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

[Rick W]

Older and wiser than I was four days ago, now that I blew up my heater control valve, I’m going to replace my heater hoses. The radiator hoses were replaced a couple years ago when I replaced the radiator.

When I was banging my head on the top of the engine on the side of the road, I lost my breather hose that goes from the oil fill cap to that large air intake rubber tube across the front of the engine. It’s easy enough to find or make a piece to replace that, but here’s my question:

That old breather hose plugged into the side of the main air intake firmly butch pretty easily, but it slipped on to the oil fill thingamajig very loosely. I could put it on and take it off with two fingers. That goes into the air intake after the air filter. Shouldn’t that be pretty tight, so no dust or dirt gets in? Not that it’s dirty under my hood…

 

[sgtsandman]

Older and wiser than I was four days ago, now that I blew up my heater control valve, I’m going to replace my heater hoses. The radiator hoses were replaced a couple years ago when I replaced the radiator.

When I was banging my head on the top of the engine on the side of the road, I lost my breather hose that goes from the oil fill cap to that large air intake rubber tube across the front of the engine. It’s easy enough to find or make a piece to replace that, but here’s my question:

That old breather hose plugged into the side of the main air intake firmly butch pretty easily, but it slipped on to the oil fill thingamajig very loosely. I could put it on and take it off with two fingers. That goes into the air intake after the air filter. Shouldn’t that be pretty tight, so no dust or dirt gets in? Not that it’s dirty under my hood…

Ideally, it should be tighter but it doesn't have to be super tight. It is pretty much just a vent and really doesn't see much vacuum or pressure.

 

[WutUp Clegg]

My check engine light came on. The codes lead to a bad evap purge solenoid. The truck was blowing black smoke and running rich. I swapped the out the purge solenoid, so I hope that fixes the issue. The codes were P2196, P2198, and P0060.

 

[pentode]

Since every November rolls around and I suddenly remember I should Fluid Film the truck, and I struggle with rolling around on the freezing ground trying to keep the FF from turning to wax, I got the bright idea when I woke up today to hose the thing down since we finally got a day that's 72F. Then did the dirt road trick.

Now the truck and half the driveway smell like sheep... me only half as much since I took a shower. I did cross paths with a woman in Princess Auto wearing jodhpurs and knee high riding boots... I think she knew.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

No pics yet, but yesterday I started work on my new rear hitch bumper for the green Ranger. 5” C-channel is the main bit. Gonna take it flat across, pie cut and bend the ends around (started the pie cuts last night), sink a 2” receiver in the middle, offset the plate, reinforce as needed. Thinking I might go redneck and just weld on a couple D-rings for the safety chains.

 

[Rick W]

No pics yet, but yesterday I started work on my new rear hitch bumper for the green Ranger. 5” C-channel is the main bit. Gonna take it flat across, pie cut and bend the ends around (started the pie cuts last night), sink a 2” receiver in the middle, offset the plate, reinforce as needed. Thinking I might go redneck and just weld on a couple D-rings for the safety chains.

Don’t forget to weld in a couple of 1 inch couplings with caps on the bottom for when you want to run flags off the back

 

[Snoranger]

No pics yet, but yesterday I started work on my new rear hitch bumper for the green Ranger. 5” C-channel is the main bit. Gonna take it flat across, pie cut and bend the ends around (started the pie cuts last night), sink a 2” receiver in the middle, offset the plate, reinforce as needed. Thinking I might go redneck and just weld on a couple D-rings for the safety chains.

Cut out and reinforce some Hi Lift jack slots:

 

[pentode]

Decided to continue the Fluid Film project and do the doors - there were no previous holes in the door so I figured the easiest way to get it in there was to remove the door cards. Pretty easy to work on as it turns out.

This truck lived its whole life on a beach on Prince Edward Island and if you've ever been there (or seen a satellite photo) the whole place is made of red silty mud. Every single crevice I've exposed on that truck has been packed with red dirt and dust. I'll add a few pics just because I'm curious if other people have seen this kind of thing where you live. All that underhood stuff you see, that's been washed and scrubbed multiple times. It's IN there. Also the rockers were _full_ of sand... I mean fully packed from end to end, top to bottom. Probably 50 pounds of what came out like sandstone.

 

[Jazzer]

^That looks like my truck when I get back from Utah!

 

[JoshT]

It's alive! ...again...

Finished getting all of the engine bay put back together and it fired right up. Seems like I have a couple of exhaust leaks that need to be fixed. It really needs a proper exhaust installed, what's on there now is too small (single 2.5" out on muffler) and too loud for my liking. That'll wait until I get my suspension and tires finalized for now and an alignment done.

Kind of remains to be seen on the tuning end of things. Primarily want to tune for improved shift points. Bought a tuner, but I'm a little hesitant to install it until I get some miles on the engine.

I'll add a few pics just because I'm curious if other people have seen this kind of thing where you live.

Yep, Georgia red clay. It's everywhere around here. Not quite the same but the end result looks very similar. More clay like than sandy. When dry it makes a fine red dust like that, when wet it sticks to everything. When wet and dries in place, it's like cement.

It's really fun when it mixes with kaolin and gets wet. That stuff is slick and sticky at the same time. Fills up the treads on your tires and you may as well be on ice.

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

Riding the "struggle bus" at Cape Breton Dragway- Having a hard time adapting to the delay box plus the slicks are worn out and useless putting the 60 foot times in the toilet. On the last pass the tach shot to 6500 as soon as I let the transbrake go. New Goodyear Eagle 9X30 slicks will be on for the next race on Labor Day Weekend.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Don’t forget to weld in a couple of 1 inch couplings with caps on the bottom for when you want to run flags off the back

Uh, this bumper is for the lowered Ranger. The most off-road I intend to do in the lowered truck is dirt roads, my property, and a family friend’s farm. I’m not sure I need flag mounts off the bumper. Maybe a spare tire mount off the bumper but that might look silly.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Cut out and reinforce some Hi Lift jack slots:

View attachment 114767

That’s a good idea, but not sure how needed on a lowered truck. Might have to make use of that for some of the other bumpers I need to build though

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ll have to get some pics as things progress, but I got the pie cuts finished on the bumper, bent the ends around (18” pipe wrench and 4’ cheater pipe did the trick there), then got it welded. Next steps will be to cut for the hitch and weld that in, get things figured out for the frame mounts and get those built, then some reinforcements. After that I can do the make pretty stuff. Pretty happy with it so far. Should be able to use steel that I already have for most of this, probably just the hitch and the D-rings (if I use them) will have to be bought.

 

[mikkelstuff]

Broke down and actually paid a local shop to work on my '02 Ranger! Just couldn't take it anymore.

Ok, had the shop replace the A/C control vacuum line running from the vacuum reservoir to the firewall. With these 90+F days on the Colorado front range, I was sick of having the A/C air flipping between the dash vents and the defroster vents with the accelerator - a true sign of leaks in that nylon vacuum line.

I bought the replacement vacuum line a couple of years ago but saw there was no way I could reach up to the firewall attachment unless the truck were up on a lift - which I do not have.

Cost me 155 buckaroos but well worth it. Nearly froze my a** off after the change. Shop owner told me her 12 year old boy changed out the line when up on the lift. Well good for him - long slender arms (unlike this old geezer).