Hi from Pa.

[Ed K]

Excuse my thumb or finger in the engine pic. I think I was in the process of replacing the throttle cable at that time.
The pic from behind with the floor jack and 12 ton jack stands was when I was getting ready to replace the leaf springs ( I think). I had already done a full brake replacement. But since I have to put it back on the ground every night and I had it jacked up
so many times over the past year, it's hard to remember what I was actually doing at the time I took the pic.
That's a good shot of the area I have to work on the truck. I don't enjoy it, but it's what I've got.
Some of you might notice the 8.8" LS rear where a 7.5" open should be. It's one of the few nice surprises I've had with this truck so far. I have no idea when it was swapped in and my Uncle says it wasn't done when he owned it. But he's getting up there so he might not remember having it done.
I ended up changing the rear shocks mid June this year right after I finished the leaf springs, but the Gabriel Pro Guards are no good so I ordered a set of Monroe OESpectums, they're supposed to be here today.
The last pic is in my Uncle's yard, which is connected to my back yard, my back door can be seen in the pic. I hadn't had the truck that long, so I don't remember if I took that pic before or after I had to replace the timing belt. I didn't get many miles on it before the old belt decided it was time to break up.
I have a pic of the truck on the rollback the day after the timing belt snapped and left me sitting on a main street but I think most of you have seen a Ranger on a rollback at least once.
Like I said, she's nothing special, but she's paid for, and she's mine.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

Oh she's not bad looking at all. I've seen a lot worse. Welcome to TRS. I know I'm a little slow (not just physically .) I will be following along as you get Rhonda back up to speed. I love that your daughter likes the truck. My son actually saw a Ranger yesterday in a parking lot and was asking if he traded his car for one if I would help him make it look like that. Needless to say I'm trying to convince the wife now to let me trade his Murano for a Ranger. Maybe difficult because it was her late stepmother's. Nice to see the younger generations building and driving these little trucks.

 

[MaicoDoug]

12 ton jackstands? Man, you all are in the big leagues.

 

[Roert42]

12 ton jackstands? Man, you all are in the big leagues.

With harbor freight you need that X12 safety factor.

Plus the the bigger stands go up higher so you have more room to work.

 

[Ed K]

Oh she's not bad looking at all. I've seen a lot worse. Welcome to TRS. I know I'm a little slow (not just physically .) I will be following along as you get Rhonda back up to speed. I love that your daughter likes the truck. My son actually saw a Ranger yesterday in a parking lot and was asking if he traded his car for one if I would help him make it look like that. Needless to say I'm trying to convince the wife now to let me trade his Murano for a Ranger. Maybe difficult because it was her late stepmother's. Nice to see the younger generations building and driving these little trucks.

Well, after about 50 hard stalls she got the truck going for a bit and I think it's starting to grow on her, then she started stalling again lol. She'll get it. She's 21 now but she's just starting to drive. I only get to see her once in awhile since she moved away and she works now so finally getting to teach her to drive feels pretty good, at least for me, for Rhonda not so much lol.
I wish you luck convincing your wife on a second vehicle for your son. Maybe point out that with a an old Ranger to focus all his youthful exuberance on, the Murano might last a lot longer. Plus they're great to work on together. Anything 2000 and under is fairly easy compared to the newer vehicles. I say "fairly" easy since even back in the 80s and 90s engineers be engineering, ya know? So some would be easy to get to parts, like spark plugs and clutch slave cylinders are either obstructed( 8 spark plugs on the 2.5L and old 2.3L) or hidden inside the transmission ( the slave cylinder). But still better to work on than anything today.
And, he wouldn't have much money left over for more nefarious past times lol.
I just re-read your post and realized you were trying to convince your wife to let your son trade the Murano in, not keep it. I'm a bit slow too sometimes lol. Well, my arguments still stand.

 

[Ed K]

12 ton jackstands? Man, you all are in the big leagues.

I got the 12 ton jack stands for the reach since 6 tons just weren't high enough to do what I needed to do. They're heavy as hell, especially at my age, but they work good.

 

[Ed K]

With harbor freight you need that X12 safety factor.

Plus the the bigger stands go up higher so you have more room to work.

You're right about the reach, that's why I got them. Since I was replacing the leaf springs I needed stands that go high enough to reach the rear frame rails so the rear and springs were un sprung. Then I controlled the rear with the floor jack.

Regarding the stands themselves-
After the Pittsburgh jack stand fiasco Harbor Freight really stepped up their game with the Daytona series. I have a 3 ton set and now the 12 ton set. I looked over every weld on both sets and all welds were good. And when I was QC I wasn't lenient with weld quality at all. They passed my VT so that says something.
The 12 ton set is built like a tank, and have already proven their worth. As I've said I was jacking up and lowering back on the ground multiple times per week/day, and one time I was just getting the first 12 ton situated when the truck slipped off the jack. Both wheels were still on but it still would have made for a pretty bad day if I didn't have that one stand mostly in place. It caught the truck like it wasn't even there and it didn't even graze me. I didn't even have the cross bar safety in yet so the ratchet bar teeth took the weight and momentum. It happened so quick I didn't even get a chance to think about trying to slow crawl out from under there. I thought I heard a noise and that was it, it was over.
Since I work on dirt and gravel the jack can't work it's way forward as I jack as easily as it can on a hard surface. I was tired and sore so I didn't recheck the jack before crawling under. The Harbor Freight Daytona saved my tired old ass.
I'll stand by them, since I can still stand because of them.
The only reason I don't have the 6 ton set yet is because Rhonda likes spending my money so much that I've burned through all my savings so they're firmly on my HF bucket list, for now.

