Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and jeepxj2007
Well-Known Member
Well this is my new project. It probably belonged in a junkyard, but I went to take a look at it, and it followed me home on a trailer!
Well to get her started she is a 1994 Ford Ranger 4x4. It is a standard cab long box model. It came with the 4.0 V-6, and AL4D auto trans and push button Borg Warner 1354 Tcase. She had a 28 spline drum brake Ford 8.8 in the rear and a TTB Dana 35 up front with 3.73 gearing all around and limited slip in the rear. She came with warn lockouts up front also, and power everything interior, and about 180,000 on the ticker.
When I got her, she barely would move onto the trailer. The trans slips very badly and I am going to replace her. I am really considering doing the manual swap, but not sure if I will just throw in a good strong auto to replace the one in her and put a good trans cooler in front to make this one last. There were absolutely no brakes what so ever. The front wheel bearings are completely shot, enough to make the passenger front tire visibly slant on the road and when you pick it up there is about 2 inches of play in the tire of wiggle room! The bed was dinged up, interior was trashed, the previous owner went on a white pride day or something because he painted all the trim white on the inside and out, it looks really ghey if you ask me so its all getting painted light grey and black, something that looks stock or more decent! Also all of the rear spring mounts and shackles were completely rotted away as were the rear cab mounts on the frame and rubber bushings. The drivers side window wont go back up either!
I looked her over and couldn't find nothing seriously wrong besides the trans, the motor starts right up, has no lifter tick and runs better than my d.d. ranger. This was something I was looking for my next project, and I figured a lot of the problem areas I was going to replace with new parts on the build up anyhow.
So far I have a 12 gallon summit poly fuel cell, it is foam packed and built for drag racing, I am going to mount that in the bed and ditch the stock setup that looks like it might get hung up on something. I am also going to build a bed that looks like this one.
It will make a lot of tire clearance room, lighten up the truck a little, and be less metal to get hung up on wheeling.
I have a Ford 8.8 that is the 31 spline with disc brakes out of an explorer also. It has limited slip and 4.10 gears so I will regear the front dana 35 to 4.10s also. I bought Ruff Stuff Shock mounts and welded them on and perches, I will get picks up of this soon too!
For the suspension I think I am going to run a James Duff 3" lift I believe it was a stage 1, it looks to be about 600 or so and I would rather spend that then the same amount for a 6" kit or 4" that seams like it will break from what I have been reading on therangerstation.com. In the rear I am going to do a homebrew lift though for better flex. I am going to relocated the spring hangers and use chevy 2wd 1500 leaf springs which are suppose to flex better if you don't use the overload spring than ranger springs, I got a set of Belltech 6400 shackles used but practically new off a rangerstation member for 35 shipped which was very reasonable. I am also making home built solid 1 3/4" thick lift blocks for the rear and using heavier duty 5/8 thick u bolts. I bought all new leaf spring hangers and shackle hangers also from stengel brothers. It ran about 130 shipped for the whole kit, which was way cheaper than the dealer wanted and ebay wanted.
I found the rear cab mounts online for 35 a piece and bought those, and I am using poly body mounts and a 2" body lift, and all new grade 8 mounting hardware for everything.
For the interior I gutted it out, took out all the crappy looking white trim and repainting it, and gutted out the seats, I have some racing style bucket seats, they aren't the cheap plastic kind that I am going to mount inside and herculine the inside also. I stripped down the frame and that's getting coated with 2 coats of rattle can self etch primer, and then spraying on chassis saver...what would look better gloss black or flat black?
As far as body armor I have stuff to make rock sliders, and a winch mount for the front bumper, the rear bumper the guys at work built me this :naughty: well the picture is below, but it is pretty nice looking in person, it is all 1/4" construction with the exception of the safety chain plate. Everything was tig welded and the d ring tabs and 2" receiver go all the way through and welded both sides, it is just long enough to protect the rear leaf spring hangers so you cant back up into them.
I am also going to build a home made snorkel like the one in this link. I don't plan on driving through deep deep water, but I dont like how low the stock air intake setup is and this will be extra protection! I plan on building a roof rack and maybe if I get some extra money summit has a pretty decent priced pre-bent cage for it.
