the warn lockouts fit much better on them. The axle I gutted had some scary steering and it looked like someone had started cutting off the cbushings with a grinder and a torch and given up. I am suprised it held up with the barely welded on spring pads. I would guess someone threw it in a cj at some point. Here it is post gutting:

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[Kirby N.]

In case you didn't notice, my project has been on hold. I had to remod a bathroom. It's done and turned out nice so I can focus on the ranger again.

House mods aren't as fun but atleast they hold thier value.

I spent some time at the junk yard this week. I still need some coil buckets, some spring cups and a radius arm cap. My buddy saw this little gem of a dents side and sentence down to grab some parts. By the time I got there someone had robbed the whole front end. No cups or caps left. The buckets had an ugly shock mount and bump stop integrated so I decided to hold off on them too.

At least I grabbed a set of 250 shock mounts. They are the 4 bolt ones not the 2 bolt ones. I need to clean them up and paint them.

I have a buddy coming on Saturday to help setup the front gears. Hoping to get them knocked out. Here is the parts pile. Some assembly required...

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[Kirby N.]

Got the 5.13 Yukon gears setup today.

Decent pattern. Started cleaning up the shafts and removed the ujoints. I am putting in a new set of spicer 5-760x joints, but I had some problems with the caps on the stock shafts in my exploder spinning caps. So I guess I'll do full circle caps. I need to get some. I think lowes has them??


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[Kirby N.]

So one of the ears on one stub is stretched. I thought about welding the u joint in. I did that on my sploder too when I started stretching the stock ears. However, it really annoys me to put it together for the first time with sub par parts. That pretty much sums up every mistake I made on my explorer!

So with that in mind, I bit the bullet and ordered a set of 4340 shafts today. I am going to run the spicer joints I already have. I ran yukon superjoints in my explorer. They were tough, but I was always stressed when I ran it down the road in 4x. And I never really greased them like I was supposed to. So with the lighter truck, smaller tires and lack of a doubler/ ARB for now, I think the spicers will be fine. I may upgrade when I get a arb.

I also ordered a set of 2* c bushings in black and a 4" drop pitman arm.

For coil springs, I am going to "borrow" my buddy phils to check ride height before I order. His are the same 7" BC coils that I ran on my explorer. They were by far the best I tried. I tried deaver, WH, superlift. I cant decide if I should get the 5" or the 7". So hopefully, this will give a good indicator before I buy. I want the ranger to travel like phils truck:

I still need: 1 Radius Arm Cap, 2 Coil Buckets, 2 late model TTB outer hubs. All junkyard stuff.

Also will have to have trackbar and steering DOM threaded and wrench flatted when the time comes. I get the DOM and the work done at my buddies machine shop.


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[Kirby N.]

I got some work done. I have had some challenges.

So one caliper bracket was worn and I had to tear it back apart to replace it. The other side seemed good. So I put it together. Unfortunately, the other side must have had jacked up threads on the caliper mount bolt. I broke the bolt off flush. Spent 4 hours trying to get it out before I have up. Broke a bunch of easy outs. This is a broke easy out with a bit welded to it.

It was that bad! Haha!

So I had another bracket from Phil. I cleaned it up and painted it and tore everything back apart to install it.

Yesterday I picked up 2 degree radius arm bushings from crazy eds performance. Today I got the radius arms on.

Head units, brake lines on. Using a 78/79 center line. I hope it is long enough.

Radius arms on.

Bam! I am getting close.



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[Kirby N.]

I purchased ruff stuff's "cure". With all the hype I expected more. I think I have gotten 14 emails about it! It's just a little white bushing with a pink instruction sheet. I do have one in my possession and plan on executing the cure. I will report back on it's performance. Also, it's different from the synergy bushings (which are too thick and don't fit f150 knuckles because they are designed for jk knuckles) as it goes on the lower drag link joint, not the tierod joints.

I went and filled my oxy acetylene tanks this morning. It cost me $120. Geesh. It was worth it though....










Because today was d day (deconstruction day):

Got the front end out (you can see it in the background) in about 3 hours.

