Recent content by Jimmyrig

With a 2.8, 5 speed and 31's, I've never timed it but 15 seconds to several minutes depending on the incline.

They are reliable and hard to kill, but definitely gutless. I put a 100 dollar amazon carburetor on mine a year ago and it helped a bunch. I drove mine daily, 80-100 miles round trip for a year and then on out of town jobs with an average of 160 miles round trip for several months up until a...

I've been away from here for a while because of my work schedule. Some of you may remember my $100 85 ranger. A few months back it tried to commit suicide. First the distributor grenaded. All of the guts came apart and just destroyed everything inside of the cap. So I bought a new distributor. I...

I shifted from 5th to 4th Friday and there was nothing there, like I was in neutral. Tried 5th and it was the same. I pulled over, stuck it in 1st and it worked fine, until I shifted to 2nd. Stopped again, let out the clutch in 2nd, and the truck died. So I put it back in first and float...

Last spring I adjusted the carburetor on my 85 2.8 and it ran great all summer and fall until recently. Now for some unknown reason it doesn't do high idle in the morning until I get to work, and the choke is staying closed until a good 10-20 miles down the road despite a good 15 minute warm...

Any thoughts on putting the sohc into my ranger? I'm planning on picking up a 91 or so explorer and a later model explorer for parts, the front end and dash out of the earlier one and the rear end out of the later model, it's getting a 4.0 one way or another so if you had both sitting there...

Was rolling this around in my head so I figured I'd put it on here and get some opinions. I have access to tons of good mud tires in 16" and 16.5, and have stacks of 8 lug wheels laying around. I've checked out adapters and $300 bucks is not gonna happen. I'm thinking about plating in the...

Picked it up for a hundred bucks. 85 ranger, 2.8 with a five speed. It came with cut fenders, semi dismantled interior, and a new clutch. Just had to tighten the bellhousing bolts and put the driveshaft in. Oh, and no clutch master. Drove it home on borrowed tires and mounted up a set of...

Any ideas on how much fuel per hour a stock 2.8 burns idling? I'm running mileage tests as I improve my truck. So far I've done a no cat exhaust, full tune up, smog pump delete, set the valve lash, and tuned the carb. It's an 85 2.8, 5 speed with 3.73 gears and 32x11.5 tires on aluminum wheels...

My 85 ranger came to me with "custom" wheel wells'a'la'Sawzall. It's actually not that bad looking from a distance. The girlfriend has inspired me to upgrade the interior to death on my poor $100 truck and that got me thinking about the outside. Current paint....ruddy brown fizz can primer. Body...

So I have a cracked thermostat housing on my 85 2.8. Napa can't get it, ford says it's discontinued. It's the two bolt style, the temperature sender and another sensor screw into it. Any suggestions on finding one or finding an interchangeable part? I will update this later with the original...

So I'm planning on doing a double din stereo in my 85 standard cab. After doing some measuring I'm thinking that taking the heater controls out as well as the dash vent to the left of the stereo will give me enough room. My plan is to delete the vent, install third Gen vacuum controls in the...

I picked up an 85 ranger for 100 bucks. 2.8 5 speed, cut fenders and dual fuel tanks. But no switch to change from one tank to the other and no obvious plug in behind the dash. Does anybody know where the switch should be located? And I'm assuming that it's a dealer part for the new switch...

Hi huys. New on here after searching the site for info. You all seem like a cool and knowledgeable bunch so I thought I'd join.