Well my vibe is finally fixed.

[MalcolmV8]

Took it out for a test drive tonight. What a relief Smooth as silk. Man finally. Tranny rebuild, rearend rebuild, driveline angle correction and good to go.
Ran it up to 85mph and smooth as can be.

Now I can finally tinker with the motor and get it running right.

Malcolm

[MercuRanger]

Congrats! Any guesses as to what the actual problem was?

Mike

[MalcolmV8]

Yeah I know exactly what it was. Main shaft in the tranny was bent, driver's side axle in the rearend was bent, and pinion angle was off by about 4*. As I fixed each of those issues in that order it just got better and better. Fixing the tranny really made a huge difference but there was still a vibration at highway speeds. Fixing the rearend made it so smooth I thought I had everything except a really tiny vibe at 70+mph right as I let off the gas showed up. After I got the pinion angle adjusted I have nothing left.

Man felt great to finally drive it last night with no vibes and other issues. I drove all over. Did about 40 or 50 miles.

I did notice I will have no problem looking for a race every other light I pulled up to had someone trying to race me. How funny. I was just cruising around, still got to let this motor break in and fix my code 22 and EGR codes.

What really tricked me and had me scratching my head was after fixing the tranny I still had a noise in the tranny. It's amazing but the bent axle in the rearend was transmitting a vibe up the driveshaft and into the tranny and making it sound like it was ratteling. I got right under there with a screw driver pressed against my ear and the tranny and could hear it clunking etc. It had me totaly fooled. Remeber the video I posted way back when? You could even hear the noise in there from the tranny. Yet the rearend was silent as could be. Glad that's all over.

Later
Malcolm

[Dave]

Good news finally! Glad you got it all solved. Now, how about a run down of just what you're running again, and let's see what it looks like out of the garage. Long time but well worth it, right?
Dave (in Wisconsin)

[MalcolmV8]

Yeah I guess I need some new pics don't I. This weekend was looking good but now they are saying more snow might be on the way.

As for what I'm running. Short version:
92 Ranger 2x4
95 GT crate motor
Edelbrock 6037 heads with 1.70 RR
E303, 24lb injectors
65 mm throttle body, 70 (or are they 77?) pro-m mass air calibrated for 24lb injectors.
Edelbrock performer EFI upper and lower intake with Explorer 90* elbow.
L&L headers with my own 2 1/2" dual exhaust (build myself) with H-pipe.
high flow cats, 2 chamber flowmasters
92 (or 91) A9L ECC
MSD 6A ignition box and distributor.
March under drive pullies

94 Cobra T5 with 93 Cobra input shaft, steel retainer and 93 bell housing.
Top cover on T5 has been replaced with pre 94 style so I have neutral switch.
UPR blue thunder short throw shifter, shift handle and an aluminum shift knob.

Cobra R 17x9" rims with 255/45/zr17 & bridgestone potenza tires.
95 Explorer rearend with 3:27s, posi, and 4 wheel disk brakes.
Summit girdle kit.
custom Lokar parking brake cable setup.

Aluminum fuel cell and battery box in the bed.

Aluminum radiator in factory location (got from local discount radiator warehouse). Twin electric cooling fans behind grill running as pushers. Either 10 or 12" will have to check. Powered with a DC Control unit (www.dccontrol.com - very cool if you haven't seen them).

Fuel system is a custom built -AN steel braided hose setup with a Holley (actually it's a walbro under the cover) mounted on the frame rail.

Grant GT steering wheel, white face gauge overlay.

There's probably a lot more but that's all I can think of right off the top of my head. I have a few pics here.

http://www.v8-ranger.com/projects/v8ran ... ntpics.php

[plowboy34]

Very nice looking ride Malcolm. I'm glad you got that vibe fixed so you can now enjoy driving it. Your going to love it, and yes everybody will want to race you. people come out of the woodwork looking for my son and his don't look near as good as yours. They just hear it has a V8, first they don't believe it and have to see it, then next thing you know they wanting to race....It's crazy, but it is a lot of fun....ENJOY that thing.


Plowboy34

[cjcnomor4]

how is traction working for you?

[MalcolmV8]

how is traction working for you?

Not very good in first and second. It gets kinda twitchy when you get on it a little and I'm far from flooring it. I'm going to look into some traction bars. If that doesn't help significantly I will also be getting some drag radials. Probably a set of Nittos.

[MalcolmV8]

I'm glad you got that vibe fixed so you can now enjoy driving it.

Well not quite yet. The motor's not running right. Still got the weird power surging problem, code 22, some egr codes, won't idle when it's cold. When I pop the hood the valve train sounds a little noisy but I'm not quite sure. Vacuum seems to bounce around to much compare to what I'm used to.

So anyhow instead of running in circles trying to figure this out I've contacted a local performance shop that works on high performance street rods, mustangs etc. They also do dyno tuning, custom chips etc. I'm going to have them take a look at my truck and point me in the right direction. The are busy on some big projects right now but they said they can get me in sometime early Feburary.