Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and - Joined
- Mar 31, 2009
- Messages
- 2,660
- Reaction score
- 12
- Location
- Madisonville, KY
- Vehicle Year
- 1996
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 4.0
- Transmission
- Automatic
well, to be honest....I never really intended to have a build thread.....but since the Ranger is now gonna be mostly a trail vehicle and not my DD anymore ( but still legal so if i wanna drive it I can ) .......thought I would make one for the up-comming changes.....
here is basically how she started....only thing I had done at this point was the bedrails, toolbox, and the 32x11.50's....
found a 10,000# reciever mounted winch at....Sam's Club of all places......but after scouring the internet for a front reciever and seeing what was available I decided that they would have the winch mounted too low for any real wheeling....so I started to make my own front bumper with provisions to accept the reciever cradle....
and the finished product.....
then on my first trip to Turkey Bay I hydro-locked the motor....
so Rick hauled my truck to his place and within the week an EX 4.0 was in place of my hydro-locked one......
not long after I found some considerable rust and had to replace all the spring hangers...
and at the same time to compensate for the heavy winch and bumper i got some 2" Daystar coil spacers....but they lasted less tha 6 months....
so I made my own custom spacers....
then it was time for some added traction.....so in went a locker....
next I was tireing of the stock "deer hoof" wheels, so I bought some rims from a TRS member ( pretty cheap considering the oxidation that was on them ) so i cleaned and sanded them for some fresh paint to match the lower graphics on my truck....
well they rubbed too much, so I had to take them back off and do some lifting with some "poor-boy" upgrades.....
what my rear measurement was at the start.....and what she looked like....
first was some Ex 4 door leaves.....new center pin....
new Chevy lowering shackles....( cheap ones found at O'Reillys, AutoZone...etc...)
rear finished.....and the after measurement...
now for some front upgrades......2.5" lift brackets, coils, and extended arms ( which the arms turned out to be for a 2wd Ranger ).....
so up in the air she went.....
since the arms were for a 2wd, I cut off the factory radius arms and grafted the extended arms to the ends....with gussets and plating on the backside....
noticed what is leftover from the stock arms....
what she looked like afterward.....
shortly thereafter my carrier bearing on my 2 piece shaft decided it didn't like the new geometry ( or was just worn out
)......
and since Rick's truck was down, I "borrowed" his one piece aluminum one ( since the Ranger was my DD still ) until I could have a new steel 1 piece made....here you can see all 3 together....
and the new shaft with out the rubber "billows" on the slip....
well after wheeling her some more my fan got into the radiator and caused a leak....so I got a new one.....well the fan got into the new one a couple trips later.....
trail fix to limp her home....
turns out that the EX 4.0 fan is thicker than the Rangers.....
so now that I had that problem licked....and another new radiator I had a buddy ask if I wanted to buy a truck he has had....so I bought it for his pay-off and that is how I got a new daily driver and tow-rig.....
which pretty much brings me up to date....the only things not really mentioned are my EX power leather seats, Ford/Blaupunkt Focus radio, and a few other odd and ends....
but, from this point forward I have some new drivetrain, suspension, and body/armor mods on their way.....so keep watching.....
l8r, John
here is basically how she started....only thing I had done at this point was the bedrails, toolbox, and the 32x11.50's....
found a 10,000# reciever mounted winch at....Sam's Club of all places......but after scouring the internet for a front reciever and seeing what was available I decided that they would have the winch mounted too low for any real wheeling....so I started to make my own front bumper with provisions to accept the reciever cradle....
and the finished product.....
then on my first trip to Turkey Bay I hydro-locked the motor....
so Rick hauled my truck to his place and within the week an EX 4.0 was in place of my hydro-locked one......
not long after I found some considerable rust and had to replace all the spring hangers...
and at the same time to compensate for the heavy winch and bumper i got some 2" Daystar coil spacers....but they lasted less tha 6 months....
so I made my own custom spacers....
then it was time for some added traction.....so in went a locker....
next I was tireing of the stock "deer hoof" wheels, so I bought some rims from a TRS member ( pretty cheap considering the oxidation that was on them ) so i cleaned and sanded them for some fresh paint to match the lower graphics on my truck....
well they rubbed too much, so I had to take them back off and do some lifting with some "poor-boy" upgrades.....
what my rear measurement was at the start.....and what she looked like....
first was some Ex 4 door leaves.....new center pin....
new Chevy lowering shackles....( cheap ones found at O'Reillys, AutoZone...etc...)
rear finished.....and the after measurement...
now for some front upgrades......2.5" lift brackets, coils, and extended arms ( which the arms turned out to be for a 2wd Ranger
).....
so up in the air she went.....
since the arms were for a 2wd, I cut off the factory radius arms and grafted the extended arms to the ends....with gussets and plating on the backside....
noticed what is leftover from the stock arms....
what she looked like afterward.....
shortly thereafter my carrier bearing on my 2 piece shaft decided it didn't like the new geometry ( or was just worn out
)......
and since Rick's truck was down, I "borrowed" his one piece aluminum one ( since the Ranger was my DD still ) until I could have a new steel 1 piece made....here you can see all 3 together....
and the new shaft with out the rubber "billows" on the slip....
well after wheeling her some more my fan got into the radiator and caused a leak....so I got a new one.....well the fan got into the new one a couple trips later.....
trail fix to limp her home....
turns out that the EX 4.0 fan is thicker than the Rangers.....
so now that I had that problem licked....and another new radiator I had a buddy ask if I wanted to buy a truck he has had....so I bought it for his pay-off and that is how I got a new daily driver and tow-rig.....
which pretty much brings me up to date....the only things not really mentioned are my EX power leather seats, Ford/Blaupunkt Focus radio, and a few other odd and ends....
but, from this point forward I have some new drivetrain, suspension, and body/armor mods on their way.....so keep watching.....
l8r, John
