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Bringing my '94 back to life


...I must have read every post in this forum related to taillights conversion problems.. I was about to quit last tuesday when I decided to send an email to Hopkins mfg saying I had problems with my "trailer".... this is what I sent them:

Message:

Hello, I have recently purchased a Hoppy 48925 Taillight converter to hook up to my 1994 Ranger. The problem I have is that when hooking it up to the vehicle the running lights and turn lights work fine, but the brake lights dont work. Being a 94, I have separate lights in the truck and my setup in the trailer is a combined brake/turn lights signal. In case it helps to troubleshoot this problem, if I ground turn lights inputs in the converter the brake lights work. I have also hooked up a Hoppy 48845 converter with the same results. Thank you, Id appreciate any support you can give me with this problem.

and what I got back from them:

Converter will only work if you have it hard wired in completely.

You are using to tow a trailer and not to change the taillight system on the car, right?


They must get a ton of ppl asking for the conversion :icon_rofl:... anyways, I just went around the issue for three days and yesterday morning it struck me.. the guy said the converter would only work if it's wired completely and I was mentioning that grounding the turn light would make the system work (which I stupidly thought it meant the box was screwed up or it just wasn't made for the way the truck handled the turn signals)... Conclusion? The damn thing is made for trailer lights!!! Meaning it's being hooked up in tandem to the truck's lights system!! If the ground in the system is floated (i.e. wires cut) the box won't work.

Solution? you need to fool the box into thinking the system is still there. Given that I was getting rid of the old turn signal wiring, I just kept them and instead of a light bulb I bought a couple of 2.5 ohm resistors from RadioShack to simulate the bulbs so I wouldn't have an extra thing to worry about. Frikin' thing worked and me have lights now!!! Celebrated with a friend with a 6-pack of MGD :icon_cheers:

Here's a diagram:

diagram.jpg


I really don't know why my setup was different than the one in the tech section, but the way I set it up follows the logical thinking of the box is supposed to be hooked up to a working system, not as a "stand alone unit", if you will... I might be worthwhile to put this in there as a side note...
 
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looks so nice man...gonna be too pretty to wheel!

I was thinking the same thing when I saw it soo......

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I had to prove myself wrong before I got any ideas... :D
 
So now after the past weekend I hear a bearing noise from the tranny.... I was thinking not another carrier bearing (I have replaced three in the past yr) and after reading through a ton of threads (say, whatever happened to MAKG??) I'm betting on the pilot bearing, I really hope that's the problem... I'll put the tranny down this weekend and find out. I also need to service the Transfer case since I have play in the output shaft, I'm thinking the chain is worn so I'll take a look.

fun, fun!!!!!!
 
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So I drained the fluid today from the tranny and transfer case... Tranny fluid did not come out well, lots of metal in the plug and it had this shiny stuff suspended in it, I'll pull it and remove the top cover to see how it looks.. It also looked a blackish so I'm guessing it was filled with gear oil at some point.... the transfer case on the other hand did not look as bad, although there is some play in the output shaft....

I'm feeling a tranny/transfer case rebuild coming my way.... :sad:
 
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I started by pulling the transfer case and the transmission and now I have the engine on a stand :icon_rofl: So far I have replaced the valve cover gaskets, rear main, Oil pan gasket, fixed/rebuilt the 3 wire harnesses, and I'm still cleaning stuff up (man, what a mess!!!) I have been very lazy on the pics but I'll try to take some tonight for your very own amusement. Should anyone read this, I took the low oil level sensor out for the first time and when I shook it I noticed a small rod inside rattling, I'm guessing this is normal because that thing should be floating inside it's cage and that how it works but I'm not so sure so input is appreciated.
 
Reviving this old thread...

[SO I got back my ranger after two years (long story involving twins and a stupid decision of selling it only to find myself buying it back)... And now I'm finding out what went on with it while it was away being tampered with by inexperienced hands.. or alt least more inexperienced than mine :icon_twisted:

First thing was that 4WD was not engaging.. Ran the diagnostics found in the Tech Section (great writeup btw) and found both the 4WD module (it was tampered with) and also the shifter motor to be out. Ordered a new shifter motor and went to the local u-pull and got a module out of a 90s explorer.

The first task was to take out my toolbox from the shed, I can't believe how forgotten it was :bawling::

View attachment 11712

Old shifter motor out:

View attachment 11711

I could see there was a lot of humidity but no leaks, I'm a little bit concerned about it. It seems that the output shaft seal is out and in need of replacement, one more thing to ad to the to-do list.... So far I have front wheel bearings, new air intake tube, check an exhaust leak noise I'm almost sure it comes from one of the manifolds, and whatever else I keep seeing... Anyways, here's a pic of the suspect rear output shaft:

View attachment 11713

Notice how the plate above it seems like it has been "sprayed" I'm also suspicious of the speedo cable, maybe the o-ring gave and it's leaking through there... Here's a pic of the installed new shifter motor:

View attachment 11714

I know, that's an ugly splice, I ran out of shrink tubing. It does have a butt-connector underneath the tape. I made a mental note about getting some shrink tubing and come back to solder that wire and do a better job at it.

