Daily driver, endless project?

[Mette]

Any 1993+ I4 or 3.0 would be good. It doesn't matter if you break the timing belt on a Lima, just throw a new one on. My parents broke the timing belt at least twice on their '86 2.3 and it was never off the road for more than a day in its life.

I would look for a company selling fleet trucks. You can get 2001-2003 XLs for $3000 or so around here if you buy them off a company with a fleet of trucks. Sun Drop sells nice XLT 3.0s for about $3000 when they get done with them.

Hopefully I've learned my lesson with timing belts, even if my next vehicle is noninterference. Do those Sundrop trucks make it onto Craigslist or is there a better way to find them?

 

[pacodiablo]

Honestly, I don't know. My friend's dad worked for Sun Drop and would buy a Ranger or two when the company sold them off. They were always loaded 2WD 3.0 XLT Super Cabs and the going price was around $3K. I have seen 2003ish 2.3 XL fleet trucks with a lot of miles for $1500 on Craigs List before though. I also saw a 1998 2.5 being sold for $500 because the timing belt broke...the owner obviously didn't know it was non-interference, and that truck was gone real quick.

 

[Mette]

Drove another Ranger today -- 1992 3.0L. The CL ad with pictures is here.

I drove it up the highway a few exits, then looked it over and took some notes based on the "how to buy" articles here at TRS. If anyone want's to give me their opinion, or speculate on this trucks condition and value, I'd appreciate it.

It started and drove real nice, had plenty of power, and handled well. No smoke. Brakes felt good, shocks and tires are new. The motor sort of jiggles at idle, you can see it with the hood up, and barely feel it in the cab. Is this normal, or could the motor mounts be bad? The idle got up over 1000 briefly, maybe the throttle is a little sticky. The headers look about as rusty as they could be. The rest of the exhaust system looks good. Clutch and shifter feel good, not much play in the gearbox and goes into gear easy. Oil and coolant were nice and clean, but there was some rusty scum in the radiator cap, maybe a recent flush to cover up an old problem? The indicator light that says "rear antilock" was on the whole time -- what's this about?

There is some puffy rust on one rear fender, a wrinkle in the front, and hail damage on the roof and hood. There is some surface rust on the door jambs, rear cab corners, and tailgate. The are some minor cosmetic issues inside (headliner, plastic trim, etc.). The paint job is about 1/4 touch-ups. I don't mind a beat up truck if it'll run for me. I'd prefer an extended cab with a sliding window, and it doesn't actually have A/C, but those aren't deal breakers.

The seller is this Chinese dude, and NOBODY haggles like the Chinese. I don't think I'd pay more than $1,000-1,200 for this truck, but this guy isn't really hearing that. He's also doesn't want to let me have it for the afternoon to take to my mechanic. At this point, if I can get it to my guy to check out, and he won't do better on the price, I'm going to walk away from this one. Thanks for reading.

 

[Mette]

Honestly, I don't know. My friend's dad worked for Sun Drop and would buy a Ranger or two when the company sold them off. They were always loaded 2WD 3.0 XLT Super Cabs and the going price was around $3K. I have seen 2003ish 2.3 XL fleet trucks with a lot of miles for $1500 on Craigs List before though. I also saw a 1998 2.5 being sold for $500 because the timing belt broke...the owner obviously didn't know it was non-interference, and that truck was gone real quick.

There are a few little local dealerships with what I figure are fleet trucks right now, but the prices aren't nearly that good. I'm going to try and call some businesses that I know have Rangers in their motor fleets and see what they say.

 

[Mark_88]

Although I like the body style of the older Rangers, I do not like standard cabs for a number of reasons...first is there is no space to put things...second is there is no room in the cab for anyone over 6'...

But if those are not priorities and you can get it for $1200 I'd say it's probably gonna last you a while...but I'd definitely want to have a mechanic give it the once over...and if he doesn't agree to that then there's probably something just around the corner that you'll like better anyways...

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

2.3s of any year are good. As was already mentioned, they are non interference and breaking the timing belt is no big deal. It only took me an hour with a set of wrenches to do mine.

The manual trans are more reliable than the auto trans. The 89+ M5OD will almost never break if you keep oil in it (most start to leak and eventually run dry and then die). But with a manual you will eventually get stuck with a clutch job.

When test driving a manual listen and make sure the tranny doesn't whine when you are moving. That indicates a trans that has been run dry and will soon fail.

The average service life of the auto transmission is usually only marginally more than the service life of a clutch in a manual.

Other than that, look for things like rusted out leaf spring mounts, shackles, cab mounts, rust holes in the cab floor, and things like that.

 

[OldRedB2_84]

Stay away from the a4ld auto trans, its very frail.