Hey guys! I've been gone for quite a while now. I'm not ashamed to admit I went to Decision Point Drug and Alcohol rehabilitation clinic to overcome my addiction to alcohol and Xanax. I've made a full recovery and have almost 2 months of sobriety now.

For those who don't remember, I'm putting a 5.0L V8 (302) into my 2000 standard cab 2wd Ranger in a project I have personally dubbed the "Black Beast".

Right now, the motor is sitting in the truck, all electrical and vacuum connected, just awaiting fuel fittings and line to feed the "go-juice", and a few odds and ends.

On that note, I'd like to briefly share something I came across today while browsing Ebay for Quick Connect fuel fittings.

THIS WEBSITE, FMSI Incorporated provides lots of hard-to-find hardware for our beloved rides. I put together my entire fuel system in stock-form with a representative named Kevin on the phone today. He helped me a lot with the correct sizes and a few things I had forgot in finalizing my fuel system.

I have a few questions regarding different matters, so I posted this in General to cover all the different "topics".

I'm beginning to think my Pinion Angle is going to be a problem. It's sitting at least 5 degrees up, and although I haven't connected the driveshaft yet, I can foresee binding or premature wear issues in the U-joints. I recently installed a set of Chevy drop shackles to achieve a 1.5 to 2" lift in the rear. However, adding distance to the rear hangers past the fulcrum caused the differential to point skyward.

Is there a company someone can suggest that provides pinion shims with the proper locator-pin in the middle, or am I destined to weld them on? Is there any other way to overcome this pinion angle problem?

Does anybody know a company or method to attach cable-ends to the end of the parking brake cable? I need to shorten mine 6 inches to work with the Explorer 8.8LS rear.

Has anyone tried using the front sway bar from a Ford Explorer on their Ranger? My initial observation shows minimal differences between the two, but I haven't attempted to bolt it up yet.

I need to connect a water temperature and oil pressure gauge. What are the best locations for the gauge senders? Or is there a pre-existing signal I can tap into for the gauges?

Finally, does anyone know the measurements of the Generation 4 (98-2K) Ranger's and Explorer's frame rails? I've noticed my rear sway bar from the Explorer is wider than the Ranger's frame, although it can be bolted up.

Yes, I know...what a boring, long thread to read through. For that reason, I'm going outside right now to take pictures of everything. I'll be back momentarily! Thanks for the replies!

 

Hey man welcome back! I am glad to hear that you made a full recovery! As far as the other stuff goes, I have no idea, but I did want to welcome you back! So you know the drill, someone with more knowledge will be along soon....lol

 

Thanks Chris!

Here's the pictures:

First, a little goody-shot of my recent delivery. Just a few things I wanted more so than needed...


My pinion angle:


The e-brake cable-end that I need to replace:


And finally, the rear sway bar width issue. You can see how the bar link is cocked a little bit:

 

welcome back! lookin good!

 

holla amigo. Think of all the money you will be able to put into the beast that used to buy alcohol and xannies. As a recreational/ Social drinker I can say that at least a quarter to a third of my paychecks goes to the bars and clubs.

 

Glad to hear you took action to better yourself a lot of people are not that strong man congratulations. also wanted to say i am not a help on any of your questions but i am sure the beast will be sweet when all said and done. good luck with it

 

i have been wondering where you went. welcome back man and congradulations on the recovery, my father went through the same thing a few years ago for alchol cant wait to see some pics of the beast under the hood

 

Uh....dumb question here...but is my rear sway bar upside down? LOL....I think it is, based on the angle of the links.

 

Good to see your back around and doing pretty good, I was going to send you an IM a few days ago seeing how things were going.

AS for the sway-bar, it looks like it is mounted in a rotated angle. From the rear bars I've seen, the hump should go up and over the rear pumpkin, I have a few pics of how one mounts on an older ranger, let me dig them out.

Edit for pics:

This is off of a ranger R6 axle (8.8(I think) 3.73 LSD).






As to if it's causing the bad angles for the links, I'm unsure.

 

The Sway bar looks fine. If it was flipped around it would be really low.

Also take those shackles off. its really messing with your pinion angle bad.

I dont know what you are suppose to do when lowering. I am sure that is not what you want to do.

 

It looks as if the bar is in the wrong spot where it is on the back of the axle. The bars that I have seen go on top of the axle, so that they do not hang low, as you are referring too.

Maybe if he were to take the whole bar while looking at it is now, and flip it end over end to achieve flipping the bar to the top of the axle. Let me do a photoshop of what I mean.

 

That looks like it, Matt. After pulling up some pictures of the donor, I've decided to flip the sway bar over. However, compared to the R6 pictures you posted above, it is mounted on the opposite side of the axle (trailing-edge).

Oh and Zach - I'm not trying to Lower the truck. Since I went from a Spring-Over-Axle to a Spring-Under-Axle set-up with the 8.8 swap, I lost about 3" of lift in the rear. I tried to compensate with a set of "drop" shackles (which actually lift the rear) to no avail. Since the shackles increase the distance from spring to frame, it raises the frame, providing a "lift". On Chevy's (what the shackles were designed for), the hangers are flipped upside down, so the shackle decreases the distance from spring to frame ("drop").

I wonder what kind of shenanigans would occur if I swapped the shackles to the FRONT of the springs....

EDIT: Hey Matt - you'd be amazed what a wire-wheel brush and some PB Blaster would do for that axle! Is that a JY find?

 

Yup, it's still sitting in the JY, haven't decided if I'm getting it yet though, it's between that and a mountaineer rear end, I didn't catch what was in that one though.

I would think that if you moved the shackles to the front all sorts of funky driveshaft to axle stuff would happen when you go over bumps and such. Think of driveshaft pushing axle out or going into the tranny.

Other than shims that can be had from summit, I don't know what much else can be done other that grinding the spring perches off and welding them back on to give a better angle, which I think you may have already done some welding on the axle before if I recall correctly.

Tim - Turbojugend?

 

Moving your shackles to the front would move your axle backwards I think. Whatever it does, it's probably not something you'd want it to do.

To fix your pinion angle... either weld some new perches on, or get some weld-on shims. They're easy enough. Do ditch the shackles though.

 

I know what shackles do.

btw it also rotates your axle which in turn changes the pinion angle

I also know you think its too low and you want to lift it. well shackles like i said before are NOT the thing to use in your situation.

Face it you are lower, you admitted it. Now that you are lower you need to figure out how the lowered guys fix their pinion angle.

 

Hey welcome back.

 

Truck's lookin' good man, can't wait to see it done! Hope you get that rear suspension sorted out!

 

I knew you knew what they do...since you are the "axle-god" after all! I guess I will need to figure out how to get that Spring OVER the axle, and eliminate the shackles to achieve a better pinion angle.

Thanks guys for all the replies!