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project Chknfkr!


CHKNFKR

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project CHKNFKR!

Its not entirely accurate to call this a build thread as so far i am still "unbuilding," but i suppose in a project such as this, the tear down and prep work are just as important as the build up.

The truck is a '93 ranger regular cab, short bed. Ford put a 2.3L, the m5r1, a bw 1354, d35 ttb and a 7.5" and not a whole lot more in her. I can't tell you a whole lot about her life up till about 3 weeks before i bought her. maybe Ryan can jack my thread and give us a history on red. about three weeks before i bought her, Ryan and i headed off in red to pull a mired jeep out of a little bit of sand. a little too long in low range with the mill wrapped up a little too tight and not a whole lot of airflow ended our adventure with a blown head gasket and Ryan dying for a more capable truck.

He needed some cash and i needed a project so a deal was made and red was now mine.

The plan:
460 bored and stroked to 545CID (got the bare block)
np435 (got it, needs a shortened output shaft)
atlas 4 speed
twin rocks locked or spooled (got em in about 1000 pieces)
4 wheel steer
hemtt wheels w/ beadlocks (got em)
53" Michelin xzl meats
full cage
custom frame
4 link & coil overs front and rear
2008 - 2010 super duty front clip

I'd like not to cross the truck/truggy line but i will if i have to, i will not cross the truggy/buggy line.

Just discovered these pics in another thread on here. They're both from when ryan still owned the truck. To my knowledge the truck was stock in both photos.


and sort of an action shot i suppose


Here she is the day i bought her


not a month later i was called to active duty and shipped off to Tikrit, Iraq. In my absence ryan began the tear down. here you can see all that remains in the engine bay is the nearly bare block and the heater box. and the cab has been stripped to a column and pedals.













The truck itself hasn't changed much since then. the bed is being used for storage and nothing has filled the void in the engine compartment as of yet. The 460 block currently resides with a chevy man. while i was in Iraq my uncle, cousin, and ryan jacked my block and my uncle took it to the machinist to get the ball rolling. he's still got it, i just haven't picked it up yet.

not a week after my homecoming i was back on the road, this time to Little Rock, Arkansas to pick up these beauties!



for those of you who don't know what you're looking at, those are Rockwell 5-ton steer axles from a mid 60's Kaiser, likely the M54 line of military vehicles. after a 10 hour drive home it didn't take long to realize these axles probably haven't been serviced since the mid 60's and have taken on a little water.



I'd like to apologize now for not taking more pictures, most of the disassembly my hands were far too filthy to touch a camera. here i've got the hubs, spindles, drive flanges, and shafts removed from one axle and loaded up to power wash.



Here i have the top inspection plate removed revealing the upper gear set, everything appears to be in good shape.



And here the complete third member has just been removed.



Here you can see the pile of parts i plan to turn into a truck. things are kind of on hold while i try to source parts for these behemoths.






The big thing keeping this project on hold is the fact that i'm working out of a storage unit. I'm very clearly in violation of their policy regarding hazmat, i don't have power or light. I am seeking out a property with a larger garage or barn with power.

Right now I'm focusing my energy on the axles. next on my agenda is sourcing the bearings and seals required to reassemble, blast and paint everything, shave the skids, beef, link tabs, tow points, reassemble, pinion brakes (until i can figure out wheel disk brakes for these) after all that I'll be ready to move on to the engine.

This is going to be a slow build, please be patient.
 
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Ranger44

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About time......:icon_thumby:
 

Silver talon84

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WOW DUDE!!!! Thats some BFA's!!!! You plan on running tank tracks or something??? That poor old ranger frame is going to hate you after putting those under it! lol. Good luck on the build, I'll be keeping my eye on this one!!

:headbang:
 

CHKNFKR

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Not quite tank track, why would i need steer axles if i did that? I plan on running Michelin XZL 16R20 tires on a Titan HEMTT two piece rim with Hutchinson beadlock inserts. nothing like a wheel and tire combo weighing in over 500 lbs... on the flip side each wheel and tire is rated for 14,750 lbs, i hope they never see that on my rig!

as for the ranger frame, its not staying around. If i kept it I'd have to c-notch or z it front and rear, box it, move/replace nearly all the cross members and in the end it wouldn't be as strong as building a new frame for the rocks.

for those of you that saw Rockwells and instantly thought hack job mud truck. stay tuned. Chknfkr is not going to be a hack job and is not going to be a mud truck. I'm building her for the rocks.
 

