koda6966
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2007
- Messages
- 7,898
- Reaction score
- 61
- Points
- 48
- Location
- The green part of NY.
- Vehicle Year
- 1988
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 2.9
- Transmission
- Automatic
Hey guys. It's about time my little fixer upper got it's own project thread.
Here's a little back story to get you up to date.
October 2007. This was when I bought the truck, caps ugly eh? We got it home and it "died" in the driveway. Shifter linkage snapped. Man was I pissed.
A few days later it was up and running again. Wired the linkage back together and it's held, so far. Found out right after that that it has a bad oil leak, about a quart every 100 miles or so. Didn't know about that until my oil light came on, real nice people I bought it from. But hey, what can you expect for 900? I also ended up changing out the tires, since A/T's shouldn't be slick. Bought a set of Goodyear Wrangler RT/S's. Mounted them myself. So the ranger was finally back to being drivable. A little while after that once winter hit my father decided to sweep snow off my truck with a broom. Ended up breaking my bug shield (twice) so I stitched it back together, since I liked the look of the shield and I like it even more with stitches. Stupid thing to do, though, as it rubbed the paint off.
I also did the home depot grill. Thinking about color matching it redish.
I started to learn how to drive better after that winter so I could take my road test. Ended up with a smashed in bumper. Dunno how that happened.
I picked up a new one off a Ranger in the JY for about 30 bucks. You all know what a stock chrome bumper looks like, so I won't need to post up pics. I ended up swapping the black plastic portions because it was so faded and nasty looking on the new one I couldn't stand it. I'll dig up a picture I have comparing the old to the new one sometime and edit it in if I remember. Big difference.
Not much happened from then until the next winter started up. I got a stereo from my brother, and put it in. Pioneer DEH-1600 I believe. Nice little stereo. I also discovered that camber sucks, as you can see in the picture.
I thought bad ball joints, turned out to be bad springs and shocks. Ball joints were new and fine. I also needed brakes REAL bad apparently. Took me around winter to get to fixing that. Thanks to my girlfriends Father. He had breaks and shocks put on my truck for Christmas. Cost him a pretty penny. I'm real great full for that. Never would have been able to afford to keep it otherwise. Prior to that, I put the poor truck in the ditch. Slid driving home one day with a tad bit of snow on the ground. Decided I needed to put some snow tires on after that. I ended up finding a pair of new Hercules Polar Trax that my brother wasn't going to use, he gave them to my father a while back for free. Nice tires, but they're 16". I had to go out to the JY and search for a pair of rims that had the Ranger bolt pattern and were 16 inch, sadly I couldn't locate a pair of steel rims so I opted for a pair of aluminums at a 40 dollar price increase. Came off a 1993 Dodge Intrepid.
Looks odd with those two tires in the back and a pair of old American Racing rims in the front. Oh well. After all that, we're pretty much up to date. I have a few things going on with it at the moment though.
I finally found a pair of springs for the front, thanks to EPA from Ranger Power Sports. Paid 60 dollars shipped for a pair of used skyjacker leveling coils. How much stiffer should I expect these to be from regular ranger coils? Not that it matters, my springs are bad anyway so I don't know what regular springs feel like.
That damn camera makes everything look pink, even my truck. The springs are a skyjacker red. Not pink.
I also will be putting on some rear shocks when the warm weather hits. I'm getting them from my brother, he has a pair laying around from his old truck that should fit. New, in box.
That about sums it up. I also have to fix my leaks sometime this spring as well. Oil, power steering, and transmission are all leaking. The power steering will be the easiest fix, since it's just leaking out the nut. I'll probably just JB weld the crap out of it, I probably will never need to drain it.
Here's a little back story to get you up to date.
October 2007. This was when I bought the truck, caps ugly eh? We got it home and it "died" in the driveway. Shifter linkage snapped. Man was I pissed.
A few days later it was up and running again. Wired the linkage back together and it's held, so far. Found out right after that that it has a bad oil leak, about a quart every 100 miles or so. Didn't know about that until my oil light came on, real nice people I bought it from. But hey, what can you expect for 900? I also ended up changing out the tires, since A/T's shouldn't be slick. Bought a set of Goodyear Wrangler RT/S's. Mounted them myself. So the ranger was finally back to being drivable. A little while after that once winter hit my father decided to sweep snow off my truck with a broom. Ended up breaking my bug shield (twice) so I stitched it back together, since I liked the look of the shield and I like it even more with stitches. Stupid thing to do, though, as it rubbed the paint off.
I also did the home depot grill. Thinking about color matching it redish.
I started to learn how to drive better after that winter so I could take my road test. Ended up with a smashed in bumper. Dunno how that happened.
I picked up a new one off a Ranger in the JY for about 30 bucks. You all know what a stock chrome bumper looks like, so I won't need to post up pics. I ended up swapping the black plastic portions because it was so faded and nasty looking on the new one I couldn't stand it. I'll dig up a picture I have comparing the old to the new one sometime and edit it in if I remember. Big difference.
Not much happened from then until the next winter started up. I got a stereo from my brother, and put it in. Pioneer DEH-1600 I believe. Nice little stereo. I also discovered that camber sucks, as you can see in the picture.
I thought bad ball joints, turned out to be bad springs and shocks. Ball joints were new and fine. I also needed brakes REAL bad apparently. Took me around winter to get to fixing that. Thanks to my girlfriends Father. He had breaks and shocks put on my truck for Christmas. Cost him a pretty penny. I'm real great full for that. Never would have been able to afford to keep it otherwise. Prior to that, I put the poor truck in the ditch. Slid driving home one day with a tad bit of snow on the ground. Decided I needed to put some snow tires on after that. I ended up finding a pair of new Hercules Polar Trax that my brother wasn't going to use, he gave them to my father a while back for free. Nice tires, but they're 16". I had to go out to the JY and search for a pair of rims that had the Ranger bolt pattern and were 16 inch, sadly I couldn't locate a pair of steel rims so I opted for a pair of aluminums at a 40 dollar price increase. Came off a 1993 Dodge Intrepid.
Looks odd with those two tires in the back and a pair of old American Racing rims in the front. Oh well. After all that, we're pretty much up to date. I have a few things going on with it at the moment though.
I finally found a pair of springs for the front, thanks to EPA from Ranger Power Sports. Paid 60 dollars shipped for a pair of used skyjacker leveling coils. How much stiffer should I expect these to be from regular ranger coils? Not that it matters, my springs are bad anyway so I don't know what regular springs feel like.
That damn camera makes everything look pink, even my truck. The springs are a skyjacker red. Not pink.
I also will be putting on some rear shocks when the warm weather hits. I'm getting them from my brother, he has a pair laying around from his old truck that should fit. New, in box.
That about sums it up. I also have to fix my leaks sometime this spring as well. Oil, power steering, and transmission are all leaking. The power steering will be the easiest fix, since it's just leaking out the nut. I'll probably just JB weld the crap out of it, I probably will never need to drain it.