Ravo's Ranger

[TheTopher]

Well now, I've made myself late for work reading this thread.

Truck looks good though!

 

[RavoHimself]

Took my truck to emissions today. When they pulled it into the garege everyone walked over. Then one of the guys came out and complimented me. Feels good gettin compliments

 

[RavoHimself]

so in my time of not posting i've undercoated the frame. looks 10 times better. also i polished my wheels with a power cone and some mothers mag and aluminum polish. looks fantastic. lastly getting my long needed alignment done on friday and hopefully getting my real plates tomorrow.

i should have pics once i do the finishing touches on the wheels. as soon as it stops raining.....

 

[RavoHimself]

so after paying 70 bucks for an alignment. my truck still pulls to the right bad. the mechanics who did it never even told the guy who called me so he couldn't of even given me a heads up. everything is withing factory specs so he thought my frame might be bent. the same thing happened to my dads sport trac. i guess a lot of the sport tracs have the rear axle twisted a tiny bit so you have to compensate in the front. turns out my truck is the same way. whether from the factory or not the right side is about 1/4" more forward. i know the PO put new hangers on the front so its possible that he put the wrong bolt size in and there was play before he tightened them down.
i'll just have to drive it like this untill i have the money to get it aligned where my dad had his fixed. only reason i didn't go there first is because my truck is lifted and the place i went to is supposed to be really good at 4x4 alignments. i guess not. they didn't even try to figure out why it was pulling and it took my 2 minutes

 

[TheTopher]

The 1/4th inch difference is possibly from the notorious "Ranger lean"

Due to the gas tank, battery and driver all being on the same side of the truck, almost every ranger starts leaning to the left. The thing about leaf spring suspensions though, as the suspension compresses the axle moves back. It could be as simple as your driver's side leaf is worn out causing the axle to sit a little bit further back.

I had that issue with my truck, I bought a used passenger side leaf and installed it in place of the driver's leaf, problem solved.


You could have a different issue, but it's worth taking some measurements to check.

 

[RavoHimself]

i hadn't even thought about that. it doesn't appear to be leaning much. just barely. but definitely worth looking into when i get the money

 

[RavoHimself]

so here is the picture of the wheels that I promised. Looks great when the sun hits em

 

[4x4b2]

those look like ranger alcoa rims

 

[RavoHimself]

They aren't. Besides the fact that I know they came off a tj. The alcoas look a bit different and I don't believe any ranger came with a 15x8 with 3 3/8 backspacing

 

[RavoHimself]

got a picture of my nice wide stance. i love it

also i bought a new lifter and push rod to get rid of the diesel clack i have going on

 

[rkneeshaw]

Lookin real good. Thats a lot of work you've put in!

To help with cash do yourself a favor and find a good local junkyard. You can source a lot of the non-wear parts there and save a ton. Thats where I got my gen4 seats from to replace the badly worn stock seats and some other goodies. If you need a fender flare, thats a good place to look. Hope you didnt pay $80 for a new dip stick tube, you could get one from a JY for like $10. Also checkout www.car-part.com to search junkyards accross the country. That will save you buttloads of $$$.

I love the stance. The 32's look real good on there too, but I may be biased I think you'll find you will rub even with the leveling coils with that backspacing. I went with the 3" JD kit and still slightly rub on the drivers side (ranger lean issue) when I turn the wheel in about 1 full rotation of the steering wheel, and I've only got 3.75" of backspacing.

post more pics

 

[RavoHimself]

thanks. trust me. me and my dad are pretty tight with all the local jy guys. i know how to find the good stuff.

as for rubbing. i did rub. i trimmed my fog valence to be at the same angle as the bumper. also i loosened the bumper mounts and moved it as high and as far forward as i can. it doesn't rub anymore. so i'm happy. but the stance was well worth it. looks so bad ass from the back. i still wanna put a 2" body lift on it to get that extra height. maybe even just a 1" BL

added a little more throttle response. took out all the slack with 3 zip ties

 

[4.0B2]

truck still looks good.

i'm glad you undercoated it tho... i did mine after i did the paint, the blacked out frame and all changed A LOT.. many people have a nice truck but some dirty undercarriage- just ruins it all... (wow that sounds dirty)..

 

[RavoHimself]

yeah it looks a lot better now. and i know it will not even think about rusting for a long time.

also. as a response to my throttle cable pic. i think the feel of the truck is so much better. i feels a lot smoother and i can feel what the motor needs. it feels more comfortable.

 

[RavoHimself]

i keep forgetting but i'll try to get some good shots of her soon