Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Look what I brought home- fullwidth HP44 out of a 78-79 Bronco. The plan is to narrow it and do a wristed radius arm setup.


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I thought poopy ttb was awesome?!!

I said ttb was sufficient. It still gets me through everything i wanna go through, and hasn't broken a thing. It's the couple quirks of it that I'm tired of working around.

Besides, I got the 44 real cheap and after I sell off my ttb crap I won't have lost much $$ if any at all.

Basically I'm swappin for the hell of it.

Well it's begun. Here I'm starting to grind down the weld so I can remove the cast inner knuckle/tracbar bracket/c-wedge piece, shorten the tube, then press the cast piece back on and weld. Here is a good article on narrowing this type of axle.

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It took about a hundred hits with that sledge to drive off the cast piece of shit.

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I only got 1/4" wall axle tubes. Some 78-79 Broncos had these instead of 3/8". Oh well, you can't win em all.

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The tube is cut and the cast piece hammered back on with careful attention to caster alignment. It was narrowed 6", all on the passenger side.

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Also got the steel cut to do my wristed radius arm.
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And the stock tracbar bracket from the 78-79 Bronco donor truck to use as a starting point for the custom tracbar mount.

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I'm bringing the project back to school. I'll be working at my uncle's place up around Roanoke. Who wants to give me a ride out there on the weekends?

The truck's blocked up in my uncles garage now. Marshman helped me gut the TTB and get the 44 somewhat mocked-up.


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TTB Parts!!!

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Some stuff is still on it's way, such as C-bushings. We did get the axle kinda situated under there though. The factory TTB coil bucket is not ideal, but I will probably keep it initially, but cut out the shock mount and replace with a taller eyelet type mount.

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I reamed out the pitman arm, knuckles, and the small hole on the passenger side tierod end to accept the larger studs of the 1-ton GM TREs. I reamed the knuckles from the top in order to move the tierod up about 3" (factory tierod mounts under the knuckle). I had string simulating the drag link and tracbar when I was measuring and figuring out lengths and angles, but I guess I forgot to take a pic. If you look closely you will notice that the axle is not supported on the driver side. This is a demonstration of the inherent bind in a non-wristed radius arm setup. Of course, with the weight of the truck on the axle, it would flex more by squishing bushings and bowing the radius arms a bit.


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Notice that the factory driveshaft for a D35 is just about the right length. It's pretty close to running out of compression at full stuff though so I will have to watch it closely. Here's some free advice- do not drop a reinforced soon-to-be wristed radius arm on your foot. Ow.


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This is the position I chose for the radius arm brackets. The back hole in the bracket lines up with the hole in the frame for the factory tranny crossmember. The Duff extended radius arm brackets I had on previously had a hole on each side in this position, so I was saved from having to do any measuring. The wheelbase is 126" as close as i can measure with it in it's current state. Stock wheelbase for a SC ranger is 125.5". Different brackets may yield different results. These brackets tuck closer to the frame than others. I did find that the washers behind the bushings are very close to the bracket, and may hit with lots of axle droop.


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This is the high-misalignment 1-ton draglink end. It uses a ball joint inside a ball joint to achieve such extreme angles. Here the limiting factory is interference with the pitman arm. A little trimming would allow for even more misalignment. I am using the factory 4x4 pitman arm. With the tierod raised up with the knuckle flip, the draglink angle is quite acceptable. I'm even considering going to a 2wd pitman arm so that I can bring the tracbar mount up a bit closer to the frame and still match the angle between the two links.


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The knuckles do not need to be reamed much. After enlarging the pitman arm and the hole on the passenger side TRE, it's easy to take off too much material on the knuckles. I got pretty close.


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This is the tracbar mount and factory 78-79 bronco tracbar which I used for mock-up, covered up by a bunch of quick clamps and shit. I am going to run the tracbar "inside" the engine crossmember. The factory bronco tracbar has bends in all the right places so I am going to see if there's a safe way to shorten it and put a heim on the end.

Looks like the swap is going fairly smoothly and looks like it's gonna come out clean... Now all you need is some hella low gears, an ARB, hi-steer, and some chromos and you'll be set ...Seriously though, looks good...

how much futher forward does that put the axle?

yotacowboy wrote:how much futher forward does that put the axle?

Like 1/2", as close as I could measure. I like it where it is- I won't have to hack away as much of the engine crossmember as I would if it were another inch forward, and I was able to line up some existing holes for the radius arm brackets so I didn't have to worry about getting them even.

HOLY CRAIP I CANT MAKE FUN OF THE POOPY TTB ANYMORE!
lookin good

-Ben

i've said it before and i'll say it again:

move that thing as far forward as you can...

course, i don't have any experience with ford rangers, but keeping the tires out of the body is a good idea

Thats looking good man. Definatly a very nicely done writeup as well. Keep it up chief.

leach

It drives!! It just don't stop. A guy sent me the wrong caliper bracket, so I had it towed home so I can do the rest of the tweaking and gear install at my leisure at school. Somehow I screwed up and made the tracbar about an inch too long. It also doesn't tuck in between the diff cover and the engine crossmember like I'd planned it, so it will need another bend. Oh well- better than too short, and the shortened factory tracbar is somewhat temporary anyway. It certainly feels different than the TTB. Some of this could be due to the lack of shocks. You can feel the body shift to the side when the front dives, but there is no actual bumpsteer.


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Looks good!!

Looks like it's ready for the washout!