Do it right or do it twice - buy it cheap & pay the price!

[KnockKnock]

Mostly I'm talking about fuel & clutch hydraulic lines, but I'm totally open for conversation about any of this. In another post I mentioned that I've had to drop my fuel tank because a crumby little plastic piece that broke off the top of the fuel pump. I bought the cheapest fuel pump I could find online ($75) thinking that the pump itself is actually good so I could use the housing from the new one and simply replace the pump unit when (not "if") the pump goes out - assuming the fittings on the cheap-o housing hold up. I simply didn't want to fork over a couple/few hundred bucks for a lifetime warranty part when I keep hearing an old mentor's voice in my head saying, "A cheap part w/ a lifetime warranty is just guaranteed to need warrantying for life." In other words, it may be free to change it out forever, but you'll forever be changing it out.

I was explaining the problem with my truck to my buddy online, and the fist random pic of a fuel pump just happened to be an APS assembly for a GM.

I was explaining that about where this guys fingers are in the pic. is where my fuel pump broke because mine's made out of plastic, and I thought to myself then that this guy will NEVER have the problem I've got, and I want one like that - totally worth a couple/few hundred dollars to me with or without a warranty because I'd know it can be rebuilt indefinitely.

While I was under my truck dropping the tank, I also noticed that I have a fluid leak somewhere between the engine and trans, but I cringed and backed away without inspection knowing that it's either the rear main seal or a leaky slave cylinder, either way it spells "dropping-the-trans" and I was in no mood to entertain the idea. I'll have to poke around in there when the new fuel pump arrives.

It's come to the forefront of my mind about every time I have to skip second or I grind into first that a Tremec upgrade would be a good thing, and some attention will soon become absolutely necessary in the trans department. I've been mulling over these sorts of things wondering about the best way to toughen my truck up so that these essential but flimsy/brittle plastic bits are not quite as vulnerable. At first I was researching how to throw in a T-5/S-10 hybrid trans with a turned input shaft & a Q4R bell-housing ($!) since T-5's are fairly common and renowned as reliable. I know it's not technically a "truck" transmission, but that can be argued about the Mazda trans too

I've been weighing the pros and cons of rebuilding stock and/or a custom upgrade in pursuit of making this truck last forever. The off-the-shelf clutch master cylinder that will operate a TR-3650 slave cylinder from an '04 Ranger still evades me, but I'm not quite there yet. My goal is two-fold: ~300HP, and make it a driver until it's VERY old. A big issue to me is trying to get rid of all the crumby snap-connections and replace it with some nice SS-braided stuff, though I have yet to find anything for the M5. Sorry for making this post into a book. Any thoughts or ideas, cool links?

 

[Andy D]

Yah . Living where I do, I have to deal with rust in any metal lines. Back about 1992. The family truckster was a '81 Jeep Wagoneer Brougham. I smelled gas coming from the top of the tank. The jeep had an access panel under the hinged rear seat. It allowed me to get to the pick up line. Same set up as the Ranger. a plastic tank in a steel coffin that rots out the frame rail the pick up elbow had rotted out. I used a 7/16 bit and drilled out the rotted line then I theaded a length of fuel hose to the sock. A similar mode of repair could probably be done to your situation

 

[KnockKnock]

^^^That makes me want to bed-liner my entire undercarriage.

 

[KnockKnock]

Does the lack or response indicate that everyone is replacing cheap broken crap with new cheap crap, or is my post just too long to maintain interest?

 

[adsm08]

Well, being as far north as I am I prefer to have as much stuff under the truck as possible be plastic.

 

[superds]

The post was a bit long. I didn't read it the first time I viewed it. I don't like stuff that breaks easily or rusts as I also live in the north land. I guess all susceptible parts should be made of aluminum or stainless...death to mild steel!...might get pricey...

 

[hank857]

I use the autozone stuff, buy at the store not off ebay. I have R&R'd the fuel pump and gas fill hose with their stuff and had no problems! I also buy their upgraded stuff when doing repairs, and they have stood behind their lifetime guarantees no questions asked.

