Project Apple Bottom

[95XL]

Ok, a little more progress today, emphasis on the Little!

Nice jackstands.

I knew somebody would point that out, lol. Oh well, not the safest thing in the world, but I'm not going to be climbing around under it while it's up there, so the worst that could happen is the wind blows it over, and I'll have to jack it back up a again!

p.s. two more things, the extra work needed come in funny bottles, but the little bottles are needed and is that a 60 going in ?

Yes, thats a D60 out of a '96 E-350 van, I couldn't find a Sterling, so thats what I settled on.

hay when u are done with the beast what do u want for those superduty rear doors
i can not find any for my project i am at a stand still hear til i find some

Ummm...... yeah, I don't think I'm going to be parting with that truck for a good long while. I think I fell in love when I bought it

Good choice in beer.

Now for the good part, more pics!

The new rear with the wheel spacers, had to cut about 3/4" off the end of the stock studs in order for the wheel to mount flush.

New rear with the tires mounted:

I think I'm going to need some much wider fender flares, I haven't taken any measuremnts yet, but by eyeballing it, it looks to be waaaaaaaay wider than I expected!

Thats it for now, see I told you it was only a little!

 

[Crazythingsido2]

narrow the rear

 

[Mechanickid]

+1

 

[95XL]

Ok, these will probably be the last pictures of any real progress for quite some time, but they are by far the best yet!

Houston, the shuttle has landed...

It's not bolted in yet or anything, it's just sitting on the perches. By the looks of it, I measured right for the location of them, which is always a plus

And also, by looking at it from the front, the inner wheels are exactly where I wanted them to be, they are about an inch further out than the stock location of a Ranger single rear wheel, which means, no axle narrowing, and I can still use the stepside bedsides, but I think I may still have to put another fender flare outside of those, but the fronts (when I get that axle in), should be within the stock flares!

Now all is left is to finish bolting it in, and I think I may have to get my drive shaft shortened. Then I have to start on the SAS. No more pics until I start in on that sorry guys. (Unless I make more progress on the bed...)

Until next time...

<edit> Yeah, I managed to sneak the super duty in again

 

[lil red]

seems to happen allot^

and i love your ranger btw....

now i want to build a first gen dually

 

[95XL]

now i want to build a first gen dually

Go for it! If you want to take the easy way out, you could just get a set of 16" regular rims for the front, and then just swap a D60 in the rear like I'm doing. I didn't go that route because I wanted to have the same lug pattern all the way around, and true dually's have the same rim all the way around, just a personal preference. JC Whitney sells the fender flares for a dually Ranger (First and Second Gen.) so it would be way easier on one of those trucks, you wouldn't have to mess around with body work on the bed. So basically for your truck it would just be an everyday ordinary rear axle swap, with some other minor bolt-ons.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, a little update from today. I got the U-bolts starpped around it today, so it's in solid now, but far from being ready to turn those tires. I figured since there is a lot of extra un-sprung weight now, the springs would droop a lot more when I jacked the tires off the ground (lifting from the frame). I was right, the shocks are about 3" too short, so I have ordered new skyjackers for a 3 to 4" lift, just have to wait for those to get here. Also, I figured while it was up there, I'd investigate my driveshaft a little more, I have to get that shortened by about 3". Luckily, the two-wire plug that I unplugged from the original axle plugged right into the D60, so I don't have to splice any wires. Then I have to run a new brakeline down the frame, cause the one thats there is original and I'm afraid it would puncture if I blew on it the wrong way (a little rusty). Then I have to fab up some braketry to mount the E-brake cables, and figure out how to connect them to the one coming from the pedal. A lot of little things I never considered when I decided to swap the old axle out!

 

[Randy960]

Whats the overall width on that as opposed to a fullsize dually? Is that a standard width dana 60 just with dually wheels on it? If thats the case, I'll bet its not a whole lot wider than say a fullsize pickup. That really is a brilliant idea, because you can actually drive it every day and do things like, say, park it, and go through a drive-through. But then you still have all the traction of dualies.

 

[lil red]

i just fpund the fenders, so what do you think, a lifted dually ranger? 31-10.5 swampers

atleast i wouldnt need 4 lo in the driveway anymore

 

[lil red]

cant you put d44 knuckles on a d35?

my dad had a d44 in his f250 but it was an 8 lug(if you catch my drift)

actually he just totalled the truck and he had a d60 ff rear too, all id need is the wheels, it already had the like 3" studs.(single rears ) my parents would kill me tho

 

[95XL]

Whats the overall width on that as opposed to a fullsize dually? Is that a standard width dana 60 just with dually wheels on it? If thats the case, I'll bet its not a whole lot wider than say a fullsize pickup.

