How did your ranger try to kill you today?

[Rick W]

Mine hasn't tried to outright kill me, well, except that one time...but anyway, I digress;
No, she likes to take it slow, drawing out the pain, expense, and aggravation over a long period of time. She's drained my bank account and given me very little in return, taking up most of my time
while rarely letting me actually get anywhere with her. I give her endless attention and the best presents I can afford, but I hardly ever get a ride, sometimes she won't even get started or warm up for me. It's a one way relationship, but I have too much invested to end it and move on.
Her name is Rhonda, she's a 2000 Ford Ranger, and we're stuck with each other for better or worse... mostly worse.

Are you sure her name isn’t Liz? She sounds real familiar. Things are better. I hope I don’t have nightmares again from reading this.

 

[Ed K]

Are you sure her name isn’t Liz? She sounds real familiar. Things are better. I hope I don’t have nightmares again from reading this.

Lol no, She's Rhonda as per my daughter while learning to drive her.
My condolences about Liz though, and sorry in advance for any negative flashbacks.

 

[Summers22]

The truck was not on my side yesterday.
--The first thing that went wrong: two of my dash lights were flickering and it was driving me nuts. So, I went home and ripped everything apart to fix it. after reseating them I tested it and it worked fine. Tested again before putting the dash back on. After getting it out of the driveway I hit the slightest of bumps and they both went back out.
-my blower motor resistor was putting out so much heat the plastic connector melted and almost started a fire.
--Then I realized I forgot to put the two radio bezel bolts back in when I replaced my dash lights so my radio attacked me when I launched from a stop sign. pulled over and spent the next half hour rewiring my radio on the side of the road.
--Also found out my truck burns oil on the highway today when it almost ran off the dipstick.
--oh and my exhaust fell off.
So I did what any logical person would do. I went out and bought a new Thrush welded muffler and now I have duals in front of the rear tire. My girlfriend is mad at me for spending all this money on the truck but hey if she wants to have 80 pairs of shoes I can have an 80-decibel exhaust. Apples to apples. Kinda.

Girlfriends don't get to right to comment on truck expenditures.....wives, yes, girlfriends, no.

 

[Blmpkn]

I'm currently in an ongoing cold war with either one, or two mice, maybe more. It hasn't gone hot yet, so far I've only deployed less than lethal munitions/means ( Concentrated Peppermint Oil on strategically placed cotton balls, sealing high value food in containers) but if they don't start showing good faith and leave my food alone, I'll be going full lethal on their furry 4th points of contact and deploying the big guns.

The main munitions for Operation Mouse Around/Find Out if they force me to escalate will include, but not be limited to; poison ( can't remember the name but it works great), Old fashioned mouse traps with peanut butter smeared cotton stuffed well into the working end of the mouse deletion device, and maybe even my neighbor's mostly outdoor old tom cat, he's been mooching free treats off me for years, it's about time he earned them. I've tried for years to get him to hold a flashlight, hand me tools, and turn the key on or off for me, nothing. He owes me.

The main downside to the poison is the enemy combatants scurrying away to expire, slowly decaying ( usually out of reach) and causing less than optimum secondary invasions, mainly flies and a really unpleasant smell. So maybe not the best option for your vehicle.

The main downside of deploying my neighbor's old Tom cat ( Fat Jack ) and clearing him hot, is he's mostly blind, old, and hasn't missed a meal or bowl of treats in a very long time; so unless he actually hunts mice just for fun, I suspect he'll just be getting work free treats as usual. And he doesn't come in the house and hang out with me anymore for some reason. Now he just waddles over, bumps into everything getting to "his" chair on the front porch where I keep his treat bowl, and yells at me until he's whiskers deep into his latest treat supply. He's a snackhead, and I reckon that makes me his supplier.

Maybe you have a furry mouse deleting mammal (cat) of your own, or someone can lend-lease you theirs, I don't know. If you do, I just hope they're more motivated to help you than Fat Jack is to assist me. I just can't get good help these days.
I realize your problem is vehicle borne while my problem is domestic , but I thought maybe I could give you some suggestions, or at least take your mind off it for a minute or two with my ramblings.

Careful with the poison if you go that route.... Other critters who don't mind eating something that's already dead end up dead from the residual poison left in the rodent. Neighborhood pets.. fancy pants birds like owls & eagles..

 

[Rick W]

Careful with the poison if you go that route.... Other critters who don't mind eating something that's already dead end up dead from the residual poison left in the rodent. Neighborhood pets.. fancy pants birds like owls & eagles..

are you talking about the girlfriends and wives here? Did I miss something?

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

I have 5 bruises on both upper arms and chest in a 4½" bolt pattern LOL. Only way I could reach the U-bolts with the impact was to lean against the wheel studs. On the bright side I got my leafs re-arched - hopefully it will fix the ride height and bad pinion angle problems. Before(top pic) and after(below) comparison.

And this is what they looked like before with whole weight on axle stands - Pinion angle was +1.5° when it should be -4° and my rear shackles couldn't lean back any further.

 

[Project88]

Nope, Fat Electron couldn't get through the connector.

Fat Electron Theory - Similar to an 8 lane highway going to a one lane highway and an oversized load can't make it down the one lane because its too wide. All the electrons get stuck behind fat electron and no power goes through the bad/dirty connection. It is a real thing.

You mean increased resistance due to chaffed terminals or corrosion on the wires from old copper?

 

[Ed K]

I have 5 bruises on both upper arms and chest in a 4½" bolt pattern LOL. Only way I could reach the U-bolts with the impact was to lean against the wheel studs. On the bright side I got my leafs re-arched - hopefully it will fix the ride height and bad pinion angle problems. Before(top pic) and after(below) comparison.

