1988 4x4 ranger first pick-up project

[sgtsandman]

weird they all seem to be identical too, I guess I'll have to find the bell housing or another tranny that'll fit it

It would have to be the whole transmission. The bell housing is all one piece with the transmission body on the Mazda manual transmissions.

 

[JoeLeFou]

Finally moving forward on my ranger, had to rearrange the way it was but now it's sat in the backyard and improvised a garage with a small 10x10 canopy instead of the big 10x20 carport I bought a couple months back but due to the van being wayyy too close decided not to. Been wrenching at it for the past few days removed the intake manifold, fuel rail and injectors, air filter box/hose, radiator, power steering pump, alternator and front grille/headlights.

The wiring harness is a mess most plugs are done broken clips or just missing altogether( soldered ) but other than that no broken bolts, just missing a couple bolts on the valve covers or miss matched bolts.

trying to stay as organized as possible with the smaller stuff and putting bolts back where they go for now, also already want to start cleaning up all that grease, oil and dirt but want to try the hot tank method to clean it ( what the green barrel is for)

 

[pentode]

If those are Scores onion rings I want one.

 

[JoeLeFou]

If those are Scores onion rings I want one.

They are lol super good but scores have gotten rather expensive For my liking so pretty rare I have some haha

 

[pentode]

Tell me about it. Prices have gone nuts in Canada. Last winter I went to the US thinking it wouldn't be as bad, but nope, just as bad. Oh well, enjoy the treat and continued good luck on your project, love the ambition of the abris tempo workshop!

 

[JoeLeFou]

It’s bad pretty much everywhere tbh but still gotta move forward. The treat was yesterday haha just decided to post it here too.
Gotta do what you gotta do when you don’t have a garage, I’ll most likely also get a space heater before it starts to get freezing but first removing the engine and tranny then back it up and possibly remove the axle. To be determined if winter comes early or not haha

 

[JoeLeFou]

got the good ol’2.9 out on monday and filled the bed with parts and tires, no more room in there after stuffing the transfer case and tranny.
Now I’m just sitting wondering what to do keep the 2.9 or swap in the 2.3 and turbo it or **** it and put a 4.0 and call it a day.

i should add that pulling it out was pretty easy even for doing it alone and on dirt the wheels on the hoist are infact not offroad ready lol

 

[JoeLeFou]

Engine is 90% torn down like a dumbass forgot to remove the clutch fan so that's pretty much the part that's holding me down, everything seems fine other than piston bearings that appeared to have walked, crankshaft looks good will have to measure it for roundness, heads( ovalstand) don't seem to be cracked but will need to clean and crack test, cylinders are good other than small scoring on 2 cyl (barely feel it with finger nail)

definitely hard to work on it when it's dark after 4:30 pm and freezing cold haha

torn apart trying to figure out if I should send it to a shop to "properly" resurface or yolo it but in a good way

wondering if I should keep the heads if they're not cracked since I plan on using a 2 row cooler, hopefully overheating shouldn't be a problem

always fun times working on it