1986 Resto Ranger

[FirstGenRanger]

The wife and I bought this truck last fall for $400. We needed a cheap truck for going to the hardware store, and whatnot. Plus I wanted a bit of a project

It's a 1986 Ranger, 4x4, manual transmission, 2.9L, with dual tanks. Its had a cheap respray at some point, so from a distance it doesn't look too bad

The drive is sketchy as hell, at least compared to the vehicles i'm used to driving. But it didn't matter, since I had my 1997 Nissan Laurel. A good reliable daily driver.

So I didn't worry too much about fixing the truck right away. Over my free time I worked on the truck outside, weather permitting. I removed all the AC related components, since the system was already empty. I covered up the holes on the heater box with sheet metal and silicone, until I can find a Non-AC heater box somewhere.

The drivers side floor had a huge rust hole. One day i'll be ordering replacement floor pans, but in the meantime I just cut out the rust and covered it with some sheet metal. It's not pretty, but at least my foot can't go through the floor anymore.

Then one day my Nissan started making a grinding noise from the rear brakes. I go to pull the rear rotor off but its rusted to the hub. In my struggle to get it off the hub I managed to break the rotor

Normally this isn't a huge deal. The main problem is that no car made in North America uses the same rotor, so now i'm waiting 2-3 weeks for a replacement from Japan. So now the sketchy beast is my only mode of transportation

 

[FirstGenRanger]

I figured if I was going to be driving the truck I had to ditch the cheesy euro tail lights. Luckily to previous owner kindly gave me the OE tail lights when I bought the truck

Then I hit up Napa. That was an expensive bill, even with my discount

I had to fix the exhaust manifold. I plan on buying headers when I redo the engine, so I didn't feel like replacing the manifold. So I figured i'd try to repair it with a band clamp and some muffler cement. It leaks a bit, but its much better than it was before

The battery cables were terrible, so I figured i'd make some new ones

This crimper has come in handy more times than I can count

Made up some new cables from 2 gauge wire. Its massively overkill, but it was cheap enough

I didn't like the rats next of wires going to the solenoid, So i made a harness to clean it up a bit. It looks a hell of a lot better than it did.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

No pics are showing for me.

 

[FirstGenRanger]

should be fixed now. Google images was giving me issues

 

[adsm08]

Hey, that's pretty slick there Slick.

I like that little harness you made for the starter relay, but that manifold is what I call NFG.

Watch when you go to buy headers. All the header kits I found when I was looking a few years ago for the 2.9 are for 88+, which is non-EGR, and the flange for the cat mating is different. The only one I found that was even remotely reasonable on price were PaceSetters and I wasn't impressed. If you look for the 4.0 there is a better set of choices, and the ports on the head are the same between the 2.9 and the early 4.0s.

 

[FirstGenRanger]

Thanks. I was planning on ditching the egr once i really get into the engine, as i have a 1990 California maf ecu sitting in my basement

 

[FirstGenRanger]

One day I went to go start the truck, and it wouldn't fire. checked the connections, and this wire was loose

So I bought a replacement coil harness. For some reason the wires were backwards on the replacement.

After messing around with it for a bit, I figured out how to re-pin the harness and swap the wires

Next I figured I should change all the fluids. Went to drain the oil and it had some weird homemade looking drain plug. I neglected to by a new one, so I just reused it.

After changing the engine oil, transfer case fluid, and front diff oil, I moved on to the rear diff. Before I drained it I figure I should check the door tag. And of course it's a limited slip diff. So that will have to wait for another day since I didn't buy any additive for it.

I pull the drum off the back to check the condition of the shoes. They're in good shape, but it's missing the slack adjuster cable. Which probably explains why the shoes were completely backed off already

I figured while I was in there I would bleed the brakes. The fluid was black in the reservoir, so It probably has never been changed. That turned out to be a HUGE MISTAKE. The bleeder screw snapped off. I went to change the wheel cylinder, as I expected this might happen, and then the line breaks. Everything is seized together, I end up having to cut the line at the frame and match up a longer brake hose.

Easter weekend was coming up, so I figured I could get everything done on my couple days off. Then I woke up to this...

 

[FirstGenRanger]

After some shoveling and setting up a tarp, I can get back to work. Nothing like lying on some plywood in the snow and mud for 2 days. I changed all the hardware for the drums

This was my solution for the brake likes. I had to make a bracket to move the hose further out from the diff, as my longer brake hose still wasn't long enough for where I cut the brake line. I built a shield for the bracket with some sheet metal to help protect it from rocks. One day I'm going to redo everything but right now I just need it to be good enough to drive it for a few weeks. I put some vacuum hose between the steel lines and the bracket so it wouldn't rub too much

 

[FirstGenRanger]

Hey, that's pretty slick there Slick.

I like that little harness you made for the starter relay, but that manifold is what I call NFG.

Watch when you go to buy headers. All the header kits I found when I was looking a few years ago for the 2.9 are for 88+, which is non-EGR, and the flange for the cat mating is different. The only one I found that was even remotely reasonable on price were PaceSetters and I wasn't impressed. If you look for the 4.0 there is a better set of choices, and the ports on the head are the same between the 2.9 and the early 4.0s.

Thanks for the heads up about the 4.0l headers. As for the cat flange, the catalytic converter on this truck is long gone (Alberta doesn't test emissions) so I figured I could just get some steel plate, cut/grind it to match, weld a pipe to it to make the exhaust from scratch

 

[Denisefwd93]

Love the wood grain on the dash panels classic 70s 80s!