alwaysFlOoReD's first b-II

[alwaysFlOoReD]

This one is the first 4x4 I owned. I've had it for approx. 2 years. I paid C$300 for it originally, and it came with a 4.0l already installed. It was a real rust bucket. It doesn't look to bad;

It seems I didn't get enough before pics. New floor board installed;

Brackets I built to raise the back of the body back up ~1 1/2" so it was back at the right height, bolted in place with riveted nut inserts. I didn't trust my welding skills on sheet metal at the time;

One pic of the rust on the outside;

And what I did to attempt to fix the rust with out much knowledge. I think it turned out O.K. and is still holding up. I bought the drivers side floor pan but everything else is scavenged, I used what I had on hand; like access panels from a house heater, dryer panels, venting sheet metal, and other stuff.;

I cut the rust out;

and repaired as best I could, the same being done on the other side;

There was a lot of rust in that b-II. If I had cut the wheel wells before fixing the back I think the whole body would have dropped down to the ground!
I then started on a front receiver;

I picked up a bolt on receiver for a different truck and adapted it to mine. I bought it for C$35.00 Unfortunately the 10,000# winch was stolen last winter.
I also installed a front pumpkin and rear axle with 4.10 gears. I shimmed the front side gears to make a limited slip.
Installed air shocks to help the sagging rear springs.
That pretty much brings it up to date. Total cost including 31" MT Baja Claws= C$1,750.00

Richard

 

[jhammel85]

Looks like a project man. Not bad, not bad...

Thats terrible that someone would steal your winch. wtf is wrong with people...

Best of luck

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

nice proyect man, its a real shame what happened to the winch.
keep us updated!

 

[The_Dealer]

i woulda paid more then 500 just for the 4.0 swap, then spent another 500 and got a ranger cab and materials to make a flatbed. sweet find, it looks like a good project.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Thanks guys, I'll have an update in a couple days.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I'm a little late posting this up, I did this just before Christmas. My work truck was stolen and then recovered. The insurance adjuster offered C$3000.00 plus I keep the truck but can't drive it. This meant I had to get my b-II in reliable running condition. I had a knock that was keeping speed with tire rotation and was getting worse in the few days I drove it. I crawled under and found the 4 bolts holding the drive shaft to the rear were loose. Tightened those up and there was no change I then checked my u-joints and found one with a slight bit of play.
The tools I used to change the u-joint;

IIRC
A ball joint/u-joint press tool
8mm wrench -t.c.end of shaft
12mm wrench -rear end of shaft
needle nose-pliers -remove c-clips
small flat screwdriver -remove c-clips and clean grooves
c-clip pliers -install c-clips
rubber hammer -minor tweaking to get old u-joint to move
adjustable wrench -operating u-joint press

First I cleaned and then marked the drive shaft so it would be put back together the same way it came apart. this is so the balance isn't affected. Notice the white paint pen marks;

Using the press, on the drive shaft side first, I pushed the u-joint through so I could pull off a u-joint cup. At this point the whole u-joint may come off the shaft, if not, press the other way until you can get the other cup off and remove the joint and yoke. Now do the same process to remove the joint from the yoke.
Edit, BADINTEN from another forum brought up a good point, not everyone has or can afford a c-press. For many years I've used the socket and hammer method and it works just fine. Use a socket big enough for the cup to go into on one side of the shaft, and another socket just small enough to fit through the ear on the other side. Make sure everything is well supported and the big socket is on cement or wood. Hammer the small socket to remove the u-joint in the same way I've already described.
Apparently, if you can push the cup in far enough to install a clip, the ear has been stretched enough to make the shaft [or yoke] a replacement item.
To install the u-joint [do the drive shaft first], I take a cap off the new joint and push it as far into the ear as I can by hand. Do the same on the opposite end . Holding the u-joint in one cup, use the press to push the other cup onto the joint enough to install a clip [don't install clip at this time]. Flip over and do other side the same way, you should be able to install clips now with no extra force needed. WARNING-I've had a needle fall over when doing this and tried to force the cups in far enough to install the clips....I ended up buying a new u-joint. If the c-clips won't install easily, take it apart and check that a needle hasn't fallen over.
A pic of the c-clips that came with the new u-joint;

Once it's all together, add grease until it squeezes out the inner seals on all four sides, this won't wreck the seals;

After doing all the work, I still have the clunking sound! :'(

On a different, but related subject, can anyone tell me the application of this other drive shaft? I think [I can't remember for sure] it came from another b-II that I dismantled but I'm wondering why it's ~2" longer;

Updates on the clunking sound will come a little later, I'm tired of typing and need to get my RBV fix!

