More B3000 questions

[James Morse]

I got passenger lock to work, turns out holding your tongue to the left and doing a little jig mostly on left foot does it. Nice!

1. Illumination lamp on instr panel lower left, that lights the fuel gauge, looks like it's out - rest of dash is fine. Is this a separate bulb? Hard to do or no?
2. I have a hole to the left of radio area, guess that is cig lighter, missing, should be replaceable or just plug it. Thought I already had cig lighter to right but turns out it says Aux 12V, it's just for plugging in chargers or searchlight etc. Should be easy to get lighter ass'y, maybe hard to install.
3. Engine temp gauge seems to work, it comes up to the thick mark, sometimes moves to the bottom of the bracketed area. Is this normal, that it seems to run cool? I mean, that's good if it runs cool, just want to make sure it's normal and not a faulty sender. I did notice it move up into the brackets when I was setting still in traffic with a/c on.
4. Both rear 'doors' (for cab plus), the little grommets that hold the cable sheathing from pulling out, are dislodged from the jamb. I can try forcing them back in but I think they are toast. Even if I can release the cables from the handle, which I'm not sure, that still doesn't allow me to get new grommets over the cable. Can anyone point me to a video or instructions how to fix these? I can open the doors by pushing with my fingers on the grommets so it allows tension on the cables, but, that aint right. Have to get that done asap as major pita.
5. I have 235/75-15 on my alloys. Obviously they fit, but I'm wondering is that correct or is 225/xx-15 correct? Not a huge issue. Two front tires are ok for now but I noticed in rain with little tread the fronts don't grab real good under braking, so that would be early on my list as well. Rears, which are good, are 235/75-15 "Custom 428 A/S" whitewalls, ton of tread, and look good, so I'd probably go with the same for the front.
6. I bought cleaner disc for the CD. I hear it trying to read stuff, but even with the cleaner I still get "Disk... err" and tried it a bunch of times, no joy. Slot is so narrow I don't think I can get in there with a swab. Suggestions? Radio and the (I think) six speakers, work terrific, but I sure would like to not be tied to the radio stations.

Can't think of anything else at the moment... but I doubt this would be the only things wrong on a 190k miles truck, if so, it'd be a f'ing miracle.

Saw the vid on changing out the blower motor resistors, thanks, I'll check the connector is ok and get the part and swap out.

I really appreciate all the extensive help on the keys. I really feel better about that and now I have the 3 keys and I can put more in myself, 20/key instead of 60/key. Awesome.

 

[RonD]

There are 6 bulbs that light up instrument cluster, you replace all 6 at the same time because you have to pull out the cluster to change just the one, so might as well do all 6

Hit a wrecking yard to get parts like the lighter and you will see how its connected
Same for rear door parts

Temp gauge should run just below 1/2 after 10min of driving, if lower then replace thermostat next time you change coolant(every 2 years), 190-195deg thermostat is correct
"Cool running engine" means you are wasting money on gas, and have dirtier oil to boot
Bracket lines don't mean much unless there is a picture of the temp gauge with it, lol, use 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3s, ect...... for any needle positions on gauges, as styles of gauges changed almost yearly

If you look on the back edge of drivers door you will see the Build Sticker, it will tell you what tires the truck came with new
Tires are a personal choice or whats on sale, lol
Larger or smaller diameter tires will change speedometer/odometer calibration, 1" doesn't matter much but any more and you will notice it


CD player is bad, look for replacement

 

[don4331]

Look for Explorer of about same vintage as your B3000 for radio. B3000 is basically a Ford, Explorers usually have the better OEM radio/cassette/CD players. I'm betting 4 speakers.

Rear doors are PIA - cables stretch then are a real problem to open. If you can still get the parts from RockAuto or Ford, I'd be temped to buy new.

 

[James Morse]

Thank you RonD and don4331. Yes now that you say that about coolant temp, I do recall hearing that hotter engine is more efficient. As to needle position the hottest I've seen it is like 1/16, so, just barely in the range. I'll get the new thermostat, should be easy I hope, I've done them before in other vehicles, probably comes with new gasket. I remember in old days if car was running hot in summer as temp fix, or maybe because cooling system was not working well, we used to just take them out completely to get the thing to run in normal range. Freaking old cars, back in 60's and 70's I used to carry a whole array of belts and so on and basic tools and more than once would be making roadside repairs, but on the other hand, I never got stuck on the road except once when fuel pump went, that kills you. I got Roadside Assistance on the truck, it's cheap, and it might help (or be worthless waste of money).

