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Volkshook
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2019
- Messages
- 52
- City
- Utah
- Vehicle Year
- 1993
- Transmission
- Manual
- Total Lift
- Pretty sure it's stock. I could be wrong.
- Tire Size
- P215/75R15
- My credo
- Nothing personal. I'd rather be driving my Bug.
I really hope this is the appropriate place to put this. There is SO much information on these forums, and I don't doubt that a lot is essentially repeated in a hundred different places, but I'm so lacking in confidence and experience that I'm getting a bit overwhelmed looking for a better way to do this, so I trust that site admins will point me to the right places if this is wrong.
First real attempt at a repair project on my '93 Ranger XL (who shall be named Rick Sherman, I think) is a bust. My goal was to change out the thermostat, but I barely managed to drain a cup or two of coolant. With the radiator cap off and the valve at the bottom as open as I could perceive it able to go, it merely dripped. The reservoir didn't seem to be budging, nor did what I saw at the top of the radiator. I even pulled the valve plug out of the bottom of the radiator, which got a little more coolant out (through the plug hole, not the spigot).
After a while, I thought I would try to at least reach the thermostat. I got the hose off and *whoosh*: a non-draining thermostat housing scowled up at me as the coolant that had been in the hose ran down over the engine.
I thought, "Maybe if I run the engine? Heat it up? Move things?" So I replaced the hose atop the thermostat housing (reclamping it), and started it up. Nothing. Stood with my hand on the throttle for several minutes, holding it open. I thought it odd that while I held the throttle open to nearly the same spot the whole time, the rpms fluctuated quite a bit. Still no love from the drain tube. So with light fading, I packed up and accepted today's temporary defeat. If anybody has bright ideas, I'm listening.
As a side note, there's a plug in the front passenger-side corner of the engine bay that's not plugged into anything, and I'm not sure what it would plug into. Any ideas?
First real attempt at a repair project on my '93 Ranger XL (who shall be named Rick Sherman, I think) is a bust. My goal was to change out the thermostat, but I barely managed to drain a cup or two of coolant. With the radiator cap off and the valve at the bottom as open as I could perceive it able to go, it merely dripped. The reservoir didn't seem to be budging, nor did what I saw at the top of the radiator. I even pulled the valve plug out of the bottom of the radiator, which got a little more coolant out (through the plug hole, not the spigot).
After a while, I thought I would try to at least reach the thermostat. I got the hose off and *whoosh*: a non-draining thermostat housing scowled up at me as the coolant that had been in the hose ran down over the engine.
I thought, "Maybe if I run the engine? Heat it up? Move things?" So I replaced the hose atop the thermostat housing (reclamping it), and started it up. Nothing. Stood with my hand on the throttle for several minutes, holding it open. I thought it odd that while I held the throttle open to nearly the same spot the whole time, the rpms fluctuated quite a bit. Still no love from the drain tube. So with light fading, I packed up and accepted today's temporary defeat. If anybody has bright ideas, I'm listening.
As a side note, there's a plug in the front passenger-side corner of the engine bay that's not plugged into anything, and I'm not sure what it would plug into. Any ideas?
