'85 Ranger Restomod

[sgtsandman]

Where do you have the antenna mounted? Location makes a huge difference as well as what it is mounted to.

EDIT: Is that magnetic mount on the roof your CB antenna? It looks small if it is.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Where do you have the antenna mounted? Location makes a huge difference as well as what it is mounted to.

EDIT: Is that magnetic mount on the roof your CB antenna? It looks small if it is.

That be it.

One of the reasons for GMRS is I don’t need a huge antenna. That little mag mount would get ripped off if I backed it in the garage.

 

[Curious Hound]

With radios, it's all about 3 things.

1. Antenna & tuning
2. Antenna & tuning
3. Antenna & tuning

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

With radios, it's all about 3 things.

1. Antenna & tuning
2. Antenna & tuning
3. Antenna & tuning

Mag mount was cheap (dad's) and available. I knew it wasn't going to have much for range but last year we all kinda stayed in a group and didn't really play around on our own much.

 

[Curious Hound]

Mag mount was cheap (dad's) and available. I knew it wasn't going to have much for range but last year we all kinda stayed in a group and didn't really play around on our own much.

Yeah. I never even used my cb last year. Half way through the day, I turned it off and turned on the stereo. Ended up using both cb and gmrs this year. But we had less channel traffic on the cb. Almost needed to use private coded channels for the gmrs.

 

[racsan]

A dialed-in K40 is hard to beat. Not sure if they make them anymore. Great thing about them is they can quickly be detached from the roof. Bad thing about them is you forget they are there and hear it bounce off the overhead beams/lights in the drive-through.

 

[sgtsandman]

They still make them. I saw them when I was looking for the best deal on my stainless steel whip. K40 is a great antenna.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

They still make them. I saw them when I was looking for the best deal on my stainless steel whip. K40 is a great antenna.

I had one on my 150 for years, it was good.

My F-150 would wear my garage like a coat though... so since it sits outside garage clearance is a non issue.

 

[sgtsandman]

I don’t have any clearance issues with the garage.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I never even tuned my fire stik... I just ran out of time... but apparently it worked good enough. I will tune it time permitting... and I know it isn't in the best spot... but I wasn't willing to start drilling holes just yet.


Back to the carb thing and hard starting... if I remember from awhile back... you never even checked float level. All I know is with all the carbs I've messed with over the years.... I've never seen a new carb have the float set correct. My routine was to tighten up the float specs a bit for use off road. I would set the float a few degrees below level and really tighten up the float drop. This lowers the fuel level in the bowl just a bit and limits the travel of the float to reduce float bounce when off road. It worked really well off road and had no ill effects to normal driving. I always used a fuel pressure regulator also... my start point was always 3psi and would modify that until I found the sweet spot. I think the first place I would start is to just check where the float is at... I would be totally shocked if it was correct.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back to the carb thing and hard starting... if I remember from awhile back... you never even checked float level. All I know is with all the carbs I've messed with over the years.... I've never seen a new carb have the float set correct. My routine was to tighten up the float specs a bit for use off road. I would set the float a few degrees below level and really tighten up the float drop. This lowers the fuel level in the bowl just a bit and limits the travel of the float to reduce float bounce when off road. It worked really well off road and had no ill effects to normal driving. I always used a fuel pressure regulator also... my start point was always 3psi and would modify that until I found the sweet spot. I think the first place I would start is to just check where the float is at... I would be totally shocked if it was correct.

I checked it, it is right at spec at 7/16", I tried testing it around here and could never get it to act up on a hill or bounce.

Really offroad the thing runs great. My only complaint is the heat soak issue. Lowering the floats would mean less fuel in the bowls to cook though.

It does have a FPR with a gauge, it runs about 5#.

But yeah, it never faultered this weekend offroad. I am really rather impressed with it. Halfway up that hillclimb I thought "you idiot, what are you going to do if you stall it?!" but it kept on keeping on.

And I forgot to post this again since it pulled off another road trip:

 

[Uncle Gump]

So like running down the main trail with all the whoops it never got dirty and you had to let it clean out? Even the up and down hills into and out of the quarry it never got dirty either?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So like running down the main trail with all the whoops it never got dirty and you had to let it clean out? Even the up and down hills into and out of the quarry it never got dirty either?

Not that I could tell.

Going down into the quarry was kind hard to keep track of it with everything else going on, I had it it low first and was holding it back some with the brakes. I never lost power brakes/steering and it was still running fine when I needed power again. Going uphill up it never missed a beat.

I did stall it at the very top of the big hill climb but I had sat there on the level for a bit trying to figure out what to do first and it idled fine thru that, I think it was more me hyped up on adrenaline trying to not roll my truck while running the clutch on a weird glob of cement and not really anything with the truck itself.

My wife shot this going down into the quarry, I have video from my gopro coming back out and of my climb that I need to trim down. Yeah, National Geographic won't be calling for a videographer any time soon...

 

[G8orFord]

Solution to problem #1.

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[85_Ranger4x4]

Did some work chasing my hot start issue tonight while everybody was watching the geriatric fight on tv.

Searched high and low and found my old carb spacer, pulled out the current one.



Phenolic spacer installed (loosely)



I am an idiot. I start testing the air filter housing and it just barely barely drags on the firewall. I decide to bump the firewall slightly with my ball-peen hammer. Nope, it is still in the toolbox in the back of the truck. I can't roll the truck ahead enough to get the swinging tire rack open enough to open the tailgate down to crawl to the front of the bed where the hammer is in the toolbox which is still in the tote from the trip. So I find a cheapie claw hammer... and an old carriage bolt. What I did is between me, my truck and god... but the air cleaner clears the firewall by 1/4"



I need to pickup new mounting studs tomorrow, somehow both sets I have are too short. Hopefully it runs as good as it did before (or maybe even better?)

With that phenolic spacer as far as day to day street driving before, EFI wouldn't have shown it much. I would really like to get back there again (and so would my starter)