My POS Craigslist Special 92 Ranger

[ford4thot]

Drove two hours after fighting off other interested parties to look at a 92 Extended cab 2wd Ranger with a 4.0l and 5 speed manual. I'm not familiar with POS vehicles, so after a test drive I was iffy. Gf was cranky and tired, and she said "just get it"

Drove 2 hours home. Next day, started going through it, I noticed there was NO oil in trans. Seller did mention that the clutch pressure bled off too.
First thot, I'm no mechanic, flip it quick. After a couple of looks but no interest I said F it and decided to throw money at it.

This will be my "hotrod", my cool project of my life. Always wanted to build something cool. Forced into it with this.

This is my third Ranger. First was a new white 2004 single cab short bed 2.3 manual XL 2wd. Put mustang GT wheels and tires on that, had it a year and a half. Loved it. Wish I still had it. It'd be lowered by now.

Years later bought a new black ext cab 4.0 auto Sport 4x4. Did a few visual mods but nothing serious. Traded for an F150 two years later. Loved it. Wish I still had it. It'd be lifted by now.


Originally, I wanted an old beater for yard/garage sale duties. Well....not going to be a beater for long.


First order of business.....bought some Ford shop manuals, and removed the awful 20s and dry rotted tires, sold for $200

Also sold a nice JL Audio amp and 2 Rockford Fosgate 12" subs with box out of it.

 

[ford4thot]

Suited up

Pulled shifter and dropped trans

N. A. S. T. Y!

F this piece of exhaust in particular.

 

[ford4thot]

Drained it, found a decent shard.

So I opened up the trans. Looks mint so I decided not to rebuild the M5OD.

Bought new input and output shaft seals. There is an oil baffle behind the clutch slave cylinder that is back ordered til middle of May, luckily found one of only two in the whole state.

So happy!

While resealing the top and rear, I found the rest of the shard

Realized it was a shim from the shifter.

So that made me feel better about my decision to save $400 on trans rebuild kit. I believe it was damaged, and simply fell in when I removed the shifter

 

[ford4thot]

Cleaned it up and sealed it back up

Little helper, Nibbler

I just received the elusive unicorn baffle so I've yet to install it, input shaft seal, and new clutch slave cylinder and throw out bearing. I'll be ready to install once that's done.


While trans was out, installed new rear main seal

Trust me I'm a professional....lol actually Ford shop manual said to remove it like this

Cleaned this up too

 

[ford4thot]

Had flywheel turned, and installed new pilot bearing

Artsy fartsy

Installed new clutch

While I was waiting on trans baffle, I started under the hood.

So far, have gotten only the driver's side headers and valve covers completed. Needed rocker arm gaskets BAD.

It ran rough, so I decided to replace the catalytic converters while I was at it. But....

So why not new headers to make it easier to install, plus have completely new exhaust all the way back

Some 4.0's have egr valve, mine doesn't. Had extension cut off and welded, also had to plug O2 sensor in left side of y-pipe (mine is on right side)

The Ford shop manuals were invaluable to me here. So much to remove, and this is the easy side!

Cleaned this up too.

Old Ford Blue

Of course I had to polish the bolts too.

 

[ford4thot]

That's about where I am now. Life, weather, keeping me from getting further.
Lots more ahead tho

Need to update this

 

[ford4thot]

Went with Cooper Cobra Radial GT's, going whitewalls out

 

[adsm08]

Well Mr. Matthew, for a self-proclaimed "Not a mechanic" you sure do pretty work.

One heads-up that I ran into when I installed my headers, which are the same set you have there, don't bolt them fast to the head until you have the Y-pipe bolts started. I was unable to get the Y-pipe to even line up with the headers bolted down. The guy I talked to at Headman was clueless, but another member on here gave me the secret.

Although, and this is just me, if I was working with a 2wd truck I'd ditch that Y-pipe and go true dual.

 

[ford4thot]

Well Mr. Matthew, for a self-proclaimed "Not a mechanic" you sure do pretty work.

One heads-up that I ran into when I installed my headers, which are the same set you have there, don't bolt them fast to the head until you have the Y-pipe bolts started. I was unable to get the Y-pipe to even line up with the headers bolted down. The guy I talked to at Headman was clueless, but another member on here gave me the secret.

Although, and this is just me, if I was working with a 2wd truck I'd ditch that Y-pipe and go true dual.

Thanks! Seriously I don't even change the oil in my cars lol. Thankfully I have some good friends I met online on forums who have helped me out a lot with my questions. And scour forums such as this one. Tons of help
I'm pretty handy tho, I even owned my own remodeling business for a few years. So once I got done being fed up with myself for buying a turd, I thot about it and realized it couldn't be that hard.
Appreciate the tip about the headers.
As far as duals, too late for that, right now anyway. Already have the new cats and exhaust, not installed yet but not going to return them. This will be more than adequate for awhile.

I am going to start researching a 302 swap, if I do it, I'll definitely do true duals then.

More to come soon, I'm dying to get it back on the ground!

First goal is a 100% safe, reliable, and clean chassis.

Still need to decide on suspension.

Either a 3/4 drop with dream beams (comes with shocks), new leafs and the rest of front suspension getting all new bushings.
Or, simply, all new shocks, leafs, and front end bushing rebuild.

It will depend on which costs more, how much more, and also whether or not it will pass inspection as is. If it does, I'll have time to save up some for drop. Pretty sure it'll cost at least $200 extra to drop but also replace stuff the drop doesn't cover

 

[Kirby N.]

Did you swap the 3 rubber plugs at the top of the tranny by the shifter? They are most famous for leaking out of there. Mine does and I can't wait to fix it when I have the tranny out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ford4thot]

Did you swap the 3 rubber plugs at the top of the tranny by the shifter? They are most famous for leaking out of there. Mine does and I can't wait to fix it when I have the tranny out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not yet but I believe I found the part number for the metal plugs that pop in to replace the rubber plugs. Will definitely be doing that, I forgot to mention. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[ford4thot]

The last piece of the puzzle to get my trans back to 100%

Thanks for the reminder @Kirby N.

 

[ford4thot]

New baffle, and new input shaft seal installed. New seal and ready to clean. Then install new clutch slave cylinder and it's ready to go in.

 

[RockRanger]

Looking good.

 

[Assassynation]

get her cleaned up good, nice work!