Project Running out of Time

[bronco_II]

good video on your setup dude.. been watching this build right from the beginning, keep it up

[Outlawz4X4]

How do you have a 2.72 gear in a 1354 that had a 2.48 ratio stock?

[FbOmRxD]

Originally Posted by Outlawz4X4

How do you have a 2.72 gear in a 1354 that had a 2.48 ratio stock?

It doesn't, mike isn't familiar with the ratios and what not, he just did a lot of the work on it....both boxes have stock gears in them.

[AllGoNoShow]

You have a really cool rig and have done really good work. I admire your willing to work outside on top of a car trailer.

[bull90]

Sweet rig reminds me a bit of mine :P

whats your rim backspacing?? are those stock hummer H1 Beadlocks with a rock ring? i wanna tuck my tires more into my body... i was told the stock ones wont work with my steering setup

[Redbeast9]

Great build! Cant wait to see it finished.

[FbOmRxD]

Originally Posted by AllGoNoShow

You have a really cool rig and have done really good work. I admire your willing to work outside on top of a car trailer.

Working on the trailer sucked, but it was better than nothing.

Originally Posted by bull90

Sweet rig reminds me a bit of mine :P

whats your rim backspacing?? are those stock hummer H1 Beadlocks with a rock ring? i wanna tuck my tires more into my body... i was told the stock ones wont work with my steering setup

Ya they are stock H1's with rock rings so something like 7" of backspacing. I have high steer arms that will clear the rims. A few friends run re centered H1s and their trucks are super wide for the trails around here. I'm going to see how it works with the truck more or less narrow before I recenter them (if i need to).

[bull90]

Running hi-steer on a d60? is it ball joint? got any pics of your set up?? id like to have the stock h1's over the recentre...

[FbOmRxD]

Originally Posted by bull90

Running hi-steer on a d60? is it ball joint? got any pics of your set up?? id like to have the stock h1's over the recentre...

Kingpin 60, and your standard run of the mills H1 Highsteer arms, several companies make them. Look through the thread, theres probably some pictures of it somewhere, I'm going full hydro now.

EDIT: Actually the picture below has a pretty good shot of what the steering was

Moved the bitch to my new spot...jacked the trailer up and roller her down



cut most of floor out, doubler in...


new floor started and seat mounts. Decided to use the tube I had before for full hydro ram mount and a spare tire carrier..


more....added a bunch more to it, but this is the idea more or less


doubler shifters sit PERFECT, its going to work out really badass when its done can't wait to get it running...


Made my own orbital mount, notcher worked out awesome for this...boatside rail came in handy as a workbench/support haha




Orbital location, didn't have the right size bolts but idea more or less...got it to interface with the old steering shaft A-ok so that was good. I'll be able to re-use my hydro assist lines, and stock pump lines, got a cooler as well, so i'm a few fittings away from having this end done


Ram is really close at 100% stuff, I plan to have it bump stopped about an inch further away than this so I should be fine. Plan on reusing my old steering set up. Use the TRE's on the arms, and use heims on the ram, and make a clevis on the old tie rod to interface...should work out for now.


Annnnd worked on mounting the skins up a little better...liking how its turning out

[zachis4wheeling]

Man o man Ned.......






That thing has come so far. I'm stoked you didn't trash the cab and cut it all up into a um........poor mans buggy starter kit I guess you could call it. Looks sick. And I'm digging the new front clip. How hard was it to graft the fender skins and hood onto the 93-97 frontend?

I like the BW 1350/ Dana 20 doubler you ran. Very different and very cool. Patov is the only other guy I have seen make that work. Good job on the explanation video for idiots like me. Kind of funny, because I almost forgot about your Ranger and all the history I can remember about it, from the TTB, to the EB44 to the leaved d60 setup.....and I log on last week and for the first time in a LONG time, I see it back up there and you're still wrenching on it.

Glad to see I'm not the only one rockin it out wrenching outside in the middle of February. Last night, Michigan area got dumped on with a foot of snow, and I was huddled up under a tarp with the torpedo heater blowing, trying to pull the fender skins, clip and motor and trans out of mine and stripping it down to the frame. Well the fenders are off, and my patience was up and that's all that got done.

.........I have however removed it from the trailer it sat on for the last 3 years too. The trailer literally rotted out from under it with just the T&G deck holding everything together. It actually works alright.............when it's nice out........and not raining.........or snowing.........or cold.......for working on it though.

Oh yea, News flash, I HAVE FINALLY STARTED WORKING ON MY PILE AGAIN. Just had to wait to get all the parts in order so I didn't have it chillin outside half finished. The auto to manual swap took by far the longest to get rolling and finding all the little parts.

