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Dirtyd0g
03-22-2009, 10:26 PM
After nearly 30,000 miles of pure abuse my ranger finally needs so serious TLC.
Soon I am going to have the engine tuned so I want to get the rest of it ready. This entire project started over a slave cylinder leaking and sticky rear brakes.
The truck currently is a 97 ranger originally equipped with a 2.3 liter lima engine and 5spd manual transmission.
The engine was rebuilt using .040 over sealed power pistons, a 2.5L crank and rods.Boring and block work was performed by Steve Barker, Head was ported by hand and valves were 3 angle ground by Hucks.
Camshaft is a stage 1 roller from Racer Walsh.
Current parts list.
clutch kit, Sach's clutch is 1/2 larger than the original equipment unit.
slave cylinder, OEM the last one was less than 2 years old but it was a cheap piece of crap.
New front transmission seal
4 quarts of pennzoil syncromesh, the best manual transmission fluid ever.
the oem 7.5 open 3.73 gear rearend is being replaced with a D4 code v8 explorer axle. 31 spline traction lock 3.73 gears and disk brakes.
The leaf springs are being replaced with heavy duty units from parts connection in batavia. These have an additional leaf.
All the brackets for the leaf springs had to come from ford, vaseline not included.
Fuel pump is being replaced with a 190gph Walbro from Supercoupe Performance in Milford.
Brake cables and hoses are from smyths. I had to order a fuel pump sock and OE style fuel tank straps from Rockauto.com
We accidentally busted a tailight when removing the bed so I bougt a set of altezza clear ones from ebay (wish me luck)
I stripped the frame down using flap wheels and a wire wheel on an angle grinder (started with 2 grinders, wore one out)
I then painted what was left with rust converter paint, then etch primer and finished it off with a few cans of spray on truck bed liner. Pictures of that to come.
Here is what I saw while taking it apart.
http://www.dirtydogperformance.com/images/uploads/shackle.jpg
I put the back of it on my lawn mowers hitch to pull it outside for the grinding and painting.
http://www.dirtydogperformance.com/images/uploads/frame.jpg
More to come I just need to get the pictures.
Alan

Dirtyd0g
03-28-2009, 09:21 PM
My picture of the complete back half was not very good. I must have moved when I snapped it. I do have pictures of the shock mounts that shows the work I did to the frame as far as sanding it all down and painting it.
The L shock mount I put on the sway bar bracket which worked very well.
http://members.tccoa.com/dirtyd0g/lSHOCK.jpg
The right shock I had to completely weld the bracket from my old rearend on. The hard part there is getting the bracket off without damaging it.
http://members.tccoa.com/dirtyd0g/rshock.jpg
The only thing that I haven't completed is the parking brake. I think I will just end up reconfiguring it completely similar to what the f150 applications did.
Alan

evil666stang
03-28-2009, 10:41 PM
thats neat, love to see rangers. my dad and i have been doing one for about 10 years. heres a pic

Stangman
03-30-2009, 11:21 AM
Sweet! That's why I havent seen the danger-ranger outside when I go by

:bigthumb