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

[Lefty]

I swapped out the Old Ranger front sway bar for one from an Explorer. I'm hoping to improve the handling.

 

[Bill]

I didn't get around to washing the Ranger because I drove it to the Costco food court for a hotdog, then another hot dog, then a strawberry sundae.

Now I feel fat.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I think all the shops do that now. People are lazy and time is money. I always viewed the torque stick defense as a load of garbage. Sure they may have them but I doubt very much they get used since no matter where I go, I have to use a large breaker bar to break them loose and torque them to spec.

Which is why they had specific instructions to mount the tires on the rims that were in the back of the truck, and return them to the back of the truck. I’ll torque them myself, thank you very much. Now I have my own tire machine. They can’t follow simple instructions, then I’ll do it myself. I’d rather pay someone to mess with some stuff, take some of the load off of myself, but when you can’t trust anyone to follow simple instructions…

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It can’t hurt. The way they are now, there is going to be some resistance to the new level. I’m not sure if it’s absolutely necessary. It depends on how “done right” you want to be.

Yeah, about what I was thinking. I have an aversion to doing things half assed. I’ve had too many problems in the past from not taking care of things like I should. Get harassed all the time about tearing into something and finding stuff almost broke. When I haven’t fixed it while I’m there, it’s always been a problem. So now if I can afford it, everything that’s broken gets fixed right. It takes longer and costs more, but it’s less headaches in the long run and a lot of people don’t seem to get that.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

“Just keep hitting it with that impact until it stops moving, you don’t want that f***n thing coming loose while your driving do ya?”


That’s how my father taught me to tighten lug nuts. He was a flat rate mechanic if you couldn’t guess.

Oh, you blast it hard enough and it will come loose while driving when the studs snap…

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

All my junk.....


Ugly and Homily.


Simple brake adjustments easy peasy I was sure.......that now may end up getting fresh line...and new shoes.... bummer..

Got an oem tail pipe for the chop.....bob destroyed it at the badlands...so it leaks mid ship and gases ya out .....hoping to get it on before I leave....

Need to do valve cover gaskets too on the fresher to me engine.. actually the driver's side cover is trash....and hopefully that is all. It's running on the wrong pcm but it's livable for now.

Still unsure of I am taking it to pa....








View attachment 95153



Hopping in the ranger and heading out to fowlerville to a party....so the exhaust won't get done today. Stops good though.

Just went through brakes on my Choptop, thought it needed just a lube and check. All new rears and new calipers/hoses on the front. Never ends sometimes…

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’m not much of a trail rider. Question: when you change your oil and you do your regular preventative maintenance, do you swap the dirt out too?

Well, you usually clean off the dirt wherever you’re working on it, lol. It will get replaced later…

Dirt gets swapped, discarded, added to, etc. In every trail ride. I probably still have remnants from the trail ride in Ohio a few years ago. Dirt is an ever changing story of where you've been and what you've done.

My Choptop is still loaded with dirt from Southington… I hosed a bunch off to fix the front axle…

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So, yesterday‘s adventures…

Worked on the Choptop, got the passenger side ball joints swapped and the knuckle on with a little bit of a fight, it gave me trouble in places the other side didn’t of course. Got the inner stub shaft assembly in, tore the outer apart to refresh the U-joint and found that it had spun the caps but hadn’t yet ejected the clips. Well, it’s getting tacked. New U-joint was a little light on grease so I went to add some before assembly because there’s no grease fittings and found that my grease gun isn’t working because what’s left in it has hardened. Strange. I was about out of time at that point. I did a bunch of other odds and ends too to clean things up and move projects forward.

Went to tighten the rear axle nuts on mom’s 02 Explorer too, but there seems to be a discrepancy on torque specs, the one that came up the most was 203 ft/lbs, but I also heard 184 and 254. Well, my torque wrench only goes to 150, so now I have to borrow or buy one that goes high enough.

Drove out to Lisa’s for a wedding today and got pulled over, in the F-150. No ticket, but I was informed that my tail lights don’t work. I have 4-ways and brakes, but no running lights or backup lights. Backup lights might just be the switch, but I’m a little baffled about the lack of running lights. I’ll pull a bulb at some point here, hopefully they’re both just burned out on the low side, but that seems odd that both would go at the same time. Grounds would kill everything. Kinda strange…

 

[rubydist]

Back in the day, the Mopars all had 7/16" studs, not 1/2" like the Fords and GMs had, so the tire shops had to keep the torque to a decent level on the air guns otherwise they would just break all the Mopar studs. In those days you could typically get the lug nuts off if you had a flat.

Now, they all are at least 12mm, so they just run them on with their air guns to about 130+ lb-ft and then check them with a torque wrench. Sure enough, they "used a torque wrench" but it didn't matter because they were already overtightened. Just another reason I do as much work on my vehicles as I possibly can myself.

