Completed Project Kirby's 1991 Ranger Build Up

I haven't posted much here since I sold my 1993 Mazda Navajo around 2010 or 2011. It was 10 years in the making and finally to a solid, reliable state. I had some other priorities and decided to sell it and get something more versatile. I will include some pictures below of its developing states and final state when I sold it below. In the end, it had 37" MTRs, Arb front, detroit rear, 4.56 gears, D and D doubler and I built all the armor and the Dana 44 front Solid Axle Swap.

James duff 3.5" VR coil lift, 235" defender tires and a home made heavy ugly bumper (around 2000 when I bought it) :

2001 with 33x10.50s and James duff 4.5" lift with extended radius arms, manual hubs and new auto tranny:

Here it is just after the SAS with 34s and a swapped in manual tcase and tranny:

Winching out of Mikeys hot tub circa 2002 or so

Stuck on a tree just after 37s

37s, winch bumper rebuild etc

Final State Explorerforum moab trip 2010

Last Poser Shots

I hear it still gets around Colorado and Utah and I have had buddies call me with airings from time to time.

I have had a few rangers and one explorer since I sold my explorer.
Here are some pics of those:

Beat up 1994 Ranger 2.4l ($250)

Traded 1993 Ranger 4.0l and an abused auto tranny

1991 Manual Tcase and Tranny Explorer Sport

We have also had a ton of cool Jeeps. Here are a couple of pics, along with our current Jeep which we are hanging on to:

2005 unlimited Rubicon Sahara 5.7 L Hemi

2005 unlimited Rubicon 35s and 4" lift

Our Current 2005 Unlimited Rubicon 4" Lift 315 Kevlars

It does great grocery getter, family truckster, and occasional wekend wheeler, but I need a truck and I miss my exploder, so I decided to build a Ranger. However, I want to build it a little different this time.

I have always wanted to build a 1989-1992 ranger, so I spent a considerable amount of time looking for a low mile one with the right engine, tranny and tcase in good shape. 4.0l, m5od and 1354M stock. My explorer ended up with this combo, but started out as an auto tranny and tcase. This made for a ton of modifications and headaches with my explorer. Rangers can be had in many other undesirable configurations because they were available with 3 different v6s in 1989-92 and a 4cylinder. It proved to be a difficult task. Finally in the fall of 2012 I picked this one up. A 1991 4.0l manual tranny and transfer case 4x4 extended cab "mountain States Edition. It had 130k on it and ran great. The paint was toast, it had a rusty bed and (my biggest complaint) it had no factory air.

I drove it for a year until I was ready to have it painted. I fixed a bunch on it- thermostat, muffler, wheel bearings, brakes, had a new headliner installed, etc. When I got a quote for the paint (one solid color and fix the dings) it was 2k. So then I started thinking I better look for a different ranger to build! I settled on this one. It too is a 1991, it has air (huge plus after not having it in my other truck all summer), manual case and tranny and everything else and a 4.0. The body is really straight no rust and the interior is super nice. The odo read 83k and I believed it.

Since then I tracked down the original and only owner to find it has 183 k on it and they were all hwy miles. The only complaints I have is I wish it had the other mirrors and pop out extended cab windows. I can deal with those, though. This truck has been taken care of.

First order of business was a tune up, brakes and leaky valve cover gaskets.

The build plan is pretty simple: build it similar to how my explorer ended up, with out all the half builds in between. It took me a lot of work and money to get my explorer to preform well off-road and on the street and be reliable. On this one I want to skip all the poor performing, cheapskate half steps I took with the explorer.

My goal is to end up with a reliable, daily drive able, off-road capable ranger that will make a great driver, great work truck and great expo vehicle. I like the idea of a truck over a explorer sport because I need to haul dirt bikes and Sheetrock and plywood and all kinds of stuff all the time so I always needed a pickup when I had the explorer even though I wanted to drive the explorer all the time. Hopefully this will do both functions well.

