Redneck Rebuild

[Sunk]

Yeah, my dad wheels the piss outta this thing trying to keep up with me in the zook. The rear I welded, and the front was still open. It's gonna go back to this configuration for now, not sure if we'll bother getting a locker for the front. Aside from the body damage, the ranger makes it through the busy no problems. There's only one spot near the begining where we usually have to winch.

Damn, sounds fun. I need to get up to that area and check out some of the trails over there sometime.

 

[Loanranger]

Ok, so tonight we came up with a pretty conservative plan to get this thing back on the trail. I had been dreaming about 3/4 elliptical in the rear, with extended radius arms and homebrew lift using jeep coils..... Well, with the plans of going fullwidth here shortly, the d35 and welded 7.5 aren't going to be in there long enough to worry about fabbing up abunch of parts for.

So.... The plan for now (which might change by tomorrow) is to put the d35 in just like we took the d28 out, lifted with washers under the coils, add some f250 shock mounts, new shocks, and call it a day for the front.

The rear is a 7.5 out of a 99 ranger, 3.73 and welded, swapped the pinion flange to the older style, and this will ubolt to explorer leafs, with the overloads taken out. From here, I'm thinking I'll still go with 3/4 elliptical, with a set of chevy front leafs for the half leaf. This will rest, and able to pin to the old shackle mount, reworked with some bumpstops and retainer tabs. This will allow it to react like a normal 1/2 elliptical spring setup untill you pull the pins. I'll also have to work in an antiwrap bar, and possibly a panhard bar.

After we're done with the suspension, we have a flatbed to section, basically narrowed and possibly shortened a little, and a bunch of tube to start bending around this sucker. It's got new doors now, and will have new fenders, so it needs some protection from my dads driving.

Later on we will be adding a toolbox and spare carrier to the flatbed, but we'll be concentrating on getting it moving first.

 

[dogboy]

Damn, you guys have some plans for this thing!!!

Can't wait to see it agian at Tahuya.

I keep forgetting that the meet is so far away, haha. My cousin is working on his scout, and I keep wonder if he will get it done by then. The I remembr you guys both still have over a month to get these things done.

 

[Sunk]

And I'm hoping to get a 4.0/M5OD swap and Chevy 63's done by then.... Yikes.

 

[Loanranger]

Yep, we'll have plenty of time. Heck, I might even have the Lj's motor rebuilt by then.

Sunday we got alot accomplished. We got the Dana 35 in, we used the complete assembly, but used the ranger coils, and retained the spacers.

I also cut the buckets, and installed some F250 shock mounts which were a freebie from a friend. I used two of the original bolts from the f250, with the front lower hole lining up with the rivet hole that's left from cutting the old shockmount out. The upper back hole was the other, which lines up with a slotted hole in the frame. This allows a little angle adjustment before welding it in. I testfit the shock, and got to welding. I stitch welded the bottom and rear side to the frame, and the front side to the tower, and also plug welded the two remaining bolt holes I left the corners and top unwelded, so I wouldn't have a completely heat affected patch to tear off.

They turned out pretty good I think, should be plenty strong.

For the rear, we ended up with the '99 (iirc) 7.5 from work, it was thought to have a bent housing, but turns out it's not, I welded up the spider and sidegears, and we slapped it in, bolting it up to the explorer leafs, minus the overloads. This was basically needed because the d35 was 3.73, and the old set was 3.45.
I also started mocking up the 3/4 ellip setup, I got the old shackle hangers off, and started playing around with placement and materials for the halfleaf mounts. I basically have to be very careful with the placement so there isn't any unexpected tire rub.

One thing I've been toying with, since I can design the ride height into the 3/4 setup, I have the option of ditching the factory blocks. Axlewrap is not a concern, because I will have an antiwrap bar. So what do you guys think? Aside from having one more part to break (anybody broke a factory block?) I don't see any reason to take them out, if I do, I've got to get u-bolts, which means less .....

So what I've got left is to make some halfleaf mounts, cut the halfleafs out of some suburban front packs, which are two leafs with military wrap. These will be direct replacements for my 1/4 elliptical springs, so we can carry a universal trail spare, and also can play around with spring rates between the two.
I need to cut down the front driveshaft, but that won't take long, and weld up the autohubs, or find a better way to make drive slugs. Then it's on to the flatbed and exo. The new(er) fenders off the donor truck will be going on, only after gratuitous plasma massaging.

 

[Loanranger]

Some pics of the rear suspension. We also picked up a tractor joint thefinger and some pipe thefinger to make a antiwrap bar.

*And the shackles in the pic are temporary, they're actually his old bumper brackets. I'll be adding another 1.5" to 2" to them, and making them out of 3/8ths flatstock.

 

[dogboy]

Looking good!

For some reason, I was thinking you would not have a shackle between the two leaves. But after i thought about it, I realized that would basicly make the suspension solid... That would kind of defeat the purpose, haha


EDIT: How are you going to fasten the spring to that mount? You aren't going to use two ubolts and a plate (like what both the u-bolts go though on the axle) are you?

 

[rickcdewitt]

This will rest, and able to pin to the old shackle mount, reworked with some bumpstops and retainer tabs. This will allow it to react like a normal 1/2 elliptical spring setup untill you pull the pins. I'll also have to work in an antiwrap bar, and possibly a panhard bar.

i like it outboard of the frame.the half leaf can go up without hitting the frame.good idea with the pins too.

