DoubleMint: A Ranger Story

Andy J.

Andy J.

Doin’ it LIVE
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Location
Winston
I just picked DoubleMint up from @ProbablyBroke this weekend. Lots of plans, but you know what they say about plans. For now, the goal is to get her registered for street duty and work out any quirks while learning what she's capable of in current form. I intend to run a single set of tires because I'm too lazy to swap them every trip. I have no idea how either of these tires do on the street, so I'll give them both a try an then decide whether to run one or the other (or something else).

Here's the spec sheet (copied from the sale ad):

1994 Ranger XL
174,000 miles
4.0 OHV fuel injected
M5od manual 5 speed trans
Borg Warner bw1354 manual t case

36x13.5x15 bias SUPER SWAMPER TSL IROKS on Mickey Thompson classic bulletholes, about 70% tread
Balanced with airsoft bb

37x12.5x16.5 Goodyear MTs on procomp steelies, between 80% to 50% tread depending on tire. One has a patch. Balanced with airsoft bb

Front axle
5 lug High pinion Dana 44 from a late 70s f-150.
4.88 Yukon gears
Detroit locker
3/8" ruff stuff diff cover

Rear axle is a Ford 9" from a bronco.
Rear disc brake conversion
4.86 gears done by Carolina Axle and 4x4
Detroit locker
3/8 pinion guard

Steering is 1.5" DOM with Heims.
Saginaw power steering pump conversion with remote reservoir
Hydraulic assist ram

Suspension is WH coils up front with extended radius arms.
Rear is bastard pack springs on a 3" block

Summit 10 ish gallon fuel cell with stock fuel pump in the cell.
3/8" steel rear bumper
Kc daylighters

Here's the original build thread by @GrnRanger:
Ranger SAS

Just loaded up for the trip home:

Double mint.jpg
 
FrontPorchFab said:
Did you get your running issues worked out yet or you just going to jump right to the propane conversion? You gotta get that fixed so we can go break something else.
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Its fixed now. It needs a anti wrap bar put on it before its wheeled again, and a few other things fixed. With work and other stuff, I won't likely be able to wheel until April now, so hopefully the propane and all will be on by then anyways.
 
No actual tech here, but I have a small pile of shiny new transfer case e-brake parts. I got the rotor and caliper from Parts Mike (great service and everyone else had a 3 week back order) and the Lokar parts from amazon. Im going to use a Lokar cut to length cable between the caliper and hand brake.

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Here’s my plan for mounting the caliper. I don’t know if my scribble is legible to anyone else, but I wrote out my measurements and expectations for the caliper function. I also included a pic of the caliper for reference. I read somewhere that this caliper was originally from a golf cart. If that’s true, it probably wasn’t designed for a .25” thick rotor. I found that to get .125” of float, I’m going to have to put in a .15” spacer and get longer bolts to hold it all together. Does .125” of float sound about right?

I’ll get actual measurements from the truck tomorrow to design the brackets from and get someone to burn them out and bend them up.

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Once I crawled under the Ranger and started taking measurements, I quickly realized that my not-to-scale sketch was very NTS. After regrouping this is what I came up with. I also realized that I’m going to have to cut out a section of a body stiffener and probably massage the floor pan a tad to get the rotor to fit. It’s going to be close, but I don’t think I’ll have to cut into the cab. The next step will be to mock this up out of cardboard or something to test fit the parts and figure out the best location for the cable end bracket.

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I had 30 minutes free so I mocked this up. It probably wouldn’t hold up to trail abuse, but it should be gtg for mall crawlin’!

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Too legit to quit! Might as well go ahead and make 2.

Do you think it would clear with a 3" body lift?

Edit: After some googling I see how the lokar cable works. Pretty cool. Wonder if I could hook it up the factory ebrake cable?
 
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seed60 said:
Too legit to quit! Might as well go ahead and make 2.

Do you think it would clear with a 3" body lift?

Edit: After some googling I see how the lokar cable works. Pretty cool. Wonder if I could hook it up the factory ebrake cable?
Click to expand...

Yes on both counts. There’s about 1” of interference so you should have plenty of room with a 3” body lift.

The only reason I didn’t go with the factory ebrake setup is that I don’t have one. The pedal mechanism and cables were removed from Doublemint in a previous life. I did consider pulling some junkyard parts, but it was cold/rainy/snowy and all my tools are still in storage from my cross-country move. Given a choice, I prefer a hand brake to a foot brake anyway. Having a single short cable will also (hopefully) minimize routing issues and cable stretching.
 
FrontPorchFab said:
Once I crawled under the Ranger and started taking measurements, I quickly realized that my not-to-scale sketch was very NTS. After regrouping this is what I came up with. I also realized that I’m going to have to cut out a section of a body stiffener and probably massage the floor pan a tad to get the rotor to fit. It’s going to be close, but I don’t think I’ll have to cut into the cab. The next step will be to mock this up out of cardboard or something to test fit the parts and figure out the best location for the cable end bracket.

View attachment 262277
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Solidworks?
 
FrontPorchFab said:
NX. It’s arguably more powerful but I prefer the user interface of Solidworks.
Click to expand...
Never heard of NX. Ill have to look into it. I started in solidworks and now work in Tekla as well as free cad.
 
JSJJ388 said:
Never heard of NX. Ill have to look into it. I started in solidworks and now work in Tekla as well as free cad.
Click to expand...

I used Solidworks for about 8 years and NX for 5 yrs. As far as CAD goes, they are pretty similar. NX shines when coupled with the Siemens PLM system. Back when I used Solidworks, they didn’t have a very good PLM system. I’m sure it’s been improved since I last used it though.
 
I must have been drunk when I measured the first time because I was off by a couple inches. I have no idea how I screwed it up that badly, but I’m glad I made that cardboard cutout! I fixed it and made a second cutout that actually worked. Made a couple minor tweaks and am now ready for production! That long tab on the left is to hold the cable end and the tab on the right is for a return spring.

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@seed60 Due to a bit of impatience on my part, I ended up with two sets of mounting brackets. Let me know if you want a set.

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Edited to add: Hopefully I’ll get this whole setup installed in the next week or two. We are in the middle of moving, so progress has been slow.
 
Sorry, I did say this was going to be slow right? Between work travel, kids, and a house remodeling project, I've not spent much time working on DoubleMint. Since last post, I've painted the mounting brackets and drove around the neighborhood once. The big stuff is mostly done on the house now, so hopefully I can carve out some time and get this going.
 
I had a couple hours last night, so I chopped the trans tunnel and got the rotor installed. Might have cut the hole a little bigger than needed, but access to cut the backside of the body cross member with the t case installed kinda dictated the size. Also put the other tires on.

new shoes.jpg
Rotor in cab.jpg
Rotor under.jpg
 
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