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

[Rick W]

Attempted to swap my black climate controls for a silver one I grabbed from a junkyard a few weeks ago. Turns out they have different wiring harness so I tore the truck apart for nothing

Makes you crazy, huh? It’s a Ford thing.

I have pristine 87 and 88 Lincoln town cars. All the big stuff is totally interchangeable from 85 to 89. But you can’t buy any of the little stuff like the controls for the last 20 years, so the salvage yard is the only source.

There’s a module that controls the windshield wipers. When mine went out, I got one from the salvage yard from the same year. No luck. I went back and got a couple more. No luck. Then I took the one from the 87 and put it into the 88 to try to figure out what was wrong, assuming it wasn’t the module. No luck.

I finally broke down and went to Ford/Lincoln, and found an old fart with gray hair like me, and he said it was very common practice to have different modules for those kinds of things even within the same year. The only way to get a correct replacement is from the part number stamped on the side, and not from the year make and model and accessories details.

I’m not trying to rub it in, just info for anyone else who’s about to do the same thing with something like one of those modules.

Hope it helps….

 

[snoranger]

WHEEL HELP PLEASE:

TRS info says wheel bore ranges from 70.3-70.6 and wheelsize.com says the wheel bore for most rangers is 70.6mm.

My 14 inch steelies, and my 14 inch aluminum bullet holes (outlaw II) seem to both have a bore about 62mm plus or minus. Did I somehow come up with a bunch of different and oddball or off spec wheels? What gives?

When I put the 3,500# trailer tag axle on The Road Ranger, it had a 5 x 4.5 wheel pattern, and my aftermarket 15 x 8” bullet holes slid right on. But they were aftermarket.

I have a scavenged/salvage 3500 pound axle with a 5 x 4.5 bolt pattern that I want to use for The Missing Linc matching trailer. I’m at the point in the fab where I dropped the axle over the springs to figure out how much I had to cut out of the center. On a whim, I tried to mount a bullet hole wheel on the hub, and it wouldn’t fit over the center bore. Then I got one of the steelies that I bought specifically for this project, and it won’t slide over the center bore either.

I measured the hub with my six dollar plastic Chinese micrometer, and it measures 65.7mm. I knew the wheels were all supposed to be 70+. Making me crazy.

The mic won’t fit inside the wheel rim. I cut a wedge of scrap diamond plate that I could slide inside the center bore of the wheel. I buffed the edges on the belt sander, so when I wedged it inside the wheel and wiggled it, it would leave witness marks, and I could measure where it was touching inside. It came out to about 62mm plus or minus.

The steelies don’t have a round center bore. There’s a round hole, and then it’s stamped with five flat spots to corresponds to the lug bolts, so you can’t measure it exactly from side to side with my wedge, but it appears to be the same 62+/-.

Am I nuts? Wait scratch that. I know that. What’s going on with this center bore stuff?

BTW, I have a half a dozen 5 x 4.5 hubs for 2000 pound axles, and they will all easily slide into the wheels. But it’s the wheels that seems to be off spec from the literature.

???????!!

The 14” wheels only came on the 2wd which had a smaller hub than the 4wd.

 

[bobbywalter]

View attachment 101671
No, the water didn’t do anything. This isn’t regular mud, it’s coal dust.

tore up some tires out there a few years ago...shredded the front on the yz250....

 

[bobbywalter]

666.......




off to Metallica...
Day one in the OG ranger....."UN4GVN". AKA. THEE PIG


I put this in the Killswitch thread.....

Day two.....off to Metallica again.....in the thing that identifies as a ranger..."DAMGINC"

Damage Incorporated....living up to its name...

Treasure.......hunting these beach balls down like smeagol.....made for some adventure......

So these trusty steeds got er did......

 

[Rick W]

The 14” wheels only came on the 2wd which had a smaller hub than the 4wd.

Sooo, do all the 15 inch wheels have the 70+ or minus borehole?

BTW, wheel-size.com shows all wheels (14 or 15) to have 70.6

 

[Rick W]

Sooo, do all the 15 inch wheels have the 70+ or minus borehole?

