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

[EdgeRanger91]

today I took a wire brush on a grinder to my rear axle, cleaned off some rust, and hit it with high performance rustoleum primer and black paint. looks 10x better, im sure it looks like garbage compared to off truck paint jobs but its good enough. I also hit the tailpipe with the black while I was looking at it, and it looks better. Doing diff cover and gasket, and pinion seal next. thinking about buying the ford racing cover, wish Banks made a ram air that would fit.

 

[Lefty]

I finally got my e fan installed, thanks to all your help. Today I'm helping a friend restore his 2002 Edge. He needed a new tailgate, so we pulled this one from the junkyard. It needed work, of course. I should have it finished by the end of the day. A lot of rattle cans have died for my sins.

We continued to work on my friend's Ranger. His garage had caught fire and burned to the ground with the Ranger in it. It's a wonder the Ranger didn't go too. It looked pretty bad at first, but he power washed it a couple times before he brought it over. I clay barred and buffed it down. He spray painted the roof today.

 

[pjtoledo]

have a 2005 Duratec intake soaking in oven cleaner to get all the internal crud softened up.
it's a very messy process, tomorrow I may try liquid drain cleaner to get farther into the runners.

fyi, the throttle plate is plastic

 

[sgtsandman]

I've noticed a bit of a high pitch squeal on the 2011. I think the rear parking brake springs and the tone rings for they ABS system, speed sensing system, and traction control may be the issue. Something the Explorers and Sport Tracs didn't have. I may have to revisit the parking brake springs in the front of the assembly once the rain stops. I may have to modify a screw driver or some other tool to install the springs in the factory location. Assuming the springs haven't been damaged beyond reuse.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I should be able to get back to my Ranger project this week. Spent a few days with the GF and making short excursions into the junkyard like 2 miles from her house, picked up a few things on the list and found a bunch of stuff that I’d like or that someone could probably put to good use. They had probably 20 Rangers (only 3 older than 98 though) and probably 20 Explorers and sport tracs. I’d like to try and get back out there at some point for some other stuff, so if anyone needs something…

 

[Saddle Tramp]

We continued to work on my friend's Ranger. His garage had caught fire and burned to the ground with the Ranger in it. It's a wonder the Ranger didn't go too. It looked pretty bad at first, but he power washed it a couple times before he brought it over. I clay barred and buffed it down. He spray painted the roof today.

It's a miracle that truck survived, let alone looks so good.

I saved the picture to tell others about it.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

It's a miracle that truck survived, let alone looks so good.

I saved the picture to tell others about it.

Wouldn't that be a great ad slogan for Ford. "Ford trucks—tougher than fire."

 

[Lefty]

We continued to work on my friend's Ranger. His garage had caught fire and burned to the ground with the Ranger in it. It's a wonder the Ranger didn't go too. It looked pretty bad at first, but he power washed it a couple times before he brought it over. I clay barred and buffed it down. He spray painted the roof today.

 

[Lefty]

Mostly I'm impressed with what rattle can paint will do. We tried Duplicolor several times only to find that their cans are too small for anything more than touch up. We switched to Rustoleum Automotive and got much better results, and for half as much money too.

We don't have a booth so we restore just one panel, then move on to the next. It's more time consuming and more expensive than spraying the whole truck with a gun, but it suits our schedules.

 

[Bill]

I loaded the cat in the front seat this morning for a trip to the vet in Placerville. After dropping off the cat I decided I needed coffee. When I parked at a McDonald's I noticed a misfire. I pulled the spark plug leads from the coil pack to figure out which cylinder was misfiring. It turned out to be no spark from the coil pack on cylinder #1. So, I unplugged the injector so I wouldn't load up the exhaust with unburned fuel. I looked up the coil on various websites to see if anyone had it in stock. The only place that has one was Oreilly, but it was $80. I looked at a couple wrecking yards online inventory. Nobody had any Rangers, but one had a Mazda 6, which uses the same coil. I called the place and they wanted $85. When I questioned the price being above the cost of a new part I got BS story about it being a hard to find Mazda part. My reply to this was it's an NGK, Motorcraft, or Hitachi product AND it is 16 years old. I wasn't about to pay more for a used part, so I passed on it. He then called me back to tell me it was a Mazda part....says so on the sticker, and was further annoyed when I told him it was worth about $20 to me. I thought I could limp home on three cylinders but the flashing check engine light came on every time I went up a hill, so that wasn't going to work. I went to Oreilly thinking that $80 is a ridiculous price for a Chinese coil pack. It turned out to be made in Poland, but I still think it is overpriced. After doing some research online I'm certain it is an SMP product rebranded as Oreilly's "Import Direct," which is one of their house brands. Initially I thought the coil pack might be the cause of my high idle between shift issues, and after replacing the coil pack the problem would go away. No such luck.

And pricing at auto parts stores is insane now. I expect to pay more locally, but parts are prices two to five times over what you can get them for online. The local parts stores are now more expensive than Summit Racing.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Bill, did the new coil pack solve the misfire and CEL?

 

[Bill]

Bill, did the new coil pack solve the misfire and CEL?

It resolved that misfire issue. The old coil pack wasn't producing any spark for cylinder 1. When I got home and checked it the CEL P0301 code went from active to archive/pending meaning it wasn't currently detecting a misfire. I cleared the code and idled it in the driveway and the code didn't reappear.

I have another issue going on cause some minor rough idling misfires typical of a lean misfire issue, but it isn't setting a code. I'm thinking about making a post on this issue because I haven't been able to narrow down the problem, and I can usually figure out these things.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I poked at the green Ranger yesterday. Might try to do something with it today, we shall see

 

[EdgeRanger91]

today, well really yesterday, I swapped out the useless floor console tray thing? whatever its called, with some cupholders! seriously why ford decided to switch from the cupholders to the tray thing i dont know... it'll go to my dads ranger once I get the audiophile console installed. but right now ive got 4 cupholders at my disposal.