And now wouldn't you know it, I might be moving out east, as I got a call last week that I made it to the final cut for the Baltimore City Fire Departments next hiring for firefighters. The next fire academy starts in March or April and hopefully I get the call for it. Which brings me to another point.......

You're an East Coast guy. What are my options for LEGAL wheeling areas around the NorthEast area where you're around? The furthest East I've wheeled is Harlan Kentucky a few years ago. I'd like to get an idea of what I'm getting myself into...

Oh, yea, btw.....You win on gettin yours done first. Twice now.

[FbOmRxD]

Hood pins...re-did the driver fender mount to be closer to the hook because I couldn't stand how it looked with the gap :laugh:



some more tie in gussets...


new rear crossmember



then spent entirely to much time yesterday on this thing. I was trying to reuse as much of my old scrap/cut off as I could, but it seemed I tried to do on this gave me problems. But I bot it done, its not perfect but its strong as hell and if I don't get enough time to make a "true" flat belly I'll just plate the rest of this thing for the time being...



got clearance?



Front shaft



rear....that crossmember was a screw up from the cage, but just happened to have the bend in the exact right spot to clear the driveshat... ;D



rear case support. I tried a bunch of other things and wasted all sorts of time trying to figure out how to support the doubler and what not. In the end this is the only thing that would really work. Its not perfect And i need to grind it to fit the diamter of the blue tube, but it should do the job. its really tight but should work out great.



for the front I reused part of the stock transmission mount. It originally had a bushing in the gap then you bolted to that. But since all points of the crossmember are in bushings I figured i could get rid of the stock bushing and mount right to it. Came out pretty slick.



Biggest thing left is the steering ram mount. I went to the Marlborough Hydraulic in the Am and picked up all the fittings I needed for the ram/orbital. I need to get a 7/8-18 tap to tap my old steering to reused some TRE's but once I bend the mount up that is the last of the hard "fab"

Really trying to crank this thing out, I just want it done :doh:

[FbOmRxD]

More stuff from the last week....

Harness bar mount...


shifter bent, sits way out of the way in low range,


ram mount finished...the whole front axle is pretty beef right now, pumped about the chance to ram it into all sorts of rocks


New T case mounts...think this will support the whole case a lot better and prevent it from wanting to twist when the truck is bound up.


boatsides on. the very front edge I plan to travel to a place with a torch and heat it up at an angle and bend it up so its all ramped like to prevent shit from getting wedged in there.


New rear bumper and spring bushings in place...


floor all tacked in. I plan to make a removable section that goes right over the Tranny-tcase flange so i can get to all the bolts from above. Also plan to make another removable panel so i can get to the upper link mount easily. I bought the HF shears to help with this job in the blade broke like 3" into cutting so that sucked. Also I should be able to remove the cases without dropping the tranny mount which is pretty sweet.


Spare tire mount thoughts...




Heading off to do some work at a friends place, hopefully leave with some driveshafts. Need to get 1 more hydro hose and make a rad catch can but this bitch should fire up soon.

getting close....

[WildHorses]

Lookin good man!

[metalmacguyver]

Do you have solid motor mounts aswell? I am thinking with the practicly solid mounts you have on the tranny, you might want to put solid motor mounts in too. other wise those tranny mounts will be doing most of the work and you might have a broken crawl box or a broken M50D case.

[FbOmRxD]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by metalmacguyver

Do you have solid motor mounts aswell? I am thinking with the practicly solid mounts you have on the tranny, you might want to put solid motor mounts in too. other wise those tranny mounts will be doing most of the work and you might have a broken crawl box or a broken M50D case.

Really not worried about it, I need to keep some sort of bushing somewhere. The frame is going to be really stiff, the entire cab section is boxed, 10 tie in points for the cage, and with boatsides/supports, there are no spring hanging off the front to bind the front of the truck...

Tied the rear hoops together with spare tube i had that just happened to all be perfectly sized....The spare rests on this and I made a little support at the tailgate and i'll just ratchet strap the spare down. Leave me plenty of room to stick shit under the tire if needed.



Most of the wiring and what not is done, need to get another couple relays for the Compressors, but lights/fuel pump/Taurus fan, etc are all hooked up and working. Stock radio still works, and she cranks over. Started to bleed the steering last night once that gets done I'll try to fire her up...



Let there be light!


Had to hack off and move the track bar mount back a little bit because it ram wouldn't clear at full stuff...all set now, added bumpstops and got the limit straps all done as well.



Bled the brakes last night and cleaned up some other odds and ends, ordering 32 spline upgrade for the 20 from WH later today along with the rest of the DS parts, trying to get this done soooooooon.

[redranger4.0]

Ned, You going to be at the Uconn show next month?

