rxinhed
The Mitsubishi Parts Guy
Reged: 02/21/05
Posts: 5896
Loc: Gerber, CA
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My Ramcharger Build Thread
04/02/12 12:54 AM
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Good day all,
Thanks for reading through this post. I purchased the truck with the intent of building a multi-purpose truck to serve needs of the ranch, family camping, trailer hauler and sometimes driver.
To begin with, I ditched the broken bug deflector as the first mod. Then we had a week plus of windy rain and nothing happened.
When I got the RC home:
Today was the first sunny day in seemingly forever, I broke out the tools, and wrenched on my own junk for me. The first orders of business were: 1. removing the early 1990s tires and preparing for newer rubber, 2. inspecting springs, shocks, and sway bars to find the source of bump steer on the street, 3. inspect brake and axles, and 4. to rid the truck of the redneck rear bumper in prep for something more useful.
Here are some cluster pics to mull over.
Tires:
Steering and suspension:
Bumper and sliders:
  
In particular:
1. The very old tires are starting to delaminate along the sidewall and one sustained fatal damage while briefly on a tow dolly. The turbine wheels look pretty good, but with 6-lugs, won't be able to replace the 5-lug turbo wheels.
2. The shocks are all shot and leaking. Replace as needed.
3. The driver's side knuckle has a raised steering arm, but looks like it was meant for a 4" lift, not the 6" lift installed...cross-over steering likely will solve this.
4. The rear lift was performed with stacked blocks for a total of 7.5 inches over the axle and these will definitely be replaced with Superlift (or similar) 6" springs.
5. The front and rear sway bar links do not let the bars ride level, rear bar to be removed.
6. The rear bumper mounts were bent and no longer safe, allowing the bumper to flex when loaded with a trailer.
7. The so heavy I have to drag it around Iron Mule folding crane bumper will be a simple simple install and give me the ability to lift things to the roof or simply up. This bumper has a 1500 pound winch and is of heavy enough construction that I can probably add a swing out carrier system to both sides...tires and fuel.
8. Montero Gen I LWB sliders are a perfect length for a Ramcharger, thanks Ray!!
Just a beginning, but here we are.
Russell
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1987 Raider (Roxy), 1988 Mighty Max turbo (Pearl), 1987 Ramcharger (Ryan), Sundry parts and parts cars
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