Hi, Ok, Ive got one for you guys, my Ranger is a 98 with 5.0, auto trans and awd transfer case from 97 mountaineer. I still have the ranger front and rear diffs in it. from day one after I put it on the road it will drift very slowly when parked on a grade. the steeper the hill the more it will slip. I got the e brake working pretty good but she creeps slowly and I find it annoying and funny at the same time. my wife used it one day when I did the brakes on r daily driver. she didn't put on the e brake and by the next morning it had drifted about a ft down the street. I thought I had read online somewhere that the differentials are somehow different on awd as apposed to 4wd. if the parking paw in tranny was broke it would roll more, I think. anyone got any good info on this??

 

And in case anyone wonders, it didn't drift b4 the swap

 

Yes, that's not an uncommon issue at all, first noticed when people removed AWD Explorers front drive line for repair and drove it and Parked it on a hill, many SURPRISES that way, lol

AWD uses a coupling in transfer case that allows slipping while driving on dry pavement.
4x4s use direct chain and gear drive

AWD also powers front and rear at 30/70
4x4 is 50/50 even split

When in Park normally the AWD would have 2 Locked Drive shafts, if you have Manual hubs you need to leave them LOCKED or Park can't hold on any slope
The AWDs coupling is slipping, as it should, if front drive shaft can be turned

 

This is one of the reasons I never considered running one of the AWD cases in my swap.

 

Ok, I get it but im not going to lock front hubs in every time I park, plus I did this when I was done with swap and it didn't help? I wanted to use the ranger 4wd transfer case but needed an adaptor to put it on the trans from donor and was told this would cost me a lot of $$ to put a butt shaft in the tail of tranny so I went with awd case.

 

The stock Ranger case is definitely not the best solution. The 4406 case used in F150's is the easiest. There are three versions:
1) Control trac - it has automatic 4wd engagement. I would -not- recommend that.
2) Part time electric shift. This may actually plug directly into your existing connectors for the stock Ranger case. I've seen conflicting information on that. Worst case, it uses a very similar shifting system of electrical contacts and you might need to swap connectors to match everything up.
3) Mechanical shift. This is what I'm running. Cut a small hole in the floorboard to the left of the cupholder to let the shifter through, adjust the linkage, and you're done. There's a bit more work to make the 4H and 4L lights on the dash work, but nothing complicated.

I don't remember how the driveshaft lengths work on the AWD vs 4406 case. I had to change shafts regardless as I was going through the V8 swap, and my donor was a 2wd Explorer, so I never had the stock shafts to compare.

 

I appreciate the info, ill keep it in mind if I decide to make the switch. the driveshaft from my donor is what im using although I have a superlift 4 in lift on the truck and I will eventually need a front driveshaft made for the lift kit. I actually like the idea of the electric shift but in my case its redundant cause I have to get out and lock hubs in anyway. is your swap efi or carb?

 

Mine's an EFI swap. '99 Explorer 5.0 donor to a '99 FFV 3.0 Ranger. Other than a fresh rebuild, I just changed to a higher lift cam with springs to match and added an intake spacer.

Just look around on Craigslist for a decent F150 or F250 case that's electrically shifted. Make sure it's a non control-trac 4406 (you can tell by looking at the shift switch - it should have a 2H/4H/4L position). That will solve your parking problem plus give you low range back and make the GEM happy.

 

This thread's about swapping in a manual shift case, but any commentary on driveshafts should be the same as the electrically shifted unit.
https://www.explorerforum.com/forums...thread.166726/

 

You don't Lock hubs when Parking, you leave the front hubs locked all the time, thats the point of having AWD, All wheels are driving the vehicle, it is totally safe to do this, and won't effect MPG since everything is already spinning just the front hubs are not connected.

The benefit of 4WD is that power is split evenly, 50/50, between front and rear axles, but it also doesn't allow slipping between front and rear drive shafts so not great to use on dry pavement at speed

So Lock the hubs and leave them alone until you swap to 4WD

Yes, F-150 transfer case for the V8 power, not Ranger transfer case, it won't last

 

Ok, ill lock the hubs and see if it helps but I remember trying this when I got done with swap and found the issue, the truck still creeped on grades? It would cost too much money to do the ranger transfer case anyways. ive got this on another thread but ill ask here. I put 1 in bora wheel spacers on front and rear, they are hub and wheel centric. when I get her up to about 45 mph I get the death wobble at steering wheel..i called truck n stuff, a 4x4 off road place near me..they said its because ive got 3 ply sidewall tires not 4 ply. he said only 3 brands make 4 ply and that's the fix? any thoughts on this.

 

Does the wobble happen without the spacers?

 

Nope, she has a slight shimmy at 45 - 50 mph that goes away at 60 mph...this is due to the modified steering for the headers but the death wobble is there only with the spacers. ive thought about taking them off til I get new tires, I wont really need new tires til spring. don't have the $ for them anyway lol. I locked the hubs in this morning so ill see if the drifting stops. always something ya know. like I have a leaky high pressure power steering hose at the top where it goes it the pump. ur supposed to keep the one from ur donor, I didn't know that til I scraped it so I took the ranger hose to a place that does them and they made it longer.

 

I have a feeling the 4406 manual shift would bolt right in and hook up to the front driveshaft im using?

 

Read here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/8-cyli...t-case-139472/


Wobble can be a few things, doubt is because of tires "ply number" but could be a bad tire, Ply has separated on one tire
When tires spin they generate centrifugal force, this is why "spin balancing" is better than "bubble balancing", spin balance can detect a bad tire, but not always, weight of vehicle on a bad tire causes ply to separate but only at specific speeds, below or above that speed it won't wobble.

4 Wheel alignment, you can have an alignment issue that will produce a wobble but only at specific speeds.
There are two factors involved, traction and centrifugal force, under a certain speed one tire can slip so no wobble(but bad tire wear), when you reach the "wobble speed" the centrifugal force is enough to hold each tire in its direction of travel, which is not aligned and traction is equal, so left and right tire trade best traction, which is the wobble.
As speed increases one side will get best traction and wobble will be gone(but bad tire wear)

If you have an alignment done, insist that they "tie off the steering wheel" NOT use the steering wheel lock method
This will give you a straight steering wheel when going straight
The Key off steering wheel lock is never dead center, so an alignment using that always gives you an off center steering wheel

 

Ya im wondering if he is saying the tires because its a ranger, or just trying to sell expensive tires. ive read some other sites where guys say they have the issue and no one talked about the tires being 4 ply. im starting to think its something suspension part or alignment are going and the spacers make it worse if that makes sense. ill probable take em off for awhile and drive it and see how it goes. mainly because im wondering if the wobble could damage parts. the thing that sucks is they make lift kits for rangers but they don't sell heavy duty ball joints or hubs or the like that I know of....