What did YOU do today?

[racsan]

The ‘11 escape (awd V6) started doing that thing again on her way home, vibrating like a unbalanced tire, then it went away. I pulled both tires & looked everything over. only thing I can see is drivers side pads wore more than passenger side. Im thinking a caliper is hanging up intermittently and the rotors being old might have a swelled spot . At least thats all I can come up with that makes sense. A tire or bearing issue wouldnt come & go. New front bearings a month or few ago. Does have almost 190K on it now.
I also patched a hole on the drivers side inner wheel well, right near the battery. A little difficult due to the contours there. A little tin, plenty of silicone & some self-drilling galvanized roofing screws, topped with flat black rickoleum. At least THAT was a easy fix.

 

[Rick W]

The ‘11 escape (awd V6) started doing that thing again on her way home, vibrating like a unbalanced tire, then it went away. I pulled both tires & looked everything over. only thing I can see is drivers side pads wore more than passenger side. Im thinking a caliper is hanging up intermittently and the rotors being old might have a swelled spot . At least thats all I can come up with that makes sense. A tire or bearing issue wouldnt come & go. New front bearings a month or few ago. Does have almost 190K on it now.
I also patched a hole on the drivers side inner wheel well, right near the battery. A little difficult due to the contours there. A little tin, plenty of silicone & some self-drilling galvanized roofing screws, topped with flat black rickoleum. At least THAT was a easy fix.

How are the tires? An out of balance that comes and goes is a symptom of a tire where the tread is separating from the balloon part of the tire. Rotate the tires crosswise, front left to back rear and vice versa and see if the out of balance moves.

A cheap way to check that item, just don’t drive 90

 

[Rick W]

I drove the Missing Linc to the eye doctor, a few other errands, and then had dinner with sweet pea.

Tomorrow I go for the neck x-rays, and the x-ray on my hip.

Wednesday I go to my regular doctor and he’ll draw more blood like a vampire

Another doc on Friday.

Then it came to me! If I can hurt myself or get sick just right, where I have to go to the doctor on Thursday, I’ll have a perfect week!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Tonight I decided to get the roof trim on the shed, did the lower end not the side that's missing trim, I did cut a piece of trim for it but I have some junk in the way of getting a ladder there... I didn't get too crazy as the roof will need to be replaced in a year or two but I wanted to get that trim on before I get the firewood lean to roofing added, the roofing lumber would make it more annoying...

 

[sgtsandman]

The packing for the trip is pretty much done. I just need to pick up some in flight snacks and water. Oh, and some Nyquil to pretty much knock me out for the flight on each leg of the journey. Both legs of the trip are about 8 hours. There is no better way to while away the trip than to sleep it away. One perk of a bare bones interior on a military aircraft is that there is plenty of space to lay down or hang a hammock. Way better than being jammed like sardines on a commercial airliner.

 

[Shran]

I've been working on redoing the fence on the property line behind my shop... it was one string of barb wire on the top and hog wire below that. Whoever did it used some really cheap posts that have bent over and one end was tied around a tree. The property behind me is just a big empty lot so I thought I'd put in a drive through gate. Even if that lot sells at some point I think I can retain my drive through access, there is a power line easement back there.

I'm doing 4' chain link and it's a real pain, I have chain link on the sides to connect to but the corner posts are both really messed up. The west side one I was able to straighten but the east corner was really bad and they used a 6' 1-3/8 post so I didn't think it would hold up an 8' long gate. So I dug it out and replaced it with an 8', 2-3/8" post but the original one had a huge blob of concrete, metal and rocks to dig through. I bought a cheapo electric jackhammer a while back and it kicked ass for that project. The other gate post had a huge rock in it that I was able to break up as well. Really glad I bought it.

Now that the gates are done I can start putting up the middle posts and chain link....... not looking forward to that, I have to pull the old fence out of where it's embedded in my plum trees and then sneak the new fence in where it was. I guarantee I will be bleeding from those poky trees.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If you're not bleeding you're not working...