 

[superj]

yup, wichita falls is a town up that way. right by where you are talking about.

 

[Ed K]

I hope I got a reply out to everyone who posted. And a big Thanks to anyone who did.
Unfortunately Rhonda has been sitting again since Dec 3rd last year with a phantom fuel delivery issue.
I've checked the appropriate fuses and relays, the relay sockets for both the fuel pump relay and the PCM relay. I've tested the fuel pump connector using battery ground and also with a set of Load Pro leads with the Pos and Neg to the connector pins.
I ran direct battery Pos and Neg to the fuel pump pins and the pump ran fine so I'm pretty sure it's not the pump. I've had a new Delphi pump assembly sitting in the living room since Dec. but I think I'll just hold onto it.
After jumping the fuel pump directly this week I reconnected the main connector, back probed the pump hot wire, with the neg. lead to direct battery neg. and saw system voltage for 2 seconds every time a friend turned the key on.
I'm just now getting to work on it again since the weather has been so bad here so it's been slow going. Since the pump works when jumped and I get full system voltage through the pump I'm not sure what to think at this point. I'm still trying to find the fuel pump ground wire to the frame to check it but I haven't found it yet.
After weeks of searching, reading, and watching videos I'm still not much closer to getting this truck back on the road.
I've read that a faulty Fuel Tank Pressure sensor can cause the stalling, non start, and rough running issues that I currently have. I back probed the 3 wires to the FTPS yesterday but it started to rain before I could get the connector off to remove the sensor for more testing.
And the connector to the sensor itself didn't want to come off at all. One of the two retaining tabs snapped off as soon as I touched it with a small screw driver to gently pry on it.
So that's where I'm at with the truck. It's supposed to rain most of this week and the high today might be up to 40F so I won't be getting much done this week either.
I really envy those guys who buy an old Ranger for a low price, change the oil, tires, and plugs, and drive it for years trouble free lol, I wonder what that's like.

 

[Curious Hound]

Definitely sounds like a ground problem.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Working outside through a PA winter on vehicles doesn’t usually go well. I know that I typically don’t make much progress. Really need a garage to work in. Up until both my buddy and myself had some health problems, we would use the pad in front of his garage (it’s so packed with quads and tools there’s only enough room in there for a few people and no car, lol). Rig a tarp over the car from the open garage door and that’s how we did stuff in the winter when it needed done. Really cold weather we would run a small torpedo heater to supplement the garage heater. Now he’s got a car with brake and fuel problems stuck on the pad, but that will change this year.

 

[Ed K]

Definitely sounds like a ground problem.

I agree, I just haven't found the ground yet to check it. So in the meantime I figured I would test the FTP sensor to confirm it's either bad or good.
I can't find a decent full circuit diagram for the fuel pump system anywhere. I have the official wiring diagram manual for 2000 Ford Ranger but it just jumps around from page to page, back and forth and gets pretty hard to follow. Each connector, ground, and power terminal is on several different pages. It just jumps around way too much for my old brain to keep up.
The ground for the fuel pump listed as G200 in the manual is located behind the "Left Hand Cowl Panel" but doesn't clarify what, or exactly where that is. It just shows a general area toward the front on the driver side.
I always thought there would be a frame ground from the pump harness connector and that's what I've been looking for. I figured it was tucked in between the fuel tank and frame rail but according to the maual that might be wrong.

 

[Ed K]

Working outside through a PA winter on vehicles doesn’t usually go well. I know that I typically don’t make much progress. Really need a garage to work in. Up until both my buddy and myself had some health problems, we would use the pad in front of his garage (it’s so packed with quads and tools there’s only enough room in there for a few people and no car, lol). Rig a tarp over the car from the open garage door and that’s how we did stuff in the winter when it needed done. Really cold weather we would run a small torpedo heater to supplement the garage heater. Now he’s got a car with brake and fuel problems stuck on the pad, but that will change this year.

Yea, winter wrenching just isn't viable for me anymore. So when the Ranger breaks down in the winter, it sits for the winter unfortunately.
It's sat for the past 3 winters in a row for one problem or another.
So far the problems have all been mechanical, which I can fix. Find bad, broken or failed part, change part. But this, this is electrical, and that's a whole other ball game.
Most of these systems are new to me, even though the Ranger is older it's still new to me. I've only had 2 other vehicles that were OBD2 and didn't really have them long enough to have to troubleshoot the various systems like I am on this truck.
Throw in several months of bad weather that doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon and the truck tends to sit a whole lot more than it doesn't.

 

[Ed K]

To Lil Blue Ford- I'm 18 minutes into your video "Disaster Strikes the Green Ford Ranger Project" and I'm so sorry that happened. It has happened to me before, as I'm sure it has happened to many others at one point or another.
At least you weren't under it when it happened.

 

[Curious Hound]

I agree, I just haven't found the ground yet to check it. So in the meantime I figured I would test the FTP sensor to confirm it's either bad or good.
I can't find a decent full circuit diagram for the fuel pump system anywhere. I have the official wiring diagram manual for 2000 Ford Ranger but it just jumps around from page to page, back and forth and gets pretty hard to follow. Each connector, ground, and power terminal is on several different pages. It just jumps around way too much for my old brain to keep up.
The ground for the fuel pump listed as G200 in the manual is located behind the "Left Hand Cowl Panel" but doesn't clarify what, or exactly where that is. It just shows a general area toward the front on the driver side.
I always thought there would be a frame ground from the pump harness connector and that's what I've been looking for. I figured it was tucked in between the fuel tank and frame rail but according to the maual that might be wrong.

"behind the left hand cowl panel", I believe, is down by your feet, near the parking brake pedal assembly.

can you post picture of the page showing you that ground connection?