Modding Mishaps: post your blunders

[RegularGuy]

Haven't seen a thread like this before, thought it might be fun... What are some of the things you've regretted doing to your ranger?

Modifications that didn't work as intended, took more time than they were worth, or cost more than they were worth.

Personally, my biggest screw up came about from being cheap. I traded my 15" wheels and tires for someone else's 16's... TPMS went with them rather than paying to have the tires remounted. New sensors cost more than the mount and balance would have been (the ones I got in the trade are dead)

 

[Roert42]

I pulled the seats out of an old car recently, to add more foam to the cushions and clean under them. Broke two bolts, one on each side.

I might end up just tack welding the frames back to the floor instead of spending all weekend trying to get the rusty bolts out.

 

[Mightyfordranger]

Oh dear I'm not sure I want to talk about this hear.....I have lost so much money on cars over the years... Bad frame cars other people's projects. My own blunders... Oh how I have paid lol

If I had all the money I lost on cars I could prolly own like a 10 sec BBF swapped 1st gen. Or I could buy most of a new ranger. Had to have been 10+ grand easy.

But I learned a lot doing it too so idk if it was worth it.

 

[sgtsandman]

The worse, most expensive one for me was regearing the original 7.5 on the 1998. The short story is I ruined a Torsen LSD and burned up the pinion bearings.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I cant remember any really bad blunders....
But I'm sure someone will remind me!
Maybe oldtimers is a good thing?

 

[adsm08]

Spent a month trying to graft the firewall plug from a 2nd Gen onto the original dash harness for my 87. At the end nothing worked and I spent another month rebuilding a second harness.

 

[Grumpaw]

Not so much a booboo, but a mistake...
In my younger years bought a Bug Eye Sprite, the one that had no trunk lid, but you accessed the trunk area by flipping seats forward.
Of course, over the years, water had been allowed to gather and pool in the trunk area.
Didn't really go over it when I bought it (inexperience as what to look for)
Went to strip it out to refinish and found the entire floor pan, from seats back, was totally rotted out. Nothing but paper thin sheet of rust with fist size holes. It needed an entire new sheet metal floor from firewall back to rear bumper.
Being in collage with no funds to have new floor installed, sold it for parts.

 

[Ranger850]

Edge Grill Build.

I'm converting the XLT grill that is currently on m Edge in to a Custom Edge grill. The backstory is, When I got my Edge it had a busted grill, then I wrecked it and Bent the bumper and finished off the grill, I replaced it with '03 XLT Grill. I was able to scavenge a honeycomb Edge grill...

www.therangerstation.com

Tried to convert an "XLT" grill to an "EDGE" grill

Spoiler Alert: Didn't work.

 

[Roert42]

I bought a 2001 MonteCarloSS at a dealer in the year 2017 for $6000. Preceded to spend another $2000-3000 keeping it running for a year. Then spun a bearing, sat for a couple of years, put a junkyard motor in it, so probably close to another $1000 in parts. It had been sitting too long and now needed new brakes and an exhaust, another $1000. So now I'm at least $10,000 into this thing, so I give it to my brother. Now he is probably got $1000 into it trying to keep it running.

We joke that all the money and labor we have into that thing we could have just bought a new mustang.

 

[OGdr]

I tried every way I could to get the dealer installed stripes off the doors on my 87. I ended up using a sanding disk on an angle grinder and before I knew it I had took it down to bare metal

 

[Shran]

I bought a reasonably nice '85 F150 while I was in college. It was kind of a unique truck - extended cab short box 2wd with a HO 351w and a C6. I knew it had some steering issues and I discovered that it would only steer in one direction, and to complicate matters, if you tried to steer the other way it would make the high pressure power steering hose explode. I went through and replaced the pump and steering box but nothing seemed to help. Over the course of several months of working on it, the starter gave out and I needed to move to a different house and had no way to get it across town. I ended up selling it to a towing company for like $50.

Years later I found out that it was common for the frame to crack around the steering box and it would flex while turning and cause this exact issue. Being a very inexperienced mechanic at that point, I had no idea what I was looking for anyway but I could have fixed it pretty easily had I known that. I still kick myself for getting rid of that truck... hopefully someone was able to fix it but I suspect it probably just got crushed.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When I did the duraspark swap I thought I would be crafty and keep the stock e coil. Hotter = better right?

