'85 Ranger Restomod

[85_Ranger4x4]

The A/C has worked but has never really been right, it won't exactly freeze you out and the compressor never cycles. Dad was never super happy with the pressures and suspected something with the orifice tube. When I used it on the road before when I couldn't run with the windows down I would kind of manually cycle it, run it until I was cool and then turn it off until I couldn't stand it, rinse and repeat.

Well for the vagabond trip I am going to have a 4yo navigator with and I want him to not only be comfortable but I also want to be able to hear him... so good A/C would be nice.

So this morning I went to back it out and pop, gas pedal went to the floor. My heart sank, this thing has to be ready to set sail early Saturday morning and throttle cables are unobtanium.



Huge shoutout to @r-hindl71 for doing an emergency mayday run to the only u-pull-it in Omaha that showed a first gen. Of course it was a 2.3... and the 2.3 cable is a lot longer than a 2.8 cable.



It was of course the same inside the cab and it clipped into the firewall the same. The engine bay side needed rerouted over the woods and thru the river but it in the end it does work.



So once we were able to attain more than idle speed I sneaked it into town and had dad evacuate the A/C so I could check out the orifice tube.

Ran it home and pulled it apart... fun fact when you get the evaporator with the orifice tube they don't actually put the o-rings on the tube. Instructions are of course nil as well.



And it was in backwards too for whatever difference that would make.

So I learned two things tonight

1. If you leave off the orings it is very easy to remove the orifice tube down the road
2. If you install it backwards it is very hard to grab because the short end doesn't reach the end of the tube like it does when installed correctly.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Oil is changed
Vagabond decals are applied
Steering and balljoints are greased
Receiver hitch pin swapped for a double nutted gr8 bolt to retain winch
Front axle oil checked

It was a busy night...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Very productive night.

After the orifice tube swap the compressor short cycled. A lot. Pressures were spot on so we were leary about throwing more freon into it. Actually consulted my official 1985 Ford Ranger Shop Manual... and they ran higher pressures than what we normally see on Delco/Ag systems. So we threw more freon in it and it works great.

Non-A/C belt is going with in case it wants to play games. It will run with the compressor in place.

I went across a bridge approach awhile ago on a dirt road, it was a lot rougher than it looked. Ever since then the cruise has surged. The normal unhook and rehook the vacuum line to jar the valves back into place wouldn't work. So I put my mity-vac onto the servo and pumped it up and as it was leaking down starting tapping on the servo with my leatherman. Down low on the back side made the needle jump like something inside the servo was moving. Went for a test drive... no change. So I left the vacuum line on with the engine idling to put a lot more vacuum to it as I tapped it. Test drive to town and back and it is just as smooth as glass again!

Cut the ends off an old extension cord and ran power from stem to stern to run lights and charging ports in the bed of the truck. So now I don't have to have the running lights on to see what is back there, so that is a win.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well it survived the trip to the 25th and the return trip!

Initial pre-inspection after action report.

Really it did awesome as usual. It was a beast on the Vagabond trip. By far the most severe off roading I have done (keep in mind I haven't done a whole lot) Mileage on the road was 15-17mpg as per normal, A/C did seem to ding it.

Throttle is stiff, I don't like it. I will need either a 2.8 cable or a aftermarket one to be happy I think.

Cruise worked great.

A/C worked great.... mostly

Somewhere around Lexington I blew the fuse for the pusher fans. Was running the air and checked gauges and saw the engine was up to 220*. Shut down the A/C, cranked up the heat and got it down below 200* and ran it to the campground where we chased our tail for a bit. Looking at the relays it looked like some of the pins were not fully clippled into the block so I pulled the overflow tank and the block and reseated those. In he process pulled a wire out of a pin which @Poppa_R soldered. Checked back and found the blown fuse. Easy temporary fix, the wiring looked fine.

Strike one for me, initial plan was to run separate power for each fan but ran out of time and it didn't happen.

Had a big river crossing, like a legit river. Got into the middle and it just died. Scary I sucked water in as I had never done a water crossing like that before. @ericbphoto was kind enough to wade out and hook me up to @Jim Oaks who pulled me out of the rivier.







It had like 6 drops worth of water in the distributor connector that the engine fan had kicked up. Both ends are aftermarket which means they are hollow and are open straight thru. OEM connectors were sealed with rubber. Didn't even think about it but I should have gone thru and sealed them. Two puffs of brake cleaner and it fired right up. It promptly died shortly thereafter because I had killed the fuel pump while we pulled it out so it didn't flood the carb. But once that was figured out (I had everybody confused) it ran great again.

Oil consumption is down, way down from what it was when started these trips in '19 but it is still pretty significant. Not much I can do about that until I sneak up on another engine though. It runs great though.

