My '94 extended cab

[Xeek]

ive mostly been living life, working, any hanging out. havent even got my computer plugged back in yet, been since june, ive been using someone elses and my phone. but ive been posting mostly about my explorers sas (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=373574)

but as far as the ranger goes, i have a few mods done since i last posted, and a few more to go

 

[Xeek]

guess ill start with i drove to florida and back. ran hot. noticed when i came back i had almost no water in the engine at all. it held together fine tho. so then came the 422 cam, refinished heads and a check over, and headers.

further proof you can do this with engine in. ac condenser and radiator had to be removed. and i managed to snake it in.

explorer leather seats. thanks to boominexplorer and mike(forget his forum name)

06 mirrors

cb with external speaker

got some motorcycle cig lighter ports on amazon. still havent hooked them up

6" oval led backup lights in the bumper

got a 4x4 trans and case from explorin va.

one of the few d30 sas kits by stang5lgt. xj 6.5" coils also. and not pictured, his heim steering setup

not pictured for the sas. 4.56 gears mostly setup by boominexplorer, i had to learn a bit for myself. with a detriot truetrac. rear was swapped back to an aussie, haggled the ls carrier to explorerinitup for the bearing press work lol.
rear was also swapped back over to stock shackle setup, i had them upsidedown before. and still have the f150 leafs. stock superduty front shocks on the rangers rear. stock rear superduty shocks on the rangers front, lol. will order new shocks later on.

the sas has been the most frustrating thing ever. anything that can go wrong, went wrong. ball joints were hell, bearings got pressed on without shims, i dropped the 8.8s shims and had to start over, had to order a second spring kit from aussie cause i lost a spring, d30 housing was dirty as hell(thanks to boomin for cleaning it up!), brand new wheel bearings failed while driving around the neighborhood. and im still stuck with no reverse in the trans after the shift kit. need to pull valve body again and have in my hands while i talk to transgo


and the new tires. 25"

thats all for now! ill try to get on more often and update

 

[mr cribb]

I've thought about doing the d30 sas. I just don't really have a reason to actually commit myself to do it.

 

[Benjam]

Did you have axles installed when the bearings failed?its a sealed hub bearing right?

Benjam

 

[Xeek]

Yes and yes. Considering i dont have a rear driveshaft, i had to have front shafts installed to fwd it lol

 

[Xeek]

Got my tires on. Driveshaft in. Muffler on.

Boominexplorer, exploreinitup, and i had some fun. Tims explorer is broke so he couldnt join

 

[Xeek]

in recent news. trans died on me. havent driven it in a month now. i just lost all gear. no pressure in case. so im pretty sure pump failed. probably had something to do with cooking it in the GWNF and the seal leaked its ass off multiple times.

guess whats next is full rebuild of trans with upgrades. and rebuild of engine, bottom end needs some love.

 

[Xeek]

Been doing some sound deadening. Need to buy more christmas tree, broke all but three, using the correct tool.

 

[Xeek]

My rebuild parts from PATC came. (Transmissioncenter.org)

Full rebuild kit, red bands, sonax boost valve, new cluthes with extras, new torque converter. Think that was it, cant remember
Kit normally comes with shift kit but i already have one so i saved there

 

[Xeek]

took the trans to be built today. hopefully no other parts are broken. he says the pump bushing failed from my symptoms. he has a permanent for life fix for it.

ill have myself a bulletproof a4ld when done. as long as it stays cool


sidenote from the picture, i own a gopro now to use on trail rides

 

[Xeek]

I guess it's been awhile since I've updated. Guess where I left off with the trans, got it built and installed. Had issues with the valve body, talked to transgo on the phone and had to dump the fluid 3 times to get it right. I forget all of it but I remember the guy had me shim the reverse solenoid with a washer cause reverse and 1st were extremely delayed.
Added in a trans filter, aux cooler with fan, and trans temp gauge. The filter is actually the afternarket on I nabbed off my super duty before I sold it. And but made it work for the ranger.

Also added can lights and marker lights on the mirror. The pics have them both white, but I swapped the cab lights for amber bulbs and the mirror ones I changed to amber lenses.

 

[Xeek]

Then jan 14 last year was the last time I drove it. It bogged down really bad, and wouldn't idle for **** and eventually died. I could restart after letting it sit for a bit. But would do it again. I had a friend tow strap me home, luckily I was pretty close and went through the neighborhood.

Since then I was trying to work on it but I think in May my roommate was trying to build axles for his xj and wanted mine cause a shop wanted 2200 just to gear and lock the front diff and rebuild axle. So I went looking for new axles for my truck. When I found a set he paid me 2200 for my d30 and 8.8.
Which I then bought a 76 f150 d44 and big bearing 9" for $1760 shipped off of another offroad forum site. D44 has upgraded shafts, 4.88, broken Aussie, and a truss. 9" has a strange third member, 4.86, detroit, and a truss. He even sent me some 36x1350 iroks with alum wheels for the same 1750 price.

