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

[JoshT]

Replacement A/C somponents installed, cooling system reinstalled, and bleeding coolant system.

Tomorrow dad will probably finish bleeding the coolant system and attempt to charge the A/C. I'd be working on it myself, but hopefully new fan motor for my house AC system will be here tomorrow and I'll be getting it installed. I hopefully all goes right on both fronts, otherwise I'll be back in there again. Weather is approaching the territory of needing AC for part of the day and I don't need to spend any more money that stuff right now.

 

[superj]

My youngest son took it to work because he is picking up a jeep rack after work and it wint fit in his mazda

 

[ben_2_go]

Ran a few errands in the ole Strangler this morning and then parked her for a nap while I worked on and test drove the ole Jimmy 5500. I'm trying real hard to like this truck after all the problems it has given me since buying it.

 

[Curious Hound]

Ran a few errands in the ole Strangler this morning and then parked her for a nap while I worked on and test drove the ole Jimmy 5500. I'm trying real hard to like this truck after all the problems it has given me since buying it.

I hate to say it. But, if you have to "try" to like it, its a lost cause, trade it for something that makes you happy when you look at the driveway.

 

[ben_2_go]

I hate to say it. But, if you have to "try" to like it, its a lost cause, trade it for something that makes you happy when you look at the driveway.

I overall like the truck. Wish it was the version with the cat diesel and 7 speed. The 8.1 is a troublesome monster, and right after I got it at the first of Feburary, it developed fuel pump problems. The fuel pump module is NLA and sourcing one has been a two month ordeal. My fuel pressure still isn't right. I don't trust it, and yeah, when I know it's not going to die as soon as I sell it, I'm selling it.

 

[Roert42]

Bummer

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

Did two things, one yesterday and one today.

Yesterday, I replaced my shift tube bushings to fix the floppy column shift, they were basically just dust. Because I know the tube itself can wear out as well, I bought the Dorman kit with tube and bushings and figured I'd replace it all, as the truck does have 250k on it. That was not a good idea as I soon discovered....

As far as the wear on the original tube, I was wrong about that. Yes, the shift tube has a little tiny bit of wear where the interlock pin goes, but I smoothed it out with a file and it was fine. The new tube was a joke. Easily two or three millimeters of slop between the plunger and tube, as well as a horrible casting quality and finish. Even the old tube only had maybe one millimeter of play in it, AFTER 250k. The part was a joke. I didn't put it in, I just cleaned and re-greased the original tube, put new bushings on, and put it all back together and it feels great.

You can't get good quality parts anymore, I swear. I find myself going to pull a part/LKQ more and more often, as the used genuine old parts are better than the new garbage that is all we can get.


Today, I put together a little tee adapter for the upcoming oil pressure gauge install. I didn't want to spend $30 on the sandwich plate, and with the factory sender in a good location I just made up a fitting to allow me to tack on the new sensor while keeping the original as well.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Today, I put together a little tee adapter for the upcoming oil pressure gauge install. I didn't want to spend $30 on the sandwich plate, and with the factory sender in a good location I just made up a fitting to allow me to tack on the new sensor while keeping the original as well.


View attachment 108780

Been a minute or two since I've looked... but I don't remember there being a bunch of room for all that.

I also remember the days when dorman stuff was first rate. Not so much any more.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

I found the cause of the clicking/grinding noise….. CV boot has left the chat. About 3 millimeters of up and down play in the joint now. Any suggestions for brand of joint? I know dorman makes one but I haven’t had the best luck with them lately.

 

[sgtsandman]

I found the cause of the clicking/grinding noise….. CB boot has left the chat. About 3 millimeters of up and down play in the joint now. Any suggestions for brand of joint? I know dorman makes one but I haven’t had the best luck with them lately.View attachment 108810

Not sure if this helps, but these are the brands RockAuto offers: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2003,ranger,4.0l+v6,1438311,drivetrain,drive+shaft,2308

Trakmotive is the only one to offer a lifetime warranty. That may or may not mean anything. The rest are 12 months or 12 months/18,000 miles.

