Ratdude's new (to him) Ranger

My existing 1995 Ranger got wrecked a few weeks ago:

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170817

After some hunting around, I took a long hike up to Aurora, IL to look at this:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/5943623561.html

... And $1950 later, she's mine!

After, the best thing to replace a 1995 ranger is another 1995 ranger...


Some pictures:





Under the hood:



The good:

• Runs and drives!
• Has a long bed with a bed liner in good shape
• Same interior color as mine. Also has the exact same options (power mirrors, locks, windows with premium audio)
• Has a 4.0 in good running shape (made it 5hrs home w/o issues for the most part)
• The A/C still seems to have a charge. Supposedly it has sat for a year, which tells me that in the spring I might be able to recharge it and have cold air?!. I turned on the A/C and the compressor did cycle (somewhat quickly, as if it was low but had some charge left)
• Has properly installed running boards (which will make stowing/de-stowing my CB antenna on the roof a lot easier)

• Has 4 Wheel ABS, which isn't giving me a fault (fuse was missing at first, but adding didn't cause the ABS controller to complain...)
• Has an 8.8 rear end, with 3.08 gears.
• Might have a 20 Gallon tank?
• Seems to get 22MPG on the highway...

The bad:

• The interior needs some help. The headliner is DEAD:

• Also the seats are shot. One seat bolt was missing, which made for a bouncy ride
• The steering wheel has a broken cruise control "pod" (hanging by the ribbon cable)
• The odometer is dead, although based on what I can see it hasn't been bad for too awful long (oil change sticker is 2000 miles before and from 2015, and the dates combined with the amount of time it supposedly sat makes me think it's off by no more than 7000 miles or so)
• It has some body rust. Some blisters on both rear wheel openings, one cab corner, and right above the tailpipe. I hate body work too
• The shocks, while functional, are rusted away. The dust covers have chunks falling off/missing
• It has a check engine light for an EGR issue (DFPE sensor if I were to guess, it has the factory one still)
• Evap line (cansiter to vacuum source) rotted away in two places. Had to plug the vacuum side to make the motor run smooth
• Badly cracked windshield washer line
• Might have an air bubble in the cooling system. Supposedly has been through many heater control valves, which makes me suspect a bad rad cap (currently the factory one) and an improper cooling system bleed
• Might have a power steering leak, it was a bit low (and I saw some dampness on one of the steel lines?)
• Has the wrong tranny fluid in it. Fluid was yellowish and slightly thick, but not burnt or gritty. Transmission seems to be shifting OK, so maybe needs flushed?
• The serpentine belt and tires are nearly dead

The ugly:

• The leaf spring mounts and shackles are very rusty, but not to the point of needing emergency replacement. I'll want to replace them by the end of the summer though.

Other than the body rust issues (and the shocks and leaf spring issues), the issues are all easily fixed, cheap to fix, fixable with parts of my wrecked one, and/or things that I was going to swap/R&R in the process of another planned mod/swap. Hence why, for me at least, it made sense to negotiate a price on.

Things that I will move/swap from my other (wrecked) 1995:

-Seats (once I replace the foam in the driver's seatback, which split along the seat frame in the wreck)
-Headliner/Sun visors (the latter are lit ones out of a 1996 explorer, so of course I'll want to move those!)
-Video head unit/backup camera (duh, since it has premium audio I don't even need to redo my conversion harness )
-DFPE sensor
-Battery (the one installed is way too big and isn't actually mounted)
-CB system
-Secondary fusebox for addons (will need to mount elsewhere, as the ABS pump is in the way on this truck)
-Camper shell (w/ LED light system
-Wheels/tires (my tires are only 2 months old, and I don't care for the deer hoof rims).
-HID lighting harnesses/ballasts (bulbs damaged in wreck)
-Steering wheel (to fix the switches and keep my LED mods to such)
-HVAC control unit (this one is sun faded pretty bad)
-Instrument cluster- I'll try to swap the odometer units (minus drive motor/gear) first to keep odometer readings with the correct vehicles. I'll be doing the oil pressure gauge mod, and such a swap means I don't need to mod another cluster. Also, this one has a few chips in the background that let the backlights shine through. IIRC the 4.0 and 3.0 use the same cluster?)


What do you guys think? Deal or no deal (I know, too late now )

Looks OK from my experience...with the exception of not knowing the odo reading as it stood...maybe I missed that...but that would be a critical ingredient for this deal.

The 4.0 is a solid engine from what I've heard...with a high mileage potential for needing the timing parts replaced...can't recall the details on that but worth looking into and preparing for if it is over 200K miles.

The interior and body work sounds like minor things you can do as needed...as long as there is no stink that would drive you crazy.

Otherwise...congrats on the find and hopefully it will last you for a long time.

What really concerns me is the transmission. You might want to grab the tranny out of the other truck as well if it is a 4.0...that description of the fluid scares me...

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

97RangerXLT said:

What really concerns me is the transmission. You might want to grab the tranny out of the other truck as well if it is a 4.0...that description of the fluid scares me...

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

Click to expand...

Nope. Other is a 3.0.

Just saw that after rereading the post. Flush that tranny and change the filter. It is good to have old truck for parts isn't it?

