94 Ranger STX Longbed

[BeefStew42791]

allllllllllrighty...I am officially at my wits end with this stupid easy-out. I'll never touch one again. I just ordered a set of 30 different sized and shaped diamond coated dental bur style drill bits. SOMETHING in there's gonna work. I refuse to replace gaskets on this engine before I've driven it lol. My undercoating on the frame hardened up really nice though, here's some pics like I promised..a month ago lol.

I ran out of hat rubberized spray on stuff while doing those little crevices in the frame, so I've gotta get some more yet for the body's underside. The reason I didn't do the back half is because I'm thinking it'd be much easier to get to that with the bed off, and that's gonna happen later down the road when I get at some real bad shackles and the body problems.

In the meantime though, I'm wondering if anyone might be able to help me out again. This time I've got some unknown wiring. there's two occurances of the same wiring, one black and one White/Orange, both just outside of the radiator, and they branch off of the main line. Here's some pics if it helps at all:

(Driver's Side)

(Passenger's Side)

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

Aren't those the fog light wires? Turn the switch on, and check for power.

Lucky b@stard, with your foglight switch...

 

[nate09]

Aren't those the fog light wires? Turn the switch on, and check for power.

Lucky b@stard, with your foglight switch...

im pretty sure youre correct. i just pulled my foglights and valance off the other day and im pretty sure those are the connectors. i will crawl under the truck later to confirm if he doesnt.

 

[Downey]

my 94 is wired for fog lights i just picked up a switch and the wireing now i just need some fog lights

 

[nate09]

definately the foglight wires. just checked my truck.

 

[BeefStew42791]

awesome, thanks guys. I kinda had a feeling it was that but I also was afraid it couldn't really be that simple. But thank god it was lol.

and downey I've got some brackets, pm me if you think you might want em. I'm in wv right now so I can't jump on it right away but I'll be back by monday as far as things go right now.

 

[Downey]

nah i have an idea for my lights i cant have them down there i will just tear them off. some custom bumper with the lights worked into it

 

[BeefStew42791]

sweet! make sure to throw some pics up of the finished piece in the bumpers thread!

as far as updates go though..

I today drilled through one of the hardest manmade materials in history..the ezout is dead, she's dead, DING DONG the ezout is deaaadddd!!!! thank the lord for diamonds!!
The $6.50 diamond grinder burs saved me from a $300 trip to the machine shop So its a definite that sometime with the next couple days (as long as there's no rain) the 4.0 is going in. I also finished up the rubberized under coating today on the cab, looks much better then just coated metal. After its in I'm also gonna drop by the local hot rod shop and see if they can order some headers and a cat back dual exhaust.

 

[BeefStew42791]

ITS IN!!! yesterday at around 4:30 it finally slid into place. I made a few connections afterwards here and there, mainly mechanical and plugging in wires that I can. I already foresee fun times with getting the fuel line re-attached to its plug (the one at the back of the manifold) and getting the radiator/fan shroud to sit in there steadily without being able to bolt to the radiator support (3 inch bodylift complications), along with other things. I'll get pictures up later, they're on the camera but I've gotta run to town in the next 5 minutes. There also was a little carnage though..the parking brake wasn't completely engaged by a half a click and it bounced back out resulting in a pencil eraser sized ding in my cowl. Thankfully the chucks managed to keep it from rolling anymore then that. It really is a minor thing, it won't take much to fix..as compares to the rest of my body problems. Today though I finished getting everything nice and straight, meaning the tranny in place, all the driveshafts in place, the crossmembers bolted in, and the engine mounts torqued down. I think I might have to use my other set of driveshaft bolts, there seems to be too much dried up threadlock on the ones I put in, they aren't tightening flush..hopefully I'll be able to back them back out. And finally I need to find the screw or bolt that holds the worm gear bracket in place, I put it somewhere safe and now can't find it for the life of me...

 

[BeefStew42791]

k, pictures are here.

And since then I've put a new air intake hose on, without all kinda holes in it connected as much wiring as I can, put on some new battery cables from the local yard I got for less then $5 I've started making brackets that would have come with a new body lift (I have to drill the holes in my first one), I found my bracket screw and got that on, worked out my driveshaft bolt problems, mounted the transfercase skid plate and transmission crossmember, connected both fuel lines, and also found out that when I undid the power steering hose (the one that plugs up from the bottom, not the threaded unit) I actually broke off the plug on the power steering reservoir and now the broke off piece won't come out of the hose, so it looks like I'll have to get a new one of both. Hopefully it won't be too much.