 

[JoshT]

I found the cause of the clicking/grinding noise….. CB boot has left the chat. About 3 millimeters of up and down play in the joint now. Any suggestions for brand of joint? I know dorman makes one but I haven’t had the best luck with them lately.View attachment 108810

LOL! Just went through this myself. Twice. On the same dreiveshaft.

Did some studying prior to purchasing the first joint. It doesn't seem to matter what brand you use, they are all basically the same joint in a different package. Consenses seems to be that Dorman is the "best" but not so much better to demand twice the price of the off brands sold througheBay and Amazon.

First time around I was replacing because the driveshaft was out for engine swap and it had a torn boot. Only way I found to get a replacement boot for these was to order a complete joint. Ordered that one off eBay, was delivered and everything appeared to be good quality. In about 200 miles of driving the joint was toast, but I'd have to say it wasn;t the joint's fault. It appeared that the bolts weren;t tight enough to keep the joint sealed, as the grease got hot it slung all of it out between the boot and the joint body. No joint is going to last long when it runs dry at 70 miles per hour.

Second one I bought was from Amazon. Just cleaned the old-new grease off the bottom of the truck yesterday, reinstalled the shaft, it and drove it a bit to hopefully get it to settle in more. Will retorque the bolts tomorrow and hopefully be good to go.

Lessons I can pass on...

1) Make sure you get your bolts installed tight when reinstalling the driveshaft. Also recheck them after driving a bit.
2) Make sure the boot is resting in the groove on the driveshaft. Dad installed the second joint on the shaft and had the boot pulled all the way up to the shoulder, looked right, but would have torn it in short order.
3) Align the boot with the joint before you tighten down the clamp. That's how I've heard about several people tearing the boots during instrallation.

 

[JoshT]

Not sure if this helps, but these are the brands RockAuto offers: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2003,ranger,4.0l+v6,1438311,drivetrain,drive+shaft,2308

Don't replace the shaft, just replace the joint. If you want to use RockAuto: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2003,ranger,4.0l+v6,1438311,drivetrain,cv+joint,2292

I didn't use RA for that part because I didn't want to pay the additional shipping and wait longer.

 

[sgtsandman]

Don't replace the shaft, just replace the joint. If you want to use RockAuto: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2003,ranger,4.0l+v6,1438311,drivetrain,cv+joint,2292

I didn't use RA for that part because I didn't want to pay the additional shipping and wait longer.

Out of curiosity, I checked for my local area. I would have to order it regardless and only Advance Auto Parts had one to order, AutoZone, and O'Reily's were either out of stock or didn't even list it. Even just the joint wasn't cheap but I imagine shipping would be better for the joint over the whole drive shaft.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

Don't replace the shaft, just replace the joint. If you want to use RockAuto: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2003,ranger,4.0l+v6,1438311,drivetrain,cv+joint,2292

I didn't use RA for that part because I didn't want to pay the additional shipping and wait longer.

I think I'm going to go for the Spicer joint- it is after all the OE part. Best outcome is that it is better quality, worst is that it is the same as all the others. But at only $10 more than the generics, I figured I'll give it a shot. And thank you for the tips!

 

[Rick W]

For stuff too far from an outlet have y'all considered a cheap solar panel. A 25-30 watt panel is going to put out about the same as those little trickle chargers and should be enough for maintaining a battery.

I’ve been feeling embarrassed and guilty from mocking @JoshT about his suggestion to charge your vehicles with a solar panel. I felt so bad. I actually went out and bought one and I hooked it up to my car the other day.

Well, today, I went out after lunch to check it, and it wasn’t charging! I should know to follow my instincts, and stand my ground on my initial thought!

And then sweet pea smacked me in the head, and said remember this