Well I havent been on much in the past month due to my truck needing some attention
First off, I went and got my windows tinted,20% sides and 10% rear), on Friday the 20th. I went that night and cleaned and waxed the truck real good.
The next day, saturday, I was on my way to my moms wedding and my rear end decided it didnt want to go.. Something messed up and the spider gears shattered causing a c-clip to come off. The drivers side wheel and axle came completly out of the axle tube, and left a few "beauty marks" on my bed.. Did i mention this was all an hour before the wedding?
Monday came and i made a trip to a local place and pulled an explorer rear for $150. I went to the parts store and purchased all new rotors, calipers, pads, break lines, and fluid. To end that day i stripped the rear completly and removed all the gunk and surface rust.
My only other day off was Wed, so i woke up early that morning before it got to almost a 100degrees and completely removed the stock rear in less than an hour. My newly acquired stepfather took me to the shop where he works at and we cut the old perches and shock mounts off the 7.5 and reweled them onto the 8.8. This was pretty easy, just time consuming due to the amount of grinding that was required. After sealing up the rear and letting the fresh coat of paint dry, we loaded up and headed home to get the ranger moving again.
Got the rear installed that night and bled the breaks the next morning. 4way disks are AWESOME! They dont compare to the 10" drums that i had.
And that weekend I finally got around to raising my bumper to get rid of the bodylift gap. How do you guys who have done this have your hitched mounted?
All in all it was a good experince minus the body damage. I would reccomend the swap to anyone looking for better braking or just more strength. And I love the windows, and i havent had any problems with the law from them either.
Finally here are the pics(they are all cell phone pics though), Lemme know what you guys think, enjoy

Window tint in progress, you can still see the left side that has yet to be done, BIG difference


The difference from the inside


Finished and all cleaned up


What i opened my door to see


Deconstruction


New rear all ready to be taken home and mounted


Lifted bumper


Random picture @ work


Dont remember if i ever posted this up before but my new OHC and Headliner


Another older random picture(GIANT fish too lmao)


Flexing

Truck looks great man. Sucks about the rear axle though, I pray that never happens to me.

nice!

what did you have before? 7.5?

yeah had the stock 7.5. Ill get some pics of the new 8.8 installed in the moring cause for some reason thats like the only thing i dont have pics of.

Only bad thing bout this ordeal is that it will prob delay the 6" lift till late this year or early next becuase now i want to repair the bed and repaint. Ive been thinking the same color with line-x rockers and flares

Yeah, i remembered reading a thread on either here or TRS where it happened to a guys red ranger and both axles came out partially. NEVER thought it would happen to me, I WAS WRONG

nice pics...

looks like some good fishing there, i hate perch tho

i see you got a little fishing line trouble there..

Thanx, its an awesome crappie pond and yeah it was kinda windy

Sucks about the damage, but glad you were able to the an Expo rear. I wouldn't mind having one myself.