My Ranger II

Well it's official, I now have a V8 Ranger.

I lost my build tread, and I'm just too lazy to find it right now, but this truck started life with a leaky 2.3 4 banger that had to fall out of a tree to get going, and it had a 5 speed.

HERE IS MY OLD TREAD from when I first started this mess. http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95330

When I first decided to rebuild it 3 years ago, I though I would just do a 4.0 swap, and auto trans, but after I traded some stuff for a 93 Explorer, and stripped it out, I decided, I wanted a little bit more of a cool factor, so after going through a bout of depression, and a few hospital stays, I traded for a 95 T-bird, it had the 4.6, but after some thinking, and a few suggestion from some members here, I ended up trading the t-bird, for a 75 Mustang II.

That is why I decided to call this a Ranger II.

so this morning after getting the gumption to get out and face the heat, I got the engine installed, bad thing is now I have to save up for some 1/4 plate to make a trans mount.

on the good side, my 88 Ranger drive shaft works, BUT since I have the 8.8 rear end out of the 93 Explorer, I have to change out the drive shaft flange, I hope I get to use the same U joint, it only had about 100 miles on it when the engine let go.

will here are some pictures from this morning.















well this is all for now, as you can see the trans mount is way off, so I have to get some plate metal, and make it work, that is the 88 trans cross member, I also have the 93 Explorer cross member, I'm thinking of trying to use it, it would be a cleaner look.


also if you notice the pipe up against the fire wall, it's OK, I'm going to take it off, and have a shorter pipe with a tighter bend made, and I'm also thinking of having my manifolds ceramic coated.


Robert



sent with a baseball, and rooted football.

I'm also thinking of trying to lower the engine down about 2 inches, I have about 4 inches from the pan to the cross member.




Robert




sent with a pipe wrench, and Ice Tea.

IMO before going too much further I'd get some inner fenders and core support on there. It'd suck to get the engine all mounted up and have no room for a radiator.

Concerning your sig. If Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were destroyed I wouldn't give a crap, but then I'm not exactly a teen. Now, if the internet were destroyed I'd probably be able to get more work done.

Is the cross member forward or rearward of where you need it to be?

If it needs to move forward about 2" you should be able to relocate it.

On second thought, 2" ain't gonna do it.

no, it's a good 6" to 8" back from the transmission mount.

also I had already set the rad core in, and checked it, also from what the tech library says, I have the engine right where I need it since my drive shaft is where it needs to be.


I am going to try later to lower the engine down some, I think it sits too high.



Robert




sent with a Health book, and a swimming pool.

Found it and subscribed!!!

As for the tras member, if it can be moved forward and used, even by having to still hires in the frame, then I would do that. Also you can find ones for sale online for doing v8 swaps in a ranger, but they can get pricy, hence why I'm building the ugly one I have.

Also, you going to put power steering on?

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

As for drive shaft, if you have the 1210 joints, you are SOL on a conversion joint. I do recommend running at least a 1310 with a 302.

But if you have the smaller flange on your drive shaft and are trying to bolt it to the larger explorer flange, all you have to do its drill and tap now holes in the explorer flange. What size drill bit and tap you will need I can't remember but I know there are other people on here that do know.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

yea, I'll be doing power steering when I can find a decent bracket, I hate the big ugly one that came with this engine off the 75 mustang.

I'm going to see if I can just swap out the rear flange on the drive shaft, it's the small bolt 7.5, and the rearend is a 8.8.

I'll do some custom made cross member, I have the one off the 93 Explorer, it's the one that on the driver side sits on the frame, and the passenger side goes up the out side of the frame, that way I can get rid of the odd ball mounting flange for the 88 member.



Robert




posted with a rooted movie and fish scales.

If your driveshaft has 1210 joints, then you are stuck with the small flange it has.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

I found the only problem I had with my ’88 STX / Ranger / 5.0L conversion was the u-joints would wear out on me.

I never got to upgrade to a larger setup, might not hurt while you are building and replacing the rear anyway, get a larger driveshaft and u-joints.

What size U-joint comes on the Explorer 8.8 anyway ?

dangerranger83 said:

If your driveshaft has 1210 joints, then you are stuck with the small flange it has.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

If I can find out which one I need, there is a "Spicer" u-joint just for this, I just have to figure out which one, and where to get it.

it's the tech forum, under drive shafts all the way down.



Robert




sent with a bottle of Jack and a cookie.

From looking at the Autozone website, and crossing the tech library, the Explorer use's the 1310, and the Ranger use's the 1210.

so I should be able to get a spicer joint, just have to figure out where to get it.



Robert



sent with a Dearth Star, and a rusted spoon.

There are no 1210 to 1310 conversion ujoints, looked that up way back when I was doing my swap. Rangers were the only vehicles made with the 1210 joints. Ford later upgraded to the 1310 on rangers.

If you have the smaller flange yoke, its has the 2.5 inch bolt holes and they came in 1210 and 1310 ujoint sizes. Later on the ranger 7.5 and 8.8 and exploder 8.8 went to the 3 inch flange yoke that came in 1310. Sport tracks came with 1330 ujoint sizes but its still the same size bolt pattern on the flange yoke, which is the best one.

Currently I have a 1330 drive shaft with a conversion ujoint 1330/1310, Moog part number 353, that has the smaller 2.5 inch 1310 ujoint flange yoke that enabled me to bolt up to my existion rear end. If I do upgrade to a rear end that has the 3 inch flange on it, then I can either drill and tap it for my current flange yoke or make it simpler and get a 1310 or even better, 1330 flange yoke that has the 3 inch pattern and it will bolt right up.

Your best bet is to upgrade to a 1310 driveshaft, that leaves your options better open. You could possibley get a weld in yoke put in yours that you can keep your current driveshaft and go to the 1310 ujoint. The front driveshafts of the early rangers with 4wd, d28 have the 1210 ujoints at the case and 1310 at the front diff., at least the ones with the slip joint on the t-case have that setup. If the driveshafts are the same diameter then that could be another option for you.

I think I have a simple solution, I'm going to try and find a newer 1 piece drive shaft that has the bigger flange.

this way I can do away with the carrier bearing, and I don't have to find a drive line shop to cut and replace the end of my shaft. I do still have the 93 Explorer drive shaft with the bigger flange.


but this will have to wait till the first of the month, then i can get to Pull-A-Part, and see what I can find.

Also, A friend of mine gave me a set of 48 Chevy Door hinges, these look similar to the hinge kits that cost 400.00 to do a suicide door.

Robert



sent with a rusty door hinge and V8 emblem.

If I had known you still had the two piece drive shaft and were going to try and use it, that would have been the first thing I would have said to get rid of.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2