Is this possible? Are there kits available? The reason is I tow alot of heavy trailers, and sometimes when backing one in the slow speed is welcome to save on my clutch in my 5pd. I want to get low range in 2wd, as it winds up the front driveline on the road in 4wd, so this ought to be great.

 

You need the wheel bearings and drive axles off of a 98-00 Ranger and some AVM manual locking hubs.

 

Keep in mind, no body has tried it. 12en had a decent sized thread regarding this sort of conversion on a 03.

 

I think he did do it.

 

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ad.php?t=49101

 

ding ding. Thanks for linking that...i ment to save it and didn't.


Where's he been anyway? I'd love to do this mod and lock the front end.

 

Lock the frontend anyways. You don't need manual hubs to do that.

 

Wheel bearings, cv's, avm, and the retaining clip for the cv's.

Total cost will be around 500 - 700 pending your parts sourcing.

If you need to do ball joints do them when make the swap. It will add 200 - 400 to the cost pending which joints you decide to use.

 

That's the problem, I feel like I'm gonna rip it in half when it's in 4wd on dry pavement. The hubs unlocked would give me 2wd low range.........But for all of the work, I think I'll just wait and continue to save for an F150.

 

Your number one issue...

Ranger + Manual Trans + Heavy Trailer = HORRIBLE COMBO.


Manual trans rangers have half the towing capacity as an automatic. Reason being........the pile of crap mazda trans and the pile of crap hydraulic clutch system. You use the wrong truck for the job.

If you tow with your manual ranger....let the one in the truck take a crap....because it will. I HIGHLY suggest a SPEC stage 2 clutch of a Centerforce Dual Friction clutch...heavy duty grabby clutches. I love my spec!




You want low range in 2wd? Take off your front driveshaft.

 

I plan on doing a live to manual front axle swap in the near future.

 

Not necessarily true. The Mazda transmission is not all that bad and less problematic than the French made Ranger automatic. The hydraulic slave is not a great unit but towing will not cause it to fail any sooner.

I tow my race car and gear all over the country with my manual Ranger and I have 86K miles on the original clutch. It is still working perfectly. I expect to get over 100K before I do a clutch job and I will do it before it fails. All clutches need to be replaced eventually whether towed with or not. The mileage you get out of a clutch depends on how much it is abused by the driver.

The reason the manual is rated less in towing capacity than the automatic is Ford does not trust that everyone using a manual to tow with are experienced in what they are doing. The clutch can easily be damaged when towing by an unskilled driver. I always do every thing I can to avoid stopping on an upgrade with a heavy load to avoid abusing the clutch when getting it rolling again. There are many ways to abuse a clutch and towing can be one of them.

 

Good post! I believe you hit the nail on the head with your comments on unskilled drivers using or abusing a clutch. If I get in a situation that I must stop on a hill, I will use low range to assist in taking at strain off of the clutch, as my question shows.
What kind of weight are you towing with your race car and trailer setup?

 

Are you supposed to drive a hydraulic clutch differently? This is the first hydraulic clutch system i've owned....always had cable or linkage. Maybe I havn't read the book on how to drive a manual, but i'm on clutch #3, slave #4, trans #2, and master #2 and currently only 87k on the clock. And I've never owned an automatic...been driving manuals my whole life. the whole pile of crap comment was my opinion and a general concensus on the whole manual trans ranger thing.

 

Camo, I am towing about 3,500 lbs including the trailer and I have an additional 800 lbs or so on the bed. When I go to the National Runoffs in the mid-west carry a spare engine and that adds about 250 lbs on the bed plus about 200 lbs more stuff of the trailer.

Fx4wannabe01, hydraulic systems on the clutch should have no effect on how you drive compared to cable or linkage. Sounds like you have had some bad luck with your clutch in general. I did have my master cylinder and slave cylinder replaced under warranty when the truck was new but that was due to defective parts not how I drove. The actual clutch was still functioning properly and was never replaced.

The clutch slave cylinder in Rangers are weak and I would like to find something better. The master cylinder is not too bad but could still use improvement. The Mazda transmission is far from weak and it usually takes extreme abuse or low on oil to kill it.