The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[RangerSVT]

I'll get it apart sometime Wednesday...


SVT

 

[Kage]

I'll get it apart sometime Wednesday...


SVT

Dat'll work.


I pulled the doubler apart tonight the rest of the way to find that all of the socket head cap screws that hold the two 'halves' together were competely loose. There is no obvious damage to either the screws or the alu. portion that they bolt into.

This has me a wee bit confused as I KNOW that these things were put back together with locktite this time. I am at a loss as to why these things are backing out, or how to prevent it from happening again in the future (any ideas fellas?).

The other thing I have my eye on is the tranny mount. They way the stock ones are designed leaves quite a bit of wiggle room for the whole driveline to move around quite a bit. I am trying to think of a reason as to why I can't just make a poly mount for the trans and just keep running the stock rubber motor mounts as the motor mounts are still pretty 'tight'. Any thoughts on that one?

 

[RangerSVT]

I'd run a poly mount for the trans (id you don't have one I do), and i would also fab a poly mount for the rear case. As for the bolts, drill holes in the heads of the cap screws and use safety wire to tie them together so they cant back out, or see how much stage 8 locking fasteners are...

SVT

 

[Kage]

I'd run a poly mount for the trans (id you don't have one I do), and i would also fab a poly mount for the rear case. As for the bolts, drill holes in the heads of the cap screws and use safety wire to tie them together so they cant back out, or see how much stage 8 locking fasteners are...

SVT

Saftey wire might be possible (though it would suck to make that happen due to the space confines). The Stage 8 stuff is pretty cool, but I wouldn't be able to use them in all the locations that I need to. Some of the cap screws are pretty close to the edge of the transfercase housing. But I might be able to do a little grinding on the inside to make enough room for it to work out.

You're thinking that adding another mount to 'support' the rear case would help? Or just run a tranny poly mount? It seems to be a 50/50 split of those who run rear mounts and those who don't. The only good reference point I have on that one is Bray, and he doesn't run a rear mount (I think??).

 

[railman]

I would run a rear mount...just cause that is a lot of weight that wasn't engineered into the factory set up....

can ya use lockwashers to help with the locktight???

and when do ya plan to go wheelin' again????

Greg and I plan to hit Interlake on the 30th if ya interested....

l8r, John

 

[RangerSVT]

With the extra support I'm thinking that the setup won't have as much room to vibrate things loose. As far as the safety wire and some of the bolts close to the sides, you can drill 2 or 3 sets of holes in the close tolerance bolts to make it easier...

SVT

 

[Kage]

I would run a rear mount...just cause that is a lot of weight that wasn't engineered into the factory set up....

can ya use lockwashers to help with the locktight???

and when do ya plan to go wheelin' again????

Greg and I plan to hit Interlake on the 30th if ya interested....

l8r, John

I can get lock washers on some of the screws, but not all of them (some is better than none right? ).

I'm going to be down for a bit, but I'm hoping to pull off a run sometime in July, I don't think I'll be making the Interlake run on the 30th with as much work that needs to be done to the truck.

The short list right now is:
- Fix the Doubler
- Swap in the Poly Motor Mounts
- Re make a Tranny poly mount (a friend gave me an idea of making a mount that will span from the rear T-Case to the trock tranny mount location, I need to think on that one some more)
- Order/Install the 4.88's

So hopefully by mid July, it'll be ready to roll again (if not sooner, the heat is slowing me down).

With the extra support I'm thinking that the setup won't have as much room to vibrate things loose. As far as the safety wire and some of the bolts close to the sides, you can drill 2 or 3 sets of holes in the close tolerance bolts to make it easier...

SVT

I'd thought about doing that (the extra bolts) or adding a dowel pin or three to help counter the rotational forces that the setup sees. All options are on the floor right now, including just slapping the dude back together again and crossing my fingers that I don't have this problem anymore in the future

It just bugs me when I come up with 'unique' problems that no one else seems to encounter

 

[railman]

well, I think Rick meant 2 or 3 extra holes in the bolt heads for the safety wire...not extra bolts in the TC...

personnally, I would build a rear crossmember for the back of the doubler where the stock dampener goes....the tie that x-member to the tranny x-member with a skidplate....just a thought

anyways, if ya get back together by mid July...consider the Crawl Magazine meet at The Wishbone Ranch....it is July 28th....and as that last video of Greg and us can attest, you would not be dissapointed....

l8r, John

 

[Josh40601]

