JonFund, Inc. :: Education, exploration and recreation for the 4 wheel drive and off road community

TOOLS NEEDED
That is unless home is a place with a compressor capable of keeping a grinder spinning for minutes on end, you have jack stands capable of lifting your truck a good two feet or more off the ground, you have a half inch drive drill, a complete set up of tools and you have a Ford Shop manual lying around. Additionally, you might need to know how to set spindle bearings correctly, how to remove bearing seals and what all of the various torque specs are for different front end components.

Having a friend around to help with lifting the occasional heavy part can also help a lot.

DISASSEMBLY
The job went well for my friend and I. He is a Ford mechanic so we had a bit of an edge. The disassembly process went along without a hitch but the old suspension was in such rough shape that we had to replace a lot more than the lift kit parts.

It turned out that the spindle bearings and ball joints were toasted. This set us back quite a bit since we did not have those lying around. If you think your suspension is aces this is not a worry but if it is not then you will need the extra tools and knowledge necessary to replace those items as well.

While we were doing the disassembly I had the new components painted to match the truck. It looked great but we neglected to mask the holes where the ball joints and other assorted hardware gets attached. Big mistake! If you go the paint route make sure to mask the spots where other components are inserted because the tolerance in many cases is very closing. If you neglact to mask you will be removing paint later.

FYI-painting the parts is worth any extra trouble it takes to make them look as good as they do when your done.

During disassembly make absolutely sure that you keep ALL of the nuts and bolts in a safe and secure place. Some of the parts are not so easy to find if they are lost and ordering from a dealer always takes extra time. Also be sure to keep all of the old radius arm bushing parts and keep them in the same order. Putting them back on the old arms for storage can't hurt.

After disassembly was complete we took the differential to a local 4WD specialty shop and had 5.13 gears installed along with a Loc-Rite locker. This went smoothly enough. It makes sense to do this work now since the front end is already disassembled. Doing it at another time is unnecessarily time consuming and costly.

REASSEMBLY - DRIVERS SIDE - BENCH WORK
Then reassembly began. We started with the drivers side since it was the larger of the two sides. We dicided to do as much work on the bench as we could to save some time.

Working on a bench we installed the differential case and the steering knuckles. We then connected the radius arm to the i-beam.

REASSEMBLY - DRIVERS SIDE - BENCH WORK - RADIUS ARM ORIENTATION
When we connected the new radius arm to the i-beam it did not seem obvious to us which i-beam went on which side. Here is how you know.

When connecting the radius arm to the i-beam be sure that the straight bar of the arm goes to the top. Also make sure that the "lobes" at the front of the arm where they connect to the i-beam are pointed or facing toward the wheel. This ensures correct alignment of the arm and eliminates the need for removal later. It fits both ways, only one is correct.

Once the entire bench assembly was complete we then attached the i-beam to the stock mounting point on the truck and moved on to orienting the pivot box to the frame.

PIVOT BOX ORIENTATION
When looking at the pivot boxes here is how you determine which pivot box goes on which side. The top of the box - the part with the bolts holes in it - is to be positioned in such a way that the vertical flat side is on the outside of the frame. Simultaneously, the ring needs to be toward the front of the truck.

FRAME PREP-DRIVERS SIDE
At this point you will need to prep the frame for installation of the pivot box. Grinding will be needed on the drivers side frame to remove the rivet which attaches the emergency brake cable mount to the frame. Once the rivet head is ground away and the e-brake cable mount is loose you can set the pivot box for drilling.

To set the exact spot for the pivot box we jacked up the entire axle assembly (with radius arm attached) to get a fix on where the pivot box would need to go. You can also eyeball it. It essentially needs to go approximately 1/8 of an inch back from where the body mount attaches to the frame. It is not hard to figure out the right spot.

PIVOT BOX INSTALLATION - DRILLING THE FRAME
Once you have the mounting spot set use a grease pencil to mark it. We held the box up, marked one of the centers with a grease pencil, tapped it with a punch, drilled a 1/4" starter hole and worked up to 1/2". At one point we got a hole off center but after we put the pivot box on we were able to clean it up quickly with an angle grinder and the correct attachments.

If you can clamp the pivot box to the frame you can just start drilling and use the holes in the pivot box as your guide. We did not have any clamps so we went the way of the mark and punch.

Ideally you want to drill one hole and attach the pivot box to the frame with it. From there you can use the 1/2" bit to cut the remaining 3 holes and use the holes in the pivot box as guide holes for your bit. If you do it this way you will save a TON of time.

You can install the e-brake mount over the pivot box and use one of the bolts to keep it very close to its stock location.

DRIVERS SIDE RADIUS ARM INSTALL
After the drivers side pivot box is mounted you are now ready to put the radius arm bushings on it and work it into the pivot box. There is a heat shield and one other piece that you will NOT need to reinstall. I forget what that other piece is now but a call to Camburg at 714-848-8880 will get you the info quickly.

