i have a 2wd 90' ford ranger xlt extended cab. i would like to convert it to 4wd. what does this mean i am going to have to get into. i heard i could do it farely easily, just by swapping out the front end with a 4x4's front end. is it a simple project, or a pain in the ***? and will it work? if and when i do this i want to get a good lift and put some 35" or so tires on it.

 

It all depends on how good your fabricating and welding skills are. You should be able to get all the parts from a 4x4 Ranger and drop it all in, but if you are going to do it, might as well find a solid front from an 66-77 Bronco. The earlier D44's are drum brake, but that is easy to convert, so look for a later 73-77 axle as it is a ball joint, disk brake axle and the 760x joints will fit. The problem after that is the front will be a 5x5.5 lug pattern and the rear will be a 5x4.5 pattern. You will need to either get an aftermarket set of axles or change the whole rear. To do the SAS swap, you will more than likely need at least 4", if not 6", of lift to fit some 35's.

After you figure the axle parts out, you will need to go into the transmission/tranfer case swap and get a set of driveshafts made. A stock set will be a good starting point, but with any lift, they will need to be lengthened, so might as well start with new ones.

All in all, it will be costly, so if you are not too attached to the truck, it me be more cost effective to just find a 4x4 truck and build from there.

 

having done this once before..it's much more easier to go find a 4x4 truck and build on that. Too many hours and $$ to do it the other way around.

 

thanx, i think ill just wait till after i get back from iraq, then ill have money to play with, and ill just buy an old jeep cherokee. ive always wanted a jeep cherokee to mess around with. lol, besides, having 2 trucks will be better than one i guess.

 

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The conversion was not that challenging. You have to exchange the engine saddle, welding/cutting/re-bolting. My donor vehicle was a bronco II, so the rear axle hangers have to be shimmed out ½” on each side. The Bronco II axle, a trac-lok is 1” wider than the Ranger?” Everything else went fine. Nice truck. Pic’s if requested, and the rest of the unused parts are on Cragslist. <o></o>
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I wonder if the OP ever made it home from Iraq....







4 years ago

 

i sure hope so, we have lost way too many people over in that craphole of a country

 

that we have i still say we nuke them



ps is that a bot or something??

 

huh??

wat chew talkin bout willis???

 

That rangerII is he a bot/spam or something?


and im glad someone agrees with me on nuking them asses

 

oh ok. nah, it reads like that because he typed it out in ms office and posted it without editing out the office addons.

 

oh okay gotcha

 

Yea, just cut in' paste, sorry. Just thought I would post my experience here in doing the conversion. I did the conversion after reading about it here. So I thought I would add my 2c.<O</O
Bronco II with <10K miles on a complete re-built drive train “then wife rolled it ” Found a 2wd Ranger “cheap” and looks good in and out, so I decided to go for it.

 

nice point in case why my gf dont drive my truck

 

i would like to know this to cuz i have a 1982 f150 2wd in good shape and a 83 f150 4wd but the
4wd's frame has canser so can just pull the drive train and swop them bolth have 300 inline 6 bolth have 4 speed tranny just got to cut a hole for 4wd stick bolth even have same rearend only diff betwin the 2 is 1 year and 2wd vs 4wd