thinking of doing a solid axle swap on my 87 ranger

[deranged]

im thinking of doing a solid axle swap on my 87 ranger any ideas or guidance on what axle i should use??? this is my first ford and my first 4x4

 

[dangerranger83]

All depends on what you plan on doing with your truck. Most say go with at least a D44, either Early Bronco (low pinion) or Full Width D44 (high pinion) or narrow the FW one to EB width.

Me I went with a D30, takes a bit more to put one under a ranger. I went with long arms.

The D44's are somewhat a "bolt in" thing, but still take a few mods.

 

[Hagan]

Me I went with a D30, takes a bit more to put one under a ranger. I went with long arms.

The D44's are somewhat a "bolt in" thing, but still take a few mods.

I can't think of one thing that's "bolt in" on my Dana 44. Maybe the EB D44's are somewhat bolt in but that's if you use the stock junk radius arms/mounts.

Not to mention you have to figure out a method to mount the trac bar and find a steering setup.

 

[4x4junkie]

The early Bronco D44 is the closest you'll be able to get to "bolting it in" (which these are getting quite hard to find these days, especially ones with disc brakes). Narrowing a F-150 D44 is becoming more popular (which IMO is a better axle anyway, being it's that it's high-pinion and has larger u-joints). No matter what axle you use though, you'll need to fab up your trackbar mounting bracket, and most likely your steering linkage too.

I suggest doing a search through some of the build threads here, there's quite a bit of past discussion on this subject.

Have you given any thought to the D35 from an Explorer at all? Though it's not 'solid', it's just as strong as one and bolts right in (again, lots of info on this swap here as well).Throwing that out here just in case...

Welcome to TRS

 

[deranged]

i will definatly do more research this is my first ranger and first 4x4 ive helped budys with there toyotas do the dana 35s out of an explorer have a decent amout of flex

 

[4x4junkie]

It all depends on the springs you have under there (which is no different than on a solid axle or anything else really).

I have Skyjacker's Jeep XJ coils on mine, and it seems to do well enough (a bit over 20" flex measured from the fender lip to the tire).


Early Bronco coils have been used by some here too (a little stiffer for if you have a Supercab truck).
Just be sure to avoid the gaping steering pitfall the lift industry has left open on these trucks.
Take a look through the Steering section here. Good flexible springs will likely require some mods there also (figure you'd still have to replace the steering with a solid axle anyway, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do some research on that also).

This post has good info on some other things needed, and info about the twin-beam setup in general.
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29

Hope that helps

 

[4.0B2]

learn your ttb... and it'll be plenty of flex and off road capability for most people. sas is not the only way to go. learn the ttb stuff. get your steering right. right coils. brackets.

look in the tech library about the ttb


for sas, i'd use a d44... i did start to do a d30, its doable. its a decent axle. depending on your plans for your rig.

 

[deranged]

i really want a truck i can rock crawl go to rubicon fordyce hollister hills are some of the places id be going

 

[Bennybooster]

spend some time reading here and pirate4x4 ( a few months at least ) and get a good idea of what works and what doesn't, then come back with some more educated questions. Because right now it sounds like you have no idea what is going on and don't have the capability to do a SAS.