My friends 89 ranger just died, 2wd twin i beam. She's willing to give me the front suspension free. Now i know theres alot of fabrication involved, but I'm gonna have to work fast to strip what i need out of the thing.

Has anyone had any experience with this at all to tell me whether the ps pump, pitman arms, ps gearbox, springs etc... are compatible in any way or adaptable? Are there any issues or things i should know? when i did my 3.4 swap i was able to modify or use alot of the stuff from the 3.0 and there was alot of stuff i wouldnt have had to if i had known a little more to begin with.

Anyone who has ANY information, no matter how basic it sounds would be much appreciated. I plan on taking out the front diff, building new shock mounts, spring mounts, and somehow adapting the steering linkage if possible, and putting in deaver leafs in the back to match the travel... really, I know im over my head on this, but I was when i did the 3.4L swap too, but I learned fast, and now my rig is a rubber burning machine.. It just needs some serious suspension improvements as i only have about 3"up and 2"down travel on my torsion bar a arms before the bump stops.

Now, I know that with the ttb i could keep my 4wd, but im also trying to get the weight down in the front end so if i jump it doesnt nosedive as much, plus i imagine it would be alot more work. Any input here too?

Last but not least, the solid front axle.. I dont like having my front diff so close to the ground, and it seems like you would have less off road performance at high speed with a solid axle, plus increased weight in the front end, but im totally open to suggestions atm.

 

good luck with this...how are your fab skills? IMO this won't go very far. Spindles, etc, geometry, frame differences...not saying it can't be done just the amount of work will far out weigh the percieved benefits...
Your truck suspensions was designed by a team of engineers, as the Ford's suspension was designed by a team of engineers.

IMO cheaper and easier to go a proven method like a total chaos LT...

 

Well, pre fab is definitely not an option. I have no money, but what i do have is the ability to learn very quickly on the fly and figure out solutions to mechanical issues. I know theres at least one guy on here that has done a ttb swap, and my buddy used to do custom undercar mods for brand new big trucks that noone made suspension mods for yet. he was actually the one who put the idea in my head. spindles i hadnt thought of, I'll have to look into that. the weight of her truck to mine is probably pretty damned close, and the frame width looks within a couple inches, so adapter brackets shouldnt be too hard to build i would think.. its mostly steering im concearned with

 

I totally respect the willingness to learn

I would not strip anything...I would cut the frame from the cab forward so you have the whole kit and kaboodle...

was the one the other member did 4WD or a 2WD prerunner?

 

it was a 4wd ttb 4runner. I think shes selling the thing for scrap after i take the front suspension... also, im a little short on my shop tools.. im only working with an 8gallon compressor & die grinder w/cutoff wheel.

 

Seems interesting, but definitely not simple. I like the different thinking out of the box stuff. Obviously you don't want to do a SAS. But wouldn't you be ahead to buy some good aftermarket axles/CV's instead? And then tune your suspension with springs and shocks? Carry on and keep us posted.

 

its a cheap setup for the amount of travel but i've seen a couple at pismo who after a couple months wish they never did it its hard to align (tires won't wear correcty) and they seem to get worse with every hard landing i would just save up for tc long travel

plus in my own opinion ewven toyota ifs is better than that stuff (or atleast stronger)

 

well, from what i have gathered so far, the 89 is equivalent to a dana 28, the 92+ is around a dana 35, but maybe thats just for ttb.

As for new springs and shocks, I have decent shocks, but the torsion bars, and the limited travel of the tiny control arms is whats totally cramping my style. Did i mention torsion bars? ugh

A site i found addressed the alignment issue, this is what they had to say:
The real cause lies in the angle that the steering (tierod) linkage sits at after a tall suspension lift has been put on it. This high angularity of the linkage causes radical changes in the wheel TOE as the suspension cycles up & down (or when the vehicle is loaded), and literally causes the tires to be dragged across the road toward (or away) from one another at times while rolling. The stock "inverted-Y" style linkage and its very short driverside tierod further compounds the problem.
Bad toe behavior will easily wear out a tire 10x faster than the camber variations that are a normal characteristic of the suspension.
(click here for an explaination of 'camber', 'toe', and 'caster' (also related)).