I was kind of a newb and I also left the computer in it. Didn’t really track what all was still going to it. 2.8 ran great (ignitionwise anyway) from 06-11 when I did the V8 swap.

Post V8 swap every once in awhile it would cook a coil and/or the ignition module. Internet says they are not made as good as they used to be yadda yadda so I got one with a good warranty and just keep trading them.

Broke out my Ford shop manuals, poinpoint voltage everywhere, spacered the module up so it could get airflow under it, moved it ahead on the inner fender so air could directly blow on it, added a resistor the main power wire for the module, added a ground wire to ensure the distributor (which normally just grounds where it mounts on the block) to make sure it had a good ground... got nowhere. Then I started chasing loose ends in the wiring... Ah ha! The computer is still getting a tach signal! I bet that is it! So I eliminated that and trashed the computer.

Then I would get approx 15 min before something died. Like right after I did it I had it was idling by the garage and it cooked the new module, I couldn't have killed the module any deader with a 30-06.

Google eventually saved me when after years of searching I found ONE guy on the whole interweb that mentioned the e coil doesn’t have the right resistance and will kill modules. Apparently going in the computer added enough resistance to the tach signal that it would take longer for the ignition stuff to get hot. And the 2.8 with fewer tac signals + the computer allowed the ignition to still function ok.

I put in the round Duraspark coil and it has been faultless for like three years now. I have put more miles on it the last two years (going to Southington and Badlands) than I ever have any two years prior and it has not missed a single beat.

It really burns me because I know back when I was still rocking the 2.8 or therabouts I know another member (@Twister, I can't tag him for some reason) was cooking ignition stuff and I guarentee it was for the same reason. But I unknowingly had the computer still in line to keep it working and he didn't.

Anyone tried the Stealth HEI?

My Carquest Duraspark module died over the weekend, only O'Reilly's was open so I bought a new one to get it moving (it moved for about an hour and then it died too) So I got the better one with a lifetime warrenty the second time (wasn't for sure what was wrong or I would have the first time)...

www.therangerstation.com

Grumble grumple Duraspark grumble....

Way back around 2007-2008 I durasparked my 2.8. Used a JY Ford Duraspark box and kept the factory E coil. When I swapped in the 302 in early 2011 it was plug and play with a reman '85 Mustang dizzy and worked great. Late 2011 I got a new radio and with the dash all apart I hadn't noticed the...

www.therangerstation.com

Ignition Options

Done dealing with Duraspark, I want something reliable. At this rate I think going to points would be an improvement. I know about the HEI dizzy, I haven't ruled it out but really would rather not go down that road. MSD vs Streetfire vs Mallory Hyfire vs Stealth HEI... dunno what is better or...

www.therangerstation.com

PAYDIRT!

Duraspark Resistor

I have been having a nagging issue of burning up the factory e-coils and DS modules in my '85 and have been doing some digging around on possible causes. One thing I noticed in my '85 service manual for the 2.0L (which ran Duraspark) is it had a "ballast resister" feeding the coil. This is the...

www.therangerstation.com

 

[ZMan]

I cut the roof off of my ranger to install a "superdome"...then promptly broke the superdome.

 

[19Walt93]

My worst mistake was shortly after starting at the dealer in 1975 when I was working on a customers new F100 with a knocking 360. I had the pan off to mic the rod journals, ordered standard blue (.001" undersize) bearings and went to the next item on my repair order. I turned the key on to check out a wiper problem and heard a pop. Early Durasparks could fire intermittently if the key was on without the engine turning, the "pop" was the engine firing and slamming the crank against a disconnected rod cap, driving it against the pan rail on the block and cracking it. I went to the showroom and personally told the owner of the dealership what I'd done. He was far less pissed than I was. Shortly after that the old guy who did PDI's had a new Bronco in reverse with the key on to check the back up lights, he was almost back to the door when it fired and started, dragging him across the shop and slamming into a 120lb drum of grease. 76 and earlier Durasparks would fire if the key was on and you tapped on the distributor, too.

 

[cbxer55]

I cant remember any really bad blunders....
But I'm sure someone will remind me!
Maybe oldtimers is a good thing?

That's me as well. Been modding cars, trucks and motorcycles since around 1979. I really have no recollection of any bad blunders. I suppose all the money I've spent in all these years is the blunder. LOL!!