Rocky Mountain Ranger '92 SAS

Bought this 1992 Ranger a while back, it is in great mechanical shape and was owned by some old lady most of its life. After deciding it was too clean to cut up for a 4.0 swap,
I recently decided it would make a great DD/wheeler/hunting and exploration rig. The 20 year old suspension is sagged out, the shocks are on their last leg and the 31" BFG ATs rub up front on bigger bumps. Time for a build up and some major improvements. I have been scavenging pull & pay and e-bay for parts for a while now, have a lot left over from other projects and will borrow a few things from the '91 as I go.

Specs:
4.0, m50d, 1354E, standard cab long-box

Plans:
Front Axle:
’96 XJ high pinion Dana 30 SAS w/ 4.56 gears, Detroit Truetrac, for which I will fab a truss, inner-C gussets, HD lower control arm mounts and skids.Ill be doing a WJ knuckle swap for bigger brakes and improved steering with over the knuckle cross-over steering and one-ton TREs, custom longarms, etc.

Rear Axle:
’93 Ford Explorer 31 spline 8.8 with disc conversion, 4” skyjacker ranger leafsprings, belltech shackles

Saginaw HD T-Bird ps pump swap w/ cooler and Hydro Assist
D.D. machine doubler
Flatbelly skid
Shortened frame and bobbed bed for improved departure angle.
BII gas tank
½ doors
Some interior mods
Rock sliders and bumpers, winch up front
interior cage

It had suffered some hail damage before I picked it up. I will live with the dents, but the windshield needs replaced sometime in the near future. I am not a fan of the faded red and white two-tone paint so that had to go.
I ditched the topper, and trim, did a little prep work and painted it flat khaki.

Wanted tinted windows so I grabbed the doors off the '91. Got rid of the stock decal with the flapwheel and sanded the rest.

Took it camping up off Boreas Pass near Breckenridge this last weekend. Our campsite was tucked off the road near 10,500ft in White River National Forest. Found a lot of traces of Elk and blackbear. It rained off and on while we were there and the burn bans were finally lifted so we could have a campfire.

Installed a cheap cd player, cb, tuffy lockable console box.
I also swapped the rails out on some waterproof seats and bolted them in.

I started with some work on my old 8.8
It is a '93 Explorer 31 spline drum brake 8.8 It has been regeared 4.56 with a new carrier (Detroit Truetrac) which is a solid body design with the helical gear limited slip internals hidden. This makes a small difference in how the shafts are removed/installed.
There is an access port on one side of the truetrac carrier held in by a snap-ring

remove the snap ring and access port cover I then the ~1" slug that holds the shafts in place. Push the axle shafts further into the differential and remove the c-clips. The drivers side shaft came out easily and I was able to remove the c-clip with needle nose, but I had to clamp the passenger side shaft from the flange to the backing plate to push it further into the diff so the c-clip would clear the carrier body, I used two strong magnets to pull the c-clip and finally removed the shaft.

I wanted disk brakes, I had problems with my old drum setup locking up in wet conditions and the newer explorer disk brakes bolt right onto the '93 housing.
So with the drum off and the c-clips axle shafts out I pulled the old drum backing plates off.

Remove the brake hard line and four bolts at the end of the housing and the drum setup comes right off.

I pulled the old axle shaft/bearing seals and regreased the bearings.

Installed new seals.

I made a trip to the pull and pay and picked up disk brake backing plates, caliper brackets, calipers, e-brake cables and a spare set of 8.8 shafts from a '98 Ford Explorer.

Bolted on with stock hardware:icon_bounceblue:

I pulled the old e-brake shoes off, since they came from a junkyard axle they were cracked and in real bad shape. First remove the retaining spring clips, then the adjuster spring and threaded adjuster(tensioner), then the large outside spring and I pulled the shoes and inside spring off as one unit.

To assemble, attach large inside spring to shoes and seat the shoes onto the backing plate tab

put the threaded adjuster back in

and now re-attach adjuster spring, large outside spring and finally retaining spring clips

insert shafts and c clips

...and fit new disk rotor. If I had known this swap were so easy I would have done it a long time ago. Ill post up a pic of attaching the cables when the axle is under the truck.

