After a whole day of work (yesterday 10:30am to 9pm) I got the old axle out and the new under. My dad and I took off the bed. Which I scratched all up across my floor. Whoops.

We cut off my leaf spring hangers with a sawsall. We couldn't get one of the leaf bolts out so we completely removed the leafs and we going to swap in my Expo leafs a little early. So my rear end is going to be 2 inches in the air all winter. The forward bolts on the passenger side for the leafs was thread stripped so it took about an hour and 15 minutes to get it out. We had to pry it forward and crank at the same time. Unfortunately I don't have a replacement so we have to put it back in.

I blew threw my last cutting wheel on the leaf hangers so I have to go grab some more. Those hardened steel rivets and bolts are a b*tch. Then I'm gonna paint of the rear frame. Bolt the new leafs on (I hope to god they are easier to install than uninstall). Then bolts up the axle, fill it up, bleed the brakes, and watch the Browns We'll see. Gotta wait till 11am for Sears to open for new cutting wheels.

Wish me luck on day 2 of my axle swap. Wish I had more pictures but we are rushed as-is. No blood drawn yet....

 

Lol what a heap. Jk good luck man

 

ha ha looks like you have been having as much fun as me this weekend! im doing a body lift on mine

 

You doing yours today also kyle?

 

national body lift day.. now I just need to magically inherit one :P

 

DONE!!

All is well in Ranger world. We finished at about 8:30 pm tonight.

So my total build time was 22 hours. That included runs to the store and clean up.

Tomorrow, after school, I need to change my oil, plus I want to install a driver grab handle and my OHC needs to go in. Probably skip the OHC though.

I am going to Berea in the afternoon to pick up my 06 mirrors. Might come home and start modding those to fit. We'll see.

I tried to take a picture but it is very dark. Basically looks the same as before except the red diff cover and the rear in is like 2 inches higher. Unless you really know Rangers or have been around mine long enough you would even notice that it was higher. Looks aggressive lol.

It drives fine. The braking has defiantly improved. Those 10 inches are bomb. Can't wait to convert to disks. I wish I would have gone ahead and did it a few weeks ago. Oh well. Another day.

My ABS light is on and my RABS is completely gone. They DEFIANTLY just lock right up. The axle is from a 03 FX4 Level II so it was 4WABS. I only have RABS. Is there no way to get it to work or did I miss something. Anybody else have this problem after rear axle swapping?

And for some reason my reverse lights are dead. The bulbs are good but they won't light up. My brake lights are fine. Odd.

BIG PROPS to my dad. Mr. Muscles and Common Sense made this thing possible. Without him my truck would still be in pieces in the garage. The messed up leafs really set me back. One of them was actually broken. In half. That would have stopped me in my tracks if it wasn't for him.

We did both leaf spring hangers. The hanger kit was like $15 for each and the replacement stock size shackles were $35 a piece!! A pair of lift shackles are less than $50!! They fell apart when we started to cut them. Sawsall cut them like paper.

Props to my neighbor as well. He came over and helped bleed my brakes. I was pretty stupid in that area. I had a general idea, just was going about it wrong. He hooked us up.

This whole weekend has given me a little heads up on what the front axle swap is gonna be like when that comes around. I gotta say, grinding off just 2 leaf hangers for a few hours and cranking one bolt for an hour and 15 minutes made me realize that there is no way I'm going to do it with air tools and a cutting torch. Lesson learned.

So all went well. Long weekend but all good none-the-less.

And just to let you know, I hate all of you for supporting the forum that fuels my mod bug. If I would have never joined I would never known about swapping it out. You all suck.

 

Here's how she sits as of today. I have some sounds coming from the rear end, i hope they are just the breaking in sounds. My shocks are almost maxed so I need to get some stock 4x4 ones.

ABS is still in the air. I have no idea. Guess I will pumping the pedal all winter.

I haven't had the Torsen kick in yet. Maybe after I change oil today I will take it to a parking lot.

Acceleration in 1st seems to have decreased. More launch but less acceleration. Like something is pulling me back. Probably the added weight, or the LSB, or just 4.10s in general.

 

Looks good.

 

Thanks. The more I look at it the less raised rear end bothers me.