Tinkering Endlessly (or, why I love junkyards)

[-Nate]

So ;

My Fleet Spec. 2001 2WD Ranger has rubber floor mats, hand crank windows and painted steel bumpers with _no_ fog/driving lamps .

Off I go tool bucket in my shopping cart :

and :

This filthy & rusty but undented front bumper was a whopping $36.95, no core necessary and it's the factory part ~ I try hard to avoid Chinesium whenever I can .

We're having a heat wave right now, it hits 90 + * F by 09:00 so I was out in the shade before the sun came up doing this :

Sorry about the sun glare, this was when I quit :

Next will be to test fit the off color lower valance and fog/driving lamps, make sure everything lines up, ten maybe Ill ave the valance painted to match the truck .

Not sure if I should go red to match the rest or shiny black to highlight the chrome .

More to come, this Fleet Spec. didn't have the tow hoops either so I want to go back and buy a pair of those too .

 

[AHenry014]

Awesome! I plan to hit the junkyard Friday morning on my trip to Ohio. Its been a good couple years since I have been to a pick and pull, so I am quite excited to get some small items I need for the ranger. Why would someone on ebay need 40+ for a dang dome night for these things?! New theyre 100+!! I refuse! haha

 

[superj]

my truck is an edge so its fleet spec also but it comes with hthe colored bumpers and fog lights. i say color it red to match because it looks great that way. see my pic by my name

 

[-Nate]

Thanx Super J. ! .


Why I'm on the fence ~ I like the different color lower valance and am thinking towards gloss black at this moment .

The heat wave is smacking this old man hard, I had planned to get up and at it early this morning but the head was up before the sun was so mayhap the weekend .

I see the "Edge" in the scrap yards but didn't realize it's a Fleet Spec. .

Henry ~ map out some scrap yards along your trip, take the time to look at every single Ranger / B2300 as I've been scoring good stuff from them as I go along ~ a rear center stop and cargo light in LED's for $6, my Fleet Spec. rig didn't have the cargo lamps from new but they're all pre - wired for them plug and play is nice = . One of these dayze I'll install a flashed to the CMSL .

 

[superj]

Nice.

 

[-Nate]

It is ~ I worked on it and ten had to leave suddenly, last night I moved it for more work space and really like it ~ it weighs quite a bit .

We're having over 100* F temps but I hope to perhaps test fit it today .

 

[-Nate]

And, of course it'

s steaming hot so I knocked off work at 1:30PM PST .

I've been tinkering on my 2001 Ford Ranger trucklet, I'm quite sure there's an undiscovered intake vacuum leak some where .

Recently I replaced a short hose leading from the gas tank's vapor recovery solenoid valve, the hose was nearly dust in my had, a nasty thing because modern 'rubber' is made with a large percentage of Carbon Black and that stuff is really fine once it's un bonded from whatever used it to turn the color black . this means simply -touching- it turns your hand(s) and whatever else nearby, dark black with hard to remove crud that simultaneously stains everything it touches but, I digress .

Looking at the rockerbox vapor vent hose showed it to be perished and shot through with cracks, I was able to order one affordably from the local Ford dealer :

A closer if unfocused picture of the perished end :

Interestingly Ford used that corrugated black plastic stuff over most of the perished hoses so only the ends were rotted :

This rockerbox hose was an easy job so I looked at the the fuel tank vapor recovery valve's hoses, the one leading to the engine disintegrated in my hand and had already been replaced . The other one down under the valve where I couldn't see/touch it was also dry and fluffy at both ends ~ I removed the valve proper and discovered it was filthy and greasy underneath where my cleaning hadn't quite reached . after removal and careful cleaning it's ready for re installation :

Interestingly, it's made by SIMMONS, a well known German maker of valves and things for Mercedes and the rest . this one was made in Mexico, increasingly the go - to country for good quality parts and vehicles .

Here's a picture of the hidden bad hose between the valve and tank vent pipe after cleaning :

You'll notice I cleaned the hard plastic corrugated cover stuff and re installed and taped it up just as Ford did in St. Luis 23 years ago . both ends of the original (upper in the picture) hose are clearly perished and no longer sealing, hence _maybe_ the source of the vacuum leak (?) .

Almost finished :

The hoses are reconnected and I was about to tuck the valve/solenoid to it's bracket underneath the master cylinder, I decided to do some more cleaning and de greasing, it's *much* cleaner and nicer now, you'll notice I spent some time cleaning the master cylinder too .

