That's probably the front of my wife's Expedition. The 6.0 is still running strong though. I did a new oil cooler and EGR delete, stc fitting, and some other stuff about 10k ago to try to prevent any unnecessary issues later. Hard to think it's over 10 years old now lol.


Borrowed a forklift for a few today so I could flex the truck a bit. I've lost all the spots I used to know to do any real world flexing so I'm trying to find a new place. It's still articulates just as well as before.

Driver's side front lifted:


Still got about 3 inches of compression left in the shock here




Driver's rear lifted:


Have about 1 inch of compression left in the passenger side shock here

 

Nice. Almost as much as the rcd lol

 

Almost. I've got some more work to do before I get to that point though.

 

My ranger has more flex than that bruh lol looks great man. Shoulda done coilovers from the start. I honestly think that anyone using a d30 for a sas should use coilovers. Unless it's as clean as Justins swap.

 

Got my new Currie sway bar heims and threaded rods, should be able to get the sway bar brackets on the axle sometime this weekend. Also did a garage alignment using this method: Toe In Setting The 'Hillbilly' way... - JeepForum.com
I got it to about 1/4" toe in I think lol. It steers really well now but still not 100% perfect, I stll get a little dart sometimes. I may have to pay someone to do it even though I don't really want to lol. It's way better than it has ever been since it's been sas'd though.

Shoulda. Didn't wanna spend the money then, still didn't wanna spend the money this time lol. It does ride a lot better though and I have way way more room and didn't have to notch the frame! My standpoint on the d30 is just don't use it lol, fullwidth or nothing.

 

Sway bar is hooked up again!

Went right under the tie rod with the brackets, as close as could be. This time I went with the 14" links from Currie, had the 10.5s before but with the brackets under the tie rod I needed a little extra length.



The truck feels very stable now and drives great. As soon as I get the toe spot on I'm confident it'll drive completely normal.

No lean anymore!

 

Well looks like I'll be replacing the balljoints now. I've been getting a pop every once in a while that I couldn't pinpoint. And even though I've got the toe to 1/16th in I still get a little dart. I've also noticed a tiny bit of negative camber. The camber disappears with no weight on the truck. Had my wife pry from underneath the tires while I checked the balljoints and yup got noticeable play on both sides. I'm hoping the unit bearings aren't bad too.

Gonna get to the balljoints as soon as I can and, fingers crossed, hopefully it'll take care of the last of that wander.

 

Well I replaced the balljoints this past weekend with OEM Spicer joints, which seemed pretty highly rated by the XJ guys. I'm not sure what kind of joints were in there but they were stamped Made In Taiwan and they were toast. The passenger side upper joint literally fell apart when I got the knuckle off and the driver side upper joint was very loose with about 3/4" vertical play. Both lower joints were really loose as well.

Bad news though is that I'm pretty sure at least the passenger side unit bearing is toast too. It looks original to me, the driver's side has been replaced at some point but I'm just going to go ahead and replace them both anyway.

Also noticed the driver side rear axle seal is leaking. Dammit, one more thing to replace.

Good news though is the truck is 99% now. Had it up to 70 and it just goes straight as an arrow, handles bumps great. Certain dips in the street going slow like in residential areas still make the steering dart ever so slightly but I think tight new wheel bearings will eliminate the last of it. Steering feels more uniform from lock to lock now with the new ball joints in. Got rid of that pop too!

Took a few pics in the driveway this evening.





And compare this pic taken this evening:

To this one taken 7/14/2009 - 6 years ago!

Pretty crazy cause I've put about 400 of those miles on in the past month!

 

Wow lots of great work nice to see the truck out in the light of day. Crazy how few miles have been put on it. Hopefully you can go out and enjoy it now. Time to find some wheeling buddies and get it out in the dirt.

 

All of those pictures look like they're of an R/C crawler. lol.

Truck looks good! Glad you're getting the bugs sorted out.

 

Easy solution is to just blame the old ball joints on zach.

 

Fo real huh

 

Replaced the front unit bearings today with new Timken bearings. My highway vibration is gone now, and I don't think the truck could drive any smoother. I'm pretty sure the driver's side bearing was still good but the passenger side one looked original and it was pretty rough. I just did them both though, no sense in having to go back and replace the other one later. I need to get it professionally aligned, I know I have it real close but my garage measurements just don't compare to lasers and whatnot.

I need to get after the rear axle seals and do a gear oil change up front and other than that I honestly can't think of anything else to do. The wife is sick of me working on it for now though so I'll probably give it a bit before I do it. With 2 kids running wild she doesn't like it when I'm in the garage all day lol.