BTW, wheel-size.com shows all wheels (14 or 15) to have 70.6

afterthought, I don’t want to hog out the hole on the wheels because then I would need a custom wheel every time for this trailer. I emailed etrailer.com to see if they have a 3500 pound hub that has a smaller center bore.

I hate when I buy cheap junk and it turns out to be cheap junk

 

[01WHTRNGR]

Makes you crazy, huh? It’s a Ford thing.

I have pristine 87 and 88 Lincoln town cars. All the big stuff is totally interchangeable from 85 to 89. But you can’t buy any of the little stuff like the controls for the last 20 years, so the salvage yard is the only source.

There’s a module that controls the windshield wipers. When mine went out, I got one from the salvage yard from the same year. No luck. I went back and got a couple more. No luck. Then I took the one from the 87 and put it into the 88 to try to figure out what was wrong, assuming it wasn’t the module. No luck.

I finally broke down and went to Ford/Lincoln, and found an old fart with gray hair like me, and he said it was very common practice to have different modules for those kinds of things even within the same year. The only way to get a correct replacement is from the part number stamped on the side, and not from the year make and model and accessories details.

I’m not trying to rub it in, just info for anyone else who’s about to do the same thing with something like one of those modules.

Hope it helps….

Oh yeah, made me pretty upset. There’s 0 reason for the wiring to be different and I don’t care enough to splice wiring to make it work

 

[bobbywalter]

my wheels are moe biggah. you need moe biggah wheelzzez

 

[Rick W]

my wheels are moe biggah. you need moe biggah wheelzzez

The problem with that is it falls into that whole ridiculous “spend money” area

 

[Rick W]

afterthought, I don’t want to hog out the hole on the wheels because then I would need a custom wheel every time for this trailer. I emailed etrailer.com to see if they have a 3500 pound hub that has a smaller center bore.

I hate when I buy cheap junk and it turns out to be cheap junk

Congrats and kudos to Jameson C* at etrailer.com (a/k/a rocket responder dude) who got back to me in less than 2 hours at 9:37PM last night regarding 5x4.5 3500# hubs that will take a 14” Ranger wheel. Bad news. There ain’t no such animal.

*Jameson C & etrailer.com has revived my faith in customer service (except they couldn’t help me with my cheap pipe dreams).

 

[Rick W]

Congrats and kudos to Jameson C* at etrailer.com (a/k/a rocket responder dude) who got back to me in less than 2 hours at 9:37PM last night regarding 5x4.5 3500# hubs that will take a 14” Ranger wheel. Bad news. There ain’t no such animal.

*Jameson C & etrailer.com has revived my faith in customer service (except they couldn’t help me with my cheap pipe dreams).

I took a snapshot of that and sent it back to Jamison and gave him a good write up and wished him and etrailer.com Happy Holidays.

Soooo, like I said, I don’t want to modify the wheels because then all I’ll be able to use is a modified wheel. The wheel bore on the hub is 2.59 inches, and the center bore of the 14” Ranger wheels is about 2.44inches. I figure it’s a lot more likely that I might swap the wheels for something else then I’ll ever have to swap a hub out, even if I have to replace a bearing at some point.

Sooo, right now I’m thinking of knocking the lug bolts out, leaving it on the axle, and spinning it with an angle grinder at an angle and basically shaving off that much of the circumference until the wheels slide on. The only other option is to go to a 2000 pound axle w/1” spindles. I think that would look a little pathetic underneath the 88 truck bed.

Okay, step up, save me from myself. After all, it’s all y’alls’ fault anyway for publishing that all the wheels are 70.6 mm. (like I ever really thought about that until I ran into this)

 

[Rick W]

@ericbphoto

since you have nothing to do, and a lot of free time…

I’m not one to complain without making a proposal for a solution. Well, OK, that’s not exactly true, but I just sent you an email with a proposed edit for the website regarding wheel size:

Proposed TRS website edit

1983-2011 Ford Ranger Wheel Fitment Guide

In the first section, “quick info,” it states:

“Center Bore listed for the Ranger ranges from 70.3 to 70.5 depending on the wheel manufacturer and chart you find.”