It had been kinda rough cold starting the whole trip which unscientifically seemed to be getting worse as the weekend went on culminating with it being disgraced by being pull started with a Bronco for the group picture. Thinking back on the drive home it has been doing it for awhile. The gas gauge is wonky so I would blow it off as being out of gas, run to town to get a can of gas and it would fire up. I had pulled the top of the carb off and checked the needles for trash a couple months ago and everything was clean.

So I am thinking it has been somewhat of an ongoing thing, it just floods at cold start. I did want to put spark plugs in it before we left but the budget wasn't there until there was no time. That will need investigated ASAP now that I know more about what it is doing. It cracks right off when warm. I am pretty sure a tune up would fix it at this point although per a $6 Harbor Freight spark checker the ignition did look a little weak so there is that to delve into as well.

And another issue that wasn't so bad on the road but was a huge PITA on the overlanding section. My fuel gauge is all over the place. When I fill the truck it reads dead empty for awhile. Then it slowly inches up.







Then it goes down in a fairly plausible manner.











On the road no biggie, every 200mi stop and after running awhile with the needle pegged on E put 10gal in it (very rough numbers, point being the tank is not close to empty)

But when you are all day in low range (mainly 2low) rearranging landscape and playing beached whale in rivers rarely exceeding 30mph and on the music pedal a lot... how much gas do you have when it has been on E for awhile?

So it looked worse than it was, I had to try to keep the gauge in the part where it was actually doing something to know I had something for sure. I didn't like it.

I haven't driven it a ton so I didn't know it was doing that. The sender is only like 2-3 years old.

I also need to superglue the screen on the message center on the cluster, it shifted down on the rough roads and annoyed me forever after.

So yeah, I have a ton of post trip work to do on the truck now...

 

[bobbywalter]

the weak spark was probably dirty plugzez.

gonna have that with the oil consumption..... amazone is the best price on the plugzez in run on the things i have plugzez in.


i would say....very successful trip for the old beast.

 

[Shran]

mid-80s to early 90's Crown Vics, Grand Marquis, LTD, etc with 302's usually have a big rubber boot thing that goes over the distributor. See if you can score one next time you're at the junkyard. I have one on my crawler and it seems to do a great job of keeping water out of the cap. Maybe other cars had them too, I don't know, but those particular ones always do.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

mid-80s to early 90's Crown Vics, Grand Marquis, LTD, etc with 302's usually have a big rubber boot thing that goes over the distributor. See if you can score one next time you're at the junkyard. I have one on my crawler and it seems to do a great job of keeping water out of the cap. Maybe other cars had them too, I don't know, but those particular ones always do.

View attachment 116960

I have one with just an oval on it. Dizzy was dry, just the one connector that goes to it got wet. I need to goober the back of the connectors with silicone and put dielectric grease in it.



Report on the sleeper in the back:

1985 Conestoga + Vagabond Trip

I would have recommended 2x6's Even though you didn’t mean it that way…. :icon_rofl::icon_rofl::icon_rofl: And ;missingteeth;;missingteeth;;missingteeth;

www.therangerstation.com

 

[Shran]

Nice!

That liquid electrical tape stuff works pretty well on the back of connectors like that. Silicone is fine too, I just like brushing on a bunch of light coats and it dries really quick.

 

[bobbywalter]

i run positive air via a dryer and a shit load of wd40 right before splash time.


its messy but effective.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The culprit for the ignition cut out during the river crossing.

Ford connector vs aftermarket...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Pulled all the plugs, fluids look fine.

Slipped the DS front hub apart to check wheel bearings.

Not what I want to see... things have changed a lot in a month.



Note the snot on the axleshaft...













Grabbed new seals last Friday... ran back to town and snagged new bearings for that side to get the truck mobile again.



So yeah, it was fun throwing month old bearings in the scrap pile. I think I need to research new spindle seals, those from Napa were just a rubber U ring that just sat there and felt cheesy from the begining. It would be nice to have a real steel backed seal to put in there.

I shoulda blown it apart at LBL and repacked there... live and learn I guess.

And I kinda wondered, at one point I was rubbing a front and rear tire at the same time...

 

[sgtsandman]

Those front spindles have certainly been a problem for you as of late. I hope you can get it sorted out and be done with it outside of preventative maintenance.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Those front spindles have certainly been a problem for you as of late. I hope you can get it sorted out and be done with it outside of preventative maintenance.

The spindle is fine, just for some reason... they seem to have taken on water. It ran quiet, I was just inspecting things after the trip and found this. The other side I can do after I back into the garage so I will check it out after I park it in there.

 

[sgtsandman]

The spindle is fine, just for some reason... they seem to have taken on water. It ran quiet, I was just inspecting things after the trip and found this. The other side I can do after I back into the garage so I will check it out after I park it in there.

I consider the seals and the bearings to be all part of the spindle. Probably not correct on my part but that is where I'm coming from since they all work together.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I consider the seals and the bearings to be all part of the spindle. Probably not correct on my part but that is where I'm coming from since they all work together.

I was thinking the spindle as in the tube that bolts onto the knuckle that I just replaced a month ago lol. That part is fine.