 

What is their problem :)

Glad you are getting all the kinks worked out. Now maybe you can enjoy it more.

 

Glad to hear everything is working out well. At least you find time to work on it with two kids in the picture haha

 

Indeed lol. Time is slim these days that's for sure.

Finally did that gear oil change though, well, I drained it and cleaned the inside with brake cleaner. Haven't sealed it back up yet. I must've flooded it that day I pulled Koyn out of 3ft of water. Should've changed it way back then apparently because there's rust in the diff, hopefully nothing is ruined.

 

That oil looks BAD! lol

From the looks of the pics, you may have kept the rust out of the critical parts. You should be fine. Make sure there isn't any on the gear teeth or bearings.

 

nice work with this.

i find it hard to believe you never seen the bad balljoints, i guess they can hide a bit. you need a bigger bar to move the tire with so you can catch em sooner. the spicer parts are my first choice when it is possible...just not always possible.


you may want to save the better unit bearing if you do long trips. nice to have in case you toast one....well if you remember to pack the little guy. generally speaking they do take a long long time to fail....but i have seen them come right apart with 37 in tires in a very short amount of miles. i deemed on autozone variant worth the risk before going home from kentucky one time and ended up sitting all night till the parts store opened half way thru ohio. the oem ones they replaced were not even loose....the autozone units before the trip to slade were tight and they did not have 15k on them.. but they were on a jeep.

maybe d30's like rangers better.

on the overall are you glad you did this to the truck..??..

 

I think the bad balljoints eluded me just because of my lack of looking. Honestly I'd given up on getting the truck driving right about 5 years ago. It sat and sat and I had no interest in messing with it. My wife convinced me to redo the steering and it's just opened a whole new can of worms and worn out parts. I'm sure she's regretting it now.

I don't regret doing it, if I could go back and I had the cash I wouldn't have used a d30.


On another note, I'll be replacing the Rubicon Express upper control arm bushings with the superflex joints. And I'll be replacing the axle side lower rubber with new ones. I replaced all these bushings way back in 09, and I know for sure the uppers are bad already. Keep in mind there's been less than 2k miles put on the truck in this time. After some online research I've learned that the RE bushings really really suck and I'm not the only guy to have these crap out in no time flat.

 

Awesome that you are getting all the kinks worked out. Those sway bar end links look like they could get trashed pretty easily.

On a side note, what are you taking pictures with? a DSLR? Or are you just good with lighting? And do you have a build thread somewhere for your diesel?

 

Some pictures I use a Canon 5d Mark II and some I just use my phone. Don't have a build thread for the f250, I don't have a ton done to it.

Funny you mention that about the links. The links themselves are tough, they are grade 8 rods and the ends are Currie RockJock Heims, tons of guys run them that are a lot harder on them than me. The brackets on the other hand aren't strong enough. I've bent them in the past more than once. When I put them back on this time I shortened them quite a bit to make them a little stronger. It's in the plan to gusset them but I just haven't yet, and I won't bend them driving on the street which is what I've been doing lately lol.

Pic from back in the day when I bent the crap out of the driver's side bracket.

 

i think the 30 is great for a 3.0.

if you need a 44 or 60 later its a matter of brackets and valving for the increased unsprung wt. it sux blowing cash on maintenance parts...but that is a given.


with a little truck and powertrain like this its a great balance. the weight of a 60 is enormous when running a 37 or larger tire. unless your wanting to run some serious body destroying stuff on a regular basis it seems like a great setup.

most people are satisfied and i ask because of that.

 

Well for me the 30 has been strong enough. It's the width of the axle combined with the late model Ranger frame that's made it tough. A full width axle would've made life easier no doubt.

 

New RE large rubber bushings for the axle side of the lower arms, and small superflex joints for the lower arm side of the upper arms. I decided to go with those instead of new rubber because of the rigidity of them rather than the misalignment capabilities.


Difference between the rubber bushings and the superflex joints. They take a 1/2" bolt over the 10mm of the rubber too.

 

Got the new bushings in and the I really can't believe how much tighter it made the ride feel, and stopping feels much more sure. There's no boat feeling when the truck makes a complete stop now. It also finally got rid of the last bit of wander. The new bushings are much much harder than the old ones, I can almost flatten the old ones with my bare hands. The new ones I can't squish at all. RE claims they are a newer better formula so we'll see. I won't say the truck feels stock because it still feels like a solid axle lifted vehicle but it drives really good now, it probably can't get much better.

I'm gonna make it my daily again.




And an interior shot just for fun. Modified the trans shifter boot so it doesn't come up so high on the shifter arm. Really wish I still had the stock stereo too.