So fast forward to the last month of me not touching anything lol. I got the 9" hung. Had to cut the leaf perches off cause they were too wide set. It's on it's own weight but perches aren't welded on yet. Also still need shook tabs and brake lines
The front will need the old tabs cut off. And cut the 4link bushing tab off a spare d30 to weld to the d44. I have new control arm brackets to weld on. And I still need all steering the knuckles are reamed for 1ton tie rods. I might just go with heims though.

And shout out to @RockRanger for making me some leaf hangers. Each hole is about 2" lower than stock. So I took the blocks out. I still might add a shackle and have to lift the front a bit to help clear the 36s though unless I trim.

And these are the codes I was getting when it died on me.

 

[mr cribb]

Wow you’ve been away for a while, then again so have I.

 

[Xeek]

Nice to see you here still too. But yea I just don't go online like I used to anymore, I still talk to a few local ef'ers, but off of here. But I've been lurking the past couple months so figured I'd finally update since I started working on it again lol


I've also got a couple other toys now. Had a Yamaha warrior I took out last August. Sold that and I have a yamaha big bear now. I also just got another toy I haven't revealed to anyone yet last week.

The big bear I have. And that's the warrior I sold last month.

 

[mr cribb]

Yeah I sold my sport X to 2stroke in June ‘16, and I have been working on my 94 Z71 since. I haven’t updated much on here, a little bit more over on the GM forum. I might get back into an X again if I just find a killer deal on one, as I still have new(ish) heads and headers from my old original one I started with on here.

 

[Xeek]

Since I'm on here trying to figure out my running issues I may as well get some pic uploaded.

So the front d44 is in. Using stang95gt's sas kit he used to make for the d30. Kept his buckets, link arms, and trans crossmember in the d44 swap. Still using xj 5.5 coils and 1.5 spacers. Swapped out the Aussie for a mini spool. Supposedly the Aussie was broken but it looked fine, oh well. Had a friend weld on all my axle brackets for me. Steering, don't have finished pics but it's 1.75" .250 tie rod, 1.5" .250 draglink, and 1.25" .125 tracbar. 7/8 heims and 3/4 heims on tracbar. Tie rod was bent to clear the diff cover as I also have a guard for it that sticks out more. Bout some new hubs, old ones were cracked. Open box on Amazon for warn premiums for $60

 

[mr cribb]

I see you’re still at it, and I’m still goofing around with my Z71. My level of ignorance has probably crossed the threshold of sanity by most folks. I’m pulling off a dash swap which is challenging by adding a degree of electrical wiring difficulty to the mess. It’s getting there but still as equally frustrating as any modification can be.

 

[Xeek]

I really don't get on here anymore. Just so much going on, lack of motivation to work on it and stuff. Since the last update I actually got it running and driving and made a trip to the mountains October 2018. Did great, Its been awhile so I'm trying to remember how it acted up. I think 4hi in 1st/2nd was useless, bit if I put it in drive it was fine. Had to use 4lo a good bit also.
Passenger axle seal loves to dump fluid, and my caster is 3.5° off between each side, so it wandered on the highway quite a bit.

My group

There's not really any action shots. I only have my pictures really, I did have a GoPro mounted to the bed most of the time. I might get around to uploading them to YouTube eventually. The trip was 5 days camping as we go, just casual driving and offroading through gwnf. Shoe Creek is blocked off, so we did the lower half. We did reddish knob, flagpole knob, big levels, and some others I can't remember right now. We passed through an abandoned town in west Virginia, it was built but never lived in, I can't remember the name of it either lol. It was a real fun trip, I want to do more like that in the future.

 

[Xeek]

Of course I always find a way to take some damage. The light was just a branch sticking out. The body damage was this fairly steep climb with a big mound up top with ruts over a foot deep, and kinda awkward. Once up there, there was nothing except a bunch of thin trees to navigate through and turn around. I got hung up, said screw it and wedged myself on a tree and spin the truck around lol.

There's a couple more pictures and a video I would've like to post, but my memory card is bad and sometimes files get corrupted, so I lose a few pictures here and there

 

[Xeek]

So October 2018 the rear driveshaft blew up, got to drive it a whole month lol. So lost motivation again and it sat there until this summer. Then I started painting the whole truck.... Once fall hit and wanting to have the truck for potential snow I wanted to get it running again after a year lol. Fixed ujoint, fixed the leak in my front axle, fixed my caster issue(off by 3.5° between each side), replaced my steering pump and hoses.

Still need to replace the 9" bearings and seals cause they leak. I swapped in a manual tcase, need to do the linkage one day and fix the leak between the trans and tcase I have now, ugh.
The truck still doesnt steer right, I need to have my alignment checked again after fixing the caster and camber issues I had, see how it stands now. And it sways A LOT, taking off it leans pretty good,a good turn it leans like crazy. So I might need to weld on some tabs and add the factory front sway bar back in. So still have some things to do, but it's getting there.


And.....