[MX489]

Originally Posted by redranger4.0

Ned, You going to be at the Uconn show next month?

You guys should come down. I'll be there, and the ranger will be too if it hasnt sold by then.

[4x4_4go]

Looking good

[FbOmRxD]

When is it? Always heard good things about the show, never made it down.

Swapped in an explorer radiator tonight that was about 2x as big as the stock ranger one, EFans just clear the engine now...close call, but should solve any and all cooling problems I might of had. The Taurus fan took care of most of them I had before, I prob won't even need the high speed now.

Bled the steering, orbital is probably a little small but whatever i'm rock crawling not racing, just want to get it running now, I'll screw around with that stuff later.

Tried to bleed the brakes, but the master is all fucked up in the front port, its jammed/clogged or something and won't push any fluid out. I'll try to bench bleed it this weekend but probably just going to say F it and by another one at this point.

Also dropped of a driveshaft to get shortened for the front at fleetpride, hopefully picking it up saturday. Its only temp until I get time to head back to my friends shop and make one out of beffy tubing and the long slip from my high angle one.

Nik at wildhorses4x4 hooked me up big time with a 32 spline output for the dana 20, really stoaked about that, once thats in I'll get the rear shaft done up and that should be good to go.

Last thing left is the steering, wanted to wait until I could get the ram arms centered before working on that, that is going to be next weeks big "thing" But I hope to have it running this weekend.

Late nights for the win

[MX489]

Awesome, all this fab is makin me wanna keep mine and tear into it again.

Uconn show is April 9th with a rain date of April 10th. Always a good showing.

[FbOmRxD]

Originally Posted by MX489

Awesome, all this fab is makin me wanna keep mine and tear into it again.

Uconn show is April 9th with a rain date of April 10th. Always a good showing.

Ya, In all honestly for DD'n it I lOVED when my truck looked like this (just like yours is now). Something about it, had the right proportions, and was fun to wheel other then me breaking it all the time. I would love to build another grocery getter like that.



I'll see about the 9th, I might be heading down to the RC rocks race the next weekend and would really like a shakedown run to be not there, but I'll see what its looking like next week.

[Stranger ranger]

I remember those GG days, but you always want moar out of the rig......

just to comment on the radiator swap, i put one in mine from an auto ranger a few years back and it too was twice the size, mainly due to them being in an automatic transmission vehicle. I plugged the holes for the tranny lines and have never had a cooling issue since. Sometimes with the old rad it would creep up and get "warm" on me but not a chance now, plus my old one leaked and pissed me off.

I dont know your work schedule but I dont get home till 6 each night and dont make it to the garage until at the least 645, fat kids gotta eat, but the only way to get shit done is to work until you're ready to fall over, at least 2 or 3 times a week I'd be out till 2 when I need to get up at 6. Its worth every second.

[FbOmRxD]

Originally Posted by Stranger ranger

I remember those GG days, but you always want moar out of the rig......

just to comment on the radiator swap, i put one in mine from an auto ranger a few years back and it too was twice the size, mainly due to them being in an automatic transmission vehicle. I plugged the holes for the tranny lines and have never had a cooling issue since. Sometimes with the old rad it would creep up and get "warm" on me but not a chance now, plus my old one leaked and pissed me off.

I dont know your work schedule but I dont get home till 6 each night and dont make it to the garage until at the least 645, fat kids gotta eat, but the only way to get shit done is to work until you're ready to fall over, at least 2 or 3 times a week I'd be out till 2 when I need to get up at 6. Its worth every second.

Ordered a new MC last night, should be here tomorrow, also picking up my driveshaft then, once those are back It might be able to move Need to fab up the steering arms but should be able to do that sat along with the flat belly if I can get a hand with it.

Mounted the exhaust and got some other hardware odds and ends taken care of last night, welded on some D rings on the rear bumper and other shit like that...the list is getting smaller.

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and have 4 different projects going on right now that demand a lot of my attention, I'd work 48hrs straight if I could but (probably will once I'm down to the wire) but doing design work tired as shit sucks.

Still planning on, baring any catastrophic fail, making it to the RC rocks race the 16th.

[FbOmRxD]

ahhh getting there!

Just rolled her out, still needs some work but really fucking close. Get her to fire up last night....sounds like a bat out of hell which makes me giggle.













Front needs more air, dana 20 output is in the mail, new brake master should be here monday, Have the front driveshaft, once output gets here rear will be made. Started going though all the wiring and pulling out shit I didn't need. I MIGHT have a chance in hell of getting it done for next weekend....fucking pumped.

[FbOmRxD]

Little behind schedule, this showed up last night:



32 spline upgrade for the 20 with a 1350 yoke


steering


build sponser and radiator overflow


safety first, mounted on a quick release gadget