My, scratch that... Now my DAUGHTER'S 1987 Supercab 4x4

[Creig]

The white faced gauge kit came from a seller on ebay, of all things. I simply chose one of the sellers who make their own overlays and contacted him to see if he could custom make me a set to fit my Ranger's stock gauges plus the aftermarket tachometer. I sent him a few pictures along with a couple measurements and he was able to print them out to my specifications.

I believe the center console came from the same Bronco II that I obtained the bucket seats from.

 

[ronclark]

Sweet looking truck

 

[Creig]

Thanks!

Updated picture section with freshly mounted tires/wheels. The truck now looks MUCH better with the wider wheels and 32x11.50 tires. I was afraid that the wheel well flares would look too wide, even with the bigger tires. But they actually look perfect. Whew!

 

[a31ford]

Gota say, that is one GREAT looking truck... Congrats !

Greg

 

[racer1044]

Very good looking truck. I am the one that helped you today at advance auto! Nice to see another yooper on the here! lol

 

[Creig]

Well, I've hit a bit of a setback. I simply could not get the thing to run right. I replaced the fuel filter, plugs, cap, rotor, fuel pressure regulator, map sensor, cleaned the throttle body and cleaned the IAC. And yet it would start to accelerate and then seem to run out of fuel. I could hear the high pressure pump cycling every time I turned the key, so I didn't think that was it. Yet it acted like it was starving for fuel or had a really weak coil that would cut out at higher RPMs.

I called my brother and gave him the rundown and he thought fuel pressure as well. So he grabbed his fuel pressure testing kit and drove over to my house (an hour away) and we spent the next few hours going over everything. At 11:30 PM, all we could come up with was that BOTH low pressure pumps/sending units had failed within days of each other. The odds of that happening were astronomical, but everything else checked out. So we had to assume it was the low pressure pumps at fault.

So I ordered a new fuel pump/sending unit for the main tank on Weds and it arrived today. I drained the main tank (naturally I had JUST filled both tanks up), dropped the tank and pulled the pump. The filter sock was CAKED with this brown residue. There was a layer of this crap on the entire bottom of the tank. All I can figure is that it built up over the years, even though I had put Sta-Bil in the gas. I think the reason it didn't give me issues before is that I was only driving the truck in and out of the garage. I didn't stir up the tank. But once I started trying to drive it on the highway, whatever that stuff is that built up over the past 8 years got into the pump filter, plugged it up and the pump burned out.

So I have the tank pretty well flushed out right now and sitting overnight. I'll rinse it out a bit more tomorrow, install the new pump and see what happens. I imagine I'll have to order a new pump/sending unit for the rear tank as well and repeat the cleaning/flushing process. *sigh* I swear this truck is doing this to me deliberately. It's so used to NOT moving after sitting for eight years, it wants to remain stationary. It's deliberately sabotaging itself to stay at rest.

 

[a31ford]

Didn't you know ?

ALL mechanical things are "self-sabotaging", the more we use them, the more they wear out......

Greg

 

[kroussinoffroad]

now i know the story on this truck. ive seen it running aroud here and there. very nice truck. looks like it should have a 8er under the hood.

 

[Creig]

Sorry for taking such a long time on the update. I just purchased a house and am trying to knock down a wall and remodel three bedrooms into two. As you can imagine, my time is a bit limited at the moment.

Well, after MANY frustrating hours I was able to isolate the gremlin in my fuel system. It turns out that there is a fuel reservoir plumbed into the lines that allows the truck to continue to draw fuel while switching tanks. It ALSO has a check valve that (I assume) was put in it to keep the fuel from draining back to the tank while the truck is turned off. That check valve was intermittently faulty. It would sometimes actually block fuel from getting TO the engine instead of blocking it from returning FROM the engine while off. It was also completely unnecessary because when the truck is off, you can't get fuel through the high pressure pump anyhow. So the pump acts as a natural check valve.

So after dismantling the entire fuel system TWICE and testing each component (including the lines), I was finally able to find the culprit. So I simply pried the check valve out of the reservoir and reinstalled it. Runs great, even after sitting. So it has no issues with the fuel bleeding back to the tank. It holds decent pressure overnight.

So if you ever have issues like I've described, look for the reservoir. It looks more like it should be a filter from its exterior. In fact, I believe the '86 model has one that actually had a filter in it. But that was the only year that did. Other than that, it is just a fuel reservoir and check valve system.


Thanks for the compliment, kroussinoffroad. Trust me, it almost DID have a 302/C4 combo in it. I had the engine, trans, and transfer case adapter purchased and sitting on my garage floor. I had every intention of rebuilding the motor and installing it. But then I would also have to buy a new radiator, I would have to buy an 8.8 and have it rebuilt with 4.10 gears and a limited slip (because the 7.5 would never hold up), etc. I decided that I just didn't need that much power.