 

[Broosedamoose]

Replaced front brake pads and did the transmission gasket...again! Can't get it to not leak! I think I'm going to go back to the OEM pan if it starts leaking again.

 

[pentode]

Did the slave cylinder on my old Datsun. It was working fine but the hose was looking not long for this earth and the slave was full of muck when I got the car. Since I didn't have a helper I decided to try filling the slave cyl on the bench, then gravity bled the whole thing on the car and it works perfectly, which sparked a question.

I see so many comments and threads about how hard it is to bleed clutches on the Ranger, I'm curious what might be different about the design that makes it so hard. Edit: I should amend this to say, how far back does the all-in-one slave-throwout go and is that the source of the problem? I would have guessed that was a more recent thing but it looks like maybe not.

Funny to see Made in USA stamped on a 40 year old part from a Japanese car... times have changed.

 

[sgtsandman]

Did the slave cylinder on my old Datsun. It was working fine but the hose was looking not long for this earth and the slave was full of muck when I got the car. Since I didn't have a helper I decided to try filling the slave cyl on the bench, then gravity bled the whole thing on the car and it works perfectly, which sparked a question.

I see so many comments and threads about how hard it is to bleed clutches on the Ranger, I'm curious what might be different about the design that makes it so hard. Edit: I should amend this to say, how far back does the all-in-one slave-throwout go and is that the source of the problem? I would have guessed that was a more recent thing but it looks like maybe not.

Funny to see Made in USA stamped on a 40 year old part from a Japanese car... times have changed.

View attachment 119346

The hard part to bleed is the master cylinder because of how it mounts in the vehicle. The end points up trapping air. So, it needs to be bench bled in order to orient the cylinder angled down and enable air to be bled out of the cylinder.

Once that is done, the master can be installed, connected to the slave, and it all can be gravity bled to remove any trapped air in the line. Generally, trapped air isn't a problem as long as the master has been bench bled.

As far as when the current slave design started getting used? I think that started with when the Mazda M5ODR1 transmission got put into the Ranger. I don't know that for sure though since I never worked on a Ranger that had the Mitsubishi FM132, FM145 or FM146 and Toyo Koygo 4 speed and 5 speed transmission.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The hard part to bleed is the master cylinder because of how it mounts in the vehicle. The end points up trapping air. So, it needs to be bench bled in order to orient the cylinder angled down and enable air to be bled out of the cylinder.

Once that is done, the master can be installed, connected to the slave, and it all can be gravity bled to remove any trapped air in the line. Generally, trapped air isn't a problem as long as the master has been bench bled.

As far as when the current slave design started getting used? I think that started with when the Mazda M5ODR1 transmission got put into the Ranger. I don't know that for sure though since I never worked on a Ranger that had the Mitsubishi FM132, FM145 or FM146 and Toyo Koygo 4 speed and 5 speed transmission.

I’ll have to look at my Choptop…

 

[racsan]

Moved my egg fridge into the house until spring, Had to build a high table for it so its easier to get in to. Was just going to stack some tires & toss a sheet over it. That got vetoed pretty quick.

 

[Rick W]

I watched this video. I loved it. It made me think of all the hard-working TRS salt of the Earth guys and gals on this website, so I thought I’d share it.

And even though it doesn’t show it in the video, you gotta know this guy‘s truck is painted with Rust oleum with a brush. Maybe a pioneer top!

 

[Jazzer]

Today I picked up some grade 8 bolts and nuts.
Last week I hauled a half ton of flume gravel in my '87 and twisted the rusted PS front leaf spring bracket. I used a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder and removed the rivets and punched them through. One was a bear as it went through another bracket inside the frame rail and punching it would just make the inner bracket bounce.
I ended up drilling it out to 3/8" and that lessened its hold enough to punch through.
New bracket comes Thursday and should take about an hour to get it back in service.

 

[Jazzer]

I finally got my leaf spring hanger, after the USPS sent it on a nationwide tour, only five days late.

Got it on without trouble, blue Locktite on the threads and a thin wipe of anti-seize on the long bolt where it goes through the bushing.