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

[85_Ranger4x4]

Built a front receiver hitch for it.

 

[Roert42]

When I bought my 18' car trailer it was about $3,300, and that was twin axel w/ stake pockets, brakes, spare tire, ramps, tie downs on the steel deck, ect. I wanted an aluminum one for the weight savings, I think it was 1700lbs instead of 3000lbs, but the $7500 price tag was too much to bite off for something I wouldn't be using every day or making me any money.

I don't know what they are going for now because that was in early '20. I felt like it was pretty reasonable considering a used 20yo trailer with unknown maint' and mystery wiring was going for $1500.

 

[Roert42]

3 years old is when I remove it, chisel the dirt and mud off, then reinstall for 2 more years. Those things are pricey. Let's not be wasting them.

For the past year or so I had been pulling it out and blowing the dead bugs and stuff out whenever I did the oil. lol

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

Anyone know what vehicle might have a one piece driveshaft that is a bolt in replacement for the 2 piece in my 87 Ranger longbox? I want to check out the salvage yards before I get one custom made. Even that's not easy - Once upon a time you could walk in with a measuring tape and find what you wanted but lately nobody wants customers inside their yard anymore. You have to specify what you want and wait until someone gets it and brings it to the counter.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, I went out and messed with the power steering and managed to get that buttoned up. So something else off the list for the green Ranger. Hopefully this week will see it done or nearly so. Got some measurements and going after a few things tomorrow that will hopefully give me pretty much everything to finish.

Seriously considering doing an 01 grill and headlights, there’s nicer headlights for those. Not sure how close the wiring is to the 98-00 though, anyone want to let me know? Lol

 

[scotts90ranger]

Anyone know what vehicle might have a one piece driveshaft that is a bolt in replacement for the 2 piece in my 87 Ranger longbox? I want to check out the salvage yards before I get one custom made. Even that's not easy - Once upon a time you could walk in with a measuring tape and find what you wanted but lately nobody wants customers inside their yard anymore. You have to specify what you want and wait until someone gets it and brings it to the counter.

'98 and newer are one piece aluminum instead of 2 piece, I'm assuming yours is a long bed since the short beds always had a 1 piece shaft... didn't realize the small block and turbo 350/400 would use the stock drive shaft, interesting... although depending on the original transmission there were 3 or 4 stock driveshaft lengths, but if it was an auto originally then any '98-11 4x2 shaft should work...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When you come around the corner and the light is hitting her just so...

 

[Blmpkn]

That sure is some good light, lou.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, put new O rings in the valve on the tire machine and it’s leaking less…

Worked well enough to dismount and remount the Explorer tires for my parents so I could clean the corrosion off the rims so they hold air again. Now those have to go on the Explorer so the tires on the Explorer can go on dad’s Ranger so my tires that are on Dad’s Ranger can go on my green Ranger yesterday.

Also got a few parts, a piece of exhaust pipe to make leaf spring sleeves out of for the bushings and ordered some steel for my project yesterday

 

[scotts90ranger]

Drove the '90 to work for the first time in about a year, did fine but it was icy out this morning, should have had the hubs locked in, would have drove straighter in some spots... That experience let me see that it needs some love... nothing super critical yet but something in 5th gear is going out as it makes some horrible noises in 5th but silent in 4th... and either the master or slave cylinder are going out as the pedal isn't right, it disengages fine though, probably slave... Aside from that the new stereo and speakers sound decent

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, it was a not so good day for me, but the weather was nice so I puttered a bit on the Ranger. Really wanted to make a bunch of progress but really wasn’t up for much. Got the exhaust pipe sleeve fitted to the leaf springs which worked pretty good for fitting the front bushings.

The rear bushings I knocked out the metal sleeve. The bushing set that I bought (Energy Suspension, 4.2128g I believe) that Energy Suspension listed as a spring and shackle bushing set for the Explorer is wholly incorrect. First off, it’s a 3” spring bushing. Not a big problem, I can whack a quarter inch off each bushing and a half inch off the bolt sleeve. Then I discovered that I should have checked the diameter. 1-3/8” instead of 1-1/4” well nuts, too late now, so I ground the bushings down to 1-1/4” and hammered them in.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Worked well enough to dismount and remount the Explorer tires for my parents so I could clean the corrosion off the rims so they hold air again. Now those have to go on the Explorer so the tires on the Explorer can go on dad’s Ranger so my tires that are on Dad’s Ranger can go on my green Ranger yesterday.

Wait a minute. I'm getting confused. I need to make a flowchart to figure out all those swaps...

 

[Blmpkn]

Spilled a bunch of yesterday's coffee all over my passengers seat

 

[Bobber64]

Finally found my distributor this morning for my TFI to Duraspark conversion.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Wait a minute. I'm getting confused. I need to make a flowchart to figure out all those swaps...

Ok, so from the top…

Moms 02 Explorer got new tires. Ran a few years and the tires were still good but the Explorer needed fixed.

Dad’s 99 Ranger had tires that were still legal but almost wore out, parents needed to make a long drive so in the rain, myself and my buddy Paul swapped rims and tires between the two.

So now the 99 Ranger has the Explorer rims and tires and the Explorer has the Ranger rims and tires.

Explorer got fixed but mom had got another vehicle so the tires stayed as the Explorer was a back-up vehicle.

Dad nearly buried his Ranger with the Explorer tires in a farm field (Mastercraft Courser AXT). Since my Ranger is down and had nearly brand new more aggressive tires and the Explorer ones were losing air from corrosion in the bead, I swapped my Ranger set on dad’s Ranger (Mastercraft Courser CXT).

The Explorer set got set aside because my Ranger is on stands (yes, in the gravel driveway), they didn’t hold air for more than a couple days anyway and my tire machine was leaking air out of a valve.

Put new O-rings in the tire machine valve, but it’s still leaking, just not enough to prevent the machine from working. Cleaned up the Explorer rims and brought them home. Dad’s 99 is now parked because it needs a core support and front bumper to pass inspection, so he’s driving the Explorer for now.

The Ranger tires on the Explorer if you recall were almost wore out. Dad bought new tires for the Ranger, but he wants to get the newly used rims for that sandblasted before mounting the tires.

So the repaired set of Explorer tires needs to go on the Explorer so the worn out Ranger tires can go back on the Ranger while it’s parked pending repairs which puts those sets back where they started at and gives me my Ranger tires back.

Once dad gets his rims done, I’ll mount his new tires and the old Ranger tires from his can be used for rollers or trailer wheels.