Build Sticker says both front and rear spec is P225/70R15SL. Rims 15x7.0J. Pretty easy to tell diff in tire diameter because online tire specs will tell you. I got into that when I was looking at kit builds where you want to know speed in gear for various tire/trans/rear end ratio setups. 70R probably is going to put the truck down in road clearance just a bit but not enough to matter and usually sticking with stock recommendation is better, imo. Thanks for reminding me about the diameter issue. I'll check how much difference is it, and which way, that would tell me is my speedo indicating a bit high or a bit low. Awesome. Reminds me, I should check pressures too.

Yep, 4 speakers, there's a little grill at the bottom rear corner of the doors, I thought it was for a speaker tweeter, but, on inspection, I see nothing in there.

As to CD, I went to Best Buy and got the cleaner disc, and as I had said before, it didn't help, but, I kept putting it in over and over and after about 15 times, guess what, it worked. I ran it through a few more times, tried some actual CD, and not new ones either, usual minor scuffing etc, and they all worked great! Obviously if the the disc is cracked or missing part of the coating and so on, they don't work well, but then they wouldn't work in any other player either. It seems like maybe old owners just never used the thing and it was super dirty. That said, stereo upgrades are always nice, so I'll keep in mind what you said about that. Nice that there is the crossover on parts, that sure makes life easier. It was actually one of the reasons I wasn't put off by the relative rarity of this specific model.

In fact I need to take a little time and check all fluids, etc. Only a fool wouldn't do this on 'new' vehicle. I was so excited to finally have something that runs I actually have not done that and it should be done fairly frequently whether the thing is new or old in age.

Back on the keys issue, I want to really thank fastpakr and you guys for getting me through that, it seemed like a nightmare and finally is solved. Now I understand why when you do the, for instance, Edmunds 'value of my car' it asks you how many keys you have. That affects the value because it's 60 right off the bat to get that second key, but if you have it, only 20 for more keys. I bet what I did there when I completely fubar'd it was I probably either rushed it, or, I put in the new, unprogrammed key instead of key 2. I noticed when the boss guy did it, he was looking at the dash probably at the theft light, and, he was not rushing it, he was methodical about it, probably did it a thousand times. This brings up a question, and I realize this sounds stupid, but right now I don't know which is key 2 and key 3. It's not an immediate issue because they all work, and seems like 2 spares is enough, but if I did ever want to add keys, is there any way for me to tell which is which? Backup plan would be just go back to B&D and do it there then if I messed it up that guy can do it no problem. I bet I put key 1 then the blank key and the truck was like nuh-uh, you are f'ed. Maybe if I'd been patient and let it set a bit it would have been ok with using the correct keys, just a theory. Anyway, I sure do understand now the difference between two good unique keys versus not having them!

I forgot to include in my new questions, about the steering wheel tilt. The little stalk release moves, and is spring-loaded, it returns to its home position, but, the steering column seems firmly fixed in place, and I did put a bit of force on it but I don't want to really reef on it. What do you think I should do with that, is there a place I could spray some silicone lube or something? There has to be a joint in there somewhere for it to tilt, and it's probably just stuck from not being moved for a long time, someone had it where they wanted, and just left it in place. Or it could be otherwise messed up I suppose but kind of doubt it. Not a huge deal, but, nice to have.

Tranny shifts up/down smooth as silk (knock on wood). I have to believe that was replaced or worked on at some point, hard to believe it'd be that good after all those miles.

I think I saw somewhere you could put a Coyote in these. Not in my immediate future, but, that would be something else altogether. Or even a regular 5.0. Not needed for the kind of driving I do, but cool. Would have to upgrade trans, maybe some other stuff, if you did that. But it might be something to consider if engine gave up the ghost in a bad way. Right now engine also (knock on wood) seems real good, and, always better to stay stock unless one is ready to address various issues that mods can raise. The V6 seems fine for power for normal use.

ABS warning came on last night, but, then it went off and didn't come back so far. I'm guessing it could be due to the truck probably had set a while and just needs to be driven and loosened up so to speak. Light or not, you can tell if ABS is working by feel of pedal, either it's pulsing or it's not. I definitely do like to have that working, but, it doesn't stop you from braking and we drove cars for decades without it.

THANK YOU.

 

[fastpakr]

Is yours 2wd or 4wd? I may have a replacement center bezel with a working lighter that you can use. If you get a chance, can you take a picture of the one you've got?

I haven't experienced issues with the tilt column or the rear doors, so my info there is limited. On the column, you can remove the plastic surround for better visibility. The top and bottom halves separate with a couple of screws. From there you may be able to see and deal with whatever is going wrong.


