What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Robertmangrum.rm]

I didn’t mean to sound argumentative. Only relaying that I’ve seen it happen. It seems once they pop, you just don’t know if you depend on it working right again after.

Back in about 97 I may or may not have jumped some Railroad tracks in my 95 Ranger. After it landed it died and wouldn't start back. Had it towed home only to find that the breaker had popped out on it. So I reset it and on my way so I thought. After it kicked that once. It started kicking all the time. If you slammed the passenger door or hit a big pot hole. Just about any jarring impact kicked it. Luckily I grabbed on of another truck at the scrap yard for like 5 dollars. Haha I remember asking the guy if he knew if it ever been kicked and he smiled and said " Hell son I didn't even know it had a breaker back there " haha.

 

[Ranger850]

Drove the ranger into town for an appointment.

Got a call from a buddy who is the finance guy at one of the local ford dealers. He found a 2022 ford maverick that someone odered and than couldnt get and called me because my 83 year old uncle wanted one. So tomorrow my uncle gets a new truck.

My uncle told me he is just getting it until he cant drive anymore and than i can have it. Thats cool but i told him i would rather he just keep on driving and stay around for a while.

He is already to the age where the guys on my mom's side of the family pass away. 83 has been the age for a few of my uncles and my grandpa. Hopefully he goes a good bit longer because he and my mom are the last ones.

Anyway, here is the truck pics

What color is that? It looks unique in that setting but I'm sure it's just the lighting.

 

[rubydist]

It looks like Area51.

 

[superj]

What color is that? It looks unique in that setting but I'm sure it's just the lighting.

its that grey blue

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Finally back to working on the green Ranger again. Well, after helping dad some with his Cub Cadet tractor. Swear that thing is more trouble than it’s worth. But anyway, got the drivers side header tightened up with the new bolts. Replaced the one last timing cover bolt, the ones I got in the bolt kit were too short and I only had one longer one on hand (now I have a handful of them, lol) in stainless so that’s all done now.

Still thinking of trying to manufacture my own stainless studs for two timing cover bolts and two intake bolts. I have stainless rod and flange nuts, just not sure if I should try to stake it down or red locktite or what to make a stud for things like the starting/charging harness and coil packs.

Worked on putting my new heater core lines together now that I have a flare tool that will do 37* flares in 5/8” tubing. Got everything put together to the point where I needed to start flaring and found my new flare tool is damaged, the threads are bad on the clamp. So much for that. Also found I don’t have a bending tool to do 5/8” tube and that may be a problem.

Also checked my new fuel filter adapter for -AN and it won’t work either. I need a different filter with longer ends or some kind of aftermarket canister or cartridge filter.

Started working on the new transmission lines. After a little goof that kinked the new line, I have one mostly done and the other started. I’m running both lines to the front of the motor, then going -AN with it, union and braided PTFE for the one that goes to the cooler in front of the radiator then a union and more hard line up to the radiator for the other one. That way I have a convenient break point if I need to get a line out of my way. Or at least that’s my theory.

Tomorrow is another day, if I can finish getting the new transmission lines made up as far as the front of the motor, then I’ll tilt the transmission back up and put the crossmember in.

 

[Jazzer]

In January I bought a new AC Delco battery, and after a few months it wouldn’t charge higher than 12.3V, so I returned it for exchange. A few days ago I had a no start with the new battery at 11.8V overnight. I took it out and charged it, and it dropped to 12.3V in a few hours.

I exchanged it today, the store didn’t keep track of the earlier return, so I got an even exchange. Let’s hope this one lasts.

A spare battery that had a bad cell has kept 12.6V for a month after a week on a trickle charger. Maybe some batteries can be saved.

-Jazzer

 

[superj]

uncle gene said he really likes that new maverick. he said it drives a lot nicer than his 2019 bmw 3 series suv did and you can actually figure out how to work the controls without getting out the manual. it was a two hour drive to the dealer so he got a nice long ride home to get comfortable in it.

he said it feels really comfortable like his old sport track. he said he feels alot more natural in a small truck than in the suv and it is less work to drive.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So I spent a bit of the morning calling junkyards for a rear driveshaft for my F-150. One place had one but refused to go below $150 and I’m sure it could use $50 in new U-joints, not that that saved my old one. So I’m still looking for a driveshaft.

So since I was good and frustrated I went to work on the green Ranger. Got both transmission lines made up. Had a little issue with getting the -AN flares done since I wasn’t paying attention and next thing you know I had a 37* double flare and a way too big single flare trying to use my lever style flaring tool because the instructions don’t explain how to do a single flare. Apparently you start as if you’re doing a double flare, but after setting the tubing, you don’t tighten the clamp until after you cycle through station 1, which pushes the tubing back in the die to the right depth for doing a single flare. So now they are on and capped by the front of the motor for now.

Tried putting the transmission up and found I had both the mount and crossmember aligned backwards somehow. I’m sure I saw something marked as front somewhere but whatever, it’s correct now and tightened in place.

Got the passenger upper A-arm in place, but still have to tighten the adjusters and put the wheel assembly back together.

Company refunded my money for the defective flaring tool and said they don’t need it back, so I took a gamble on trying to fix the threads enough to work. Seems like it may work well enough to do what I need to right now, but I’ll probably see about replacing it. Still need a plan for bending the 5/8 tube.

 

[Vindictus]

The old girl rolled over 300,000K on the way to work this morning

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Well i "fixed" the ben exhaust flange on the cat. It was leaking bad and had a big gap on the bottom. Used a tin can and furnance cement. Initial results are good.

Then we went to work...

Now my back hurts. Those logs were heavy as shit

 

[holyford86]

Ordered some new leaf springs for the old one, got tired of the old clapped out used springs I have on there. Also looked through my pile of gaskets and built a kit to do valvecover gaskets. (Buick supercharger gasket, plenum gasket, valve cover gaskets, and a few copper washers for the bolts inside the adapter)

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Ordered some new leaf springs for the old one, got tired of the old clapped out used springs I have on there. Also looked through my pile of gaskets and built a kit to do valvecover gaskets. (Buick supercharger gasket, plenum gasket, valve cover gaskets, and a few copper washers for the bolts inside the adapter)

I haven’t read up on your build, got a link? I would like to learn more about the 3.8 blower.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Not Ranger but my buddy and I went hunting with the '98 Explorer... it's probably the hardest it's been ran since I've had it... found some issues and got a flat tire this morning... First is we apparently got the drivers side front O2 sensor wire with a stick or something since it has 2 codes... The air shocks (It's an Eddie Bauer so all 4 corners...) are shot so it was a low rider with the switch off (pump runs near constantly while driving if it's on) so we turned it on since we were bottoming out on everything... Conveniently the stock original 1998 Firestone spare tire was still aired up, it had nubbies on it a couple years ago when the wife had a flat so it had like 15 miles on it until today so now it has 140ish miles on a 24 year old tire . The rock or stick or whatever went right in the middle of the tread so it should be fixable, it wasn't driven flat we heard it leaking bad when we parked...

 

[holyford86]

I haven’t read up on your build, got a link? I would like to learn more about the 3.8 blower.

There's a thread in the forced induction subforum that details my build

 

[sgtsandman]

Got the state safety inspection and emissions testing done on Saturday for the 2011. It's good for another year.