 

[Roert42]

Had a break in the rain so I pulled the intake off the back of the supercharger today. Vacuum leak was caused by a giant tear in the hose that connects the blow off to the lower intake. It was made of EPDM and had detreated over time from oil I guess. Looked like a short section of heater hose, not sure if it came with the modbox kit or not.


Ordered a couple lengths of Ordered a couple lengths of different house that good for use with petroleum products off the ole McMaster Carr. One was steel reinforced fuel line, and the other one wasn't steel reinforced.

 

[bobbywalter]

Dirt gets swapped, discarded, added to, etc. In every trail ride. I probably still have remnants from the trail ride in Ohio a few years ago. Dirt is an ever changing story of where you've been and what you've done.

I’m not much of a trail rider. Question: when you change your oil and you do your regular preventative maintenance, do you swap the dirt out too?

it is rare for those rigs to have doors on them past april.... so the insides get just as filthy as the outside....and these trucks are what is considered clean at this time...

there is dirt from florida tennesee....kentucky...west by gawd virginia ...the carolinas....and as far as colorado inside places on that ranger from as far back as 15 years ago....i am hoping to get it changed before 2025 though.

 

[sgtsandman]

Yeah, about what I was thinking. I have an aversion to doing things half assed. I’ve had too many problems in the past from not taking care of things like I should. Get harassed all the time about tearing into something and finding stuff almost broke. When I haven’t fixed it while I’m there, it’s always been a problem. So now if I can afford it, everything that’s broken gets fixed right. It takes longer and costs more, but it’s less headaches in the long run and a lot of people don’t seem to get that.

I admittedly "half a$$ed it" when I did the pre-2008 lift. I never touched the mounting bolts on either the lower or upper control arms. Granted it was only about an 1.5" change but to "do it right" I should have loosened them. I did get an alignment done afterwards since both the upper and lower ball joints and the tie rod ends were done while I had it all apart.

 

[sgtsandman]

So, yesterday‘s adventures…

Worked on the Choptop, got the passenger side ball joints swapped and the knuckle on with a little bit of a fight, it gave me trouble in places the other side didn’t of course. Got the inner stub shaft assembly in, tore the outer apart to refresh the U-joint and found that it had spun the caps but hadn’t yet ejected the clips. Well, it’s getting tacked. New U-joint was a little light on grease so I went to add some before assembly because there’s no grease fittings and found that my grease gun isn’t working because what’s left in it has hardened. Strange. I was about out of time at that point. I did a bunch of other odds and ends too to clean things up and move projects forward.

Went to tighten the rear axle nuts on mom’s 02 Explorer too, but there seems to be a discrepancy on torque specs, the one that came up the most was 203 ft/lbs, but I also heard 184 and 254. Well, my torque wrench only goes to 150, so now I have to borrow or buy one that goes high enough.

Drove out to Lisa’s for a wedding today and got pulled over, in the F-150. No ticket, but I was informed that my tail lights don’t work. I have 4-ways and brakes, but no running lights or backup lights. Backup lights might just be the switch, but I’m a little baffled about the lack of running lights. I’ll pull a bulb at some point here, hopefully they’re both just burned out on the low side, but that seems odd that both would go at the same time. Grounds would kill everything. Kinda strange…

I have a torque wrench that will do the job. If you come to borrow it, remind me you need the 3/4" to 1/2" adapter.

 

[RangerBilly]

Drill the holes. The right size plastic wall anchor works. I’ve done it before. When you put the plastic anchors in, dip them in clear silicone, and Mount the cap the next day.

Do I have to say be precise so the center cap doesn’t wobble? When I did it, I made a paper template. I did a pencil rubbing of an original and then transferred the spots.

Hope it helps!

Thanks, I will try that. I did manage to pop out the three anchors from the old rim with a flat punch. Didn't damage them, so we shall see...

 

[RangerBilly]

Afterthought. I’ve had a couple issues where the Lugnuts would bottom out against the brake rotor before completely snugging up on the wheels. This is when I was playing with all different kind of Lugnuts and wheels without thinking of what was original or such. Just something you might want to look at.

Funny you should mention that. I have been hearing a grinding sound when I apply the brakes at low to moderate speeds, and the sound seems to be coming from the side that had the bad rim. But the last time I inspected the pads (about three months ago), they looked new. And the rotor has no grooves or damage. Smooth as a baby's bottom.
I can see how the wheel not being snugged tight could cause the lug nut holes to be elongated, as the wheel would rotate back and forth on the hub even if the nuts were as tight as possible.
Now that I think about it, I DO have a mix of lug nuts on that truck, as it was difficult to find a set of 20 that matched the originals perfectly.
I will take the wheel off in a few days to look for that "bottoming out" issue.
Thank you for the advice, as this is something I never thought to look for!