Ranger44

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You'd better update. :icon_welder:
 

CHKNFKR

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You'd better update. :icon_welder:
You had better GRYFYAPIOYTSICMTIL!

get back to me when you know what that means...




as for the update, remember its slow and not so steady, less so now since i am trying to find work and move a little over a hundred miles to be closer to my fiancée. here's about all i have:

For those of you unsure what type of vehicle these axles are found in here is an example of one. i almost bought this truck, someday i'd like one just like it.





Its an M816 5-ton wrecker of the M809 series trucks. this line of trucks sports a 855 CID Cummins multi-fuel engine and a 5 speed fully synchronized standard shift transmission. I have personally roasted the rear 8 on dry pavement till i found third :icon_hornsup:


And here's the above mentioned fiancée posing in front of it


So i made an axle stand and have put it to use, there's another one on the way and i'm making them beefy enough to serve as jack stands for the complete truck whenever i get to that point.


Before the Metabo






After the Metabo


Someone has already had a little fun with this one, the scary part is while having fun in their M813 (cargo bed) they rolled her over.


For those wondering, yes that's the not yet built power plant doing a very good impression of a paper weight. If I haven't yet mentioned she's a D0VE A casting, came out of a '73 Lincoln not with a short snout, not with a long snout, but with no snout at all, thats what happens when you use a busted ass hoist i suppose, all the better for me, i got her already tore down which saved me the headache :D



Here are a couple welds that, while solid for the last 60 years, bug the crap out of me.

Tomorrow the skids will be meeting Mr. Plasma and Mr. Miller for a haircut, i think they'd look great with mohawks. the welds i am unhappy with will also be getting corrected. hopefully i'll have an update in a day or two...
 

Robert_1967

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Dang, I wished you lived closer to East Tennessee, I would happy as punch to help you out on working on the Ranger and such, I like the direction your going in on the build.

and your tear down pictures just remind me of what I have to do to my Ranger, and the donor Explorer I just got.



Robert
 

scott5640

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so let me get this straight...your putting axles from a 5 TON TRUCK in a RANGER?!?!?!?







sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

CHKNFKR

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well the barber didn't leave enough for the stylist to work with, no gas means no welding.... in the mean time i found some fun things to put through the hole i cut :icon_rofl:

I'll let the pictures do the talking




























 

Robert_1967

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I was wondering, are you going to 4 link them, or go with leave springs????





Robert
 

bcost882

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haha i saw those axles and you said wut they were and i thought of a ranger feature in a mag i saw that had a 7-ton front axle and 5-ton rear.......and i believe a 598ci engine......i hope your turns out well and have funn lookin for parts haha
 

CHKNFKR

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I was wondering, are you going to 4 link them, or go with leave springs????





Robert
The plan is 4 link front and rear but i have a hard time seeing it working up front. might have to 3 link and pan hard the front as a last resort.



haha i saw those axles and you said wut they were and i thought of a ranger feature in a mag i saw that had a 7-ton front axle and 5-ton rear.......and i believe a 598ci engine......i hope your turns out well and have funn lookin for parts haha
it wasn't any of the monstrosities over on chucks was it? I hate that the guys over there are as dumb as they are, how could 13" blocks ever be considered a good idea? it seems only complete morons are building anything with rockwells, which turns people off to a build as soon as they see the word rockwell. /rant

anywho, hopefully we got gas today :icon_welder: :icon_cheers:
 
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CHKNFKR

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Still no gas :-( its not such a bad thing though, i need to clean up the cuts with a grinder yet, oh and buy the 1/2" plate. In the mean time i found more usefull things to stuff down that hole. Pics will be up in a couple hours when i get to a computer.
 

MountainMike

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My credo
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In the mean time i found more useful things to stuff down that hole.
This intrigues me:icon_twisted:

I'm definitely following this build
 

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