So far, I have installed:

A blue tooth pioneer stereo (replacing the stock tape deck)

A optima yellow top

A Black grill and headlight bezels along with new headlights:

The only body work it needs is the topper it had on it was put on with a loose and poorly placed clamp that rubbed a hole in the bed cap. I will weld it up and hopefully add a LineX bedliner over the top

I purchased a Dana 44 out of a 76 f150 with no guts or outers for a $50 bill. I still have my spare warn premium hubs off my ex, and I plan to build this one stout before I put it in and leave it full width but move the c bushings in about 2" per side. I will likely then run stock style f150 wheels with stock backspacing and 35s or 37s as skinny as I can find. It will get a full rebuild and at least 4.88s, maybe 5.13s. I am not decided on radius arms yet. I suppose extended ones are on the bill instead of the stock wristed ones I had before, but I haven't sorted that out yet. The wrist traveled fine but it clunked and made a racket and it was also a pain to get out and pull the pin when it was time to wheel. Extended arms won't perform quite as well on the street as the stock length ones did with the pin in, but longer arms should stream line things.

For the rear I will rebuild a full width late model 31 spline 8.8 put of a bronco or f150 and install explorer disk brakes. I will likely need to have the axle flanges turned down and drill the rotors for the new bolt pattern.

I will extend the wheel base around 3" by moving the front axle forward and leave the rear axle centered in the wheel well. I plan to leave the bed size stock as I need the truck to haul stuff all the time. I will build bumpers and sliders before I beat it up this time.

Stay Tuned, I am picking up the front axle tomorrow.

 

[Kirby N.]

The belly pan is all tacked together and ready for final weld. I am debating on building a tcase skid for the lower most part of the case. I would like to, but it will make it unserviceable without the belly pan dropped which requires taking off the radius arms. That and the radius arm mounts will still be the lowest part under belly.

 

[BKennedy]

Can you post a picture? Why not make the transfer case skid plate separate from the belly pan? I have two skids that overlap at the transmission cross member, one for transmission, one for transfer case. I was going to make a third covering the part of the engine not protected by the cross member, but decided it would be near impossible for a rock to get up in there.

 

[Kirby N.]

I think that's what I will do. Make it separate. Like yours. Later. When I don't have so many other things to do!

 

[BKennedy]

Good plan. Pic of mine

 

[yostyexplorer94]

This time for the multipurpose vehicle the ranger will be I expect 5.13s to be adequate with the stock tcase. We will see though.

I have 5.13 gears 35" tires and i couldn't crawl to the top of a 36" tire without the doubler. I would get halfway up and i could smell my clutch. Crawling through rocks was hell so i didn't do much til i got my doubler because i knew i was gonna ruin my clutch if i kept it up.

 

[Kirby N.]

I wheeled my explorer sport with 4.56s and 37s with no doubler for years so I know where you are coming from. I also built a doubler and installed it on that rig so I know the difference it makes. However, This is a multi purpose rig that won't live in the rocks everyday. It will haul my butt to work everyday and hual all sorts of stuff in the bed. It will also drag a trailer around and do the occasional trail. I think it will be fine. If not, I will start saving for an aftermarket tcase, not a doubler.

 

[RockRanger]

Glad it got there fast. One thing before you weld it up. The included bolts for the cross member side are metric and should use the factory bolts. Also the 9/16" bolts in the bushings one goes in from the front and one from the back. If you put the tcase on after the bolts are installed and they are reversed then you will have to pull the tcase to get the mount apart.

 

[Kirby N.]

Wow. This thing is really well built. Too late I welded it up monday when I got it!

I ended up drilling out the bottom holes for 1/2" bolts. I had to buy a 25 from fastenal so I have them and I like having them of the same size.

I didnt realize the 9/16" bolts went a certain way. oops. Is that due to the size of the holes or the clearance of the tcase? I need the driver to go from the front to back due to tight clearance on that tube, so hopefully I can work that out.

