- Joined
- Jul 29, 2025
- Messages
- 1
- Points
- 1
- City
- johnson city
- State - Country
- TN - USA
- Other
- ranger
- Vehicle Year
- 86
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Drive
- 2WD
- Engine
- 2.0 (4 Cylinder)
- Transmission
- Manual
- Total Lift
- 0
- Total Drop
- 0
- Tire Size
- stock
New guy here with a new to me 86 Ford Ranger. I dont know much about them to be honest, but I remember back when this body style was new I had some friends who owned them. I had an 87 S-10 back in those days; lowered with custom paint and aftermarket wheels.... It was at the beginning of the mini-trucking craze. Anyway, its not much but it was free, so no complaints. Heres the story;
My father-in-law owned it way back in the late 90s into early 2000s. Drove it to work foryears. Its just a 5-speed 2.0 short bed, standard cab Ranger. It was last registered in 2006, and sat as a dumpster until I pulled it out. He gave it to me because it was just rotting into the ground. Im just going to use it as a daily. I have too many other projects right now.
Im about $2500 in, with new tires and brakes and a bunch of other parts. I thought it had a bad head gasket, along with bad front and rear seals. So, I pulled the engine, and resealed it all. The head gasket was good, but the rest of them were not. The clutch throw-out bearing wouldnt return very good either, so that also got replaced.
My latest trouble is wiring. Im afraid my father-in-law was wiring it before he parked it. The wiring is a disaster. The truck runs fine now, after all the work, but the wiring is still in question. There seems to be a lot of extra connectors under the hood. Its almost as if this was a fuel injected truck but it was converted to carb. Either way, itll be fine. The future will have me re-wiring the whole truck, I just dont know when. It needs to do DD duty for awhile now, so I can get the other projects on the road.
Sorry the pictures are out of order. Ill get better at posting them. The bottom picture is after I have been messing with the wiring and after I put the engine back in. The alternator wiring had burned up, like literally melted out of the truck. The "GEN" light was on too. I re-wired it like it was, but it melted again. I looked for wiring schematics, but nothing matched the colors in the truck, so I ended up wiring it to match an 86-ish bronco schematic I found online. Those colors matched and it seems to be working for now. Ill have to test it some more tomorrow.
My father-in-law owned it way back in the late 90s into early 2000s. Drove it to work foryears. Its just a 5-speed 2.0 short bed, standard cab Ranger. It was last registered in 2006, and sat as a dumpster until I pulled it out. He gave it to me because it was just rotting into the ground. Im just going to use it as a daily. I have too many other projects right now.
Im about $2500 in, with new tires and brakes and a bunch of other parts. I thought it had a bad head gasket, along with bad front and rear seals. So, I pulled the engine, and resealed it all. The head gasket was good, but the rest of them were not. The clutch throw-out bearing wouldnt return very good either, so that also got replaced.
My latest trouble is wiring. Im afraid my father-in-law was wiring it before he parked it. The wiring is a disaster. The truck runs fine now, after all the work, but the wiring is still in question. There seems to be a lot of extra connectors under the hood. Its almost as if this was a fuel injected truck but it was converted to carb. Either way, itll be fine. The future will have me re-wiring the whole truck, I just dont know when. It needs to do DD duty for awhile now, so I can get the other projects on the road.
Sorry the pictures are out of order. Ill get better at posting them. The bottom picture is after I have been messing with the wiring and after I put the engine back in. The alternator wiring had burned up, like literally melted out of the truck. The "GEN" light was on too. I re-wired it like it was, but it melted again. I looked for wiring schematics, but nothing matched the colors in the truck, so I ended up wiring it to match an 86-ish bronco schematic I found online. Those colors matched and it seems to be working for now. Ill have to test it some more tomorrow.