To the far right you'll see a vertical skinny section of the black plastic corrugated stuff, my last junkyard foray was fruitful as I grabbed this exact piece and installed it over the yellowed horizontal vacuum control pipe you can see . I'm pretty sure this Nylon vacuum pipe was _white_ when new, I didn't think to grab that from the junked truck, maybe next time . for now it's cleaned and covered and out of sight as well as insulated from the engine's heat and vapors .

I then cranked it up and test drove it to the map place then the Post Office, it seems to run better yet but the return to idle is too slow, I know a slow return to idle is a deliberate emissions thing but I'm thinking the P.C.V. valve and hose may also be perished and leaking a little bit of vacuum .

I have the new molded P.C.V. hose but even with the factory shop manual I can't seem to find it, it's behind and underneath the intake manifold, said manifold is HUGE and of 'clam shell' design, I'm hoping I don't have to open it up to access / change the damned hose .

If I do have to I'll go get a new MOTOCRAFT P.C.V. valve instead of cleaning the one it has .

It was 109* F in the shade, why I quit early .

 

[-Nate]

Okay, back from two days in HOTazona, the engine runs *much* snoother and the fuel economy jumped up to 23MPG, I still have more hoses to change but I've been working on an old Mercedes' taillights in the direct sun at 96* F so no Ranger tinkering today .

 

[superj]

that was me saturday. laying under the 84 318i bolting hte driveshaft to the trans and bolting hte hood down. probably 94 temp but the humidity heat index was around 105. i drank about 6 32oz cups of water and still felt dead with the fan blowing under the car the whole time i was under it

 

[bilbo]

that was me saturday. laying under the 84 318i bolting hte driveshaft to the trans and bolting hte hood down. probably 94 temp but the humidity heat index was around 105. i drank about 6 32oz cups of water and still felt dead with the fan blowing under the car the whole time i was under it

I feel your pain. That's how it has been here the last month+. I weedwacked, edged, and mowed the yard last week and made the mistake of having a beer right after instead of water. I ended up sitting out on the porch for a half hour or so like a zombie. I couldn't even stand up. Do not recommend.

 

[superj]

minus the beer, saturday might be that way. i have to dig the rider and the weedeater out and hope to knock everything out before it gets to hot, or knock it out right before dark, and hope the mosquitos don't fly me away.

luckily its only .4 of an acre so its not a huge yard like some guys on here have

 

[-Nate]

YIKES ! .

I had to do some works today so I was up and at 'em before the sun came up, I got finished by the time it reached 90*, then I ran errands until I said 'screw this' and headed to my Sweet;s house, she has the AC set to 74, the last night I spent here she let it reach 90 + and I was miserable .

 

[superj]

We set the ac for 73 at night and 75 during the day. Sometimes the humidity is so bad outside though, the house stays at 78 amd the ac runs non-stop

 

[-Nate]

This indicated you need a larger Air Con unit .

Yesterday I foolishly headed off to my favorite junkyard, by 09:30AM it was 102& F, I was in the yard by 10:20 and the temperature kept rising and rising......

The same year Ranger I can to get a front brake rotor off of, turned out to be a 4X4 so that was out, no other matching Rangers in the yard so I perused the Exploders until I found one with a nice rotor on it, I took my $17 E-Bay magnetic dial indicator and Lo ! under .001" run out, book says Max. .002" and my little trucklet's L.F. rotor was over .006" run out no wonder I had pusating pedal under hoigh speed hard braking .

I nearly passed out in the yard, my Sweet keeps saying I'm trying to kill my self, I just want to keep after the niggly little bits that drive me batsh*t like a pebble in your shoe .

It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow so I may break down the rotor and clean it Hospital Clean , then re pack the bearings and assemble it, ready to install maybe Thursday morning before it gets too hot .

 

[superj]

This indicated you need a larger Air Con unit .

i think our ac is a good size. our house is only 500 square feet and our ac is 1.5 tons. we just had the ac system replaced a few month back because it was 22 years old and the night temps were in the 80s in the house.

i think our problem is out house was built in 42 and is made from blocks poured in the driveway with hand made wooden single pane windows. there was no insulation in the attic, so we had 14 inches blown in, and there is no insulation between the downstairs garage and our floor.

once i find someone who will make custom windows for a decent price, i will replace all the windows with nice new ones that seal properly (no premade store bought windows are near the sizes of these) and i will also get someone to spray foam in the top of the garage, between the rafters that support our wooden old school 2 inch slat floors. they kind of look like a bowling alley lane, just not shiny.