I just measured and it's about 7.5 feet from the outside to outside of the outer wheels. I'm not sure what a fullsize dually measures because I don't have one, but I should go measure my super duty to see how wide that is with the single rear wheel. And yes, that is a standard width D60 out of a single rear wheel E-350 van, but I had to use 2" wheel spacers because the rims were dished so deep they would hit on the drum before bottoming out on the hub. Pretty sure I'm going to need to do the same thing on the front as well to clear the calipers.

i just fpund the fenders, so what do you think, a lifted dually ranger? 31-10.5 swampers

Well, it would look cool, but you couldn't run 31x10.50's, because the dually rims are 16", I tried to stay around a 30 to 31" tire, I'm running 235-70R16's, that way if the little 4 cyl gasser can't turn em, I know the diesel will.

cant you put d44 knuckles on a d35?

my dad had a d44 in his f250 but it was an 8 lug(if you catch my drift)

actually he just totalled the truck and he had a d60 ff rear too, all id need is the wheels, it already had the like 3" studs.(single rears ) my parents would kill me tho

Yes you can, and I actually have a set of 8-lug D44's sitting here at my house, (hint hint, if your interested) because thats what I was going to do before I decided to go with a solid front axle. The only thing though, unless you have already swapped it out, your first gen would have a D28 I believe? So you would have to swap that out for the D35, then swap the knuckles off that for a D44. Also, you would want to calculate where the centerline of your stock rim is when it's mounted to the hub, then you need to figure it out for the dually rim, and see how far away from the hub mounting surface is to have the CL of the dually rim in the same spot as the stock one, you would need some thick spacers (just a guess, but I'd say around 4-5"). That way it puts the tire in the same spot in the wheel well, and also doesn't mess with the wheel bearings.

It sounds like you get the basics of it, I'd like a see another build thread for one of these someday!

 

[Loanranger]

Looks great in there. One piece of advise though, with the inside tires on the rear wider than the front, the truck is going to track horribly. I would try to space the front out enough to be wider than the inner rears, if even by an eighth inch or so. Or try and find a cab and chassis dually, which would be your narrowest option for the rear.

 

[lil red]

ya, i know , both trucks have the d28 for now, the project is getting a d35 and an 8.8 eventually
and now mabe a d60ff

 

[95XL]

Looks great in there. One piece of advise though, with the inside tires on the rear wider than the front, the truck is going to track horribly. I would try to space the front out enough to be wider than the inner rears, if even by an eighth inch or so. Or try and find a cab and chassis dually, which would be your narrowest option for the rear.

Thanks! I do have to axle I'm going to use in the front, but I haven't taken any measurements from it yet (as far as wms to wms). It's a D60 that came from a '94 Dodge 2500. Not as desirable as the Ford D60's, but I think it'll hold up to what I need it for. It's got the Central Axle Disconnect instead of lockouts, so I need to buy the cable kit for it to do away with the vaccuum pump, and it has the 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern, so no adaptors, but probably spacers. (also came from a single rear wheel truck). But that is a good piece of advice I'll have to look into.

ya, i know , both trucks have the d28 for now, the project is getting a d35 and an 8.8 eventually
and now mabe a d60ff

Well, if you're interested, I'll be having a D35 for sale in a few months (when I pull mine out to replace it with the SAS). One other option I was thinking about for you would be to swap to a D44 TTB completely, instead of just the knuckles. If you got an 8-lug version (Like I have sitting in my yard, hint hint) you could just swap the beams and everything, and It'd give you a little bit wider wms, and you wouldn't need as thick of spacers.

 

[95XL]

Well, I'm one step closer now. I got my E-brake cables hooked up today, now the only thing I'm waiting on is the call from the driveline shop to tell me my drive shaft is all done being shortened. Just figured I'd show some pics of how I connected the cables...

Had to move the rear bracket to in front of the spring hanger:

This is a little thing I like to call a cable sandwich

Other than that, the rear is all done, minus the bed, and I should be getting ramped up for the SAS soon, so stay tuned...

 

[odie1969]

Did you build that little cable sandwich or buy it. it is pretty cool.