Rangebe...version 2.0

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

Seems like the amazing building time just started.

 

[-Nathan-]

whipped up some cheap chains for the rear tires for a wheeling trip next weekend.

we already have a foot of snow, and its -30* C.

 

[legoms013]

There are NO front tow points on the truck, and hence reason for doing this.

I welded around the plates on the front of the frame horns, reinforcing them, before I welded the shackles to them.

So now I have tow points front/rear, and got rid of the anchor effect on the backside of the truck.

Just trying to get everything ready before the wheeling trip this May long.

Great idea. I think I'll steal it if you don't mind and weld me some of these:

Side note, keep an eye on that winches solenoid, it is the same one Smittybilt uses, and they go bad even when they are not subjected to moisture. I went through 3 in 2 years and finally switched to an Albright Solenoid:

Much easier to wire too.

2.0 Looks good Nathan, keep up the as usual awesome work!!!

 

[-Nathan-]

Thanks man, and go ahead steal the idea

This solenoid is going on 3 years old now, and still works perfect. I tear it apart at least twice each year, clean up the contatcts, cover it all in dielectric grease, and seal the box back up with a metric ton of RTV.

Hopefully Ill get a bunch of snow wheeling pics for you guys to enjoy.

Oh, and I just bought a new house, with a MUCH bigger better shop: 26x28, 12 foot ceilings, insulated with furnace, and wired for 220.....wait to see what Ill be able to do in that bad boy!

 

[93 Ohio Ranger]

Updates? I love the rangers you build. This ones a champ for how little you have invested.

 

[-Nathan-]

no updates, sorry. In the midst of getting ready to move to the new house, and NEW SHOP and am still trying to source a 50 TTB to hack up. Ill probably only get the front axle built/geared/locked this winter, then maybe the rear axle and suspension mocked up in the summer. Also trying to source a 351 to rebuild....

 

[legoms013]

no updates, sorry. In the midst of getting ready to move to the new house, and NEW SHOP and am still trying to source a 50 TTB to hack up. Ill probably only get the front axle built/geared/locked this winter, then maybe the rear axle and suspension mocked up in the summer. Also trying to source a 351 to rebuild....

Good lord you are as slow as me lol, jk life happens and projects always take longer than one would like.

A new shop though means you will be able to make up lost time

I wish I had a dedicated shop to work out of; being properly equipped is more than half the battle!

 

[93 Ohio Ranger]

Congrats on the new house. And a bigger shop means more room to work on it!

 

[-Nathan-]

Major Update

Well, been looking for a long time, and finally bought a 1986 F250 4x4 6.9 IDI.

Reason for buying:

Just for future reference, and for those who might be wondering, there is a great variation in which axles are under these trucks. Some got the 44HD TTB, while others got the 50 TTB. The 44HD uses THE SAME beams as a 50, so you cannot use that as a distinguisher. I took this picture, because you can see the axle shafts; on a 50 TTB, the u-joint circlips are EXTERNAL. Also, the 50 uses 60 lockouts, which are infinitely bigger than the 44HD, which uses stock 44 lockouts.

And Sterling 10.25


Will part it out after I finish finals, and get cracking on building the front and rear axles.

 

[-Nathan-]

I am procrastinating studying for finals, so I figured Id update here with a bit of tech:

Now in regards to D50 TTB stuff, there is a lot of mis information on the 'net. I just want to clear up a few things I have discovered from my research, and first hand observation.

As I mentioned earlier, F-250's came with either a D44HD or D50 TTB. Some people will say after a certain year, all 250s had D50s, however I have found both in the internet, and in junk yards examples of both, so to say an F250 has a 50 after a certain year is misleading. The easiest way to tell the difference is two fold:

1) D50 lockout IS a D60 lockout, and thus is ginormous; D44HD lockout is a normal D44 lockout.
*note: accompanying the lockout is the size of the hub centre, that is, the hub center of a 50 completely fills the centre hole of the wheel, whereas the 44 necks down dramatically.

the following pic is of a D50 and D60 hub and lockout, they are identical.

2) axle shaft u-joint retention; the 44 uses internal c clips, IDENTICAL to the D35 TTB, where as the D50 uses its own special u joints, and EXTERNAL circlips.

The D50 has a 9" ring gear, NOT 8.5" D44 size, (common misconception), and 30 spline axle shafts.


A lot of the following pics were taken from Mr. N (pirate4x4), and thus credit is deserved where credit is due.


The following picture is, respectively: D60, D60, D50, D44

Now, in terms of SPINDLES, the D50 and D60 are IDENTICAL in every way except one; The mating surface to the knuckle is 3/8" (roughly) longer on a 60, than a 50.

This is due to the caliper bracket being cast into the knuckle on a 50. However, this implies that you cannot SAFELY use a 50 spindle on a 60, as you would be depending on the studs to support the spindle. HOWEVER, you can use a 60 spindle on a 50, using a small spacer between the knuckle studs.

What this means is very exciting. Now, D60 OUTER shafts are equivalently longer than D60, to the difference in mounting surface. Thus, one can replace the D50 with a D60 spindle, and run 35 spline D60 outers and slugs

Centre Sections: As both the 44HD and 50 TTB used the same beams, this implies that the pig bolt pattern is identical; and it is. One can simply swap in a 50 centre chunk for a 44.

I will be doing this with my equalish length F150 D44 TTB arms, that is, running a D50 chunk in the D44 arms.

Now in order to run the D50 knuckles/outer/axleshafts, some modification to the D44 beams needs to be done.

The 44 and 50 utilize the SAME upper ball joint. The bottom ball joint, and position, are different. Thus, I will be cutting and pasting the lower portion of the 50 "C" and adapting it to the lower section of the 44 arms. The beams will subsequently be plated and trussed.

This allows one to use the equal length 44 beams, with 50 centre/axleshafts/outers, with the potential to upgrade to 60 stuff at a later date.

...end of procrastination....

 

[legoms013]

Very nice write up. Tech section worthy.

When you are through with this I wonder if you could persuade Jim to give you a 1-ton TTB banner by your avatar That would be awesome.

 

[-Nathan-]

haha, yeah hopefully.

I havent decided whether Im going to just build the 10.25 as is, or hack it for its axle tubes, and make a FF 35 spline 9"...

also been doing a lot of work trying to figure out spring rates the coilovers Im going to run....TTB makes this task much trickier...

 

[-Nathan-]

big update:

Picked up this 86 F250 6.9 diesel for 300$

drug it home yesterday, that thing was heavy.

brought it over to my buddies, and started tearing into it

got the tranny (my buddy wanted the C6 internals), then put it back on the trailer and pulled the TTB

dropped the front end on the trailer, than took it outside, picked up the rear and pulled the rear axle

got up early this morning, and brought the body to the scrap yard

and that leaves me with a Sterling 10.25 and Dana 50 TTB sitting in the bed of my truck



hope to get started soon actually making the 50/44 hybrid, which I am going to now start calling the "54".

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

Awesome!

 

[-Nathan-]

pics of the axles...makes for some good winter weight to say the least

the 50 outers (same as 60) are ginormous....

and picked this up today off kijiji