According to a couple people on the Ranger station it's fine leaving off that part. Makes sense, all that bracket does is keep the shock feom twisting and there shouldn't be any forces trying to twist the shocks.

Adapter is finally in the mail and the metal for my motor mounts came in (I ordered it yesterday!). Gonna pick up some front shocks and sheet metal tomorrow

Short term is will work, long term leaving it off can lead to cracking of the radius arm.

The bracket puts the lower shock bolt in double shear and provides a larger bearing area for the sway bar end bushing.

Many shocks have single shear mountings but the proximity to the sway bar end bushing bolts is where the problem lies.

Usually that would be true, however

Since 1993 , 1988 Ranger 2 wd short bed, 4 cyl, manual trans , manual brakes, manual steering. in dry storage for now but ready to go at any time.

Since 2000 , 1984 Bronco 2, 4 WD , V6 manual trans , very rusty winter truck

Since 2005 , 1986 Bronco 2 2 WD , V6 manual trans , near zero rust, in dry storage later to replace the 84.

Since 2014, 1999 Ranger 4 WD , extended cab short bed, manual trans , year round driver.

I'm going to replace it, I'm just not as worried about it now. I must have been wicked tired when I looked at the good bracket and said it was 16 gauge,looked at it again the other day and it's an 1/8" thick...
Got some metal to weld new ones out of but my welder decided to be a POS and jam so often I can't even make a decent tack. Ordered a new liner for it which hopfully will fix the issue.
Adapter should be in tomorrow and I have all the metal I need to make the motor mounts. If the new liner is the solution to the jamming issue my welder has I should be able to test fit the engine e this weekend!

I think money spent you could buy a Mexican Ford Ranger diesel for less than $10,000 probably a year or two old.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

The reasoning for my doing this swap is just to see if I can. It's not like I actually need a diesel Ranger, it's just fun to try and do it. Also $10000 for a truck that only makes 80 something HP? No tthanks, ive got $1500 into my truck and I'm halfway done

Edit: sorry I didn't see you were talking about the new Rangers,i think the new trucks look redicouls and wouldn't buy one

Since Ive flipped maybe 18 different w123s in the last decade I might start looking at a different approach ,projects that start with a yard fresh w123.My current purchase is on an 83 300d in perfect running condition,its even a low mileage vehicle .The story starts and ends their because the seller does want one important part from the car, the engine.His project seems fun enough and thats to do with the common jeep 4x4 swap .After looking over the jeep and the kit he bought to mount over the engine, the mounting is a plug and play switch over.His only real big hurtle is drive shaft and making the switch for the crank plate that will also come from the jeeps 4.0 motor.Most everything your asking is already been figured on these vehicles and made into a kit.If you feel the ranger is worth while to start another kit with the trans coming with the build then you could be on to something.Alot of truck diesel lovers out their.A few days ago I finished helping him pull the motor w/ trannie and the deal is I get to keep the trans with the purchase,Im still torn on bringing the car back due to quality of parts its coming with and the fact that all my other projects I need to finish could benefit from its demise .Havent made my mind ,I hate these descions.

You're thinking of doing a Jeep swap? That's probably one of the easier swaps to do, and I might should have done that haha. They're wicked roomy up front and there's adapters for just about every transmission. I chose a ranger just because I like Ford pick ups.

I'm definitely thinking of making a kit out of my adapter design if it works. As far as I know the only adapter in production for Ranger's is for a VW TDI. I'd really like it if I knew some people doing the same swap as me, to have 5+ adapters made at a machine shop costs less per adapter then I can even purchase metal for! That is unless I ask my buddy to order it through his shop which would take a bit of time.

Are you using a 110 V welder? If so, make sure you are close to a 20 Amp outlet that is properly wired. If you have to use an extension, 12 gauge is the minimum. ( the smaller the number, the larger the cable. )

Some other bits. If you are using flux core, the polarity in the welder needs changed Vs solid wire with gas.

Make sure the metal you are going to weld has a clean connection to the ground clamp. Also be sure the ground clamp has a good connection to the cable and you are using the side of the clamp that has the ground wire attached to. If your welder has a jumper cable style ground clamp, you need something with more contact area.

Mig welding is low voltage ( pressure ) and high amperage ( volume ), any resistance = a smaller pipe for electrons to flow through.

Welder is set up fine, the wire is just jamming. I can't even pull wire through with pliers unless the cord to the gun is straight.

New liner did the trick, I can actually use my welder now.
Got the adapter and it's wrong! all the bolt holes are fine with respect to o e another buy it's a good bit off center. Looks like the Mercedes bolt holes are to low and si the adapter is to high, looks fine sidr to side. Shouldn't have used the bolt pattern I found online. Didn't know what to do though, I couldn't think of a good way to measure to the center of that weird ovalish whole in the middle of the transmission plate that normally goes on the engine. I had laid out the whole adapter, excluding the end of the crankshaft, on plywood before I told my buddy to go ahead, I whish I had done the whole thing. I found another bolt pattern online but it's got me worried because it says the two bolt wholes right by the crankshaft that look inline (made my adapter with them inline), aren't inline. Laud it out on some plexy glass and held it up to the engine before I cut it and it looked perfett but when I cut it out, it wouldn't fit. Might have been that the priece kept chipping when I drilled it and so the holes aren't actually where they're supposed to be but I don't know if I'll try it again.
I did measure how far up the Mercedes bolt holes have to shift so that the crankshaft would be centered but I do t really trust my measurements. I guess I'll try again

Thought of a better way to do it, going to machine a pin to go I'm the end if the crankshaft so I have something to measure from.

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Sounds like a good plan. I'll stay tuned.....

Dan

Well I made the pins I needed but I've only got six inch calipers which are an 1/8 inch to short! My buddy brought his 8" pair with him down to Florida and I don't really want to drop $300 on calipers now that I don't work at a machine shop. I suppose I could get a small set of gauge blocks and then I could measure to that.

Put the rear shocks on and made some brackets out of 3/16 plate for the front shock. Got different sway bar bushings so I'm going to have to cut some spacer plates so I can mount them (mount opiset of the brackets). And these are the pins made to measure from

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Of you could bore a hole in some material that fits over the crankshaft flange, install hole spotters in the bolt holes , pointed pins in the dowel pin holes and hit the material with a hammer to make an impression.

Home spotters are hat shaped sometimes threaded pointed pins that fit in bolt holes allowing one to accurately transfer hole locations. You can also get transfer punches for through holes. These are various sized rods with a point at one end.

Do the same with the other engine and you now have everything on center. You need to get alignment within 0.002" or less otherwise you will have clutch chatter / input shaft wear.

That's exactly how I was going to do it but then I decided this way would be more accurate. I got the measurement, I forgot I could measure height with calipers

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