My 87 Ranger

[mharrison]

I just recently bought my first truck, an 87 ranger xlt. it's a 4 cylinder 5 speed. i paid $400 for it because it ran TERRIBLE! it was only running on 2 cylinders. so i put some new parts on it: Spark plugs, dist. cap and rotor, valves. gave it an oil change and it runs great. I bought a set of Weld Wheels for it and put them on over the weekend, tinted the windows and put a sony xplod sub behind the seat. I'm planning doing a 302 swap later on. heres some pictures when i got it.

 

[Mechanickid]

nice

 

[Yvan]

Looks clean for an 87.

 

[mharrison]

here's what the truck looks like now. took these a few days ago.

 

[1988broncoll]

looks good loving the exhaust and the welds you should drop the front about an inch or 2

 

[mharrison]

i'm considering lowering the front but i'm not sure the best and cheapest way of doing it. i'm thinking about cutting the springs.

 

[mharrison]

if anyone has any advice or tips on lowering my truck, it'd be appreciated. i'm either lowering just the front or the whole truck about 2 inches. haven't decided yet, mainly depends on the cost of doing it.

 

[1988broncoll]

The back you could get a set of shackles the front I WOULD NOT cut the springs unless you want to bounce all over the place ever time you hit a pebble in the road. I would wait till you have the money to do it the right way. I have ridden in a number of trucks that are lowered some cut springs and some drop beams and shorter springs and some bagged and if you do beams and springs it rides like factory if not a little better in my opion. I would do a 4/3 drop in my opion but dont cut the springs you will regret it find a ricer friend that has cut springs and tell him to take u for a ride or let you drive it around for an hour lol

 

[venom97]

i think you can buy 2" drop springs for the front and thats about max'd before you wont be able to align it. the rear can be done for about 15 bucks by just flipping the rear shackles. you have to grind off a few rivits and replace them with grade 8 bolts,easy mod. i think theres a write up on it in the tech section or search for it,its been discussed many times. hope that helps.

 

[Frank The Tank]

I primered my 88 in highschool too (but i had sweet twin sport-stripes with custom overspray).... got it for 400 with a brand new set of tires and 245k miles.
Ran the living wee out of it, could not have asked for a better truck to learn how to drive on. Back into a tree, pull off and never look back. LOL

Frank

 

[plasx]

Great Truck & Memories...

Nice job and a very clean '87. My first Ranger was a "plain jane" 1987, 4 cylinder, manual XL. It was a great truck and there are great memories to go along with it.

 

[1988broncoll]

hey mharrison I was looking through my local craigslist ads today and I found someone that has a set of I beam 2" inch lowering coils. They are brand new and he wants 50 bucks for em. Pm me if your interested and we can work something out.

 

[mharrison]

thanks 88broncoll, but i'm pretty much broke right now until payday. i've decided that i'm going to take venom97's advice and buy rear shackles and lower it that way. anyone know how much this will lower the back of the truck?

 

[constant_projecttruck]

you'll get a little less than 2 inchs out of the shackle/hanger flip. I've done it twice and do yourself a favor....take the bed off first! lol its so much easier. You can also get Belltech hangers (3 years ago I did anyway not sure if still available) and they are flipped hangers with an extra 1 of drop in the hanger.

 

[Boggin]

yep i would just drop the front, i love the look of the ass end up a mile farther than the front.
and love the truck btw