 

[crawlin91]

I painted my old 8.8 Ruffstuff cover to match

and tapped a Ranger gear box for Hydro assist.

The bed will be bobbed enough to fit this tonneau cover flush at the tailgate ~13". The frame will be cut to match which will end up just behind the stock shackle mounts.:icon_welder:

Oh, and I got these mounted today, since I had a spare set of doors I decided to cut them up. I used 3/8" bolts and drilled out the hinges as well as the bronze bushings that are pressed into the hinges to fit snug, then cross drilled the bolts and added retaining pins. I originally tried 5/16" bolts but they were too small.
The doors took me about 4 hours a piece including paint. I have always wanted more visibility on the trail, especially on the passenger side, the extra airflow is nice especially on a vehicle with no AC. I get a lot of looks from people when driving around. Just need to add mirrors, driving in heavy traffic is sketchy without them.

 

[crawlin91]

After 1st cut

2nd cut in between the bed support, I had to chisel a few spot welds

after 2nd cut I removed 12.625"

I finished the bed bob today and cut the box behind the fenders to give more ground clearance. I will be taking ~11" out of the frame. The truck will be 19" shorter overall after removing the rear bumper, cutting the frame and welding in a new crossmember.

 

[crawlin91]

A few pics of the new rear crossmember. I made some 1" d-ring shackle tabs and notched the 2x4 square tube and welded them in front and back. Should be a solid base to weld some tube to.

 

[crawlin91]

Currie Johnny Joints, weld in threaded tube bungs for the long arm build.

Dana 30 Detroit Truetrac and New WJ ball joints. I had to get a new carrier to run 4.56 gears the XJ axle I pulled originally had 3.54 gears (the carrier break on the dana 30 is 3.54 and down, 3.73 and up) and the Truetrac will fit my daily driver duties nicely on an axle with no selectable hubs.

The XJ and WJ upper ball joints are the same and interchangeable, however the lower balljoints on the WJ have a different taper on the stud. Ive seen the swap done with XJ lowers before but I imagine the different taper will eventually cause un-even wear and ruin the knuckle.

These are my new WJ twin piston Akebono calipers. These things are huge, nearly the same size as kingpin60 calipers. The WJ knuckles use two different style of calipers- 1.) Akebono and 2.)Teves. Both are twin piston designs with the Teves being a bit smaller. The Teves calipers have a reputation for warping rotors and were recalled and replaced with the Akebono style on the later model jeeps. I got these akebonos brand new, not remanufactured complete with hardware and pads.

and a picture of them next to the stock XJ calipers they are replacing

XJ rotors 5x4.5” lug pattern vs. WJ rotors 5x5”

The WJ rotors need to be drilled out to the 5x4.5” pattern, the rotors are hub-centric and not lug-centric which makes it a bit easier. I took an old XJ unit bearing and pressed out the studs and then separated the two halves using a BFH and a chisel. Then I clamped the unit bearing section with the wheel mounting surface to the WJ rotor as a template and used a transfer punch to mark the new pattern, and drilled the new holes it worked pretty well.

this shows the difference between the XJ (top) and wj knuckles. you can see the extra steering arm on the passenger side knuckle of the WJ knuckles that allows for a true cross-over steering design.

knuckles after beadblasting, ready to weld the JKS spacers on. The ~0.25" spacers are required to align the u-joints with the axis of the knuckle. It is sandwiched between the unit bearing hub and the knuckle. this spacer is needed because the depth on the WJ knuckle is shorter than the XJ knuckle, without it the hub will botom out against the outer stub shaft before it seats.

I ground a bevel around the inside of the spacers and bolted them on tignt with an old unit bearing and then welded them on with the MIG turned up nice and hot welding a small bead and skipping around. I wrapped the knuckles in welding leathers and about 20 old t-shirts and towels so that they would cool as slow as possible. It took about 6 hours for them to cool enough to touch.

