Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Realbigolie
New Member
Boy, I sure do appreciate you all being here in a blog format! I have so far to go with my truck. I will be posting at least once a week as I go through my 97, 2wd, 4cyl, 5 speed Ranger and bring up to a point of trust.
Although this week and next is occupied with my daughter, son in law and grandchildren visiting from Tennessee I still have found time to do a few things.
First off, I want all my fellow bloggers to know. Be very careful these days buying a vehicle from a private party. There’s still is a lot of wonderful sellers out there that you can get a great buy from. I wasn’t so fortunate. The seller I met miss led me into believing the Ranger I fell in love with was currently registered and after a trip to AAA and the DMV I spent an extra $767 dollars trying to bring the registration up to date. The seller stole tags off another vehicle and placed them on my Ranger allowing me to believe the tags were current. The DMV said it is a common occurrence. Even thought I paid all the late fees it’s still going to take 3 to 6 months before I’ll be able to receive my pink slip. Then I’ll be ready to replace the license plates with my ham radio call sign plates.
I went to my local Ford dealership “Villa Park Ford of Orange” and introduced myself to Eric the parts guy. I asked if I could buy a seat belt extension since I’m a robust kind of guy… Eric said no! He would be glad to order me one for free! I was very pleased because the auto parts store wanted $30 dollars. Every penny counts and expenses all adds up quickly too. Now days it’s click-it or ticket-it here in California. I won’t have to be looking over my shoulder in my Ranger.
I bought a engine light (“Actron” OBD II) diagnostic tester from Pep-Boys for $50 as well as a new electric meter from Harbor Freight for $10 bucks . I still need to buy a good vacuum gage to test for leaks. Then I’ll be able to go through all the reasons my OBD II registered a error #301 #1 cylinder miss-fire.
I have been doing a little checking on our web site (fantastic source of info I might add) about my engine with the eight spark plugs and wires. I am wondering if there is a special spark plug wrench and socket to assist in getting to some of the hard to reach plugs? I also found out that it would cost as much as $320 (Pep-Boys) to $400 (Dealership) to replace spark plugs and wires. Has anyone else run into this dilemma of which way to go? Seems like an awful lot of work verses spending a lot of money. Once again I’ll probably end up doing the work myself so…. If you have replaced your eight spark plugs and wires can you tell me if you found any short cuts I’d sure like to know?
Next it’ll be my exhaust converter and wither or not to just take it off until the next smog test.
Thanks all you fellow bloggers!
Realbigolie
Although this week and next is occupied with my daughter, son in law and grandchildren visiting from Tennessee I still have found time to do a few things.
First off, I want all my fellow bloggers to know. Be very careful these days buying a vehicle from a private party. There’s still is a lot of wonderful sellers out there that you can get a great buy from. I wasn’t so fortunate. The seller I met miss led me into believing the Ranger I fell in love with was currently registered and after a trip to AAA and the DMV I spent an extra $767 dollars trying to bring the registration up to date. The seller stole tags off another vehicle and placed them on my Ranger allowing me to believe the tags were current. The DMV said it is a common occurrence. Even thought I paid all the late fees it’s still going to take 3 to 6 months before I’ll be able to receive my pink slip. Then I’ll be ready to replace the license plates with my ham radio call sign plates.
I went to my local Ford dealership “Villa Park Ford of Orange” and introduced myself to Eric the parts guy. I asked if I could buy a seat belt extension since I’m a robust kind of guy… Eric said no! He would be glad to order me one for free! I was very pleased because the auto parts store wanted $30 dollars. Every penny counts and expenses all adds up quickly too. Now days it’s click-it or ticket-it here in California. I won’t have to be looking over my shoulder in my Ranger.
I bought a engine light (“Actron” OBD II) diagnostic tester from Pep-Boys for $50 as well as a new electric meter from Harbor Freight for $10 bucks . I still need to buy a good vacuum gage to test for leaks. Then I’ll be able to go through all the reasons my OBD II registered a error #301 #1 cylinder miss-fire.
I have been doing a little checking on our web site (fantastic source of info I might add) about my engine with the eight spark plugs and wires. I am wondering if there is a special spark plug wrench and socket to assist in getting to some of the hard to reach plugs? I also found out that it would cost as much as $320 (Pep-Boys) to $400 (Dealership) to replace spark plugs and wires. Has anyone else run into this dilemma of which way to go? Seems like an awful lot of work verses spending a lot of money. Once again I’ll probably end up doing the work myself so…. If you have replaced your eight spark plugs and wires can you tell me if you found any short cuts I’d sure like to know?
Next it’ll be my exhaust converter and wither or not to just take it off until the next smog test.
Thanks all you fellow bloggers!
Realbigolie