With the help of the hot wrench I had the buckets and ttb pivots out in another hour and a half.

 

[Kirby N.]

I got the drivers bucket layed out where I want it and began modding it to mount up nicely to the buldge in the drivers side frame.

I know this is where a lot of guys get out the plumb bobs and stuff. First I got the truck level. This required jacking up the rear of the truck a little. Then I started with the stock buckets. The upper rivet hole is consistent on each side. The center of the stock coils is about 11/16" forward from the center of that hole. So I measured 11/16" forward of that hole and made a vertical line with a torpedo level. I want the coil buckets to be 2" forward from stock. So I measured the center line on the new buckets. It just so happens that the holes in the new buckets are 2" off center. So I was able to make the line run through the middle of the rear most holes in the buckets. Then I level the top of the buckets.

Here is the beginning of the modified driver bucket that will be welded on.

It still needs some fine tuning, but it was getting to late to be rocking it with the grinder.

Here is the passenger side clamped in place. I drilled it out easily with a little pressure, some time and lots of cutting oil. When I did my explorer I went through $20 bits like tic tacs until I learned how to use them. Now, if I get them too hot I just use my grinder to put a new edge on them and keep trucking.

I almost looks like it belongs in there.

Tomorrow I hope to get the drivers side fitted and the trackbar frame mount reinforcement finished. Maybe even weld them on. We will see.


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[Kirby N.]

Well I got the drivers side bucket done first thing. Probably another 2 hours of grinding.

Here is how it turned out.

It will be bolted on with one 1/2" bolt just for peace of mind. I drilled it out and prepped it. It is the only hole left. All ready to be welded on:

However, I want to get the track bar mount all ready to be welded on first. So I started on that.

I began with a 6"x3" piece of angle iron I had laying around. It is 3/8" thick. Then I cut a 6" section out of it. Then I clamped it in place and marked the areas I wanted to trim. This will act as a reinforcement for the steering box, as well as the Track Bar. It will also give me an excellent square location to mount the tracbar mount. I did a similar setup on my explorer, but this one will be nicer I hope.

Also, when it was clamped in place and while I had the steering box off, I shot some spray paint down the steering box holes to mark them on the angle iron.

I decided to get a new steering box from Ford. It was a big chunk of money, but something is leaking in this system and the box was completely covered in nastiness. So I don't want to pull it out twice. Thats for sure.

I drilled the holes out large enough so they wouldn't interfere with the steering bolts and washers using a cheap step bit from Harbor Freight. IT even beveled the hole so it looks like I used a mill or something. I put the thing in my mini drill press. Then I tacked on the ballistic mount.

Clamped in place and ready for welding (I will likely weld the ballistic mount to the angle before welding the angle on):

And that is where I quit. Before turning in for the night, I realized the coil bucket and trackbar mount interfere a little with each other. I will have to come up with a solution for that. I also discovered the track bar mount is a little tilted back from level, so there will be some grinding tomorrow to fix that.

 

[Kirby N.]

I got a few things done today. More work on the track bar mount.

I filled the corner that was open from the curve in the frame. I also trimmed the rear edge of the bracket about 1/4 of an inch. This angled the bracket a little and gave me more room for the pitman arm. It was angled forward slightly before.

I also added a beveled hole. Because I can and I thought it would look cool.

Real estate is getting so tight on the drivers side. I want to run a drop pitman arm to keep the draglink and therefore track bar flat, but I don't know of it's possible because it looks like it is going to contact the tierod on compression and it also just touches the trac bar mount. I may check and see if Ed has one that is a little longer. I measured out Phil's trucks coils loaded length. With the v8 they are at 19" loaded. His are 7" springs and mine are 6", so I am setting it up around 18" tall for ride height. I rolled the axle under and clamped the radius arm mounts at about 2" forward of stock. I had wanted to go further but with 1" lower ride height and the girth of the track bar mount- I don't think there is room. I do, however, have up to 3/4" adjustment in the heims so I can push it further if necessary. I put the tires on to check fender clearance. It should be pretty close to the height in pics. The tires will eat the stock front bumper so it has to go, even though I don't have a bumper build plan yet.