Can I suggest that gets modified/edited to:

“Center Bore (CB) listed for 15” Ranger (and both 14” and 15” 4WD) wheels ranges from 70.3 to 70.6mm depending on the wheel manufacturer and chart you find. 2WD 14” wheels have a smaller center bore of approximately 62mm/2.44”. If you’re considering putting Ranger wheels on a trailer axle, all 4WD wheels should fit both 3,500# (65.7mm / 2.59” CB hub) axles and 2,000# (59.9mm / 2.35” CB hub) axles. 2WD 14” wheels will only fit on a 2,000# axle.”

(Note 70.5 to 70.6 change from wheel-size.com)

Hope it helps.

I sent the email so it might be easier to cut and paste.

 

[Bgunner]

I took a snapshot of that and sent it back to Jamison and gave him a good write up and wished him and etrailer.com Happy Holidays.

Soooo, like I said, I don’t want to modify the wheels because then all I’ll be able to use is a modified wheel. The wheel bore on the hub is 2.59 inches, and the center bore of the 14” Ranger wheels is about 2.44inches. I figure it’s a lot more likely that I might swap the wheels for something else then I’ll ever have to swap a hub out, even if I have to replace a bearing at some point.

Sooo, right now I’m thinking of knocking the lug bolts out, leaving it on the axle, and spinning it with an angle grinder at an angle and basically shaving off that much of the circumference until the wheels slide on. The only other option is to go to a 2000 pound axle w/1” spindles. I think that would look a little pathetic underneath the 88 truck bed.

Okay, step up, save me from myself. After all, it’s all y’alls’ fault anyway for publishing that all the wheels are 70.6 mm. (like I ever really thought about that until I ran into this)

I'm no expert with this but logic seems to say that if you grind the hubs down it will weaken them so that it cant hold the 3000+ lb that it could in stock form. So this scares me a little.

 

[Rick W]

I'm no expert with this but logic seems to say that if you grind the hubs down it will weaken them so that it cant hold the 3000+ lb that it could in stock form. So this scares me a little.

Scared? Then I’m doing my job!

You’re correct, but this trailer will never have anything near the load capacity of the axle. I just think the 2000 pound axle is too flimsy and anemic looking.

More technically, the wall thickness on the hub is something like 3/16” or 4.75mm. I would be removing about 1mm or less from each side. Remember the wheel is held to the hub by the friction between the wheel and the hub face, held tight by the lug bolts and nuts. The wheel does not ride on the center bore. The center shaft of the hub only aligns the wheel in the center. I can’t believe a reduction of about 20% would put the integrity of the housing around wheel bearings at risk. Also, considering the thing it’s probably over designed by several hundred percent to start with…..

But my disclaimer, whoever you are out there, don’t ever do what I do, mine is all for fun and parades, not serious heavy duty work….

But keep the comments coming in…

 

[sgtsandman]

@ericbphoto

since you have nothing to do, and a lot of free time…

I’m not one to complain without making a proposal for a solution. Well, OK, that’s not exactly true, but I just sent you an email with a proposed edit for the website regarding wheel size:

Proposed TRS website edit

1983-2011 Ford Ranger Wheel Fitment Guide

In the first section, “quick info,” it states:

“Center Bore listed for the Ranger ranges from 70.3 to 70.5 depending on the wheel manufacturer and chart you find.”

Can I suggest that gets modified/edited to:

“Center Bore (CB) listed for 15” Ranger (and both 14” and 15” 4WD) wheels ranges from 70.3 to 70.6mm depending on the wheel manufacturer and chart you find. 2WD 14” wheels have a smaller center bore of approximately 62mm/2.44”. If you’re considering putting Ranger wheels on a trailer axle, all 4WD wheels should fit both 3,500# (65.7mm / 2.59” CB hub) axles and 2,000# (59.9mm / 2.35” CB hub) axles. 2WD 14” wheels will only fit on a 2,000# axle.”

(Note 70.5 to 70.6 change from wheel-size.com)

Hope it helps.

I sent the email so it might be easier to cut and paste.

Us moderators don’t have the ability the do things like that. I’m not even sure the Admins can. That is probably a @Jim Oaks thing.