Richard

 

[Andres629]

If the one driveshaft is 2" LONGER, it came from an FM145 transmission unit. Or a C3, but I don't remember the length of a C3 off hand.

Nice little BII, is the body from that super clean red one going on here??

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If the one driveshaft is 2" LONGER, it came from an FM145 transmission unit. Or a C3, but I don't remember the length of a C3 off hand.
That's what I was thinking, a different motor/tranny
Nice little BII, is the body from that super clean red one going on here??
No, this is the first one that I owned. I haven't decided what I'm doing to the red one yet.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Nice little BII, is the body from that super clean red one going on here??
No, this is the first one that I owned. I haven't decided what I'm doing to the red one yet.

Richard

I reread your question and the red body probably won't make it onto this frame. This one is going to be a bush beater. That way I don't have to worry about wrecking anything bodywise. I'll probably turn the red one into a mallcrawler/camping/tow unit.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

It turns out the clunking sound was coming from the rear end. I confirmed this by raising the rear up on jack stands and had it running in gear. I could hear it clunk behind the diff cover. I'm guessing that one or more teeth may have let loose. I had bought and installed the front pumpkin and rear end that I were told had 4:10 gears. At that time I took apart the front and rear. On the front I added an extra side gear shim/washer to make a home made limited slip, the ring gear had 41/10 stamped in, which equates to 4.10 ratio. The rear I looked at and found the ring gear had 41/11 stamped in, which equates to 3.73 gear ratio. The ring gear also had some teeth that were chipped/broken. I knew that I would eventually have to change either the front or the back gears. Fast forward to now, and I happen to have a rear with 4.10 gears from an '87 ranger stx that I scrapped out for suspension parts for my race truck. I decided to swap out the buggered rear for the stx one that has the right ratio. Here's how I did it. It may not be the right way, but it's cheap and working [fingers crossed].

The stx rear quickly cleaned with a wire wheel and then sprayed with rust converter, but no paint, I'm hoping that will delay rust from reforming;

Here's a pic of what I decided was the easiest way to mount the rear in the b-II. I didn't realize that the spring perches were inboard by an inch each side. So I decided to add a 1/2"x5"x2 1/2" plate with a hole drilled dead center for the spring bolt. Then I figured as long as I had it apart, I might as well put in a lift block that I had left from the stx. I drilled a hole to match the lift block cast in place 'bolt head'. I used a step drill and marked the step above the size I needed with a white paint pen. I had to drill through slightly more than the 1/8" step and then flipped that plate over to finish from the other side.

It ends up that the bolt head on the b-II springs is slightly larger than the ones on the stx, so I had to drill the hole on the block an 1/8" bigger;

I centered the rear under the b-II and held the block and plate in place so that I could figure out how much the perches had to be adjusted. I came up with 1";

I used primer on the perch so I could leave a mark that I could see;

I didn't want to wreck the original perch so I decided to drill oversize holes through for the u-bolts. I marked the perch and the plate and clamped it into place;

I welded the plate on just the one side as I wanted the option of easily removing it at a later time. I used two 1" welds, I think that will hold enough as there is also the u-bolts and spring and block 'bolt heads' to keep it in place. This is the welder I used, a lincoln weld-pac 100 with .035 flux core wire;

I also didn't think about the shocks until I went to re-connect them. Luckily I had some of the right length from the red b-II.
Another problem came to light the first time I took the truck on the free-way. There was a vibration that wasn't there previously starting at ~105 km/hr that gets worse as I go faster. I think it's because the pinion center-line is no longer aimed at the center-line of the drive shaft. I plan to fix this by welding a shim on the plate.
The limited slip in the rear is working. I'm glad as I didn't have time [or the knowledge] to look at it. I just pulled the diff cover to make sure there was no big chunks floating around in there. There was a bit of rust on three of the ring teeth and two of the pinion teeth, I hope that has no long term consequences. I added 2 3/4 liters of rear end fluid while the rear diff cover wasn't installed, I'll have to check to see if that is correct.

