'85 Ranger Restomod

Steering wheel on-off switch does nothing on the ohm meter when the on button is pressed. So I get out the volt meter (next step in the service manual) It calls for approximately 7.8V at the switch with the key on, I have 7.7 so I think I am good there. When the on button is pressed it should go to 12v when the cruise is armed... and mine does nothing. So I think I need a switch, so that is on ice for awhile until one turns up in a yard.

Anyway a water main broke on my commute, I didn't know it until I was in it. I got about the best mud splatter I think I have ever seen out of the deal, it almost looks fake. And it covers up most of my rust.



It has been beautiful out lately, I have been enjoying the heck out of driving the ol' girl, I found this nice sunset tonight.

Cool pics~!

I think the one on the bridge should be enlarged and framed. It has the makings of a very symbolic image...the bridge with the rustic looking railings, the crossing of another pathway or set of tracks, the beauty of the sunset, the bountiful foliage of the trees, and mostly the golden hue of the overall picture.

When I bought my first Ranger I was working for Epson Canada where we supported their full range of computer peripherals including large format printers. I got to play with all their products and captured, edited, and printed several larger prints and framed them.

It really was a great hobby of a jobby and I still have some of them of my garden and Ranger projects. Nice reminder to have...but that sunset one has so many positive things it's worth keeping.

You may have stumbled onto a new career focus...lol. Most of my careers started out as hobbies...

Photography is a hobby of mine, it would be fun to get into it.

My GF took the top pic, with her Iphone 5C. My fancy Nikon did the bottom one (we were sitting on the bridge in the truck, I didn't take time to fiddle with different settings.)

If anyone needs it the part number for the steering wheel switch is E5TZ-9C888-A, the switch has E5TA-9D780-AA on the back and it is also available NOS under that number.

always admired your pickup for whatever reason. i like these pickups with lift and big tires, but yours just has that back on the ranch look to it. maybe its the color?

swynx said:

always admired your pickup for whatever reason. i like these pickups with lift and big tires, but yours just has that back on the ranch look to it. maybe its the color?

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It isn't a Ford color either, I use XO Rust medium green for touching up and considering the paint job has 20 years of fading it doesn't match too bad.

Parts of it were originally Ford Fleet Green which was a special order option, it is more blue than the exterior though. When I repaint it it will be that color.

I agree, it isn't real big, it isn't real small... I like its proportions. And it is still handy to use around the farm kinda like a side by side atv.

Been fighting with the bench seat. I thought it used to go against the rear of the cab but it didn't want too. I keep trying it occasionally... and yesterday it went. Tons of room now, it is sweet. That only took like a year.

Picked up a new set of switches off ebay for the steering wheel. I now get 11v when I push the on button. Switches, servo and VSS resistance now all check out... and still no workie. I need to do the pinpoint test for the module yet and the VSS may still be bad but still read the right resistance if the magnet came off inside.

Well the Motorcraft ignition module died after 15 months. I have had it with this. Has a 2 year warranty, gotta send it back to Rockauto and they will send me a new one... so I get another $10 in freight in the stupid thing.

I bought a cheap parts store one locally so I can still have my spare in case it dies again.

Totally ready to move on to a different ignition, not sure to what yet. Even points would be an improvement.

I think I fixed the ignition by adding a resister to it. Did some checking and while the factory DS systems have a 1.3 ohm resistor wire the stock wiring for a 2.8 does not. Added a ceramic one and it also runs much better when it is warmed up. Guessing the module and/or tach were running hot until eventually they couldn't take it any more.

Driving home one day I noticed a pull to the left on the highway, go up the drive and I smell hot brakes. Sure enough the front left brake is stuck on. I got a $5 Bendix line from Rockauto to hopefully tide me over. I have new lines, rotors, calipers, pads everything... for my D35. Will see how warped my rotor is and go from there.



Was trolling the JY looking for CC modules and I happened to find a truck that was a 4cyl with A/C that wasn't rotted out. For $12 I got a big piece of the A/C puzzle... the A/C box.



EDIT: Rotor no warpie... so bullet dodged there.

Psychopete said:

thought the same thing about my 87 2.0 5spd lol it had a/c too. my old 88 2.9 auto had no cruise and no a/c, eventually those "non" associated interior parts will make their way on my 87.

that head light harness still working out for you? lol

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I thought that someone must have been a glutten for punishment as I pulled it, the 4cyl was nice to work around though. That airbox can get kinda tight with a V6.

On a different note my ignition died again Friday. Put my spare coil in, didn't say a word. Put the spare module on and it ran. Got it back to work after lunch. Bought a new coil, warrentied my module and put them back on after work. Shimmed the module up thinking it might cool better and drove it home. Cleaned the truck up for a show and shine in town, let it idle outside of the garage while I pulled a window unit that hasn't made it into a guest bedroom and the tool box out of the back for the show. Drive down my driveway, turned onto my road... and it like cut down to 3-4cyl right in front of my house. Any throttle would kill it. Start back up on 3-4 but if you thought about touching the gas it would die. Pop the hood, had good fuel pressure. Choke was open... surely not. Could cook an egg on the module but coil was cool. 6 miles driven with new module. Pop in my spare module and it cracks right off. Drive it back home.