Testing 4HI:

View attachment 11715

.. and 4LO:

View attachment 11716

I could hear the module clicking and the motor engaging, the lights lit up on the dash and on the module so seems like I'm on the clear :headbang:. I will not get a chance to test it on the dirt until the weekend but first I need to work on those wheel bearings, Hopefully this Saturday :icon_thumby:.
 
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We both found your old thread about the same time

;missingteeth;
 
Great looking truck man. It kinda makes me wish I had a 3rd gen so I could run those tail lights and those mirrors. The are so subtle but make the truck look so good.
 
Great looking truck man. It kinda makes me wish I had a 3rd gen so I could run those tail lights and those mirrors. The are so subtle but make the truck look so good.

Thanks! Yeah those tail lights and mirror definitely make a difference. I was planning to go wheeling this weekend with some friends but I have been hearing this "humming" noise that I'm almost sure it's coming from the driver's side front wheel. I think I will need to replace the wheel bearings on both ends.... :sad:
 
This week that "squeaking" noise coming from the front became more of a grinding noise.. Did not take me a lot of figuring out to pinpoint it to wheel bearings (noise increases with speed, no vibration so not suspecting of drive shafts. Disassembled the passenger's side first and the culprit showed itself after a little cleaning:

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It also wasn't hard to find the root cause (besides looking at the bearing marking saying "made in China" :annoyed:); Whoever did these the last time used CV joint grease to pack the bearings. For those who are scratching their heads on my remark I'll try to explain: CV joint grease is Molybdenum-based, and it will become liquid under high temperatures i.e. the heat generated by the friction applied to your discs every time you hit the brakes. Wheel bearings grease is Bentonite-based (a type of clay) which will not lose its "pastyness" under high temperatures. Also its high viscosity will enable the rods in the bearings to rotate, which will keep the bearings properly lubricated. Here's what happens to CV joint grease under high temps:

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Also note the o-ring on the hub went missing, which with the proper grease will stop dirt, mud and water going in the wheel bearing assembly, in this case it also let the CV-joint grease out, through the lugs and to the outer part of the wheel, leaving that nice stained look that lead me to disassemble that wheel first...

New set of bearings and o-rings for each side, and hub cleaned up and ready for assembly:

View attachment 11838

Got it back together, torqued the locking nuts (there's a torque sequence: 35 in-lb, back one quarter of a turn, 16.5 in-lb, put lock washer in, then torque second lock nut to 150 in-lb), test drove it and voila!!! no more noises coming from my drive train :icon_thumby:
 
old 4.0 FUBAR, got me a '97 Replacement

So I've been busy for the past week trying to diagnose something that looked like a leaking gasket. Long Story short, diagnosed gasket failure, found stop leak in the rad and 2K worth of parts later I have the old engine sitting on 2x4s and a 100K miles 97 Explorer engine on a stand cleaned up and ready to start receiving parts from the FUBAR'd engine... My starting inquires here: Thanks adsm08 and RonD for your advice :icon_thumby:

Today I started taking off the manifolds to swap them to the 97 engine and here's what I found
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This engine has seen better days, that looks nasty. "New" engine waiting to get the manifolds:

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Now I went to Haynes manual to look for the proper manifold bolts torque and it says 19 ft-lb?? Is that right?? I did a little research in the forum posts and I could only locate the torque specs for the 2.9 which actually start at 20 ft-lb so I'm assuming it's correct.

I'll try to keep up with the posts as the rest of the week will be slow and I plan to finish cleaning and re-assembling the whole truck over the weekend. While disassembling everything I ran out through the following:

Shaft carrier bearing is busted, will need to take it to a shop to get it replaced as I don't have the proper tools.

A/C system is all messed up and smeared with "black death", my thread on this here

Will need to replace the power steering lines

The Speed Sensor seems to have developed a leak through the speedo cable, I haven't looked into it

The 97 Engine has an 8-bolt crankshaft vs the current 6-bolt, so I had to procure the proper flywheel (Engine came from an auto trans), which is 1/8" bigger in diameter than my current clutch, so a new clutch kit will be needed.

The Cam Synchros are different, but according to this post from the explorer forum it can be setup so my current '94 harness & ECM get the signal needed

The oil level sensor is no longer used in the '97 engine hence there is no port in the oil pan for it. I have decided to just live without it as I check the oil every weekend anyways, the engine going in has no leaks at all and I really mean to keep it that way. Besides the old engine has the grooved oil pan which I don't trust that much anyways...

So far that's what I can think of, as I said I'll try to keep up with the posts through the whole journey.

Who would say that after 2 years of starting this post I would be, again, reviving my 94 :beer:
 

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