BroncoII4x4.com

Ok guys,
I was going to buy a 3" body lift kit and decided to prep for it by freeing the body and jacking it up. Thats when I discovered 5 of the 10 body bushings trashed and the frame undernieth 4 of them rotted out. So, since I was gonna have to make-up frame mending plates, instead of buying kit lift stuff and new OEM bushings,( if they even can even be gotten), I just said screw it and custom made the whole works. Twenty-six 1" thick rubber bushings, ten s/s sleeves, bolt back-up washers, 1/2" s/s bolts, (no more metric now) and ten 3" diameter s/s tubing body spacers that effectivly give me 3 1/4" lift.

Here's my current issue and a question:
In my case I found the 2/4wd- hi/low shift lever now needs more room where it passes thru the hole in the floor, so I cut the hole bigger with tin snips, but still the lever rubs the hole. Because its actually two peices of shaft material about 1/2" diameter connected together with a rubber vibration isolating sleeve thats about 1 1/4" diameter. That makes the shaft fatter right in the middle ... right wher it passes thru the floor. I want to seperate the two shaft pieces, weld a 3" extension on the lower one and re-connect them, making the thing 3" longer and putting the "fat" part of the shaft back up above floor level. This will bring the shift levers ball back to it's normal height instead of being very close to the floor.

Question: this two piece shaft with rubber insert.... does anybody know if it's pressed together? I'm guessing it is, but have'nt tried to knock it apart yet. Dave.

2:00 PM,
Today I altered the shift lever. I pressed the two pieces of shaft apart at the rubber bushing. They were not an interferance fit but Ford did use something like epoxy to assemble them and a hammer and punch would'nt seperate them.... took a press. Heating it would have been nice but the rubber bush prevented that.

Made a 3" long extension shaft and will epoxy all three back together again.

7:00PM,
Put it on the truck ... clears the floor now....good.

8:00PM,
Raised the emergency brake cable bracket about two inches above where it was rivetted to the side of the frame.... now the cables not straining to reach.

Tomorrow.... the steering shaft extension. Dave

Dave, got any pictures ? My son and I are going to do the same thing soon.

Mccutcheon4

Hmmm. I don't recall having my t-case lever having an interferance when I lifted the ranger with a 3" inch body lift. The levers do get shorter though. I didn't extend mine cause i didn't want the extra throw in the levers. I believe that the shifter for the trans may hit the dash or the seat.

I just used a different shift lever. I got a straight one from an F150.

i would like to see pics of the extension you made for the stering column.

Lots of stuff going on right now.... have'nt gotten to the steering shaft extension yet.... hopefully Monday ....at work.

I've not taken any photo's but I'll try to find time to.

The shifter extension consisted of two heavy-duty 1/4" steel pipe couplings welded end to end ... to make it like one 2 1/2" long piece. Then I drilled the bore of the long coupling out 2" deep (to be a slip-fit on the shifters shaft.)... can't remember if it was 12 or 14mm.... one or the other.Anyway, that left 1/2" of the couplings origional threads. Then I cut the head off a 12, (or 14), mm bolt leaving it 2 1/2" long and pressed it 1/2" into the couplings threaded end. Then welded it too. That made me a 2" long extension.... (sorry if I said a 3" long extension elseware)... but thats the dimentions I used. The goal was to get the "fat" part of the stock shifter up above the floor level where it belonged.
dave