To end on a good note though, here's some pics of my painted shafts and crossmember + skidplate.

 

[BeefStew42791]

ok, update time. It has been a while, so I've got quite a bit to talk about.
I finally was able to track down the wiring I've needed to button up the 4.0. Interestingly enough though apparently the 94's came with an extra sensor called a coolant temp sensor that plugs into the side of the inline filter that resides as part of the a/c line from the compressor manifold to the coil that the 93 4.0's lack. SO either I cap it and ignore the computer possibly throwing a fit or I find a different line that has that sensor on it..personally, why not update? But anyway the point is its in, and I can move on to something else.
Which I did, I got the clutch bled, its really quite easy as long as you don't expect it to take 10 minutes and aren't afraid to get your hands dirty. At least, after I finally figured out the best way to do it, it seemed to me that way, it went a lot better then the feeling I got reading everybody else's horror stories lol.
Today I got 5 quarts of pennzoil highmileage and a fram high mileage filter thats gonna go in tomorrow, and then get replaced 100 miles later since I have no idea how well this engine was taken care of. Same things gonna happen with the fluid in the tranny, the trans case, the front and rear end, and I think I might do the brakes too on a nice day sometime..idk we'll have to see.
Tomorrow though the new powersteering fluid reservoir should be in at napa, so I'm gonna have to go pick that up and hopefully it'll be in by tomorrow too. I'm also finishing up the last of my 3-inch body lift brackets I've had to make, I wish I had a dang plasma cutter..oh well, dremel serves me well lol.
I also realized some nice little treasures too though. I understand why people like to swap in the explorer's leaf springs..I'm amazed the rangers even support it at all. I'm gonna swap them in to mine after its on the road, mods come after inspection I also think I'm gonna keep the explorer around for a little while for the cruise control, it came stock with it and my truck didn't..so down the road I'm gonna look into swapping over. In the meantime though I'm making steady headway on the stx, and also am gonna start disassembling the rest of the sellables off the 94 4cylinder, so that'll be going to the scrap yard soon.
Anyways, dinner's callin, so I'm gonna head down for now. Later guys.

 

[BeefStew42791]

k, as of now the powersteering problems are cleared up, which moves exhaust up on the list..waitin on a paycheck is all. The wipers on the xlt were still good enough to use on the stx though, so that was a definite plus, and I also forgot I had leftover windshield washer fluid so I siphoned what I could out of the xlt and put that in the stx. The xlt at this point is basically stripped, we pulled the 4 banger out and in the same day I pulled the last door left, and the rear glass. I would have taken the taillights but I beat the crap out of the rusted up tailgate with a baseball bat (girl problems) and so the gates not comin off lol. When I can get a trailer available its headin to the scrap yard, and then the tear down on the explorer begins. I'm so stoked though with the stx, its all I can do to keep myself from puttin in the good battery and cranking it over before the exhaust is on! I'd hate to destroy the valves though, sooo keeping that in mind keeps me in touch with reality lol.

 

[BeefStew42791]

welllllll your all gonna love this..yesterday after I finished with my tranny/transfercase fluid changes I decided to fill some time and have another go at the front driveshaft. So I got under there and braced the ujoints to keep the shaft from spinnin, and I got my socket on there and just went at it until for absolutely NO reason the head sheared off of one of the front differential's yoke bolts (not the ones that go to the transfercase, the otherside) with the shear flush to the surface of the yoke-_- Its not even like I was having to force it either, just all of a sudden it just pulled away from the rest of the bolt, which btw is still in the yoke...soooo now its drilling and tapping all over again. Getting another bolt is no problem, I have 4 more from the explorer, but still..now I need to go on another tap finding mission..something I really don't need right now..

 

[Flash Gordan]

You'll get it finished eventually. Just don't give up. You'll hate yourself later on if you do.

 

[BeefStew42791]

yea I hear ya, no worries there I spose.. I started drilling it out today but after breaking the bit in the pilot hole and being forced to get out the diamonds again I am debating whether or not it'd be simpler to just replace the yoke, or pull it then drill it out and put it back on.

EDIT: nvm, I was able to finish drilling it out so I'm gonna get a helicoil kit off ebay or somethin.