What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[racsan]

i just came came up with a plan for a roll bar for my ranger. since it doesn't have to actually support the truck rolling, and roll bars are all aluminum now days anyways, my buddy owns a welding shop that specializes in those hoops and cages people add to boats. i bet he can make something that looks badass.

Well there’s always this option. I wantend to see how mine would look, didnt want to spend hundreds on a roll bar/lightbar. Im sure you can tell its painted 2” pvc pipe. The only person that didnt know what it was made out of when I had it in the ranger was my mother. I still have it, just dont have it in the truck anymore.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Got the alternator warrantied and installed, it works again... Gotta say the swap process at Napa wasn't bad, no receipt, handed them an alternator, they handed me a new one, I signed a receipt and went on my way...

The stupid Explorer had to be jump started this morning, of course it was like 25F outside, drug the '90 over to jump it (would have drove it but don't remember how much air is in the tires or how much oil is in it...). Turns out the tires on the spoloder don't have much air in them either but there isn't much rubber either so I don't really care... After fixing the O2 sensor wires it runs MUCH better, transmission shifts like it should now too with voltage getting to the solenoids...

 

[superj]

I used the tailgate to sit on while taking a break from working

 

[racsan]

I used my tailgate as a workbech while working today, my other workbench is full and in front of the truck- and it was built off the height of my lowered tailgate!

 

[Ranger850]

Hello all, still having my ups and downs...alot of it is still miss my Rebecca..

My plans for my road trip is still in the works. Spent almost three hours at the car wash today washed and waxed my ole friend after three months of not cleaning him up, things got in the way. Hers are a few pictures of the Vulcan and my ranger.

Hope your all doing good.

That truck is SUPER clean. Nice.

 

[Blmpkn]

Hello all, still having my ups and downs...alot of it is still miss my Rebecca..

My plans for my road trip is still in the works. Spent almost three hours at the car wash today washed and waxed my ole friend after three months of not cleaning him up, things got in the way. Hers are a few pictures of the Vulcan and my ranger.

Hope your all doing good.

Love your truck!

 

[ekrampitzjr]

A couple of days late because I was busy over the weekend, but on Friday evening I picked up my 2011 from the body shop. It had a crease in the bed side sheetmetal in front of the driver's side rear wheel, probably from some idiot in a parking lot, and it had the crease when I bought it last year. The truck looks good enough that I get compliments on it, so I finally got the crease fixed. The shop said that involved removing the rear bumper and unbolting the bed and moving it back a few inches to make the repair, then respraying the side of the bed. The repair looks sharp.

Discovered upon picking up the truck that the center stop light above the rear window was out. The lens already had a crack, so I had found a replacement new-old stock light assembly from eBay last summer. When I removed the old assembly, the bulb was in pieces and its socket had overheated, so I had to use that replacement. No telling how long the bulb had been out. No sign of a rain leak into the housing from the cracked lens.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Forgot to add about the center stop light:

I could tell from the screw heads that someone had taken off the assembly before. The Phillips slots were distorted a little. The screws came loose for me with no problem. But maybe there had been a past problem with that bulb burning out.

If I see any problem, I might try one of the LED replacements.

 

[superj]

i had to change my old gmc Sonoma to led up there because the regular bulbs kept getting to hot and distorting the lens and causing cracking so it could have happened on your truck, too

 

[professor229]

I removed the back bumper.... and found this... no way this was the original back bumper because with this much damage, the bumper would have shown some pretty good damage and there isn't any.... The crease on the dent was more than I wanted and Ranger's have sealed panels so you could not pound this out from the back side..... and since this area is hidden once the bumper is put back, it didn't have to be an exceptional fix..... I tried dent pulling on the crease for about two minutes... and then got out the 4.5 inch cut off wheel and made a slit down the crease.... used my mini pry bar to pull the two sides back out to where they were "close" to where they should be... got a piece of metal from the old fender that was removed, folded it in half lengthwise and tapped it in the seam... welded like crazy, and then got out the grinder... since these photos were taken, the grinding of the metal to "close" was done and some cosmetic bondo put in place to make it look decent.... have some finish work to do... but this technique really worked well... Getting close to paint in mid March but now comes the exciting part of restoring vehicles... sanding..... whooo hoo....

 

[Jazzer]

Rotated tires on the '07 yesterday, good thing too, found a nail in one of the tires. Ran to NAPA to get some patch/plugs, demounted the tire and installed the patch/plug.

-Jazzer

 

[sgtsandman]

Replaced the front sway bar end links on the 2011. The bushings "heavy duty" ones I installed during the previous suspension work smashed, deformed, and more or less gave out. The bolts bent a little as well. Since I didn't like setup for installing them, I chose not the warranty them through Rock Auto and bought local with a lifetime warranty instead. They had weird flange, nut thing on the barrel nut and I had a difficult time getting them to tighten properly. This set had a proper nut for a wrench or socket.

 

[Jazzer]

Yesterday while rotating tires, I noticed my DS sway bar link was a little loose. The nut on the bottom wouldn’t budge. I hit it with PB Blaster and finished the tires. I then got the nut to move a half turn and soaked it again.
Today I got it turning but it would loosen but not tighten, like it it ran out of threads- full stop. I removed it and cleaned it, put five extra washers under it and it snugged up fine. The bolt might have stretched a little.
I gravity bled the new clutch to hopefully help the shifting problem, but haven’t driven it yet.

-Jazzer

 

[sgtsandman]

Yesterday while rotating tires, I noticed my DS sway bar link was a little loose. The nut on the bottom wouldn’t budge. I hit it with PB Blaster and finished the tires. I then got the nut to move a half turn and soaked it again.
Today I got it turning but it would loosen but not tighten, like it it ran out of threads- full stop. I removed it and cleaned it, put five extra washers under it and it snugged up fine. The bolt might have stretched a little.
I gravity bled the new clutch to hopefully help the shifting problem, but haven’t driven it yet.

-Jazzer

I’m pretty sure the nuts on my new ones bottomed out on the threads when I installed them. If they didn’t it was darn close. Most of the threaded portion was sticking out of the nut.

So, the bolt could have stretched or the bushings shrunk.

 

[Jazzer]

Sounds right, I had about 2” of threads exposed below the nut. Those links may be a compromise design to fit different vehicles.

-Jazzer