There is also 0 chance I can run the stock tranny crossmember- the Jd arms are behind it, but the passenger arm will rub due to the crossmember going under the frame.


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[jesselee20040]

Can we get a straight on picture? I would like to see how much the tires stick out.

 

[Kirby N.]

On the front? It doesn't have tires on not right now, but when I have them on again I will get a shot for you.

 

[Kirby N.]

I think one of the major differences I am wrestling with on my track bar, tie rod and pitman arm lengths is that the ballistic bushing I am using is 2.5" wide and on my explorer it was only a 3/4" heim joint. Also, the mount was entirely outside of the frame and higher. This one is under and lower. Here is a picture of what I am dealing with.

This is ride height from the front. I love the angles. It is nice and flat.

This is a few inches straight up compression.

This is ride height with wheels straight. You can see how close the tierod will get on compression

This is compressed wheels straight

I am thinking about a different track bar mount. I can get it back about 1/2" and I can trim off all the lower holes. Then I will need to mount the other end high enough to get it flat. Then I have to deal with limiting the travel on that side due to a honking large mount. Steeper angles may just be easier. No drop pitman arm, etc.

 

[Kirby N.]

I spent some time head scratching and tweaking tonight. Someone asked for a pic of how much the tires are going to stick out. So I got that handled. It was raining like cars and dogs outside so I had to get close pics.

Yep, there is not track bar yet so it is not centered.

I wanted to check tierod and pitman arm clearance so the first thing I did was set the steering bumps to just over where the ujoints would conflict. That should get me pretty close. (Thanks for the trial and error Brian). Then I set the toe to about 3/16" or so with help from my 8 year old. Give or take!

Then I removed the front bumper so I could cycle the suspension with out bumper/ tire clearance issues. Unfortunately, the tires are still going to get into the rear of the fenders. The good news is that it looks like the wider front will keep my driveshaft out of my y pipe. And the crossmember seems to clear things nicely.

Here is full bump pictures:

How do I know that's full bump? Because with these radius arms that's as much uptravel as possible. If you look closely, you can see where they are bottoming out on the frame. I am a little unimpressed. 4" of uptravel. However, it would be pretty difficult to get more than that with the other constraints, so I think it will have to do. I would guess i got a little more on my exploder with the stock length arms. I may have to go with the 7" springs. It may go bump on speed bumps. I will have to wait and see. 2 more inches would be nice, but nearly impossible.

Moving on to the steering (ignoring the trac bar for now) I took the tires off so I could see the steering. With the stops set I could turn the box one way completely and turn the tires completely then compress the suspension to full bump and see if it was going to interfere. I got pretty hopeful because it cleared to bump wheels straight.

Full bump wheels straight:

Full bump wheels left cleared fine too (I had to trim the crossmember so the tierod would clear).

Full bump wheels right:

We have contact! It looks like it clears but it hits. Maybe 1/4". It would probably clear with an odd random think when it compresses. I considered putting a little bend in the tierod, but I am sure that will come when I get it in the rocks. I could run the stock pitman arm (it would pull up the drag link enough that it won't make contact at full bump anyway). I think the right way is to slide the axle back 1/4"- 1/2". So that's the next item on the to do list. Yep. I am not stoked about it. I should have started at 2" with the heims in the center of thier adjustment. I didn't though. So the brackets have to go back. I think there is enough wiggle in the bottom notched hole. The other hole I drilled will be notched on the frame side I guess.

I have youth camp this week, so I won't have much time to wrench this week, but at least I have a game plan now. I'll move the axle back first, then I can move on to the track bar- if you look close there isn't much room for a trac bar! I don't know if it's possible without a bend or 8. And I will be crossing my fingers in hopes that the ride height will work. I won't know until I can drive it. It might need some go fast air bumps to make it work! Might just be simpler to deal with a taller ride height.


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[Kirby N.]

So I have made some progress. Got the belly pan tacked and ready for final weld. Got the driveshaft rebuilt. Track bar is all mocked up and measured. It should be built this week threaded and wrench flats machined in.


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[jesselee20040]

Any more progress?