Edit... I forgot about the engine swap question. The Coyote engine is not a viable swap. One or two have been completed but they're far from practical. It's a physically HUGE engine to cram into the Ranger bay so lots of things have to be rearranged (or disappear completely, like a/c). The 5.0 Explorer swap is a whole different story though - if you can find an Explorer donor, it's very nearly a direct thing. Pull parts off the Explorer and move them over to their matching spot on the Ranger/B series. When you're done with the big physical stuff, you'll need to move a couple of wires around. One to make the tach work, and a few for the power wiring connector on the drivers fender. Then get a shop to sort out exhaust from the Explorer catalytic out to the back. My swap was a nightmare, but that was almost exclusively tied to engine issues rather than the swap itself.

 

[James Morse]

Mine is 2wd, I would have liked 4wd, but, seeing as most of truck -seems- or seemed, basically sound, and it was in my budget, I went with this. Thanks for info and offer on cig lighter, and, I would like to meet up sometime, maybe on the weekend after g/f who I call wife (long term relationship) goes out of town to see grandkids, I kind of want to stick around for the moment as she'll be gone a while, but, I definitely want to see your V8 in the truck and to meet up.

Lot of pics below, pic of dash is in there.

Thanks.

 

[fastpakr]

Ah - 2wd without fog lights. I don't have the correct bezel for that, but IIRC it's a very common one to pick up in a junkyard, eBay, etc. I needed a 2wd one w/ fog lights and that took a while to find, but yours should be easy.

I'm out of town the next few weekends but should be available after that with a lot more flexibility. Hopefully by then I've got a lot more of the truck thrown back together too. It's still pretty torn apart from the aftermath of the engine swap and trading out seats, center console, etc along the way.

 

[fastpakr]

Your cruise buttons are an easy fix, by the way.

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[James Morse]

Um... I guess what you are saying is with fogs the radio/dash panel would be a little different? That makes sense. Let me know if I'm mixed up there.

How hard to add fog lights (stock kind)? Have to put in switch for them, maybe that would require replacing radio/dash panel.... you'd know. Maybe I could use cig lighter opening in dash/radio panel to put switch for fogs. Just a thought, but it wouldn't be stock then of course. Not super high priority.

OK that sounds great no rush at all on meeting up. I'd love to see the work you are doing.

Fantastic news from you then on the cruise, I thought it would be a nightmare.

 

[fastpakr]

I'm not sure what's involved in adding the fog lights. If you go to eBay and search for 'ranger radio bezel', you'll see the various factory versions of the piece you need.

 

[James Morse]

@fastpakr
I ordered cruise controls, that's dirt cheap. Blower fan resistors are under 10. Coolant thermostat about the same.

It's usually the labor that kills you on this stuff, shops want 65 to 120 an hour, it's ridiculous. To put in a ten dollar part would probably cost you 100 easy.

The other thing I ran into, on Saabs (or VW or any of them nowadays), was, say you don't have heat control on driver side. You have to rip whole f'ing thing apart to get to the vent door that controls it, once you are there, fix is easy, then you have to put it all back together. So you end up just saying f it and one by one issues pile up until you feel like you're driving a piece of crap. Know what I mean? Not that I mind driving crap, that much, but geesh. I can't imagine on the truck there are all that many things where you have to start tearing apart the whole interior to get to things. Working on dash is probably the hardest thing there is on them (inside), to get to stuff. There just isn't all that much else there, and at this stage in my life I'm saying, less fancy, is less stuff to break, yet, it has everything I need and want - well - power locks/windows would be awful nice, but I can live w/out them. Probably could retrofit but sounds hard to do.

Fog lights - I see Amazon has them with the full bumper plastic bezel - but do I need the bezel? I see where the cutouts for the fogs are (I mean, there's a line and it's indented there) so you could take a knife and cut along the line, clean it up, you should be good to go to install the fogs? And get different dash bezel with the fogs switch. Have to wire from the dash to the lights, fuse, etc - unless that wiring is already in the harnesses. While I was doing that, might as well upgrade the stereo. I'd said that I got CD working, but it's dicey as can be, sick of messing with it, better to just find a good Explorer stereo like you said and maybe Crutchfield for some nicer speakers, I think you can put a little tweeter in that grill at the bottom rear of the door. I have to think that's what it was for.

I don't have the tilt-out rear windows. That must have been an option.

I'll get there little by little.

Did you swap out your trans when you put the 5.0? I see that Explorer came with 5R55E as one of the trans. That'd be beefier, if it fits in the B3000 (?). I've had stick all my life, never would touch an auto, but when you're stuck on a hill in traffic for mile after mile on the freeway, stick sucks bad and for just cruising auto is real nice.