DRIVERS SIDE SPRINGS AND SHOCKS
With the arm on you can now attach the spring and shock. They need to go on simultaneously. First you place the sway bar mounting bracket back on the i-beam and attach to spring perch stud through it and into the top of the i-beam. Then place the spring perch hardware on the stud and place the spring on the hardware. Here you can use a long extension and a large socket to tighten the spring perch nut to the spring perch stud.

NOTE: Do not completely tighten the spring perch nut at the bottom of the spring until AFTER you have the spring is correctly seated in the upper perch and the spring clamp is attached. This is because you will need to move the spring around a bit to seat it correctly in the upper spring perch.

Once the bottom of the spring is all set you will need to jack up the axle while aligning the spring to the top perch so that you can attach the shock to the radius arm. If you painted your i-beams remember to put a rag on the jack.

After you attach the shock you can position the spring in the upper spring perch. Before you tighten all of the spring nuts up you will need to remember that there is a spring clamp that attaches from the spring perch to the spring. Rotate the spring to make sure that this item fits correctly or you will be need to redo some of your hard work.

Once the spring clamp is set you can tighten everything up.

PASSENGER SIDE FRAME PREP
Once the drivers side is complete the passengers side is next. There is really only one thing you do differently on the passenger side. On the passenger side frame there is a lip on the frame that protrudes into the area where you will mount the pivot box. This will need to be ground or cut away. We had only an 18 gal. compressor and no gas cutting tools or welding tools so we went the grinding route and it took a long time. If you have a friend with a gas cutter or other cutting equipment you will seriously want his help.

PASSENGER SIDE INSTALL
At this point it is easy to know which way parts are oriented and installing them is simply a matter of following the same steps you did for the drivers side.

After the right side is fully assembled you can go ahead and connect the drive shaft, put in your axles, and finish the wheel assembly out to the hubs.

If you have manual hubs there is a special tool you will need to torquing down the spindle to the correct spec. Use it or risk burning through bearings.

CAMBURG CUSTOMER SERVICE
I found Camburg to be very, very helpful during the times I needed advice. However their kit DOES NOT come with an instruction manual. I don't know if this is to discourage back yard mechanics from doing the job but if this is the case I was not informed of that when I bought the kit. An instruction manual is definitely needed and is the only serious flaw with this kit. If we had only two or three photographs we could have gone a lot faster.

This being the case I hope this manual helps you.

CAMBURG VS AUTOFAB COMPARISON
Prior to making the purchase I did a comparison of the AutoFab kit http://www.autofab.com and the Camburg kit http://www.camburg.com. The first thing I noticed was the price difference. $1400.00 for the Camburg 4X4 kit (including core charge and my discount) and $2900.00 for the AutoFab 4X4 kit. This $1400.00 price from Camburg includes specially reconstructed i-beams which have the ball joint locations moved so that the axle can retain stock alignment. (They do ask for a $400.00 core charge so don't toss your old i-beams).

Camburg gave me a substantial club discount so I wound up with everything for $1400.00 (including the core charge), instead of the $1800.00 a person would be charged for not being in a 4X4 club. I will get $400.00 back so I will be in at around $1000.00 for the kit.

Autofab says that they give you 16" of articulation from the stock 12" you get with a Ranger. Camburg says they give you 12" of articulation from the stock 8" you get with a Ranger. With either kit you get a 4" increase in articulation, I guess you have to decide who has the correct stock articulation number.

Both kits give approximately 5" of lift.

My mechanic told me that the angle of axle rise (the angle of the axle from the spindle to the axle mounting point) in the Camburg kit is much sharper than the AutoFab kit. He said that the axles in the AutoFab kit are almost level with the ground where mine move up from the ground as they progress toward the mount point. I would rather have my axles moving up and away from the ground since this gives me more height at the point where the axles meet.

I measured the distances from the ground to the lowest point. My truck is shod with 50% used Bridgestone Mud Terrain 35" tires. The lowest point of my front i-beam is a full 12.5" from the ground. The highest point, where the two i-beams scissor, is over 17.5" from the ground. Wow!

This being the case my estimate is the Camburg kit gives MORE ground clearance as a result of the increased axle angle.

In viewing the AutoFab kit in a Ranger that is owned by a friend I noticed that the quality of construction in the Camburg kit seems to be superior. Almost as if Camburg uses newer construction methods.

With the Camburg kit I can ADD ANOTHER 4" of articulation by installing their coil bucket kit at a cost of $875.00 (before any discounts).

That means that if you go with the total Camburg installation, coil buckets and all, you get a full EIGHT INCHES of articulation ON TOP OF STOCK WHEEL TRAVEL for less than $1900.00. That extra $1000.00 can go a long way with gears or lockers or rear springs or whatever.

If you're thinking about one kit or the other call both companies and listen to what they have to say. Unless they change things at AutoFab it will be tough to not buy the Camburg Kit.