Old Guy with an Old Ranger (but recently new to me)

[Dyed in the WOO]

Hello there,

I happened upon this site in a recent search to find the mythical, seldom seen, distributor hold down bolt.
By chance and by the help of this forum I was able to spot one of these elusive creatures in its natural habitat, screwed into the engine block! Distributor hold down bolts are real!

The Back story is I recently acquired 1988 Ranger from a Craig's List posting and drove it home from 142 miles away with a major vacuum leak and unable to hold an idle, 142 miles playing footsie with the gas and clutch pedals at the same time.
Turns out it looks like there was a (minor?) engine fire that burned a 3/16 inch hole in one of the larger hoses. The vacuum hose replacement caused the failure of the fire damaged wires from the distributor to the wire harness. Ergo no spark and now I will be pulling the distributor to put in new stator inside the distributor.and will be trying to extract the seized screws that held down the distributor cap. If you are still reading this thank you for your tenacity.

So that is my story of how I joined this forum.

 

[RobbieD]

Welcome!

and will be trying to extract the seized screws that held down the distributor cap

Push comes to shove, you can always carefully break up the old cap to better get at the screws, and then put a new cap on it.

Good luck! First-gen Rangers rock!

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

Welcome to TRS. Lots of good info on here. Plus a good group all around. Oh yeah. We like pictures haha

 

[Dyed in the WOO]

Welcome!



Push comes to shove, you can always carefully break up the old cap to better get at the screws, and then put a new cap on it.

Good luck! First-gen Rangers rock!

 

[superj]

Welcome!!

 

[Curious Hound]

Welcome to TRS!

 

[Dyed in the WOO]

After attempting to loosen said screws with no effect i hit the edges with a cold chisel and removed the cap in pieces . Still not able to grasp screws with vice grips I used an old weller soldering gun to melt away the remaining plastic surrounding the problem screws and was able to get a good grip on the problem screws. Applying liberal and frequent amounts of Liquid Wrench and some heat from a micro torch resulting in a stub of one of the screws. Now I will be pulling the distributor so as to be able to remove the one intact screw and the remaining fragment.

O.K., has been a few days since I started this post. Any way I was able to drill concentric holes and was able to extrat out the 8-32 screw fragment and have preserved the screw holes and the cap fits good. Trying to remember if I puled distributor while in number one or number four cylinder position. Should have wrote it down. Tomorrow I'lI put a compression tester in number one cylinder and turn the engine by hand on the power on the compression stroke.

"Good luck! First-gen Rangers rock!"

The one great thing I have come to find abiut these old rangers is NO power windows, No power brakes< NO power steering, No power locks, a 5 speed transmission and a carbarator . All kinds of room in the engine compartment. Takes me back to my youth.

"

 

[RobbieD]

Glad to hear that you salvaged the distributor, and thanks for the update!

There is a certain beauty in an old, no frills, bare-bones, basic truck.