Cap turned out great, color is a close match.

The rest of the project is a four wheel drive conversion and SAS. If you guys are interested I can post some more info and pics.

 

Dude...yes

 

Is that a serious statement? Of course we are interested! lol

 

^x2

 

Hah okay I will post up some more info when I get home tonight.

 

LULZ at the comments.

 

So the first part of my swap was to remove the gas tank to make clearance for a transfer case. I picked up a steel tank from a B2 along with the stock skid plate and straps. I made one cross-member for the front of the tank to bolt up to and welded the holes in the tank from the junkyard. A few minor mods to the fuel rail and sender to take the high flow fuel pump and to clear the bed when installed. Plumbed it all together with some braided stainless and Russell's fittings.

Also added a set of lift shackles to bring the rear of the truck up a couple of inchs, and I plan to raise the front to match. The goal is to clear 33" tires.







I know most of that isn't all that exciting but its necessary work...
Next up I have been working on the axle, its a HP D30 out of a 1998 Jeep Cherokee with the larger axle shaft u-joints. I know bring on the Haters... I have a set of Standard Gear 4.10's ready to drop on, and a Spartan lunchbox Lockers is on order. I am going to run a late model Grand Cherokee knuckles on the axle which will give me High Steer and Twin Piston Calipers. I am going to reuse the Jeeps lower coil buckets with the 6" Ranger coils I already had on the truck. This will require less modifications and I should be able to use the Rangers upper coil bucket, shock mount, and the stock Jeep shock mount with the Fox Shox.



I have stripped the axle bare, boxed in the upper control arm mount, and made a simple truss out of 1/4" diamond plate. Over the weekend I installed new ball joints and mounted the knuckles to check clearance for the steering.





The steering is going to use 1 Ton TRE's and the drag link, trac bar, and tie rod will be made out of 1.5 inch .25 wall DOM. Should be plenty strong. The suspension will be a radius arm setup that uses the stock upper and lower control arm mounts on the axle. Arms will be made out of 2 inch .25 wall DOM, with 2.5" Johnny Joints. All of the links will be adjustable.

I already replaced the power steering gear box with a new reman unit and have a drop pitman arm mounted to it along with new hydraulic lines to the pump. The frame has been stripped of all the original suspension and cross-members.




The pile of parts is beginning to stack up and I ordered a few hundred dollars worth over the weekend. The goal is to try and have the truck sitting on its own weight by the end of the month.



The trans is still up in the air... I want to run a World Class T5 with a Dana 300, but they have never been manufactured and Advance Adapters quit producing the kit years ago. I am hoping to build my own trans with a NWC T5 out of a Jeep CJ. Would also have to flip the T-case as its normally a passengers side drop...

A couple of other plans are some rock sliders and a front skid plate with winch. I am going to be real busy until the Dunes :)

 

looking real good man, can't wait to see it in action!

 

Awesome! Nice work!

 

Small Update due to Kitchen Renovations... I put the axle under the truck for the first time to do a rough mock up and measure for DOM. Looks like I will have to trip a lot of the engine cross member and redo the exhaust. A lot of parts came in during the week, all of the joints, rod ends, and brackets are here. Locker should come in some time this week. I reamed out the knuckles for the 1 ton TRE's but the pitman arm is giving me trouble. Might have to drill it out and order a tapered insert.

 

i cant wait to see this thing done! looks awesome

 

Beefy!

 

Looks good Rob. You would be best to just cut the bottom half of the crossmember off and just build a nice slim crossmember out of tubing tucked up close to the oil pan.

 

so awesome!!!! dream truck lol im doing a v8 swap on an 88 i made my own clutch quadrent so i can run a cable u can check it out http://img850.imageshack.us/slidesho...2230356231.jpg and here is the rest of my truck http://img822.imageshack.us/slidesho...to08201238.jpg

 

man i really like your truck ive had a 302 tore down for a few years now that i had planned on puttin in my 88 ranger but just never got around to it before i sold it

 

It wasn't until I shoved the axle under there that I noticed how much that crossmember is going to interfere. My plan was to cut most of the lower section of and add a plate to strengthen it back up. I would love to remove the crossmember and build a new one with a different motor mount setup, but I think I have enough to do at the moment.

You may want to consider runing a hydraulic clutch. I ran the cable for a while and hated it. The setup I have now was cheap and has been reliable.

 

Well after several weeks of redoing my kitchen and living room I am finally working on the truck again. I have picked up a Spartan locker for the front and a set of 33 inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claw Radials. I sent the rotors and hubs out to the machine shop to get them to fit together. Also having the shop ream out the pitman arm as I wasn't having any luck with it. Hopefully pics and progress to come soon as the dunes are right around the corner.

 

Very cool! Nice progress.

 

Little bit of an update... Worked on adding a 3/4 inch bolt to the top of the D30 spring pad so that I can bolt down my Ranger Skyjackers coils. Also made the tie rod out of the 1.5 inch DOM and notched the sway bar mounts and coil pads so the knuckles had the full range of movement.

Also added a piece of 1/4 inch steel to the stock engine cross member and cut off the bottom 3 inches to allow clearance for the axle, which is hopefully enough. Up next is to put the coils on the axle and fit it under the truck so I can start making the radius arms.

Hopefully I can get all of this done in the next 6 weeks!

 

do work son!

 

So one of the reasons I haven't been working on the truck much the past couple of weeks is that I picked up a motorcycle, an 82 Suzuki GS650. Not a bad little bike, bought it real cheap and need a stator and battery. I stripped the tank, smoothed the badges and painted it matte black so it didn't look so 80's.


Thankfully that is almost done now so more time spent on the truck. I got the axle under the truck with the coil springs so that I could center it and start making the radius arms. If any of you guys who have done this before have any suggestions on how to center the axle from front to back, I am all ears. You can also see the trimmed cross member and the clearance. Looks like some more trimming might be called for.

 

lookin good! as for centering the axle, only way i could see doing it is with a tape measure.

 

Ive always used a tape measure to center mine, theres 2 pins in the frame that are in the same spot each side i always use them to center mine left to right the driver side is right under the gearbox and the other one is on the same spot just on the pass side. Front to back i just pull off the center of both axkes front and back.

 

Thanks for the tips guys, I ended up hanging a plumb bob off of both sides of the truck in order to center and set the position for/aft. I centered the axle in the middle of the wheel wells. It took quite a while to get everything in position and level, but I am happy with where everything ended up.

I made the lower radius arms out of the 2" DOM and welded on the bushing and rod end with an eye to eye length of 36" inches. The arm mount was welded to the frame and I will be adding a piece of 1/4" to box in this section of the frame. The mounts are right where the trans cross-member is located, so I will make a new one to tie the two rails together. The upper radius arms were fabbed up and I made some mounts out of 1/4". In the future I will add some boxing and another reinforcement to stiffen up the mounts.

By the end of the day I had the transmission and exhaust system off of the truck, and the weight of the truck is sitting on the axle so that I can make the drag link and traction bar. As you can see in the pics I threw the tires under the truck just to see how it looks.

 

Morris approves...