DoubleMint: A Ranger Story

seed60 said:
Awesome. Table saw, cheese grater, french fry maker mod!
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This is post is pretty inspirational. I could get a gear to run of the rotor in the cab and hook it up to a margarita blender! I’ll put that on the future mod list.

Tonight I got the caliper mounted to the bracket and installed to the transfer case. I was going to reinstall the dampener on the back of the case, but I’m going to try without it and see if I notice any unusual vibrations. There is a little more play between the caliper and bracket than I expected. If I were to do it again, I would probably tighten up the holes by 5-10 thou, but it should work just fine. Once it gets packed with mud it probably won’t matter anyway. In the picture with the bracket off you can see the spacer I put in to account for the larger-than-golf-cart sized rotor and mounting bracket.

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DoubleMint has been leaking gear oil all over my driveway, so I pulled the rear axle apart and put in a Lube Locker gasket to seal things back up again. This was my first time using a Lube Locker gasket and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with it.

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I signed up for the SFWDA ride at Big Creek next weekend so trying to get a few things done before the maiden voyage. I still need to finish the ebrake and get it inspected plus a few other minor things.
 
My dad came over for Father’s Day and helped me work on DoubleMint for a few hours.

Got rid of the jump seat to make room for the hand brake.
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Proceeded to install the hand brake and cable bits.
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Location options were pretty limited for the hand brake. I ended up putting it further aft than I expected, but it worked out good in the end because access from underneath was much easier and cable routing was better. It works great up to a moderate incline angle but I found that the clamping force is limited by the flexibility of the cable mount leg on the bracket. I need to weld in a gusset across that 90 degree bend to increase the rigidity. Also, I don’t think I’ll need that extra return spring. I put that provision there based of all the pics I found online of the All Pro brake that had an extra return spring. If I find that I need it later on then it’s there I guess.

Dad noticed some spring wrap on the rear axle while we were playing on a hill in the back yard. Hopefully that doesn’t cause any issues this weekend.
 
ProbablyBroke said:
Nice work man. I hated that jump seat, but never thought to chop it out. Be sure to get some wheeling pics.
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This morning the truck wouldn't run. It ran just fine yesterday afternoon. This has happened before where it won't run when its cold, but does fine when its hot outside or after the engine is warm. Everything I'm reading online points towards the intake manifold gaskets being the culprit. I ordered a set from RockAuto this morning, but I won't be able to get them replaced this week. At this point, I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to go to Big Creek this weekend. It would really suck travel down there on Friday and the truck not run Saturday morning.
 
DoubleMint got towed to the shop this morning to fix the poor running condition. Turns out the culprit was a blown computer. Got a new one on order and hopefully she’ll be back up and running in a couple days.
 
Computer replaced, AC recharged, AC cycle switch replaced, flasher relay replaced, inspection completed, and tags acquired. I drove it back home on the highway and the ebrake assembly rattles a lot from vibration and road imperfections. I'm interested to see how it holds up long term. Having that hole in the floor right next to me with direct line of sight to the caliper probably didn't help either. When I got home coolant was squirting from a pin hole in the radiator end cap. I slathered some JB weld on it after it cooled and ordered a replacement rad.

I'm thinking about taking it on a 800+ mile road trip in a couple weeks. I'll DD it next week (now that I have tags) and see if I feel up to it.
 
There’s always things to fix and upgrade on any rig. We’re just getting to know each other :).

I drove it around a bit today after work. I’ve GOT to plug that hole I cut in the floor. It’s loud, hot, and stinky. I’m going to pick up a welder this weekend and see if I can’t fashion some sort of cover for that hole. I plan to piece together an anti wrap bar and take a look at the rear shock situation shortly thereafter.
 
How is it on gas?
 
Hell, if it'd do 15-18, I'd call that a win any day of the week!
 
Nice! That's pretty damn decent.
 
DoubleMint had a pretty strong wobble at 55mph. It would cruise 50 no problem, but at 55 the truck had a bad shake. I figured maybe the front tires were out of balance so I pulled the valve stem on the DS tire to throw some bbs down the valve stem. Of course they didn't fit down the valve stem, so I broke the bead on the tire and poured probably close to a pound of bbs in (too many is better than not enough, right?). I noticed that the tires had a few airsoft bbs that were stuck to the wheel with oil or something sticky. It was a biatch, but I got the tire pumped back up and went for a test drive. Now I have a MASSIVE wobble at 45 mph o_O. Not sure if the tire didn't seat properly (looked ok) or if all the bbs clumped together for some reason (maybe sticky stuff I saw inside the tire)? I gave up and walked away. I'll probably end up taking it somewhere that actually has tire tools. Trying to DIY just that one tire by myself sucked.
 
Those military tires usually have a crap load of thick lube in them that is meant to keep the run flat from rubbing through the tire in the case of a flat. I know any of the ones that I ever dealt with were full of it (think gooey bearing grease). I'm betting no one ever cleaned those tires out and now all your bbs are stuck to one spot in the tire...
 
^^ this. If the tires weren’t washed out there is a bunch of grease inside them from Uncle Sam. Get some long gloves, a brush you don’t want anymore and use a strong dawn dish soap mixture and it will come out.
 
It did look like some kind of oily/greasy stuff. Maybe I can head over to my dad’s shop and use the tire machine this time. Thanks for the help!
 
I mounted those tires and only had to removed one rubber run flat from the whole set. I had such a time mounting them, I'm sure I left some gunk in there. Hope you get the hop and wobble figured out. How is the hydraulic assist working?
 
ProbablyBroke said:
I mounted those tires and only had to removed one rubber run flat from the whole set. I had such a time mounting them, I'm sure I left some gunk in there. Hope you get the hop and wobble figured out. How is the hydraulic assist working?
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So far so good on the hydro assist. Takes a little getting used to on the road, but sure makes it easy to turn those tires in my yard :). I’m excited to try it out on the trail.
 
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It took me an hour and a half to finish this joker and I can’t feel my back. I’ll be using an impact on the remaining 3.
 
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