 

[fastpakr]

Are you attached to the factory radio? If not, an aftermarket alternative is an easy swap with far more features. Crutchfield will typically have it to your door overnight with the appropriate wiring adapters and kit to install it in the bezel.

Tweeters are best installed in the A pillar. Most sets will include various brackets, you'd just cut a hole in the trim and surface mount them on the door card. I can post a picture later of an installed set. 5x7 or 6x8 speakers front and rear. 6x9's in the back if you're willing to do some cutting on the metal behind the plastic trim.

The 5.0 Explorers all came with the 4R70W. It'll fit in your truck if you put the engine in with it (whole different bolt pattern from any of the stock Ranger engines).

For fog lights - if you're going to use the factory switch, you'd want to hit up a junkyard and get some of the factory dash wiring harness that includes the connector for that switch.

 

[James Morse]

No not attached to OEM stereo at all, probably would save in basement just in case someone wanted all stock, but, no plans to sell truck "ever" at this point. Yeah I've got stuff from Crutchfield since way back in 80's, they rock.

OK. Yeah I'd like pic, thanks. I can cut metal, sure. Plus it shouldn't show anyway.

Ah, 4R70W now I'm not real sure but that sounds like a much beefier trans. 70 has to do with the torque rating, right? And I think, I don't need paddle shifters and all that crap, the thing does what it's supposed to do. Might need torque converter setup or, the stock setup should be fine, right? I'm not drag racing. Just street cruiser & light work truck / transporter. Probably won't get cap for bed, but tonneau would be nice. Steel tonneau would be awesome, but then, I see people riding around with them half up cuz stuff doesn't fit so maybe just regular tonneau, cheaper, and you can roll them right up. To protect stuff I"m carrying, if it rains. What's the 4406 stand for in your spec?

OK about the fogs. Can I cut out where they go or will I need the bumper bezel? Looks like I could just cut on the lines. I looked at the dash bezel and I see there it has the switch location which I obviously do not have and cutting into it would probably not look great plus there must be little retainers for the switch. Junkyard definitely way to go on that, probably for the lights themselves too. I'll have to look at some pics and find out how they mount there. I like the look of them, let alone, they're useful in fog/rain.

So you are saying, that the little grilles at the bottom rear of the doors are for what? Just vents? Or did some factory models have speakers there? I guess you're saying, if the tweeters are way down there you just don't hear them much, that makes sense.

I wouldn't mind having a stereo with nav screen, they have ones with Siri and all stuff today is USB/Bluetooth cuz you can find anything you want on the phone/web, plus you'd have hand-free phone too I think and now we can't use phone when driving. Those are a lot more money but have all the latest tech. I just got an iHome alarm clock it is so cool it changes colore and it has no radio because you Bluetooth to your phone, not only that it charges your phone plus charges wireless if you have that kind of phone. Off-topic, but, they are awesome clocks, I saw it on sale at Best Buy when I was up there to get the CD cleaner.

It would take a bit of saving/scrimping, but this moment I'm thinking, forget about the exh manifold problem, as long as it's holding. Get an Explorer 5.0 with trans attached and put that in. Usually on this kind of stuff I start the thinking/learning/researching part of it quite a long time before I actually do it, so, it's not to early to start.

Existing V6 runs real good, it should be worth something to sell. Not much I suppose.


THANKS. Yes when you get a chance post the pics of speaker setup.

 

[don4331]

@James Morse : You wouldn't want a 5R55E behind the 5.0 - you'd be replacing it real quick. As you have a 2wd, the 4R70W from a Mustang with a 3.8 is your Auto of choice. (3.8 and 5.0 share same bell house pattern).

FYI: From the Federal Sticker, your B3000 has heavy payload package (2500lb front/2750 rear) but only 7.5" axles (3.73 gears per the 86 code) which is a little unusual. 8.8 would be more common.

Flip out rear windows on '98+ Ranger are almost Unicorn territory (mythical beast); and on '97 & earlier, they are known to leak (more wind than water but just the same), so I don't think I'd even add them.

@fastpakr: Don't you need the dash wiring, the correct GEM (to turn off fogs when you switch to brights), the under hood wiring, etc, if you want to put factory fog lights in a non fog light truck? The manual crank windows and no fogs usual means GEMS doesn't even have the connector. I think it was the GEM that held me back. So, full aftermarket was easier than retrofitting.

 

[don4331]

On the forum here, you won't find much love for the 3.0 - it makes power at higher revs. OK, with a manual where your can rev it if you need to; but know as 3.slo with auto.

Yes, grills at bottom rear of door are just vents.