The Road Ranger. 1997 SEMI

[bobbywalter]

I already cut his nuts off, what’s there to live for?

it aint that bad....my nuts been in my ol ladys purse for like 30 years......... i get to see em every now and then when i piss her off good and proper and she pulls them out....blows the dust off and gently and lovingly places them on the ground....before she stomps on them.....


i am gettin by just fine...

 

[ericbphoto]

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Cleaning up nice.

 

[Rick W]

All wheels are as polished as they’re going to get.

I’m sitting on the doorstep waiting for the AC hose.

Well, not exactly…

 

[Rick W]

Hose got here. Now it’s raining like Noah’s flood.

It’s supposed to stop at the sun come out by 3 PM.

It may have ruined the clearcoat on the last two wheels. I had them laying on top of the trailer while the clearcoat dried so it would spread out even. I hope they were dry enough that the raindrops didn’t ruin the finish.

 

[Rick W]

Sun came out. 200% humidity, 88° and wet, but I proceeded.

Hose slipped in fairly easily. I prepared my new $30 pump by putting oil in the air side (no owners manual), then spent 20 minutes to figure out if that was OK, it was, and I set up all my gauges without connecting them, brand new set, so I had to use the adapters and such.

I just reversed the procedure from @97RangerXLT, except that I used the first step, cussing out the Ford engineers, first, and all during the process. Here’s a short list

“#1, &$#%<€ Ford engineers, what jerk figured….
“…. Idiots! #364, &$#%<€ Ford engineers, can’t get to the10mm behind the hose manifold to tighten it with anything but a stubby box, morons!!”

Some of my blood or skin is over, under or around every seventh cuss.

I didn’t take the protective caps off anything until I was ready to connect it. All new O-rings on the parts I disconnected. Zip ties instead of a screw in the bracket behind the engine, but I did tighten the 13 mm so it’s solid.

When I went to put the gauge set on, the high side spring release thing popped on. When I went to put on the low side, I could pull the collar up, but I couldn’t push it down far enough for it to snap in place.

I consulted with Lincoln over a glass of iced tea, and then I slipped the collar up and held the thing down with one hand and gently, but firmly, tapped the top with a rubber mallet, and it popped on without anything exploding.

I turned on the pump and opened all the valves, and immediately pulled about 24, and it went up to 26/27 in the 10 minutes I was cleaning up. I’ll check it around seven.

I like the picture because it looks like a pro was doing it. You can’t tell all the stuff it took to get to that point, you can’t see the kitchen chair, or the fans, or the rags from cleaning the wheels…



The gage set I bought is so cheap, it didn’t have the hook to hang it up

 

[Rick W]

Pop-up thunder showers, so I let the pump run until about 930, 4-1/2 hours. We’ll see if we got a vacuum in the morning, maybe run it some more.

 

[RobbieD]

We’ll see if we got a vacuum in the morning, maybe run it some more.

Rick, you can check it by closing the gauge set valves, and then look and see your vacuum stays at the same level. A tiny leak will take a while, but anything else your gauge needle will visibly drop.

 

[Rick W]

Rick, you can check it by closing the gauge set valves, and then look and see your vacuum stays at the same level. A tiny leak will take a while, but anything else your gauge needle will visibly drop.

Thanks, understood. I’ve had this thing since 2020. When I got it, we put a little Freon in it. It was cold, but it was gone very quickly. So it’s been sitting empty for four years. The main manifold hose had obviously been damaged and repaired with some epoxy, so I’ve assumed all along that’s the issue. First thing I’m gonna do is put in a little can of stop leak and die, and then put the right amount of Freon in, assuming it has a vacuum in the morning. If not, it’ll just get put aside until I get back. If it’s got a slow leak, I’ve got a couple extra cans I could bring with me for this long trip the nurse at a long.

 

[RobbieD]

A slow leak, I can well understand limping it along to make a road trip.

It didn't get this damn hot when I was younger; so it must be climate change, 'cause it just couldn't be me . . .

 

[Rick W]

Soooo, I went out this morning to check if I still had a vacuum. My cheap gauge set does not have a third valve to cut off the yellow hose. And I don’t have a way to cap it.

So I turned on the pump, let it run for a minute, and then I opened the gauges. The low side read 20 and quickly climbed to 24. Then I had the thought to simply test all the hose connections to see if they were snug. I was able to tighten up one of the blue connections and one of the yellow connections a little bit.

I would think that if it had a leak, it would’ve taken longer to pull the vacuum down like when I first started. I don’t really have any time to analyze it, so my plan is just to let the pump run a little while, and then put in some leak detector, stop leak, a little more oil and Freon, and then the Freon to the right pressures.

I don’t have any leak detector/dye so I’m going to run to the store and get some before I start. I live with Murphy, so I figure if I don’t put the dye in it, it will definitely leak. If I spend the extra money, and put the dye in it, and my luck is consistent, it won’t leak it will just be a waste of money.

 

[Rick W]

Edit: ignore this

I figured it out. Earlier when I moved things out of the way to get the dryer out, I snapped off the micro vacuum line that was on that softball size vacuum reservoir. It fell down by the frame, which is why it took a while to find it.


OH WISE ONES:

I got the leak dye, left the vacuum pump running the whole time, and when I got back, I took the pump off and tried to feed the leak detector, oil and Freon into the system. I don’t know what was going on with my brand new cheap gauges, but I couldn’t get it to work.

So I went back to one of those $15 quickie hoses with a gauge that I’ve used to top off systems before. I put everything in, and got it to the right low side pressure. Now it’s making icy cold air. Yeah! Buttt…

I put the AC on max when I loaded the system like you’re supposed to, but now it won’t switch from defroster to the bottom to the dash outlets. I’m pretty sure it was switching fine before I did all this, so I’m thinking I must’ve taken a vacuum hose loose or knocked one loose that I haven’t reconnected. I looked all over, and I can’t find it, but I know somebody here probably knows exactly where I should look.

Let me offer there’s a little tiny, red, vacuum line that comes off the driver side of the top of the engine, right on top, that then goes down behind the engine, kind of where that manifold AC hose goes. I can’t see the other end of it, but it seems like that might be feeding into the firewall and the controls. Of course you can’t get at it. But that’s exactly where I worked the manifold hose through, and I’m wondering if I may have broken it or knocked that loose.

All advice is greatly appreciated as usual

EDIT: ignore this, I found and fixed the problem.

 

[Rick W]

COLD AIR BABY!!!

at least for right now

 

[Rick W]

Heaven forbid all my dreams should come true…..

I do have ice cold air, and it comes out of the vents nicely, until I step on the gas hard. Then it wants to cool my feet and the windshield. I know, I’m losing vacuum somewhere. I’ll look at it all again tomorrow, where I was messing around, while I’m packing the truck in the morning. Even if I can’t find it, it’ll be better than no AC.

If anybody has a suggestion where to look…

 

[MaicoDoug]

Spraying flammable carb cleaner around carefully you can find the vacuum leak by listening to the engine RPM going up slightly.