Richard

 

[CopyKat]

The other shaft is likely a D35 W/1354, front driveshaft.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The other shaft is likely a D35 W/1354, front driveshaft.

Thanks for the input.

Richard

 

[disciplerocks]

You wanna come over and work on mine? Lol.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

That's worse than mine was. Good luck with it! I feel for you.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I should have had this in my previous post but anyway, here is an end result pic;

The u-bolts are straight now.

Richard

 

[Andres629]

Wow, I got lucky! Mine was rotted at the wheel wells, but everywhere else is really clean.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Some answers to questions I got on another forum;
I would have just drilled the spring perch to accept the spring bolt eye and/or the 2 1/2" block but didn't have a bit the right size that wouldn't drill into the axle tube at the same time....and didn't have the time or money to go buy one. This was done in a hurry because the truck that got stolen was written off and the insurance adjuster warned me that the DOT was sending a letter telling me that it wasn't road worthy without a salvage inspection. I've been through the salvage inspection process once before and it's a lot of expensive B.S.
I did weld the plate to the perch with two 1" welds, I am sure they will hold, but I will check to be sure.
Thanks.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I busted the other ear flange off the clutch master cylinder the other day so I drove the b-II to my shop/ex-barn without the clutch. Other than worrying about starting off in first with the starter, there was no problems getting to the shop. You're wondering about the OTHER ear flange..... well, it broke off about 6 months ago and I jury rigged some plumbers strapping to hold it down so that the clutch would work. I guess that there was just too much stress on the other ear, so it decided to let go. I haven't swapped clutch masters before, so that's why I had some questions in another thread, thanks to everyone that helped!!! It turned out to be fairly simple to swap out, AFTER getting the old piece of shyte out, I still had to get the roll pin out from the master so that the line could be removed. That turned into about a 1 hour ordeal! I ended up using a ball joint press tool to press out the roll pin because I couldn't get at it with a punch and hammer. Reading between the lines of the instructions that I got with the new master, it seems that they expect you to punch out the pin while the old master is still connected to the firewall. Since I broke off the ear/ flanges, that wasn't an option. The new master was supplied with the push rod not connected, and you must make SURE to NOT connect it until you have the master bolted to the firewall for the last time. It was a pain to get the old master out with that rod connected, it would be even more of a hassle putting it back in. The new roll pin supplied went in easily with a squeeze of linesmen pliers. I also applied some silver colored 'neversieze' to the end of the new rod, I wasn't sure if that was necessary, or it may even be a bad idea if it collects dust and wears out the plastic bushing even quicker than the stock metal rod end. I had made a vacuum bleeder awhile back to help me bleed hydraulic systems and it wasn't working the greatest because air was getting around the threads of the bleeder screw. Next time I will take out the screw and use teflon tape around the threads to prevent air from getting into the line. I took some pics but I have to find the adapter to take them off my phone and upload them.

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I finally figured out how to get pics off my phone so here they are;

A pic of an old clutch master [I was thinking of using] and what came with the new clutch master;

A blurry pic of the line where it fits into the master. I carefully cleaned up the rust with a wire wheel and then replaced the o-ring.

A pic of the o-ring, it has a different profile;

Richard

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

It's been a while since I've done anything to this. I built a mount to adapt a three point hitch snow plow to the front 2" receiver on the B-II a couple of years ago and have been meaning to upgrade the front springs since then....I finally got around to it.

Reference height pics, 12.5" at hub, 29.5" at fender lip




Just before I started on the spring;


The shock is a pain in the ass, I would have designed a hex into the top of the shock body to hold it from turning while undoing the top nut.

Unknown F-150 spring sitting on non-stock application washer;


how I tied the top;


pics comparing stock shock on right with rancho shock on left, the rancho I picked up at a yard sale years ago. It is for a 3" lift durango or something.


I had to make a bushing. I used some copper water pipe.


Installed;


I went to do the passenger side and the bolt came out of the beam. I suspect when I swapped out beams a few years ago I forgot to use thread locker;


Another reference pic for a d-28 beam spring mount bolt;


My set up for drilling out the washer to fit over the bolt. The washer is from a f-150 spring mount bolt;


washer over bolt;


from the bottom;
stock 84 B-II
unknown F150
88 x-cab F150 w/351 2wd
88 x-cab F150 w/351 2wd
87 stx hirider ranger


More later,

Richard