4x4 Ford Ranger

i have dana 44 front end and 9 in for the rear. i need some help of setting it up for mud drags. if someone can post pics and information that would be great. the truck is 1983 ford ranger. please help.

need to talk to karl aka kjett he has i believe a 85-86ish ranger setup with 9" an 44 with a 460

i think he has a ford ranger body on a f-150 1/2 ton frame.. i am building one on a stock `83 ford ranger frame.. but what gears do you run in your truck? (if you don't mind)

What kind of tracks do you primarily run...bogs, shallow pits, or fast track dryer tracks? What T/C? High or low side, what trans? The general rule of thumb is to end up with a 10:1 final drive ratio depending on what gear in trans and T/C you are using.

charchar1207 wrote:i think he has a ford ranger body on a f-150 1/2 ton frame.. i am building one on a stock `83 ford ranger frame.. but what gears do you run in your truck? (if you don't mind)

yes his is on a 79 frame i believe.

I run the low side of my case but the mud im running in at 1 pit is deep nasty clay givin the night its 2-3' deep sometimes deeper
the other pit is deep nasty black 'swamp mud' and it to is most the time 2-3' deep or even deeper and both are thick and will bog your truck down

that being said i run 38.5x15 bogger's rear with 38x12.5 TSL's front and 5.13s

I race the fast tracks and sometimes deep pits which are 2 - 3 feet deep. i have 532 ci motor and i am thinking of running a transbrake in c6 and running 4.11 or 4.30 gears..

What size tire?

38.5X11 for fast pits and sometimes 44X18 for deep pits

For that size tire, you need more gear in the deep pits. Fast flat shallow pits, you are better served with the 4.11 gears, but in the deeper stuff you need to be in the 5.30-5.43 range on the rear for 39-42" tires and a little lower if you want to run 44's effectively. Like Schmitty said, you need your final overall drive ratio (need calculations for tire size, tranny gear, t/c gear, axle gear) to be in the 10:1 range.

My ranger is on a 78 F-150 short bed frame. When I measured the width of the 89 ranger frame to the 150's they were really close and it was easier to make new body mounts than it was to make mounts for everything else. To use the ranger frame, you will need to make new motor, tranny, t/c mounts. Also, you will need to get a set of late 70's f150 coil buckets, radius arm and trac bar mounts to keep with the coil sprung front (much better for racing vs. leaf springs, imho). Then you will need to move the spring pads on the 9" to fit the ranger width, unless you go the route I'm at with a mono-leaf/spring sliders and coilovers/ladderbars. For that, you ditch the spring pads and use a housing floater. There is an issue with doing this, as it will leave your rear sitting fairly low so you will need to cut the snot out of the body to clear the larger tires as a huge lift will make your truck run like crap with this setup. Low is fast, tall is unstable.

thats a big step from 38.5x11's to 44's

Old blue Racin Team wrote:thats a big step from 38.5x11's to 44's

That's for sure. Anything you do gear wise is going to be a comprimise between them. How much power are you going to have? Uncut 44's require a ton of power to accelerate, a better deal might be to skip the 44's and do some 18X39.5 Boggers instead. Less rotating mass, matches the gears better, and still have good flotation and traction.

thank you for all your responses... but do you think i can get away with 4.30 or 4.56 gears for running both tires? i will be producing around 600 hp.. i plan to cut the ranger and possible put fiberglass panels.. i plan to put the motor back at least 4 inches back. i am running a 532 big block..

kjett wrote:For that size tire, you need more gear in the deep pits. Fast flat shallow pits, you are better served with the 4.11 gears, but in the deeper stuff you need to be in the 5.30-5.43 range on the rear for 39-42" tires and a little lower if you want to run 44's effectively. Like Schmitty said, you need your final overall drive ratio (need calculations for tire size, tranny gear, t/c gear, axle gear) to be in the 10:1 range.

My ranger is on a 78 F-150 short bed frame. When I measured the width of the 89 ranger frame to the 150's they were really close and it was easier to make new body mounts than it was to make mounts for everything else. To use the ranger frame, you will need to make new motor, tranny, t/c mounts. Also, you will need to get a set of late 70's f150 coil buckets, radius arm and trac bar mounts to keep with the coil sprung front (much better for racing vs. leaf springs, imho). Then you will need to move the spring pads on the 9" to fit the ranger width, unless you go the route I'm at with a mono-leaf/spring sliders and coilovers/ladderbars. For that, you ditch the spring pads and use a housing floater. There is an issue with doing this, as it will leave your rear sitting fairly low so you will need to cut the snot out of the body to clear the larger tires as a huge lift will make your truck run like crap with this setup. Low is fast, tall is unstable.

What do you mean about "Then you will need to move the spring pads on the 9" to fit the ranger width, unless you go the route I'm at with a mono-leaf/spring sliders and coilovers/ladderbars. For that, you ditch the spring pads and use a housing floater." can you show me in pictures and ideas how to make it.

What transfer case? If you are sticking with the 205, that has a 1.96:1 low range, so 4.56 with 39.5" tires on the c6 in 3rd gear won't get you enough gear. You need to be more in the 5.38-5.43 range. For 44's you need to be closer to 6.30. Too much work to swap between rounds so find a tire size and gear for it. I run both cut and uncut 39.5" boggers and have a 5.43 gear set.

About the rear suspension, if you are using the full length 9" from a truck, then you will need to move the spring pads inward on the axle tube. With my setup, there is no spring pad, just the housing floater so you can put there where the ranger spring width is.

ok i get what you saying.. do you have any ideas on making an manual rack and pinion on a dana 44?

yep, just center the rack on either side of the cover and make mounting stubs from the housing to the rack. From there you will need to make all new linkage to the column. S&W racecars has some nice chromoly tube, steering universal joints, and ends that make that process easier. The main issue with manual steering is the bump steer sucks if you hit a rough pit.

what kind of rack would i need to get? in other words, what other car or truck i can use for the manual rack that will work for the dana 44?

any rack you use will need ot have a mount fabricated to fit a truck front axle. I ran a rack from an early 80's mustang. Really was a pain in the rear and I've since switched to full hydraulic steering using a 2" bore x 8" stroke ram from tractor supply.

ok that works.. is there any way i can see some pics of your truck?

do you ever have problems with breaking the front U-joints on your front axels?

No issues as long as I don't smack the walls. I run chromoly axles with Spicer u-joints. Here are a few pics of the orbital valve and linkage:



The hydraulic ram mounted to an over killed box tube that mounts to where the rack used to:



And a quick poser pic of the new paint scheme on the trailer to show off my sponsors:

Get a good set of CM axles with the HD joints and you will minimize breakage. I've been putting over 1000hp and a lot of TQ through mine for over a season with no issues so far.

where can i get those axels? but KJETT i love your tuck!

My set came from Quick Performance. 641 751 8060 Brydon is the guys name and he is the man when it comes to axle parts of any kind.

Thanks. I went cheap with a set of the "no names" from Bronco Graveyard which are actually Yukon axles. I've broken a couple over the years, but usually after a hard hit or landing wrong after going air born.