New Guy an some Beater Bomb Rehab

[Red Devil]

Guess for my 1st post I might as well do it right. I signed up some time ago an never did much with my account. Till now. I rock an old beater bomb for a daily driver, 4th ish ranger I've owned? I'm big into drag racing have a few decent car's an build everything my self out of my home shop. For a living I run a power plant an play with big cats. Power Plant is based out of a landfill, the whole renewable energy thing. Hence the beater, the truck lives in the landfill trash. Enough of the random boring stuff on to the beater bomb rehab.


I picked this thing up 4 years ago for 500 dollars with sub 100k on it. Truck was pretty nice at the time, Racked up 52k miles on it sense. I've pretty well done nothing to it aside for Fuel, Oil, tires an snug up the wheel bearings once an a while. It's in need of new leaf springs, as it has a few leafs broke, rear shock mounts have broke off the frame, couple wheels are bent, needs front u-joints, exhaust work an so on. It's pretty well played out at this point. Some Typical Ranger problems.

Current Day Photos before it starts. Actually hit it with a power washer quick for the 1st time today in about 3 years. That alone made me like it more.

1994, 152,000 miles.. 4 liter, 4 wheel drive





So after truck shopping I quickly learned I did not want to drop any decent coin on a middle of the road truck just to trash driving around a landfill. With that being said I started to do some digging around for some replacement parts to bring this ol girl back to decent health. Priced out rear leaf springs, an quickly noticed I was better off spending a few more C notes and just lifting the truck and scoring some lift leaf springs. So I've ended up with a RC 4 inch lift with the springs. I should be seeing it at my door step tomorrow if I'm lucky. I know it has it's short comings, but I'm not dumping big money on a skyjacker class II kit just to drive to an from work.

Once I got it in the shop, I grabbed the tape measure to get a before ride height.



34 3/4 ish in the rear



32 11\16 up front

As for wheels I went ahead and Picked up a set of satin black MT Sidebiters. They are 15x8's with a -22 offset. I went ahead and grabbed a wheel an ran around the truck to verify clearance at all four corners. Here's just a quick photo for a general idea. I will be wrapping the new wheels with the 31x10.5x15 Copper STT's that are on the factory wheels. Pending how it sit's I may go to a 32-33 inch tire but that's to be figured out after the fact.



After that I started jamming on the odd ball stuff, or things I'd rather not mess with but know they need to be done. I replaced the rotted out muffler with a random cheap replacement one, fired it up and enjoyed being able to hear my self think again. Also Replaced both rear frame mounted shock mounts, and Removed the Spare Tire Rack.



Slightly better, luckly won't be doing anymore of this down the road if all goes well.

Once I got the handle on the mounts, and exhaust I went ahead and started dropping the rear end out of the truck but didn't get to far before I called it an evening. So here's a few more random photos an I'll try an knock out an update tomorrow. Hopefully it will be productive..

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Looking good so far. Nice big shop too.

Sent from my XT1032

 

[Red Devil]

Looking good so far. Nice big shop too.

Sent from my XT1032

Thank you sir.



Any chance any of you could point me in the right direction to figure out my front-rear gear size? Reason being is I'm thinking about picking up a 3 inch body lift, poly bushings and going that route. Should get me about 7 inches of lift total from stock. maybe.. Which leads me to wonder if it could fit a 35x10.5x15 without looking stuffed than doing a regear front n rear. If not 33's an leave it at that?

 

[JoshT]

Nice, It's always good to see someone doing a little TLC rather than replacing the truck. At 150K you've got a lot of life left in that thing. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

If you don't mind my asking how large is that shop?

To get your gearing check your door tag for an axle code. Once you have that you can look the code up in the tech articles section of the site so wee what you have in the truck. Their is also a tag on the rear axle (and maybe front), it's under one of the flange bolts for the cover, that has the gearing info on it. You can check either of these against the article in the tech section of the site to figure out what you have. There is also a calculator in there that will recommend new gearing based on tire size change.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Similar to what Josh suggests, I would find out what is stock and do I like how that works. Then figure the tire size you want and change the gearing to match so that you end up with the same final {ratio? unsure of terminology}. I have had 4.10 with 31" tires and liked that with the 4.0liter. I bought 35" tires and will use 5.13.
4.56 or 4.88 would work too depending on where [rpm] you spend most of your time driving.

There is a great tech section at the top of every page.
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.shtml

 

[Red Devil]

Nice, It's always good to see someone doing a little TLC rather than replacing the truck. At 150K you've got a lot of life left in that thing. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

If you don't mind my asking how large is that shop?

To get your gearing check your door tag for an axle code. Once you have that you can look the code up in the tech articles section of the site so wee what you have in the truck. Their is also a tag on the rear axle (and maybe front), it's under one of the flange bolts for the cover, that has the gearing info on it. You can check either of these against the article in the tech section of the site to figure out what you have. There is also a calculator in there that will recommend new gearing based on tire size change.

Good information and thanks for the kind words. I did some looking and narrowed it down to the truck rocking 3.73's. I'm going to hold of on a regear till I get this thing wrapped out an see how much clearance I have for tire. I'd love to fit a 35, but to keep this bucket cost effective within reason I might just run 33's in be done with it.

Right off the top of my head I do not know the footage of my shop but I can check it later. It was here when I bought the house, farm ground n out buildings. I just put a new roof on it an it's been my little slice of heaven. Just need to get my self a lift. It's big enough to do 3 major builds at the same time and have room for beer drinking

Back to the truck.. Rear of the truck is tore down. I went ahead an replaced all the shackle mounts, shock mounts and so on. Figured I might as well once I seen how rotted one was. I'd hate to just replace one, to later do a few others.





After fighting this thing for a while, cutting on it replacing the mounts. I than moved the truck outside, an power washed the back half of things, hit everything quick with a sandpaper flap wheel and gave it some love. Here's a handful of photos in it's pre clean up state an current state. I also was able to get the new wheels on the old tires. I'm not sure I'm sold on them yet, but with new rubber I bet I would be. An If I get some time to pick up my lift I should have it tonight if not tomorrow in the A.M







Here's the current state, Hit everything with a p.o.r kit after the snadpaper wheels. Than I followed after the por with straight rubber bed liner. It's far from pretty but it does exactly what I need it to. All that is left is get the rear end serviced, an cleaned up than start the lift install.





Don't mind the zip tie holding the tail pipe in place, thats like that from when I did the exhaust work the other day, have to get the welder out an do some finish work.