View attachment 127609

And this is what they looked like before with whole weight on axle stands - Pinion angle was +1.5° when it should be -4° and my rear shackles couldn't lean back any further.

View attachment 127610

That's a radical change in those leaf springs, good work.
I recently replaced my leaf springs, rear shock mounts, and shocks in the past year or so on my 2000 Ranger.
It was a bear to get done but some of it wasn't too bad.
Although, while grinding off the rivet heads for the driver side shock mount that broke off right after I had replaced the shocks, I ended up taking a good chunk out of my left hand with my 4.5" grinder at full speed right between the index and middle fingers when my elbow slipped off the u-bolts I had it resting on. That was last year, it healed up but still hurts to this day. I never had it looked at, just squirted some iodine on it, grabbed a band aid and went back to grinding.
Then, when I got the grinding done and was pounding out the rivets a hole formed in the frame between the rivets the exact shape of the shock mount. As it turns out they're shaped like a cup, or vase, and fill up with moisture, rust, mud and dirt until the frame starts rotting.
I just had the hole patched last week for annual inspection. So both holes from that job are patched up now.
Here are a few pics-

 

[pjtoledo]

I where gloves when grinding. all that means is there will be shredded cloth in my cuts.
you're lucky by missing the tendons.

good work on the patch.

 

[scotts90ranger]

And that kind of thing is why I leave the shields on my grinders, most people hate them but I like my fingers... I mean it doesn't stop me from hitting myself with the grinder doing something dumb but it reduces the frequency... got a little grinder bite a couple weeks ago working on the boat grinding in a really awkward position...

One time a few years ago I was trying to pound a tie rod end off or something on the '90 with a 4lb sledge and missed and hit my kneecap, had a bump on the knee for a few days but I'm pretty sure I almost passed out from that... I'm sure there's more but I don't remember right now...

 

[Ed K]

Careful with the poison if you go that route.... Other critters who don't mind eating something that's already dead end up dead from the residual poison left in the rodent. Neighborhood pets.. fancy pants birds like owls & eagles..

Yea, that's why I didn't go right to the poison option

I where gloves when grinding. all that means is there will be shredded cloth in my cuts.
you're lucky by missing the tendons.

good work on the patch.

I was wearing gloves, there's a permanent hole that matches my scar.
And the patch job was done by a local garage I go to. I don't have a welder and I doubt I could get one along with the consumables for what it cost me to have them do it.
They do good work and they're the only ones I trust around here. It's a small shop ran by a guy and his two sons. Sponenberg's Exhaust here in Berwick Pa.
They're great guys. The catch phrase on their cards is "No Muff Too Tough" since they do custom exhaust work but they also do most other repair work too.

 

[Ed K]

And that kind of thing is why I leave the shields on my grinders, most people hate them but I like my fingers... I mean it doesn't stop me from hitting myself with the grinder doing something dumb but it reduces the frequency... got a little grinder bite a couple weeks ago working on the boat grinding in a really awkward position...

One time a few years ago I was trying to pound a tie rod end off or something on the '90 with a 4lb sledge and missed and hit my kneecap, had a bump on the knee for a few days but I'm pretty sure I almost passed out from that... I'm sure there's more but I don't remember right now...

It's a used grinder that didn't come with the shield. And while the shield does protect one's hands, it's almost always in the way unless you're doing something simple and in the open.
Prior to starting this project I did try to attach a shield from another grinder but it didn't match up at all. The other grinder was a junk e-bay grinder I had thrown out years ago, I just have a few left over parts from it.
A 4 lbs sledge to the knee cap, that's gotta hurt like hell. I'm sure most of us have our own hammer hell stories. If you use any type of hammer ( especially sledge hammers ) long enough you're bound to have some painful memories. At least they make for great stories later on, right?

 

[sgtsandman]

I agree on keeping the shield on even though it's almost always in the way. Being that it is a used grinder, there is probably not much you can do about it. I figure, with the shield on, it's less likely to successfuly try to maim me in some way. Gloves just keep the sparks from hurting and will do little to stop an errant grinder from finding flesh. The cut/gouge will just be a little less deep.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

You can alter the guard. Instead of covering 180° cut it down to cover 90°. Or less. I keep a bunch of different guards for that reason. But I also have 6 or more grinders too. One time with no guard I was cutting a 1/4" off the side of a hood. The tail end of the metal cutoff got wound up in the grinder. It was like a cat o nine tails but worse. I was very lucky there was no damage to ligaments too. 17 stitches. So yes, now I use a guard almost always. And gloves and full face mask. If I had had a cut down guard I doubt I would have cut my fingers.

 

[Ed K]

You can alter the guard. Instead of covering 180° cut it down to cover 90°. Or less. I keep a bunch of different guards for that reason. But I also have 6 or more grinders too. One time with no guard I was cutting a 1/4" off the side of a hood. The tail end of the metal cutoff got wound up in the grinder. It was like a cat o nine tails but worse. I was very lucky there was no damage to ligaments too. 17 stitches. So yes, now I use a guard almost always. And gloves and full face mask. If I had had a cut down guard I doubt I would have cut my fingers.

I only have the one 2nd hand grinder. I don't grind enough these days to justify buying a new one. Rhonda the cold blooded Ranger soaked up near all of my savings so there's not much left for anything lately.
In 30 odd years of welding I've either had or seen all kinds of grinder injuries, but your description is right up in the top 5 at least.