koa's 93 ranger build

[koa's93ranger]

Finally starting my long overdue build thread. Stuck at work right now so pictures will come soon.

I found this gem hidden in a kids front yard at the base of the mountain.he didnt know what he had and what it was worth, and neither did i at the moment. got it for only $2,300 and 72,000 miles. not bad for a 16 year old truck.

its a completely stock 93 4wd extra cab 4.0L stick shift. i couldnt figure out why it felt like my motor was about to blow up at 60mph. come to find out, it had 456 gearing with lockers front and rear. couldnt figure out why someone would want that on a stock truck with only 31 inch tires. after some research, i found out that this was a forest service vehicle that only sat at a lookout tower, which explained the gearing, low miles and all the cut up radio cables i found under the flooring. so in my opinion, this was a steal. low miles, upgraded parts, amazing condition, not a spec of rust, serviced at all the correct intervals by the dealership, all for $2,300.

 

[Ford78]

Sounds like u got a hell of a deal on the ranger. Can't wait to see the pics buddy

 

[koa's93ranger]

Gotta get to my laptop and upload em all. Gonna take a while. Plus I have to resize all of them. Going to lowes tomorrow to get all the wiring for 50a. Took me a week of research to find what works for my situation. Leaf perches came in today

 

[koa's93ranger]

this is how i got it, minus all the decals i put on it. the flex on it wasnt very good. made me miss my toyota

soon after, i installed at lift at work during down time. 5.5" superlift and some 15x12 alcoas with 31x11.5 tsls

the first day of testing the new suspension, i blew up both front auto hubs in the snow hehe

going the back to the issue i had before with freeway speeds, i decided to fix that with some 36x12.5 tsl sx which required some very light trimming and eventually a 3" body lift and 2" steel washer spacer

test flex with new tires before trimming fenders

the tires ended up being wayyyyy too big for my wheel wells and the slightest flex would rip off my fenders. refusing to cut up a perfectly good truck, i went with 33s. they were the perfect fit in the fender wells and also allowed me to easily cruise at 100mph on the freeway.

after body lift and washer spacer install

i quickly grew out of the limiting ttb flex and the constant replacement of the front suspension and lack of alligning and tire replacements hurled me into the idea of a sas.
my tires were so wide and offset that it would put incredible pressure on the wheel bearings and cause them to heat up and explode. now every time this happened, i would have to pay for a tow, replace rotors that get gouged from the knuckles and from the races heating up and spinning, replace bearings, seals, cracked pads, hub lock rings that crack into pieces, warn hubs that actually crack in half right at the flange, and spindles after the bearing get so hot that it welds itself to it.
on more than one occasion, my wheel would literally fall of my truck, luckily every time this happened i managed to slow down before it did.


here is what it looks like after placing the wheel back on the spindle after it just fell off. hub shot 50 feet out into the desert after exploding. (look at the insane camber)

this did not make the best reliable daily driver and i missed alot of work doe to no ride. so after 2 years and over $2000 in parts, i realized that i could have already done a full sas. so i said screw it, ive had enough... retired the ttb, parked my truck, and bought a daily reliable car.
which bring us up to date....

 

[koa's93ranger]

my donor truck, step dads old 79 f250. was a perfectly good truck, but after he got his 76 f250, he parked this one for 3 years then just start selling parts off it.
oh well, worked out for me since i scored a free hp44 and d60

began my swap with some brand new chevy 64s with only 4k miles on em

 

[Ford78]

Looks good! Hopefully it will cool off for ya so u can get to building!

 

[koa's93ranger]

Trying to put in at least an hr a day. But sun doesn't go down till about 8:45 and I work early so I don't have very much time to work

 

[koa's93ranger]

Since I've removed the d60, ive notice oil leaking from the center of the yoke, where the bolt and washer is. It's not leaking at all from the outer ring of the pinion seal. What can this be? I'd like to know before I tear it apart

 

[koa's93ranger]

I'm having one hell of a difficult time trying to set my rear perches. Can anyone shed some light as to how you take accurate measurements with the pumpkin in the way. Please be specific

 

[Ford78]

I just measured from the brakes to the springs and made sure they were even on both sides.

 

[koa's93ranger]

What is the distance you set it though from the brakes?

 

[Ford78]

Not for sure. At work right now. It might be differnt then what I have. The distant were differnt from when I had the dana 61 to the dana 60 that I have now. The best bet would be make sure they are even from side to side.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

When I swapped in my 9" I centered the axel. I measured from the springs too. Just get the width of your axel from backing plate to backing plate then measure the outside width of your springs at the hangers right below the frame. Subtract the width of your springs from the width of your axel. Divide that number by two and that will be the distance from the backing plate to your springs. Mock it up, tack the perch in place pull it back out then weld them up!

 

[koa's93ranger]

About my previous question. Anyone know why my pinion is leaking from the center nut and not the seal?

 

[Ford78]

U sure its not just seaping up threw the splines from the seal?