The aftermarket suspension industry has done an extremely poor job on matching the steering up with the lift height on taller lifts. Drop pitman arms help, but they do not fully correct the problem when the lift height exceeds about 3-4". This unfortunately is why this issue is so common, and occurs mostly on lifted suspensions. Problems with tire wear are far less common on stock trucks.

Now, granted, this was on stock fords, but I imagine that it applies across the board. what i see when i read this is, if you raise your truck more than 3", youre gonna have issues, and if you raise it at all, you may want to get a lowered pitman arm.

 

yeah the yota ifs flex sucks i'm making my own bolt on uniball uppers and am going to get rcv axles i'm estimate about 11" of usable travel

plus what kind off wheeling do you do high speed ,crawling, mudding or a little bit of each

 

high speed. B.O.R.E. class 5 is the long term goal atm. what are these uniball uppers you speak of? and are you still ising torsion bars?

 

You want to build a class 5 truck but you don't have the money to buy a long travel kit?
Something isn't adding up.

 

no offense, but with minimal experience/skills you are getting in too deep. what you are gonna spend doing this swap would be better spent on a blazeland or some other low cost long travel kit. i-beams are better stock to stock but you have to factor in shocks, springs (if you want good performance), metal fab (alot of it!), complete redo of the steering, how to get same lug pattern f/r, brake lines, added crossmember supports, and so on. good luck.

 

Owning two Ford TTB trucks full size bronco and Bronco II, those things sucked offroad. I have gone more places with my IFS yota then either of those two truck, why someone would even think of putting those things under their truck is beyond me. Only TTB swaps that should be done is the full size Dana 44 TTB onto a Bronco II with a ?? Dana 28 ?? And the Full size 9" rear into the bronco II. If I had the cash and room to do it I had both at the same time.

 

the uniballs bolt in and replace the upper ball joint kind of like a spacer but not really
so the stock a arms is still retained

 

so, 94, how would that add so much to your travel? as for the building a class 5, I know its never gonna be score or bitd worthy, but i think i could still have fun at bore. right now i just go out and race friends. I do have minimal fab experience, but i had no experience with anything beyond changing a cv axle when i did my 3.4 swap. right now i have my 97 auto computer rigged up to a manual tranny, and an exhaust i cut and pasted from a stock 3.4, including a homemade crossover. I had missing plugs and all kinds of difficulties with incompatibilities, but it runs and looks stock now. I know i can do this, the questions i have are whether i should(because i get all kinds of mixed reviews so far), and if there is anything i should know going in that could make it easier(like if someone had told me that a 98 manual emc would have fit the plugs for my 97 auto wire harness and run the engine just fine).

 

i already have urethane bushings and the next component limiting travel when cycling is my ball joints what i'm doing is a similar concept to the downey "megatravel" (these balljoints actually do increase travel by allowing more droop) balljoints. the reason for the rcv axles is they are much stronger and will not bind up at steeper angles

you can get the cheapest high quality uniballs from poly performance

 

OK Seriously why on earth would you want to disrespect your toyota like that by putting FORD CRAP on it! IMO thats like trying to touch up the mona lisa with crayons!

 

Only Ford part I can see using and wouldn't bust someone on is the use of the 9" diffs.

 

I love my Toyota, no doubt there, but there is a reason cords dominate the baja so often. The Ford undercarrage is the strongest stock setup available. My Toyota is using torsion bars and little tiny a arms, and that just doesn't work when you catch 3 feet of air. I only have about half an inch of down travel, and about 3 inches up before the bump stops. If there's a better, cost effective way of getting closer to 10" please let me know.

 

Oh, and 94, how do you get more travel with those mods if your bump stops are still in place? It seems like no matter what the ball joints would allow, they would still hit. Can you clarify?