Rangebe...version 2.0

[-Nathan-]

Sweet deal Man! Looking great. How big of spacer do you think you're gona go with? Any fender trimming?

Do you mean coil spacers or wheel spacers? The wheels I have with my swampers are 5x5.5, so I will be running 1.25" wheel adapter/spacers. I only want to life the front enough to clear the tires, and allow a bit of uptravel. So only a coil spacer if needed.

Yes, there will be fender trimming if required. With the wheel spacers and wheels, it will be wide, and I want it low. Wide and low for this project, should be super stable, and allow me to outperform a lot of guys even if I dont have a lot of flex. With the low center of gravity, wide stance, and how light the rig is going to be, it should be fun.

 

[-Nathan-]

good work buddy. those are the battery termnials off the original rangebe correct? where did you get them too? they scream beef, and i want some lol

Hey yea I had bought a box of them when I did v1.0. They are called "termination lugs" and there is a large allenhead screw that goes in from the bottom to clamp down on the cables. I just bought them from a small ma & pop type electrical store, they didnt have them anywhere else I looked. I could grab some for you and ship em if you paid for them.

 

[Boggin]

That would be sweet, how much are they?

 

[-Nathan-]

like a buck or two a piece. how many do you need? send me a pm.

 

[-Nathan-]

Well, didnt do much wrenching so far this week. Getting prepped for the weekend however. Plan for the weekend is to disassemble the entire front end. I will be replacing the u joints with spicer 5-760x joints and welding in the caps. I will be welding up the spider gears ( helloooo Lincoln Locker! ). I will be putting in the 4.0 coil springs. And I will be converting to manual lockouts.

In preparation for all of this I made a new tool today. Everyone knows how cool making tools is :thumbsup:

So, in order to pull out the axleshafts and dig out the 3rd member, the spindles have to be removed from the knuckle. This is a b!tch. So instead of beating with a chisel or pry, I whipped this guy up. I made an attachment to use with a slide hammer, to yank the spindle off.

I snagged an additional spindle lock nut when I was at the boneyard.

Then ever so elegantly cut a piece of square tubing (this was laying around, and big enough for spindle to fit in). The inside diameter of the tube needs to bigger than the inside of the nut.

dug through the coffee can of random nuts, and found a nut with the same thread as the end of the slide hammer

cut a piece of plate to weld to the end of the tube

burned it in.

welded the nut into place.

and welded the spindle nut to the other end.

and here it is attached to the slide hammer.

will make things much easier in the teardown, and is just another cool little tool to have kicking around.

 

[Boggin]

genius!

 

[xkotyx]

thats pretty neat!

 

[MountainMike]

Dang Nate, I think I need one of those!

 

[Andres629]

Everyone needs one of those little gizmos!

 

[bduke23]

Glad to see your back at! Always liked seeing the old truck around the city... If you see a random tall guy crappin his pants and waving frantically when your out driving the rig for the first time, its probably me...

That tools looks really handy.... I wish I could make one. I need something to pull my spindles off when I do my balljoints. After I finally get moved and have all my bear baits out... and then maybe after spring snow goose season... hope to have it done sometime this summer

 

[TheTopher]

That tool was brilliant mate. can't wait to see the rest of this!

 

[-Nathan-]

Glad to see your back at! Always liked seeing the old truck around the city... If you see a random tall guy crappin his pants and waving frantically when your out driving the rig for the first time, its probably me...

That tools looks really handy.... I wish I could make one. I need something to pull my spindles off when I do my balljoints. After I finally get moved and have all my bear baits out... and then maybe after spring snow goose season... hope to have it done sometime this summer

man youre more than welcome to borrow it. Yeah Ive seen your truck around town, not to many reg cab long box 3rd gens. What are your plans for it? Ill be wrenching away at this new one for a bit, hope to have it done for May long weekend.


Getting pumped for this weekend. Axleshafts will be getting 5-750x, and caps welded in place, manual hubs, and the diff WELDED. Yep thats right, I am going to be WELDING the front diff. Well see how she holds up to some abuse

 

[bduke23]

man youre more than welcome to borrow it. Yeah Ive seen your truck around town, not to many reg cab long box 3rd gens. What are your plans for it? Ill be wrenching away at this new one for a bit, hope to have it done for May long weekend.

Let's see...

I wanna repaint my front bumper and flares flat black
Change ball joints, level out front end and align, all in the same shot
New shocks all around, any maybe a steering stabilizer to match the shocks that I found on ebay
Fix/replace exhaust
Maybe rebuild heads..

All depends on the money situation of course. I currently have a job I love, that pays next to nothing . Been thinking about trying to sell my bike for $1500, then putting the money into my truck.

And I'll take you up on that offer to borrow!

 

[-Nathan-]

Todays progress has been good. Got a lot done, Ill let the pics do the talking.

got the wheels off, calipers pulled, and auto hubs off. I used a spare dental tool I had laying around to get the wedge out, and then spun the nuts off, and pulled the rotor. So I was left with this spindle.

Spindle tool in action. Worked AWESOME!!!! two pulls with the slide hammer and it came off. Ive fought for hours before getting these off, and it literally took all but 2 seconds and it was off. AWESOME.

Pulled the tcase skid, and then the driveshaft. The cv joint in this one is pooched, so Ill use the one I had leftover from V1.0

pulled the axleshafts out. Yep, u joints were crapped.

here is a pic of the neck down, its so small haha . Shouldnt matter, its got big outers which are the important part.

time to remove sway bar. bolts wouldnt cooperate, so I busted out the blue tipped wrench

goodbye anti-flex bar.

got the springs out. have the new ones in but didnt take a pic, I will tomorrow.

its so small!

and front end is completely disassembled.

Up to this point took about an hour or so.

new 5-760x's going in.

I did the middle joint, and left the shaft in the diff....so the splines of the side gears wouldnt fill up with spatter when I welded the diff

all of the old joints were pooched. Some had no bearings left in them, just dust.

cleaned up the diff, and did this

hellloooo lincoln locker!

also made the u joint caps a permanent part of the axle shaft. Should NOT shear ears off haha.

and put diff back in!

Got all the u joints changed, and springs in. Im done for the day.

Tomorrow I will put it all back together. Shouldnt take long. HUGE props to my homeboy for letting me use his shop.

The front may end up higher than I wanted lol. Might be riding cali style for while until I get something to add to the back end for lift.

Stay tuned for finished pics tomorrow.

Nate.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

awesome, ur working this truck really fast!