Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Looks good piney glad to see it coming along good! Why didn't you tell me you were up my way I woulda stopped by and we coulda had a

oops, I didn't even think about it with all the truck stuff on my mind.

Once I got it on the road I didn't do anything for a good while. I got to know some guys at a shop and they were gonna cut me a good deal for the gear setup. Crash and burn. The guys there are cool, but their specialty is in engines, not drivetrain. The mechanic turned out not to have a clue on how to do a gear setup, and they didn't have half the tools needed to do it either. No press (that fit), no bearing puller, race drivers that were too small. Luckily I checked it before they bolted the diff cover back up. I'm doing it myself now, even though I don't have the time to. I had to put to death the two bearings the idiot mechanic pressed on with no way to get back off. It wasn't too bad getting them off with the grinder- they split once you get close to being all the way through.


Supersize me

So its all done now right? Cause bobcat is completely washed out and your gonna need that front end done to even run the trail in reverse. Def gonna be fun this year.

leach

yeah, we don't have to worry about that one root on the washout putting a dent in the lower half of your door, now its about roof height and likes to try and take out your windsheid... the washout is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, and root hill ain't so tame anymore.

sweet. Bobcat needed to get washed out some I think. My track width is wider now, and I made some sliders that will give me some added protection from destroying the side of my truck. I'm sure that all won't be enough, but you might finally see the ranger take on the washout.

and by wider track width I mean 2" on each side for a total of 4". I didn't go fullwidth on the axleswap. sorry guys.

ladies and gentlemens, I am very pleased to annouce that I have once again wheeled my truck, the first time since almost a year ago. though i had the SAS back on the road a long time ago, there were many small issues that needed to be resolved, and other priorities ahead of it or an entire lack of time. in the last couple weeks i've gotten those things taken care of:

installing the gears- I got so busy after the swap that i put this off for a long time. over the summer i tried to have a shop do the job, but their guy turned out to know nothing about proper gear setups, so that didn't work out. i ended up doing it myself. it was a good learning experience, though a pain in the ass at times.

coil buckets- the TTB ones just weren't going to cut it. I put on the coil buckets from the donor bronco and moved them forward about 2". it did require some notching of the driverside bucket to clear the hump in the frame. more on this when i get some pics.

wristed radius arm- i never finished building it when i first did the sas. it's done now and man when you unpin it you can really see it working and see how much bind it eliminates from the suspension.

I don't have many pics as I did not have my own camera today, but i do have a few flex shots. at this time my shocks are a bit too short and limiting my droop maybe 2". this ramp was also a bit slippery and i couldn't get far enough up to actually lift a tire. i will need to trim the fenders a bit as you can see, but otherwise there don't seem to be any major clearance issues. the only thing i'm concerned about is the diff hitting the engine crossmember when i stuff both sides at the same time (like after getting a little air and coming down hard). i can't trim the crossmember any more without reworking the entire thing, so for now i will prolly put a bumpstop on the crossmember above the diff until a time when i have the motor out and can easily rebuild the crossmember. the driveshaft is also a bit close to the downpipe and there is a wear mark where it's hit. it doesn't touch when flexing, so i suspect this is also from stuffing both sides together on bumps.


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My first impression is that it feels much more stable than my old suspension when going through unever terrain. it's much softer in the front now so it doesn't feel like the truck's going to roll over when you drop your front tire into a rut. I'm very happy with it.

Lookin good man! I'm gonna miss all the "poopy ttb" jokes though.

not so fast! its still a FERD!!

Got some more poser shots. It's tough to ramp around here cause south jersey's just one big pile of sand. I disconnected a shock and got 3+" more droop, and the tire was still on the ground, so some longer shocks are definetely in order. At this point the coil had reached it's free length, and may have even been stretched just a bit. You can also see the wristed arm doing its job.


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Needs some bigger tires.

Leach