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

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

I want to get an older econoline van and i can just imagine anytime I want to access a part under the hood, ill be running back and forth 10x over from the tiny hood to the interior dog house trying access a part from different angles, lol

 

[Rick W]

Seriously: Ford!

FIFY

 

[scotts90ranger]

It's just wrong that the 4 cylinder is the hardest to change spark plugs on... Seriously. Why Ford?

It's just the intake side spark plugs, the exhaust side plugs are cake and honestly the second set is just "extra" so doesn't matter for the most part until the exhaust side fails and you get misfires...

 

[youngbuckwithapickuptruck]

did i read these correctly? (1 is towards the front of the truck)
-SP1 looks good

-SP2 lightly white ashy
-- failing headgasket, oil or coolant

-SP3 tip missing
-- discoloration say lean

-SP4 tip missing, dirty brown threads
--im worried that i dropped debris in the cylinder trying to finagle the old SP out and the new SP in.

the passenger spark plugs were swapped out with older (better condition) plugs by a friend who performed a compression test for me a few months back.

i do know my truck sips about 1qt oil every 3k mi, and my coolant is low.

 

[scotts90ranger]

cylinder 1 is front and they go in order. I don't think I would read too much into those plugs as they look factory maybe... how many miles? These things have a tendency of cracking the heads between the valves which lets coolant into combustion while running or you just have a leaking hose somewhere...

 

[rumblecloud]

Started applying aerosol WoolWax to the frame yesterday - dang that stuff can be messy

 

[Rick W]

The new instrument cluster with a tach showed up from @scotts90ranger from the left coast.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but I’m hoping I’ll get it in anyway

Thanks again, Scotty!

 

[scotts90ranger]

The new instrument cluster with a tach showed up from @scotts90ranger from the left coast.

View attachment 143167

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but I’m hoping I’ll get it in anyway

View attachment 143168

Thanks again, Scotty!

No problem! First step in getting rid of the dang Mountaineer! It's started so hopefully I'll finish... it's only been sitting since '19, don't rush me...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

No problem! First step in getting rid of the dang Mountaineer! It's started so hopefully I'll finish... it's only been sitting since '19, don't rush me...

At that rate you should have it gone in 150 years…

 

[RobWigglezz]

The new instrument cluster with a tach showed up from @scotts90ranger from the left coast.



Thanks again, Scotty!

Double check all the connections to the flexible circuit board are firm. The gages push into them. They're old like a lot of us and loose some of their tension.

 

[Rick W]

Double check all the connections to the flexible circuit board are firm. The gages push into them. They're old like a lot of us and loose some of their tension.

I got the cluster put in last night, dodging raindrops for the last hour. I took out about a half dozen or more lights to things like 4 x 4 that don’t apply to my truck. I did the test drive this morning. Everything seems to be working fine, except I think the speedo is reading low

I followed @scotts90ranger instructions to jump the speedo with a 1.5 volt battery for needle position. I had to make sure the speedo was laying flat facing up when I did it, because the battery wouldn’t put in enough energy to raise the weight of the needle if it was sitting like it would sit in the dashboard. Does that sound right? I used a couple different batteries and finally zeroed it in right on 40 which is where it was on the old speedo before I took the needle off. I was out on the interstate today and I think I was going 10 miles an hour faster than it was reading.

I’m planning on riding through the school zone where there’s a digital radar camera with the read out and check it against what I’ve got. But that’s only good up to maybe 40 miles an hour. I guess I could do 70, but then it would cost me about 150 bucks for the results!

Any suggestions are welcome

 

[RobWigglezz]

I got the cluster put in last night, dodging raindrops for the last hour. I took out about a half dozen or more lights to things like 4 x 4 that don’t apply to my truck. I did the test drive this morning. Everything seems to be working fine, except I think the speedo is reading low

I followed @scotts90ranger instructions to jump the speedo with a 1.5 volt battery for needle position. I had to make sure the speedo was laying flat facing up when I did it, because the battery wouldn’t put in enough energy to raise the weight of the needle if it was sitting like it would sit in the dashboard. Does that sound right? I used a couple different batteries and finally zeroed it in right on 40 which is where it was on the old speedo before I took the needle off. I was out on the interstate today and I think I was going 10 miles an hour faster than it was reading.

I’m planning on riding through the school zone where there’s a digital radar camera with the read out and check it against what I’ve got. But that’s only good up to maybe 40 miles an hour. I guess I could do 70, but then it would cost me about 150 bucks for the results!

Any suggestions are welcome

It also took me a couple tries to nail the speedo needle position. I ended up 5 mph slower that my phone GPS and left it alone. It's a good amount of work to get the cluster out and looking back I should have just left everything disassembled and test drove it.

 

[RobWigglezz]

Decided to clean my MAF today. It's been 8 months since last time and here are the results of before and after. Tried my best with the macro picture. And the bottom side of one wire is obviously dirty.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I got the cluster put in last night, dodging raindrops for the last hour. I took out about a half dozen or more lights to things like 4 x 4 that don’t apply to my truck. I did the test drive this morning. Everything seems to be working fine, except I think the speedo is reading low

I followed @scotts90ranger instructions to jump the speedo with a 1.5 volt battery for needle position. I had to make sure the speedo was laying flat facing up when I did it, because the battery wouldn’t put in enough energy to raise the weight of the needle if it was sitting like it would sit in the dashboard. Does that sound right? I used a couple different batteries and finally zeroed it in right on 40 which is where it was on the old speedo before I took the needle off. I was out on the interstate today and I think I was going 10 miles an hour faster than it was reading.

I’m planning on riding through the school zone where there’s a digital radar camera with the read out and check it against what I’ve got. But that’s only good up to maybe 40 miles an hour. I guess I could do 70, but then it would cost me about 150 bucks for the results!

Any suggestions are welcome

You did use a new battery, right? It should have enough force to lift the needle, I did it with the speedo in a vise oriented like it would be in a vehicle I think... I can try again today on the non tach cluster I have...

 

[Curious Hound]

You did use a new battery, right?

It was new in 1973. You know Rick bought those batteries on FB Marketplace. Got a good deal. 237 batteries for $7.00, plus a couple big coffee cans to store them in.