I called around about reaming the knuckles and pitman, the cheapest I found was a 4x4 shop that wanted $70 :thefinger: So I ordered up a HSS Xkut reamer and did it myself, now I can run the TREs over the knuckle getting the steering up even higher.

You also need 99.5+ unit bearings for this swap the 99 unit bearing isn’t the same. It was a mid year switchover. If you don’t use the newer unit bearings the rotor will not be properly spaced inside the caliper. I used a Timken part # for a 2002 XJ
96XJ on left 2002 XJ on right

offset TREs for the tie rod to clear the thick aftermarket diff cover and leave extra room for the ram

I painted the knuckles and assembled everything and did a test fit. The calipers are large and known to cause problems when fitting on 15” wheels. I have 3.75” of backspacing and the calipers and offset TREs fit with about 0.125" of clearance to the rim, they also clear the balance weights on the inside.

 

[sport97]

Awesome project. I love the path you are going with it. Is the khaki paint shot on with a spray gun or is it rattle can paint?

Edit: I see you are still uploading stuff, Great work on the bed!

 

[crawlin91]

Thanks, the paint is Krylon Camo Khaki spray paint.

 

[FROADER]

Great project and progress!

This shot reminds me of the 70s camper specials.

 

[Rick]

Looking really good

 

[RangerX]

Love all of it!
When you finish, can I ship over my Ranger for the same treatment?

 

[Kirby N.]

Sweet Project! I have been looking for a extended cab like that for months.

 

[crazyflights]

That looks great!! Love what you did with the doors and bed.

keep up the good work.

 

[crawlin91]

I cut the lower control arm mounts off and cleaned the tubes up to weld on the HD ones

burned off coil retainers

I recentered, plated and welded the coil retainers over axle tubes and welded on LCA mounts. The new lower mounts use cam bolts to adjust caster, but since my radius arms will be fully adjustable I will be using weld washers and standard bolts to secure the arms.

picture of my axle truss I bent up and added some dimples to.
I also made some skids for the LCA mounts.

 

[crawlin91]

radius arm lower links - 2" OD X 0.25" DOM

Pressed in WJ balljoints for the new knuckles, and then started mocking up the steering and got a little carried away...

 

[Four0Sport]

great build so far, subscribing

 

[theluke19]

great build so far, subscribing

that's what I'm sayin'- started off with a paintjob, and I thought - neat. now we're into the meat and potatoes, and I'm really enjoying the build!

But how can you go from Dales pale ale to bud light?!

 

[crawlin91]

that's what I'm sayin'- started off with a paintjob, and I thought - neat. now we're into the meat and potatoes, and I'm really enjoying the build!

But how can you go from Dales pale ale to bud light?!

Thanks for the comments guys.

As for the beer, the bud lights were left overs from a party, but I will drink anything from PBR in a can, to a growler full of a local microbrew just as long as it is cold. The Great American Brew Fest is in town for the next week, might have to check that out.

 

[crawlin91]

I upgraded my stock p.s. pump to a HD T-Bird Saginaw style pump. I had to make a few cuts and do some grinding on the 4.0 bracket to make it fit.

Then started swapping axles

I rolled the 8.8 underneath and started mocking things up

tapped/rebuilt steering gearbox installed. I used a pitman arm off an old '82 f150, and reamed it for the 1 ton TREs

 

[crawlin91]

 

[crawlin91]

Dual Transfer Case


cut up a 1350

fit the block off plates and clock the shifters

replaced the guts in the 1350 with 6 gear planetaries and shiftfork assembly from a 1997 ranger Electric 1354 case Front case welded inside and out, then milled flat for a good seal.

tight clearances all around, I added a sight tube and vent

I broke one of the plastic shift guides during assembly and had to go pull another case for a replacement...scavenging for parts at the pull and pay

cutting down the 1354 shifter 1350 and 1354 shifters, each one shifting the opposite case. lol

1354E next to doubler setup 1990 Aerostar speedo cable fits perfect)

1st gear x LO Tcase x LO Doubler x R&P = Final Crawl

4.0 M50D w dual T-case
3.40 x 2.48 x 2.48 x 4.56 = 95.36:1