 

[RockRanger]

It has to do with with clearance to pull the bolt out. When in one direction the bolt can only be pulled out part way before they hit the trans or Tcase. If it worked for you then you got it right. You should be able to see which way the bolts go once you go to mount it up. Maybe there are more variations and only on mine it is an issue?

 

[Kirby N.]

I didnt run into any issues with bolts from the front or rear on either side. I will check again when I remove it for paint.

I did run into other issues, however. My track bar and drag link are out to be made. The drag link will be done today. The track bar on the other hand- the threads of the joints I choose are 1"x 14. You already know the clearance issues I am having especially with the poly upper joint that is 2.6" wide. Well, the other issue is that my machinist buddy who is turning all my steering linkage says the threads are very uncommon for him. So uncommon that he has no taps. I thought I would just buy the taps. I located the right had tap at Napa for $20. The left is $130 special order. So that is $150 bucks.

So I decided to go with new joints. Ballistic wont take my joints back because I have had them for over 90 days. So I bought 2" flex joints with 7/8"x14 threads and I am going to go with flex joints on both sides. I also ordered a new "outside of frame" trackbar bracket from ruff stuff that should give me another inch or two of trackbar length and more clearance with it being thinned and outside of the frame!

Burning $150 sucks. I hope I can sell the joints and recoup some money. Doubt they will sell well if they are that odd size. All this would be easier if I went with heims. I refuse.

 

[Kirby N.]

Oh also Moab with the ranger on the 25th is definitely out now. I am glad we have some dirtbikes and a 2006 Rubicon Unlimited. It will still be fun. I don't think anyone from the site will still be there by the time we get there anyway.

 

[BKennedy]

Would you get more space if you mounted the bushing side of the track bar on the axle? Mine is set up that way and works great.

 

[Kirby N.]

I could but the bracket I got is 2" wide so it won't fit the bushing I have. Also I wasn't able to get the mounts straight accross from each other with the lower mount I have and the diff interference and the cool bucket where it is at. I could mount it below the coil bucket but then it would be even shorter and need a bend to clear the diff and I don't have access to my old hydro harbor freight bender to bend the smaller stuff anymore.

I got my belly pan all welded up. It needs some paint.

I attmpted to drill the mount with oblong 1/2" holes. That didn't work. So I over drilled the holes then I will add these spacers under the nuts.
I hope this will make install easier.

 

[RockRanger]

I like the skidplate. Fun working with non parallel frame rails.

 

[Kirby N.]

I got my parts in

I think the reducer spacers will work
Great. I hope the line up.

Primed everything and and painted it. I even painted the frame rails.

Thanks again rockranger for this rad tranny bushing setup!

 

[Kirby N.]

Got the final install of the belly pan done. Everything lined up great.

Side view:

The lowest part will be those dumb radius arm mounts. I hope I don't hang up on them.

 

[BKennedy]

How far does the transfer case hang down past the cross member? It looks like, when you can get to it, that fabbing up a skid plate won't be too hard. Nice work.

 

[Kirby N.]

It has to do with with clearance to pull the bolt out. When in one direction the bolt can only be pulled out part way before they hit the trans or Tcase. If it worked for you then you got it right. You should be able to see which way the bolts go once you go to mount it up. Maybe there are more variations and only on mine it is an issue?

Mine fits the bolts either way when bolted up. Front to back of back to front both sides. My cats are out of the way, though.

 

[Kirby N.]

How far does the transfer case hang down past the cross member? It looks like, when you can get to it, that fabbing up a skid plate won't be too hard. Nice work.

Maybe and inch. It won't be too bad when I get to it. The radius arm mount is right next to it and it is much lower, so most of the time those mounts will get hit far before the tcase. With the long wheelbase those are both a concern, though.

 

[BKennedy]

Looking through your thread, I like how you recessed the bolts for the trans cross member. My radius arm mounts ended up a few inches back from the cross member and the bolt heads have always been a concern. I think I need to recess the bolt heads someday. That small amount of clearance adds up at the other end of the arms.