94 Ranger 4 L V 6 down for three months, need advice

[spacemanpan]

My 94 Ranger started having clutch issues in January, and over time the clutch started slipping and would take time to engage in any gear, and underneath the passenger side it would feel hot and smell hot too. Also, when I hit a bump on the drivers side of the pickup, the engine would quit for a fraction of a second then run normally again. This happened a lot and when I finally got the money to pay a friend's older brother who is a mechanic for a major non ford dealership here in the Denver Metro area, I drove it to his house in late June to get the clutch replaced.

The mechanic then told me the output shaft got so hot it melted into the throwout bearing on the flywheel and he had to use some special tools and lift the truck at his work to do his clutch changeout, but he found other things wrong with the truck too, like a corroded/broken motor mount which had crushed a wiring bundle that handled clutch, backup light, and other functions and had to go to a boneyard to find a replacement wiring harness.

There was also a bad oxygen sensor, the throttle body and linkage were bad, and there were four codes total when a scan tool was plugged into the truck.
I've had to leave it at this dealership while he gets to work however he can, and he said paying him for the cheaper boneyard parts was a deal, since I have no way to pay for other than a token payment for his labor, and the cost of going to and from the boneyard, and there was a lot more wrong with the truck than either of us knew at first.
I've paid $460 so far for what he's done, but the truck is still not running and winter is coming up, and the steady job for 30 hours/week is coming to and end and I won't be able to take the bus to and from work when this job is over.
I paid $5200 for this truck via payments from August 2003 to May 1997. I've replaced the transmission for $1600 in June 2006, $ 1900 for cylinder heads that were damaged when the water pump went out and the truck overheated in June and the cylinder heads went bad in August 2006,this cost $1800 and the truck was out of service from August to November 2008. $180 for an alternator in May 2009, $450 for a new clutch slave cylinder in January 2011 and now this.
Did I get a lemon ? Should I pay for the repairs then trade this 94 Ranger in on something else ? It's paid for but has been less than dependable and reliable in the eight years I've had it. 204,000 miles. Opinions and advice are wanted and needed.

 

[aspevacek]

I think this is the wrong forum. Being Debt free I always tell people to balance out repairs versus what payments would cost in a given time frame. I have talked several people into not getting vehicles because thiers was costing alot less to maintain then what payments on something new would cost. In 8 years you have invested less then 10k into the truck. That includes the cost of the truck. They bank is there to get rich at your expense. At the same time I do understand the issues you are having may be frustrating, but I see most of your repairs as stuff that could go wrong with any vehicle. I would not say what you are driving is a lemon.

 

[gribly]

You're not driving a lemon, you're just getting terrible advice and making bad choices. Heads bad? Chuck the whole motor, you can buy a wrecked truck or a junkyard motor and swap it out. $1600 for a tranny? Did it come with a woman of questionable morality to spend time with? It also sounds like you should work on it yourself. Clutch jobs and what not on that year ranger are easy - I did my Mazda's in what, 4 hours with a friend on a Sunday afternoon - and that was doing it the "hard way." Instead of removing the y-pipe, we pulled the carpet and unbolted the floor plate, and removed the transfer case and tranny separately. Didn't use a lift, just jacked it up and started removing bolts - we did use air, though.

 

[shorangerbird]

-way wrong forum...