Get to thinking, module or bad connection? Hook the "new" one back up and it starts right up and runs fine. Doing a serious headscratching now... and just then it cuts out and starts hitting on 3-4 again. So the module is getting hot and screwing up but isn't dead yet. I check voltages, 14.0V across the battery with or without the headlights on. 12.3V to the coil at idle. Nothing wonky that way unless it is a quick short voltage spike. I was putting on my road (gravel) so I didn't get my truck dirty, practically idling at 10mph so it isn't like it was getting a varied or extreme RPM.

So I go do some more research on "Duraspark module overheating" (dunno why I haven't tried that term before) and find the entire ignition system grounds to the distributor... which grounds to the block. I have no idea what the surface between the dizzy flange and the engine block looks like, I am going to splice into the black wire and run it to where the battery cable grounds on the PS of the block. That should give me a good solid visible ground.

I am wondering if it was kinda sorta trying to ground between the module case and the inner fender and I screwed that up with the shimming. Since I know the one in the truck runs when it isn't overheated it should be a decentish test if I didn't kill it the last time it messed up.

No idea if this will fix it, I have thought I have had it "fixed" several times now. This is seriously getting really old.

Psychopete said:

u can ditch the box and wire in a 4 pin GM HEI module, granted would probably want to put a fan on it. i used the 4 pin GM w/ duraspark dist and TFI coil, but built a box for it w/ a 12v CPU heatsink and fan.

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X2. I did this to my 2.3L soon after getting it. I used an old heat sink from a graphics card. I didn't put a fan on it cause the engine fan blew air across it that was more than sufficient. It was open to the elements and I never had any trouble.

It is getting real now...





I checked my system with the Ford pinpoint test in my service manual, everything is spot on perfect. I wanted to do that before I did anything else. If I had a bad ground or something that was killing the modules I didn't think a different type of module would fare any better.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see which one would be easier to cut corners on making them aftermarket. Going for the "Stealth HEI" so it looks more "right" and to keep the module shielded from weather on the inner fender. And if I have another failure my spare is still plug and play. 1/8" aluminum plate for a heat sink, I thought about a computer fan... didn't know how to wire it for 12v or how it would like gravel dust.

The housing is the first one I bought back in college (2004) and is a regular Motorcraft unit.

Make sure you use a quality heat sink compound between the module and the aluminum plate. Just bolting it down will not make enough contact. Most computer fans are either 12v or 5v. So just find a 12v one. Most case fans are 12v.

If you aren't putting a fan on it, make sure the aluminum plate gets has room to let air flow across it so it can dissipate it's heat. There's no fins on that plate, so it's going to take more air flow to cool it. I killed my first module using just an aluminum plate. But it was warped some, too. So I don't know if it wasn't making good contact or not. The second time I used an old heat sink from a computer graphics card. It had copper heat pipes and aluminum fins and was always cold to the touch. Never had problems after that.

My concern is yours being contained in a box with little to no ventilation. But then again, GM had these things bolted to distributors with little to no ventilation, too. Maybe my first module was just a defective one.

RayInStl said:

My concern is yours being contained in a box with little to no ventilation. But then again, GM had these things bolted to distributors with little to no ventilation, too. Maybe my first module was just a defective one.

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That is kind of what I thought too, only thing is if they are open to the rotor it might act somewhat like a fan... never been in a regular HEI dizzy.

There are several articles on the net about doing it this way, it would be nice if it would work.

Computer fan sounds cool but I don't think it would last long before it would lock up.

Plan kind of took a curve tonight...



I put the module together, looks great (forgot to get pic) to get the truck moving so I can get it to the car club meeting tomorrow night for picture night. I had picked up a second Motorcraft module that didn't have a bolt broken off in it to sandblast/clearcoat so it looked nice. Backed the truck out of the garage on the fail prone module just to see how long it would idle and to hopefully give it a good scar so there would be no debate at the parts store if it was good or not. It made it like 3 min and it just shut off.

So I am getting ready to put the HEI module in and thought what the heck and tried the skuzzy leaking JY module I just bought for the shell:



Thing runs great, as good as it ever has. Ran for half an hour and never missed a beat.

My assistant was even impressed.



I got to thinking how to improve my system. I have the module mounted in a similar fashion as a fullsize on the inner fender. Adding the CC servo probably doesn't help cooling but it did run quite while thru this hot summer before the Motorcraft one died. Started playing around...



It is a straight shot for air thru the old hole that fed the 2.8 intake, if I wanted I could do a ram air thing as I still have the tube.



And there it is:



Since it is old, terrible looking, mounted front and center in plain sight and I have the HEI one put together and ready to go I suspect this module will run darn near forever. It does catch some of the blast from the fan too, not sure if that helps much but it is moving air. Where it was before the servo isn't even getting any moving air to block at idle.

And yes, the "new" module died. Whopping 5.6 miles on it.