 

[Loanranger]

Outboard has it's pros and cons, I like it cause, like you said, I can get that extra compression at full stuff, but it's going to be tight between the tire and the pedestal for the half leaf. The wider rearend is helping a little, but I'll probably still have to trim the pedestals back some to keep from rubbing.

I got some pieces drawn up to cut out today, the shackles are 1/4" steel, 8 3/4" by 2" with 7" on center holes. They will be crossbraced with some 1 3/4 square tube. I also drew up the spring plates for the half leafs, they are 4" by 5", 1/4" thick.

I remembered after your post that I was going to make pedestals for the shackle end, out of the old shackle hangers, but the plan, like usual, has changed.

I would still like to capture the shackle end somehow with pins, though if I have a pedestal above the shackle, then that takes away that ability to go up past the frame. I was joking with my dad that we were going to have to cut two slots in the bed for the springs to come up through.

They will most likely be captured from the sides somehow, so when the pin is pulled, they can still pass through the retaining system. This will happen after we finish the rest of the suspension however, and most likely the flatbed cut down and mounted.

Today will be a progress day, so I should have some good pics to post by tonight.

 

[Loanranger]

Well, we got alot accomplished yesterday, I started by finishing up the 3/4 elliptical system, the shackle length is 7" between bolts, the half leafs are a direct replacement for my half leafs on the 1/4 elliptical rear of the zook. This means, he get's to carry my trail spares. And the tires clear the pedestals fine.

The begining of the antiwrap bar mount on the axle

Finished, other than a plate at the back.

The antiwrap bar, minus bushings for the axle end.

Also cut the front driveshaft down and rewelded it. This one balanced out alot easier than the zook ones.

Sometime today, I'll get off my ass and get out there and make the frame end mount and shackle for the antwrap bar. I also need to make a crossmember/upper shock tower, as well as new lower shock mounts for the rear axle. I cut the old lower mounts off, because the passenger side was in the way of the a/w bar. The drivers side upper is in the way of the crossmember, so it may disappear as well.

Aside from the rear shocks and finnishing up the a/w bar, the suspension is complete.

We also got the new fenders on and cut, there will be more removed once we lay the tube.
So if I can get the suspension wrapped up today, all we have left is to cut down the flatbed and bend some tube.

Also, I am still undecided about yanking the front pig and welding it up, I told him when he breaks this one we're going fullwidth with rear steer.

 

[dogboy]

Got any flex shots yet??? haha


I think you're better off dealing with an open front end for now. Welding it up would decrease the turning radius SO much. Hell, my Ranger turns way sharper than your LJ.
The 3/4 Eliptical will do a good job of keeping both those front tires on the ground.

Has you dad rolled that thing yet, or does it just look like it?

Oh yeah, did you cut down the shaft that you got with the D35, or did you use the original one, just curius.

 

[Loanranger]

Nope, no flex shots yet, we've got the flatbed hanging on the cherry picker, or I would have. I'm waiting for a buddy to get back in town, the drums for new axle have a slightly larger center hole in them, so the old ones won't work. I bolted the tires on without the drums for now.

Nah, he hasn't rolled it yet, it just looks like it.

We ended up cutting down the original shaft, because the exporer shaft had a strap style yoke instead of a slipyoke. So if you have a use for the explorer shaft, we won't be using it.


I didn't get much done this afternoon, made the shackle and mount for the a/w bar, I just haven't welded the mount to the frame yet.

 

[Loanranger]

Ok, so I stopped in at BillyBobs last night, and picked up some poly bushings for the a/w bar. I also added a large gusset into the center of the bars, to stiffen it up a little. I played around a little with the plasma too, I was going to do speed holes, but ended up with the Course Customs logo.

Also got the frame mount welded on, and gusseted. That top weld looks like bird shit, but it was a second pass, so it's nice and solid.

All thats left suspension wise, is to make some lower shockmounts for the rear. I'm waiting to flex it out to make these, but the upper crossmember is in, and the shocks are hanging from it.

We got the flatbed on tonight, just to see how much to cut off of it. It looks like 10 inches out of the center, and 11 inches off the front. It will be flush with the rear crossmember I made awhile back, and sit out about 3 inches on either side. It will stick out about as far as the sliders, and a tube will be going up and over the rear of the cab, tieing the sliders and flatbed together.

 

[Loanranger]

Progress!

We got alot done again today. Finished up the flatbed, welding crossmembers in, and I used 3/8ths inch plate to secure the bed to the frame, as well as some cool bumpers in the back, that used to be the huge dropdown bumper, that I cut off at a 45 degree angle, and welded this to the rear crossmember/frame. You can kind of see them in the first pic. This thing is going to stiffen up the frame in the rear quite a bit.

I also added some poly bumpstops to keep the springs from hitting the bed.
They're right above the spring eye of the half leaf.

Then it came time to bend some tube.

I didn't get many progress pics to this point, but this is the bulk of the drivers side. The diagonal bar from the back of the cab to the bed is just laying there. Everything else is fully welded.
I'm still going to add another tube at the top of the fender that wraps the top of the grill from side to side, and I still have to make the cowl, windshield top bar, and the rear crossbar, as well as weld up the other side.

 

[ItsA5Spd]

Man, that thing looks awsome and sounds like you're acheiving you cheap but capable goal. That's gonna be one sweet rig. Where did you get the washers to go under the front coils and how many did you use? I wanna do this to my truck. Keep up the awsome work!