The Rat B@stard Max: A Tale of swapping, modding, building, and adapting....

[thehive]

Had a stroke of GREAT luck and picked up these two bad boys for a whopping $125!!!! $50 for the trans and $75 for the Diff!!! i was a little skeptical at first until i met the guy, maaannnn did he have some talent, he's a aircraft mechanic and used to have a raider and had sold it some time ago for his dodge power wagon projects and just had the left over parts.

First up, a really nice cleanly used wideblock 5-speed. shifted great thru all the gears great and the input shaft spun great thru all the gears as well



Next up, a factory LSD in the carrier with a set of the killer 4.62 gears in it from a raider. now i already have a PowerBrute LSD in my factory carrier with the 3.91's but i think i may just keep this and swap them out one day and see how i like it

[thehive]

went about getting my old spindles off the truck too and trading with the ones of the 94 parts truck that i have. even thou they needed new bearings they were still a huge upgrade from my old ones, and hadn't been beaten do death from someone who didn't know how to use a balljoint separator properly

old:

new:

got all new front and rear bearings and wheel seals and went ahead and rebuilt my front spindles so they will be ready to install along with some new rotors and pads







recovered these too from the left over front end parts, took me FOREVER to burn off the old bump stops with a torch but i had a purpose. i know most people just replace the lower bump stops that hold down the toe bar with two bolts and go about their day but i just didn't like that idea for two reasons.
1: if the bolts you use arn't the EXACT same size as the holes the toe bar can shift thus throwing your alignment out of whack and causing problems.
2: i like the plate that the two studs are attached too, seems to be stronger and a better hold down than just two bolts alone.

[thehive]

also worked a good bit on my brake upgrade, i will be switching to the dual piston front calipers from Montero as well as the full rear disk brake set up from axle to axle. and because of these massive upgrades to each corner i figured it was probably a good idea to upgrade to the Montero master cylinder as well. My factory Mighy Max one was a heavy cast iron unit with a 15/16th inch bore, and the newer Montero one was aluminum and had a bigger 1 inch bore which should lead to some much better pedal feel. i had to swap over and bend a few of the hardlines as well but nothing to complicated.




began the process of cleaning up and painting my front calipers to get them ready to be installed and then putting them together and loading them with the new pads




and then it was install day!!! all the hard work and time spent with parts and gathering parts is about to pay off. i put my whole front end back together with all 100% rebuilt or 100% brand new parts, it will be as new as possible besides the showroom floor LOL

Parts:
Brand new factory upper control arms and ball joints
Lower control arms with brand new energy suspension bushings and Moog ball joints
Newer spindles fully rebuild with brand new Timken bearings inner and outer, new Beck/Arnley wheel seals and brand new front rotors
New lowering springs with Belltech shocks
Rebuilt Montero two piston front calipers
Upgraded from factory mighty max cast iron 15/16 master cylinder to a Montero aluminum 1 inch master cylinder
Cleaned and painted front sway bar and toe bars with all new energy suspension bushings and Endlinks







Well that's all i have for now but more to come soon!! i've got a Stainless Steel brake line kit on the way as well as the whole rear disk system to tackle. will have more updates and pics soon!