Let me know of what you think so far and any suggestions!
Well to get her started she is a 1994 Ford Ranger 4x4. It is a standard cab long box model. It came with the 4.0 V-6, and AL4D auto trans and push button Borg Warner 1354 Tcase. She had a 28 spline drum brake Ford 8.8 in the rear and a TTB Dana 35 up front with 3.73 gearing all around and limited slip in the rear. She came with warn lockouts up front also, and power everything interior, and about 180,000 on the ticker.
When I got her, she barely would move onto the trailer. The trans slips very badly and I am going to replace her. I am really considering doing the manual swap, but not sure if I will just throw in a good strong auto to replace the one in her and put a good trans cooler in front to make this one last. There were absolutely no brakes what so ever. The front wheel bearings are completely shot, enough to make the passenger front tire visibly slant on the road and when you pick it up there is about 2 inches of play in the tire of wiggle room! The bed was dinged up, interior was trashed, the previous owner went on a white pride day or something because he painted all the trim white on the inside and out, it looks really ghey if you ask me so its all getting painted light grey and black, something that looks stock or more decent! Also all of the rear spring mounts and shackles were completely rotted away as were the rear cab mounts on the frame and rubber bushings. The drivers side window wont go back up either!
I looked her over and couldn't find nothing seriously wrong besides the trans, the motor starts right up, has no lifter tick and runs better than my d.d. ranger. This was something I was looking for my next project, and I figured a lot of the problem areas I was going to replace with new parts on the build up anyhow.
So far I have a 12 gallon summit poly fuel cell, it is foam packed and built for drag racing, I am going to mount that in the bed and ditch the stock setup that looks like it might get hung up on something. I am also going to build a bed that looks like this one.
I have a Ford 8.8 that is the 31 spline with disc brakes out of an explorer also. It has limited slip and 4.10 gears so I will regear the front dana 35 to 4.10s also. I bought Ruff Stuff Shock mounts and welded them on and perches, I will get picks up of this soon too!
For the suspension I think I am going to run a James Duff 3" lift I believe it was a stage 1, it looks to be about 600 or so and I would rather spend that then the same amount for a 6" kit or 4" that seams like it will break from what I have been reading on therangerstation.com. In the rear I am going to do a homebrew lift though for better flex. I am going to relocated the spring hangers and use chevy 2wd 1500 leaf springs which are suppose to flex better if you don't use the overload spring than ranger springs, I got a set of Belltech 6400 shackles used but practically new off a rangerstation member for 35 shipped which was very reasonable. I am also making home built solid 1 3/4" thick lift blocks for the rear and using heavier duty 5/8 thick u bolts. I bought all new leaf spring hangers and shackle hangers also from stengel brothers. It ran about 130 shipped for the whole kit, which was way cheaper than the dealer wanted and ebay wanted.
I found the rear cab mounts online for 35 a piece and bought those, and I am using poly body mounts and a 2" body lift, and all new grade 8 mounting hardware for everything.
For the interior I gutted it out, took out all the crappy looking white trim and repainting it, and gutted out the seats, I have some racing style bucket seats, they aren't the cheap plastic kind that I am going to mount inside and herculine the inside also. I stripped down the frame and that's getting coated with 2 coats of rattle can self etch primer, and then spraying on chassis saver...what would look better gloss black or flat black?
As far as body armor I have stuff to make rock sliders, and a winch mount for the front bumper, the rear bumper the guys at work built me this :naughty: well the picture is below, but it is pretty nice looking in person, it is all 1/4" construction with the exception of the safety chain plate. Everything was tig welded and the d ring tabs and 2" receiver go all the way through and welded both sides, it is just long enough to protect the rear leaf spring hangers so you cant back up into them.
I am also going to build a home made snorkel like the one in this link. I don't plan on driving through deep deep water, but I dont like how low the stock air intake setup is and this will be extra protection! I plan on building a roof rack and maybe if I get some extra money summit has a pretty decent priced pre-bent cage for it.
Let me know of what you think so far and any suggestions!
