Well what started as a boom on my birthday from the rear end, resulted in this:



Second bolt head to shear off in 6 months, both on the same side of the carrier, both sheared... Didn't blow the carrier, just the bolt heads... Really weird and never heard of on the Torsen.



No cracks here, unlike what the early 02's normally do on manual/manual trucks.



So after that happened, Shane and I pulled the rear axle and took his spare axle to our gear guy locally, and had him work his magic. Installed a set of 4.88 Yukons front and rear. Since the Spartan locker wasn't made for the 8.8 yet, I went with the Lock Rite. Total on that with new carrier and master install kits was $1175. He didn't charge me for a lot of the extra stuff he did too while he had the axles there..

I guess I'll start front to rear... Up front, well nothing major happened. Just the the 4.88's and polished up the axle, well wire wheeled it so it would be nice and clean going in. I also cleaned up the C/O's with some Gunk degreaser and painted the front calipers with Shane's Duplicolor old school caliper paint. Not the spray can kind, but the brush on stuff. It's awesome, it's almost like it's a powder coat like finish and it's durable! When I tried takin the sway bar off to get the LCA's at full droop, the top link stripped out, since it hasn't moved on that bar in 3 years (I would assume)... So I took out the bolt bolt then completely removed it until I can get that figured out later. But for now, it rides awesome up front, and barely noticed I even took it off. The C/O's help big time with that!









Now the rear is where Shane and I put in work! Starting with the axle being pulled out for the gear and locker install. Once we got it all back, brought it home and I went to town with the wire wheel on it. Bare metal. Gave it about 2 good coats of paint, with 2 good coats of clear before we threw it under the truck. Also, took Shane's spare diff cover to work to blast off all the rubber crap that comes on it from the factory. Once we did that, shot it with bed-liner as primer, then hit it with 3 coats of DSG followed by one thick coat of clear. Oh yeah, after we pulled the axles, I decided I wanted to do discs out back. So we pulled all the drum brake stuff and cables and threw it in the bed. Went to the junkyard the next day and pulled a set of backing plates, calipers and a front shaft (which is painted silver to match the aluminum rear shaft) from a 95 expo that has the double cardon joints at the t-case. Brought all that home and went to town again with the wire wheel on everything and painted it all up. Total from that JY that day was $81 ($28 for the front shaft, just needs new 1310 spicer joints which are $11/piece). New pads and shoes for the disc setup was a total of $58, new soft lines for the calipers were $24 and new hard lines to the new calipers was $6, misc nuts and bolts came to about $20 (we figured about $140 total on the rear disc setup, since shane had a spare set of expo rotors at home).



I didn't take very many progress pics, just trying to get it done and on the road again, but here's some I took from my phone..





And now for some good pics. Forgot about the expo leafs, which I got with about 36k on them. Paid about $40 from a JY, and the nice thing about them was I was able to keep my 2.5" block, but I got to remove the AAL since the expos give 2" over the ranger springs. Needless to say, that's the way to go. It rides SOOOOOO much better and it's gonna flex better when I take it up the mountain and put it through the snow trails I go down. All we did was run a expo ranger hybrid pack which basically was all expo leafs with a ranger overload and then my RCD shim to set the right pinion angle.





Showing the sweet DSG cover!







Brembo'zzzzzz.... Lol, I wish, but they do look awesome with everything else under it! We used an all-thread union and welded it to the under side of the spring perch for the soft line to mount to, then used grade 8 hardware and kept it looking clean!



While I had it up in the air, I cut a few new brackets at work to move my light tabs up 2in from where the where. The ones I had on the hitch under the bumper... Well now they're right under the bumper and it looks great!



Then we finally put on the Super44 I had laying around from when I bought it from a member on one of the forums back in the spring. Went and had a 2.5" tube bent to move the centers at 3" spacing, flared the ends and had 2 turn downs cut. Total on that was $40 and I had new exhaust. Sounds great and looks awesome as well.



And here's what I left the shop with! Minus the Torsen and the 4.10 gear box I had in there and the paint box I took... This is what I was left with!



I'm very pleased with all of it now though. Stoked about the gears and the locker, and the disc setup being only one other person has done it (And we're doing Shane's next!). I love the ride now too and highly suggest getting expo leafs over any AAL. Total that was spent in the past 9 days came out to around $1400, but it was all in-due-time mods, that all happened at once while it was down for the count getting gears!