In the end I sold the package and kept the stock 2.9L. I actually like the 2.9L. It's a decent motor with no major defects. In fact, I have a 1986 parts truck I'm going to pull the motor from and slowly rebuilt it. I'll use all the tips from Pat Kunz that I've printed off and saved over the years (Kunz's corner) and turn it into a powerplant that should surprise a lot of V8's.

 

[kroussinoffroad]

i realize you allready have the motor and all but look into the 4.0 swap. did it in the brother in-laws b2 and was pretty straight forward and he has been stoked with the power. but there it is again . need to swap out alot of stuff and his 7.5 lasted about 6 months behid the 4.0 pushing 35's. however he is going to be looking into selling his 8.8 and waggy 44 complete package including everything (even the wheels) just have to fab up some quick mounting brackets for the fron an bingo sas.. hahaha

 

[Creig]

Well, it's been a little while so I thought I would post an update. The Ranger ended up napping in my garage for the entire winter because the original stock clutch finally let loose. It ended up blowing all the friction material off the disc when my daughter was downshifting near home. I had way too many other things on my plate to fix it, so she drove my Subaru Forester for the winter.

I have done all the work to this truck myself up to this point. But I just didn't have time to fix the truck due to so much overtime at work, so I gave it over to my brother who has his own repair shop. While there, the truck received:

new kevlar clutch disc
new pressure plate
resurfaced flywheel
new clutch slave cylinder
new throwout bearing
new 2 1/2 inch exhaust from cat to tailpipe
new 2 1/2 inch in/out F150 muffler
new radiator
new heater core
new thermostat
new front disc calipers
new front pads
new front brake lines and hoses
new spark plug wires
new cap/rotor

So, a couple of thousand dollars later it's back on the road. And I still need to do more to it to finish it off.

Still to do:

Finish reassembling the interior
Roll-on bedliner kit
Replace rear tank fuel pump/sending unit
Sand/paint rear bumper

I'm a bit pissed about that last item. The bumper was a brand new aftermarket unit and the paint job lasted one whole year before rust started appearing at the weld points. Apparently they primed the pieces, welded them together and then painted the whole thing. Everywhere they welded is showing rust through the paint because they burned the primer off in those areas. So now I have to deal with it myself.

She is getting her senior pictures taken with the truck this week, so we're trying to clean it up as much as possible. After that, I hope to take it out to a nice mud hole and take some pictures good enough to get in the running for the Off-Road Ranger of the Month contest. The journey is nearly complete on this project.

 

[BuckskinRanger]

This truck is amazing!!! Your daughter is very lucky, great project, and a beautiful result. I believe this deserves TOTM.

Kyle.

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

DO NOT use roll-on bed liner. That stuff is terrible.

Use this.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390605933941
Best liner for the dollar, best and easiest kit to use, comes with everything including the special gun. The price is very reasonable.

Long story short, I had my old body two toned with it; roof, rockers, flares, mirrors, and the center of the hood.
I rolled my Ranger, and there were only scuffs in my roof. The tops of my doors were ground down to bare metal with gouges in them.

It held up to the weight of my SASed Ranger on 35", sliding upside-down, on asphalt, and it was 3 years old.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[Creig]

Thanks for the suggestion. The Raptor product definitely seems superior to the Rhinoliner and isn't that much more expensive. I'll probably go with that and save the Rhinoliner to use as an undercoating.

 

[Creig]

Well, here we are with the truck finally in its native element. Namely, dirt and mud!

My daughter and I arrived at deer camp for the annual "Camp Fix Up" weekend. This is the time when we all get together to get our blinds all set up for deer season and to work on projects for the camp owner. The road out to camp is a two-track, but it isn't bad at all. Just a bit muddy.

And here's my daughter in her work clothes posing with the truck.

Instead of using four-wheelers to ferry supplies out to our deer blind, I told the camp crew we'd be taking Kate's truck. And that SHE had to do the driving! She was a bit nervous about it, but excited. As one of the usual hunters was sick that weekend and couldn't make it up, we volunteered to set his blind up for him. We turned the hubs in and proceeded out to the first blind. It was a bit muddy and greasy in sections because there had been a logging operation in the area, but we made it through to the first blind in style.

After setting up the feeder and corn barrel at the first blind, we went back to camp and loaded up everything we would need for our blind and headed back out. The trail to our blind was definitely a lot sloppier. Two wheel drive four-wheelers routinely get stuck in the larger mud holes so I was curious to see how our truck would handle it. I told Kate to put it in low range and crawl through.

We cleared the first mud hole easily and got to the longer second hole. Both of these were actually in better shape than I'd expected. Usually they're much worse than this, but we hadn't gotten a lot of rain so they had dried up a bit. Still plenty of water and mud, though.