Locked up engine runs again

[Shran]

I did a "favor" for my wife's co-worker and picked up a '95 Ranger, 2.3, 5 speed 2wd from her that was parked in 2017 allegedly because they got a ticket for a broken tail light. This truck came from Iowa so naturally it is horribly rusty underneath and both rear spring hangers/shackles are totally gone and the leaf springs poked holes in the bed.... thieves also stole the entire exhaust system and spare tire. Someone was also messing with things under the hood and random things were unplugged.

They finally got me a title for it so last night I thought I'd see if it runs. No key so I had to remove the lock cylinder... threw a battery in it and it just clicks. It was low on coolant so after verifying that I had good battery voltage I tried to turn it over by hand with a ratchet and it was stuck solid. Figured it was hydrolocked with coolant so I pulled the passenger side plugs and nope, empty cylinders.... great. I split up a can of PB Blaster between the four cylinders, started working it with the ratchet again and it eventually turned, pretty hard, for several full rotations and then just started free spinning easily. Jumped the starter solenoid with pliers and it spun pretty weird for a bit and then suddenly much better. So I put the plugs back in, gave it a nice shot of ether.

And it fired right up.............. little bit of lifter noise for a few seconds but that's fine, I cannot believe that it runs so good on 7 year old gas and having been stuck like that.

How long is it gonna last, is the question now?!??!?

 

[pentode]

How long is it gonna last, is the question now?!??!?

View attachment 113557

If you mean the engine, probably forever. The spring hanger... it's done lasting, I think.

 

[Shran]

The springs still have several feet of box bottom and a couple crossmembers to work their way through...so it's fine.

I need to get it off my trailer and just let it sit and idle for a while. Maybe rig up a muffler so it's not so loud. I think I'm already on thin ice with the neighbors, at first they would smile and giggle when I brought home some junk but I get eye rolls now.

 

[pentode]

Neighbors don't get a running engine with wheels on it? That's gold, Jerry! (reference too obscure?)

 

[pentode]

Serious technical question here: 25 years ago when I was looking at buying a Ranger, my Ranger-owning mechanic brother's one piece of advice was "watch out for the spring hangers." What's the deal with those spring hangers? The frame looks basically fine and the spring looks fine and the bolts look fine and the bushings even look pretty good. So what the heck did they make the hangers out of that they just disintegrate? Aluminum?

 

[4.0blue98]

I think they just have too many nooks and crannies to hold on to all the salt and debris that the rear tires can feed them. Still waiting to replace one of mine. Hasn't torn completely off just yet. When it starts banging off the bed then I'll have at it.

 

[Shran]

They get blasted with salt spray for years and not washed well. But not in every case. Sometimes the frame is terrible like this one and the body is pretty decent.., sometimes it’s the other way around.

 

[Shran]

I've let this truck sit and idle for about 6 hours total in my driveway and nothing bad happened so I'm gonna say it's as good as any brand new used truck now.

On to rust repair so I can make my exit from the taxi business. It really did have a full shackle delete on both sides:

Painting the frame gold because gold doesn't rust. Can you believe I've got 3 of the leaf spring bolts out so far without even much of an issue???

Driver's side front hanger still had a little meat left on it's bones. As Peg would say, you don't need to worry about that.

The future owner of this truck has been practicing his needle scaler skills.

 

[Shran]

In case anyone wants to see what this disaster looked like when I got it. Not half bad folks

 

[Shran]

All four hangers replaced, last bolt really fought me. Full gold rear frame! Explorer shocks!

 

[bobbywalter]

yup.

 

[Shran]

Rust couldn't kill it, thieves couldn't kill it, nor could the long sleep during its time parked under a mountain of trash... my kid put it out of its misery pretty quickly though. Decided to take a "short cut" on a snow packed dirt road and rolled it into a ditch. Fortunately he is fine and was wearing his seat belt but this is the second of my vehicles he's put in the ditch in the last year so I'm not buying him another one.

Probably just part it out at this point, the tow truck charged me $750 to pull it out of the ditch and straightening it back out so that the passenger door opens and a windshield will fit would be a huge undertaking.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Rust couldn't kill it, thieves couldn't kill it, nor could the long sleep during its time parked under a mountain of trash... my kid put it out of its misery pretty quickly though. Decided to take a "short cut" on a snow packed dirt road and rolled it into a ditch. Fortunately he is fine and was wearing his seat belt but this is the second of my vehicles he's put in the ditch in the last year so I'm not buying him another one.

Probably just part it out at this point, the tow truck charged me $750 to pull it out of the ditch and straightening it back out so that the passenger door opens and a windshield will fit would be a huge undertaking.

View attachment 120680View attachment 120681

Turn it into a permanent convertible...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Get a windshield in it and let him enjoy his single seat rig...

 

[Shran]

Thought about that but I think it's better if he has to find rides to work for a while until he can save up for another vehicle.

I might just put a plexiglass windshield in it and use it as a yard truck. Or no windows and remove the doors. Sort of considering putting a 4x4 transmission and transfer case in it so that I have low range + a front receiver hitch so I can use my push bar to move stuff around.

I also thought about putting a cage in it and off road racing it but the frame is so rusty that I'm kinda worried about it snapping in half somewhere. I would 100% be racing it if it had a better frame.

There are so many unfinished projects at my house that I probably should just get rid of it.