ENJOY!

 

Looks great, good job!

 

ballin

 

Looks awsome.

How does the Flowmaster sound and what is the drone in the cab?

 

hows it drive with the gears now?

 

Looks good man. The super 44 is the loudest muffler you can get from flowmaster. Buddy of mine has a super 44 on his Dodge Ram with a full 3 inch exhaust and it sounds mean.

 

idk what to say, all i know is Im sitting here with tears and wondering what i need to do to get rear disk without going the mustang route, since Im changing over to explorer leafs and rear end 8.8, would really like to know more about the disk set up and the how to? oh by the way, it looks marvelous :)

 

sweet deal im getting ready to venture down this road as well......

 

WOOT WOOT!!

Tre....can't forget the bedliner THEN DSG! Good good choice on keeping with the black bolts on the cover. Really does complete the look.

I just can't believe how nice this truck rides. It rode very nice before and I was already jealous. Now that these leaves are in...HOLY COW speed bumps are sooooo smooth. I just put in C Ranger leaves with my AAL.....I think it may be time to toss in some low-mile expos soon....and coil-overs...

I'm also very shocked on how livable the Lock-Right is in his truck. I was literally cussing him and his truck out when I drove it during it's first test drive last night. Granted, everythings new back there and tight and we're takin' it easy....but I was absolutely shocked on how I could drive his truck full steering wheel crank and applying throttle in 1st. I can't do that with mine...it starts bucking like crazy and I gotta unlock my Aussie(clutch in, neutral shifter). But I did get his to buck eventually. lol.

All in all......his truck is a blast now. The exhaust reminds me of mine when I first put the 44 on and it was dumped. TrePaul.....can't wait til this things broke in and it's rainin!!


How many times do I have to post it? It's one way or the other.... if 28 spline 8.8, go mustang. If 31spline 8.8, go expo. Both are total bolt-ons for their respective axle.

 

As many times as I have to ask! again although I do have a 28 inch spline, I don't have a 8.8 I have a 7.5 so thats why the question was asked, than again, I will figure it out and get it done. and not all expos come with rear dics setup

 

 

Lol, telling Shane that not all expos com with rear discs is like reading the bible to the pope. You're just telling him facts he already knows.


/not that shane is the pope. But if u put a white robe and hat on him he'd prolly look like one.

 

As i stated already got my answers, it was just a question anywho, just a question!

 

I am not the Pope and I don't know what they'd think about an Amish Irish Pope....but hey....have some MOAR pitchers...



Redneck engineering...



















And that quite literally is the gist of my pics. lol.

 

what happened to the silver wheels and the toyos??

 

This happened........for two weeks instead of one. lol.

 

ooooooo gotcha, what size are those??

 

So you guys are switching back to your original wheels? Good!

 

It drives awesome with the gears and the locker. I love it... And as Shane said, it rides like it did stock, if not better than that!

We swapped wheels for a day, or what it was supposed to be possibly a weekend. Then work kicked in long days for me and I was just too tired and lazy to switch back, which I know Shane didn't mind at all lol... I think I helped put some ideas in his head for wheel and tire combo's coming up!

 

what size rims are those 16 or 17's?? what width??

 

Tre's are 16x10 and 315/75's. Mine are 15x10 and 35x12.50's. Both like 30% tread at best.

 

ya im sold that 16's and 17's look best on a ranger, anything bigger looks silly, those are probably the only 10 inch wide rims that i actually like maybe its the tires idk

 

His 16's and toyo's really made my truck look so much beefier. I think alot of it has to do with all that sidewall meat that toyo m/t's have compared to my bfg's. And....well.....it's a huge change lookswise back and forth from steel to alloy. I want 16's or 17's now...but damn I'm not willing to pay the premium for 'em! lol.

 

ya im thinking it might be the toyos as well, sucks they dont make them in a 12.5 width for 15's or id buy them, the 13'5's would just be too much

 

wow thats a **** ton of work! looks great! im beginning to really want a set of those expo leafs now... they are just a bolt in swap?



shane... question for you! is it only the fx4 models that came with 31 spline axles? i know i have an 8.8 with 4:10 gears but i do not know the spline count. i think it is 28 though