AJ

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

97RangerXLT said:

Just saw that after rereading the post. Flush that tranny and change the filter. It is good to have old truck for parts isn't it?

AJ

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

Click to expand...

Added to my to-do list. Should I do a DIY flush with a 5 gallon bucket or take it someplace with a flush machine?

----

Speaking of mods, there is one mod I'd like to transfer from the wrecked one but I don't know how: My solid transmission crossmember and polyurethane mount. The former is a bitch to find anywhere (factory) or expensive ($100 for an aftermarket one made of bent steel), while the latter isn't cheap either ($40 from energy suspension, mail order/ebay only for the ford version). I was thinking of cutting and wedging a 2x4 inside the frame rails and disconnecting the driveshaft (and relying on parking brakes to keep it still; said PB's have been recently serviced). While my bushing'd crossmember isn't dead, it is quite rusty and given the difficulty of finding a replacement if it did die (bushings are integrated into the crossmember as we all know, been there with the wrecked one), I'd like to at some later point make the swap just to be done with it.

Flush machine. Ask around, find a shop that uses BG products and equipment. BG products are top of the line. Their flush machines use the transmission's own fluid pump to provide the pressure so you never put the trans internals on any more stress than they would be while driving, but they still get as much of the old stuff as possible by going in-line.

adsm08 said:

Flush machine. Ask around, find a shop that uses BG products and equipment. BG products are top of the line. Their flush machines use the transmission's own fluid pump to provide the pressure so you never put the trans internals on any more stress than they would be while driving, but they still get as much of the old stuff as possible by going in-line.

Click to expand...

Noted. I do know that Chrysler trannies are pressure sensitive (why ATF+4 is so different than dextron or mercon), but I didn't know if mine was the same way.

I had some buddies on another forum look at some other pics I took (detail shots of some of the rust), and apparently my brake lines are a ticking time bomb:



(yes the shocks are rusted to death... they still dampen, but for how much longer, nobody knows)

I'll be doing brake lines in the future it looks like. I'll start a new thread about that future project.

The other pics:







(still has the vibration dampener, but like the shocks it's rusty as all get out).

Check out chassis saver paint when you get time might just help you save your truck for a few years

sent while bored

Congrats on the new truck but wow, that's some nasty looking rust!

You might think the shocks are working... get new ones and you will amaze yourself.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

You might think the shocks are working... get new ones and you will amaze yourself.

Click to expand...

It did pass the bounce test and no oil leaking. Ugly but usable, at least for the moment.

---

I swapped most/all of the instrument panel things to swap the other night. This also included an oil pressure switch to sensor conversion, which I wrote into an addendum to my tech article submission here:

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1586688&postcount=11

Anyway, I first pulled my airbag and swapped the busted/worn cruise control switches for the LED modded ones recovered from the other ranger.

Next, I pulled out the headunit (which I swapped out last week only for it to go flakey on me ) and while I was there, swapped out HVAC controls:



The top one is what was in this truck, bottom is what I was moving over, bit of a difference there. Also, mine already had white LEDs in it, not that swapping bulb units is exactly a hard task.

After that, I worked on pulling apart the steering column. I did this to both swap the bottom cover for one that had a microphone installed , and also to swap out the busted turn signal/hazard assembly.

While that was apart, I swapped instrument clusters (hence why I needed to do the oil pressure mod as part of this job). I also rolled back (rebuilt) the odometer to match what the truck should have had on it (approximately) had the odometer in it kept working. However, as a result I had to fiddle with getting the speedometer needle in just the right spot; I got it to reading 5 high, which is as close as it will be. FWIW, the old unit read spot on compared to OBDII and GPS, and that's with both the old tires and my new (slightly undersized ???) tires installed, so I am rebuilding/modding it (new odometer worm gear, LEDs, oil pressure mod, and flyback diode for the high beams). That cluster has light shine-through issues, but if I can find a way (paint?) to fix that, I'll swap them back.

BTW, want to see some odometer guts?:

http://tinypic.com/m/jqkjr8/1
http://tinypic.com/m/jqkjr9/1
http://tinypic.com/m/jqkjra/1
http://tinypic.com/m/jqkjrb/1

(I'd say more but I don't want anybody yelling at me for making a "how to commit odometer fraud" guide )

While I was in there I found a missing screw... figured it was a busted shift indicator cable adjuster... but nope, not busted:



That said, the only other trace of past repair work was a busted ignition switch connector cover... that's the thing about this truck; there's very little hackery. Everything aftermarket (minus the battery) was installed right. On the last truck, at first, the biggest pain was dealing with crappy past repairs and hacked modifications.

Still have a lot to do. The spring mounts are a real bummer; I've read the best way is to remove the bed first? That will be a busy weekend when that time comes; I'll target that before I run bed wiring and install my camper shell.

ratdude747 said:

It did pass the bounce test and no oil leaking. Ugly but usable, at least for the moment.

Click to expand...

So did the ones that came with my truck although not near as ugly as yours (no offense) I ran them 11 years before I put new ones on... it was a night and day difference.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

So did the ones that came with my truck although not near as ugly as yours (no offense) I ran them 11 years before I put new ones on... it was a night and day difference.

Click to expand...

Noted. Low on the list though.