So in general I think it all depends on where and what you buy at reduced prices if it is to last! I bought a brand name slave cyl for my ranger and it went out after about 30000 miles. I replaced with AZ one and it is still in there after about another 100000! Also it is LT guaranteed so If I pull to do the leaking main, well I just go down and get a whole new clutch system to include the slave and all the clutch components. The current master is from Orielly when they were checkers! BTW I think I paid about $200 for the fuel pump and fuel filler hose when I got them and I replaced the FP due to age, nothing more.

 

[KnockKnock]

...I guess all susceptible parts should be made of aluminum or stainless...death to mild steel!...might get pricey...

I use the autozone stuff, buy at the store not off ebay. I have R&R'd the fuel pump and gas fill hose with their stuff and had no problems! I also buy their upgraded stuff when doing repairs, and they have stood behind their lifetime guarantees no questions asked.

So in general I think it all depends on where and what you buy at reduced prices if it is to last! I bought a brand name slave cyl for my ranger and it went out after about 30000 miles. I replaced with AZ one and it is still in there after about another 100000! Also it is LT guaranteed so If I pull to do the leaking main, well I just go down and get a whole new clutch system to include the slave and all the clutch components. The current master is from Orielly when they were checkers! BTW I think I paid about $200 for the fuel pump and fuel filler hose when I got them and I replaced the FP due to age, nothing more.

Insightful post. Buy online & use a promo-code + "Site to Store" feature for some ridiculous discounts too. I typically try to stay out of "the 'Zone" but I find myself there from time-to-time shopping for other name-brands. I try to shop locally when I'm looking for a replacement part with a warranty (my new radiator). I don't like to buy name-brands from unknown online sources because there's too many fakers out there, but on occasion I'll find a generic part that I need for dirt-cheap (enough to not care about a warranty ie: my $75 fuel pump).

I checked AZ, and I wasn't surprised to see that they had a self-adjusting clutch-kit w/ LT warranty for ~$140. Granted, a replacement is as close as your nearest AZ, but a $140 clutch-kit is going to perform like you would expect a $140 clutch-kit to perform; regardless of where it came from, I just don't see a $140 clutch-kit working for long with a 300HP goal.

The pros & cons (expenses vs. benefits) of a T-5 swap could either put me abreast of the Duratec/T-5 pioneers, or I could just end up another guy making regular trips to the nearest commercial parts-store. Sacrificing HP for reliability is a pitiful perspective for a 2.3 owner, but reasonable logic says that may be what it comes down to.

 

[FritzTKatt]

Try this one.

Take a fleet of about 350 vehicles. You replace the motor, trans, or both, at least once a year, on every vehicle, even though they only run for about 75 hours per year, at high idle. Rarely would they see more than 100 miles in a year. Why? Because they break. Motors completely fail (very rarely is it catastrophic), transmissions grenade at the drop of a hat. It takes about 8 hours of labor on average (about 24 man hours) to remove, replace, test, and reinstall the motor/trans.

You pay upwards of $15,000 a piece of a motor and about $20,000 for a transmission. Those are rebuild prices from a third party (not the motor manufacturer). New motors are currently out of production. These are tuned to less than half of their potential output, and other users can get over a million miles out of the engine before a rebuild.

So where are you going wrong?

 

[adsm08]

So where are you going wrong?

Stop towing C-130s.

 

[KnockKnock]

Stop towing C-130s.

hire more qualified techs and/or fire the shop supervisor

 

[FritzTKatt]

Nah, it's pretty simple. Stop buying crap from the lowest bidder. We wouldn't want Cummins to have a bad name, would we? But Raytheon takes us to the cleaners.

 

[KnockKnock]

Come to find out, the Airtex that the previous owner installed was for an extended cab - one part number difference might be all it takes to kink the fuel lines. The A/C has been blowing cool, but not cold here lately and today while I was installing my generic battery hold-down form the 'Bay, I noticed a TYC condenser. Now I don't know much about TYC's except the only other time I've seen their name was when I was pulling one of their radiators for replacement on my F150. There are also house-brand life-time plug wires on this here Ranger, and I've been getting the tune-up stutter at low throttle.

It's beginning to make sense why the PO sold this truck. Everything that I can see they've done has needed re-doing.