Not just another Dana 44 Swap...

[likeshills08]

SO I have been readying myself for a full width dana 44 swap into my 93 ranger. Im tired of battling with the wheel bearings and Im also getting the 351 ready to drop in so I'm not messing around anymore.

At first I was going to design coil buckets to come off the frame another 3", however I am in the Marine Corps and I am limited as to where I can fabricate and store my truck so I am trying to almost make it a bolt on swap. This is because I have to do my work at the Auto SKills Center on base, where I have to pay by the hour to use it. So if I were to cut the originals off to then have to wait to make buckets I would be spending a lot of money on storage. Not to mention unless you are a certified welder you cannot use the welder. Oh and you cant weld in the general shop... I even went to the junkyard to cut a section of the drivers side frame out to be able to mock up a bucket that I could also serve as a trackbar bracket (the passenger side does not have the weird gearbox bulge so I dont need that to mock it up) but I ran out of time trying to cut it out. (And the local junkyard opens and closes at my working hours ) basically everything told me to not do it that way.

So I started brainstorming other options. I thought about moving the C brackets in as they are welded but I am also a little starved for resources to do that.

So I thought of a conversion bracket to move the spring perches in. Let me know what you guys think. I don't know if anyone has tried this I will post more pictures when I begin to make the brackets.
The pictures of the U-bolt brackets are the factory swaybar mounts on the rear axle of the ranger. They will work perfect to weld the "L" bracket to. The passenger side bracket is even notched on one side to ride on the differential housing, which can then be rotated and further notched to use on the drivers side of the D44 because of the limited space of tube as the differential housing is too close to C-mount.

This is just a mock up planning. I will probably gather materials and be bringing them to my buddies house to weld them up and I will post pictures of them.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Looks like you are going to have it attach to the radius arm and the axle tube?

Not really a good idea as the radius arm is bushing mounted for a reason, so it can flex to reduce bind.

 

[likeshills08]

What binding would be cause by it being solid mounted? I think the amount of movement that the c-bushing would allow would be minimal. Also that minimal movement would be allowed by a bit of flex in the "L" bracket. Not nice to think of but I don't think it would harm anything.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

When the axle articulates there is deflection in the bushings. Like I said the bushings are there for a reason.

 

[likeshills08]

Has anyone used the Early Bronco conversion buckets offered by James Duff? P/N 5112. If I redrill the holes in the spring perches I can get an inch of offset which would mean the total difference of width between the springs on the stock axle and new axle would only be 4" or 2" on each side. These buckets offered widen the width 1.5" on both sides so there would be only be about .5" of lean on the springs from top to bottom, which I think would be allowable.

Here is the link to the buckets.
http://www.jamesduff.com/newproducts/new_eb.asp

 

[likeshills08]

So of course after I post this stuff I finally find everything and the search monkey throws poop at me. I found someone who already did something like I'm talking about, 'cept mine I'll be able take off... its on a budget, its not for highway driving, its for mud racing, I think I'm going to go ahead with it. Just for now. I want to put coilovers on it some day, but I already have all the parts for springs right now. Ill make it a little neater looking than his though...

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70072&page=6