Hey Ben, check out my setup. I never pulled through the motor mounts and I wasn't chained down. I pretty much was running a double sheer setup where the backside of the transmission and the rear case were hard mounted to the skid, then the skid was mounted to 4 poly bushings at the frame. I can honestly say, this setup worked awesome. If my engine were about 15 years newer, I would have stayed with this. My next setup will likely be mounted just the same

 

[Josh40601]

Oh, and see y'all at the Ranch

 

[Kage]

well, I think Rick meant 2 or 3 extra holes in the bolt heads for the safety wire...not extra bolts in the TC...

personnally, I would build a rear crossmember for the back of the doubler where the stock dampener goes....the tie that x-member to the tranny x-member with a skidplate....just a thought

anyways, if ya get back together by mid July...consider the Crawl Magazine meet at The Wishbone Ranch....it is July 28th....and as that last video of Greg and us can attest, you would not be dissapointed....

l8r, John

Gotcha, there isn't room to add any extra holes if I wanted to anyway

I've looked at that spot (where the vibe dapener goes) and I'm not really sure how much those standoffs will take. if I just make a 'bump stop' off of that mount, it would probably be fine, but if I were to use those standoff's to try to capture the rear case, I think things will get ugly.

I need to do some more looking tonight, but I'm wondering if I can't tie the trans mount and the t-case support mount together to help keep everything in line while adding support. I'm not sure there will be room for it though.

As far as making it to the ranch, I have a rough time planning 5 days out, let alont a month

Hey Ben, check out my setup. I never pulled through the motor mounts and I wasn't chained down. I pretty much was running a double sheer setup where the backside of the transmission and the rear case were hard mounted to the skid, then the skid was mounted to 4 poly bushings at the frame. I can honestly say, this setup worked awesome. If my engine were about 15 years newer, I would have stayed with this. My next setup will likely be mounted just the same

I looked at yours, and to be honest, it scared the crap out of me (the rear mount, not the tranny mount).

How many miles do you have on it like that? Did/do you beat on it much in double low with it setup like that?

 

[Kage]

Couple of quick updates.

SVT was kind enough to get me the replacement parts I needed for my melted crawl box stuff. I think I've also found out why the damn thing keeps loosening up too.

I had a chance to play with doubler tonight and gave everything a closer look. It turns out that the damn SHCS are bottoming out so that depending on the screw, they are 'just' touching the plate, or they're about 0.005" away from touching.

I'm thinking this just might be my problem

I'd never tried to put this thing together without sealant, so I suppose that's why I never noticed the issue before. I am confident enought that this is what has been causing my problems, and it should be resolved now.

If they back off again, I'm going to weld it up as I don't see a need to clock this setup again anytime soon.

I'm still waiting on my gears to ship, I'll probably give the vendor a call tomorrow to see what the hold up is.

 

[RangerSVT]

Glad you got em, idk if you want to try the used one of the two, but I sent it anyway. I forgot to ask and didn't think about it til now, but do you have a 6 pinion, or a 4? I have a pair of 6 pinion planetaries, but thinking of replacing one of the 4 pinion planetaries in the 1350 I have, that leaves one spare left.....


SVT

 

[Kage]

Glad you got em, idk if you want to try the used one of the two, but I sent it anyway. I forgot to ask and didn't think about it til now, but do you have a 6 pinion, or a 4? I have a pair of 6 pinion planetaries, but thinking of replacing one of the 4 pinion planetaries in the 1350 I have, that leaves one spare left.....


SVT

I've got one of each, but I'm running the 1354 6 planetary setup right now, but I have a backup set of the 1350 stuff. I like the 1354 setup better, not just becaues of the planetary setup, but I like the range selector setup better.

 

[Kage]

While not exciting to look at, this photo makes me excited:

On Monday, it would have been a month since the truck moved under its own power. Things just kept coming up and killing any chance of making progress on fixing things.

I had a big burst of energy yesterday/today and got the truck going again (no in progress photos, that's just how it goes sometimes).

- Tore out the 60, and dragged it down south to have a friend regear it (he had a fancy bearing puller that made life MUCH easier!).

- Got the 14 bolt setup (Retarded easy to do).

- Booty fabbed a new transmission mount that uses rubber bushings, but is still a bit more stout than the Ford junk.

- I still need to slap the belly skid back on and rig up an extra mount for the doubler, I'll get that done this week.


I've only put 20 miles (break in) on the truck since the regear this afternoon. I'm diggin the 4.88's around town, it make the truck sooo much nicer to drive. Slapping it in double low makes me giggle at how slow it goes as well.

Shooting for a trip to Washita Mx this coming Saturday, we'll see if it works out.