What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Snoranger]

Good lord. Must be a logistical nightmare.... as this is no doubt only a tiny fraction of all the maintenance needs.

It’s a government agency… anything can be a nightmare on a good day.

 

[James Morse]

yes... one of those things you do when it's a nice day and feeling good about having a truck that runs and you like it
hate to say it but when it comes down to it I'd rather have the engine bay looking good than the body. I have a few scratches on the hood that look like a bear clawed it, but it's not thru the primer so it's not rusting.
got a few other dents too. kind of ok with me, I used to worry a lot about dings in parking lots now I don't so much
I just tuck a sheet of paper under pretty much to mask, but actually if it goes all over it doesn't hurt a thing in fact probably is good.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Pulled the rear tires on the '97 to inspect the rear brakes since even after doing pads and rotors up front it still makes some noise breaking at certain situations and not sure if I'd ever looked at the rear brakes... They're fine, probably 1/2 or more shoe material left, don't know if it's normal but only the front shoes are riveted, the back are glued? same on both sides... whatever, both were fine...

While I was there I grabbed a 1.5lb dead blow hammer and tackled some of the dents on the bedsides, didn't get anal about it but I got a few to look better, the big one behind the drivers tire at the bottom is down to a softball sized dent from at least a football size...toward the back corner is difficult since it's double walled, I'd have to get fancy and at least get a screwdriver and remove the tail light which was too much work...

 

[James Morse]

just make sure all the springs are on the back one is small it had broke on mine that causes them to not retract completely you will get rubbing/grabbing
just a thought
I did drums, cylinders, the whole thing on both sides of mine and now it's good. not that expensive.

 

[racsan]

I went and got a few bales of straw for the chicken kennel and a few pumpkins for around the outside of the house. Wind wasnt too bad today so finished tarping up the kennel and put some straw down. Afterwards I swept the loose straw from the bed & put my toolbox back in.

 

[scotts90ranger]

There's no pulling or grabbing or anything, brakes work great, it's just sometimes it sounds a little grindy somewhere... when you are braking consistently until you get to about 5mph, only when you aren't paying attention and if you try to brake again to figure out what is going on it won't do it... maybe tomorrow I'll jack the front up and check the wheel bearings again since I changed the rotors a couple weeks ago...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Popped a new coolant temp sensor in mom’s Explorer. Off and cold (around 60* air temp), it was reading -40, and at running temperature it was reading 365*, so yeah, lol.

Then I went back to the green Ranger project. Took another look around for bolts and still can’t find them. Did find the spare carb for my big chainsaw so I took a minute to put it with the chainsaw stuff. Tore into the starting/charging harness, cut the starter signal wire back to clean wire and used a solder shrink to splice in a new end and replaced the 4 gauge power and ground with new welding cable. Finally used my new crimper for the ends, works well. Wrapped it back up and it’s in the engine bay. Popped the timing chain cover back off VERY CAREFULLY and re-did it because I ended up with the gasket a little off kilter and was worried about sealing. I’m happy with it now. Probably would have been ok the way it was, but with my luck why chance it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

went for a drive with the wife this afternoon and with both windows down the noise was definitely passenger side front... jacked it up and I think I had the wheel bearings a little loose on that side, so they're tighter now...

Also while it was flipped around in the shop I dropped the back seat on the passenger side and pushed out the dent behind it most of the way, looks better...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, did a little more to the green Ranger. Crawled around in the bed, pulled a few things out that don’t need to be in there and found another partial collection of bolts which just happened to have most of what I need, so the transfer case went in today. Knocked out a few little things too. Excited that I’m making progress

 

[mikkelstuff]

Drove the Ranger to get groceries for the week. Does that count?

 

[Bill]

While doing the Costco, Target, Trader Joes, and off to Walmart errands in Folsom, I bumped the curb with it at about 1/8th mph and blew out the tire. My guess is that the sidewall got pinched. Wallymart was across the street, so I thought I would get a tire there. Nope! They don't carry any 225/70/15 tires. Nobody else nearby stocks them either. So, I attempted to put on the donut spare, but the bottle jack wouldn't lift it enough to get the tire off the ground. So, I called AAA.

After getting home and looking up tires, it appears the Firestone Destination LE2 has been replaced with an LE3. I'm hoping that odd tire mixes well with the other three.

Also, I didn't know they made the sidewalls so thin. It just seems like it is too thin, and that they were thicker in the past. I was so amazed by this that I walked over to the curb to see if there was anything metal I could have ran over, but didn't find anything. The curb was chipped from other vehicles running into it over the years. I think it's possible the rubber sidewall was pinched or torn on the pepple/aggregates sticking out of the chipped curb.

All those times I hammered on the tires. Especially in the middle of the forest thinking I better go a bit easier so I don't blow out a tire. Then, I barely bump a curb

 

[ekrampitzjr]

While doing the Costco, Target, Trader Joes, and off to Walmart errands in Folsom, I bumped the curb with it at about 1/8th mph and blew out the tire. My guess is that the sidewall got pinched. Wallymart was across the street, so I thought I would get a tire there. Nope! They don't carry any 225/70/15 tires. Nobody else nearby stocks them either. So, I attempted to put on the donut spare, but the bottle jack wouldn't lift it enough to get the tire off the ground. So, I called AAA.

After getting home and looking up tires, it appears the Firestone Destination LE2 has been replaced with an LE3. I'm hoping that odd tire mixes well with the other three.

Also, I didn't know they made the sidewalls so thin. It just seems like it is too thin, and that they were thicker in the past. I was so amazed by this that I walked over to the curb to see if there was anything metal I could have ran over, but didn't find anything. The curb was chipped from other vehicles running into it over the years. I think it's possible the rubber sidewall was pinched or torn on the pepple/aggregates sticking out of the chipped curb.

All those times I hammered on the tires. Especially in the middle of the forest thinking I better go a bit easier so I don't blow out a tire. Then, I barely bump a curb

Over the years, on various vehicles, I've had bad experiences with Firestone and Bridgestone tires (same company). Almost anything else would be better. I would get either brand only as a last resort.

One type of tire I had a few years ago that worked well for me was BFGoodrich, a name you don't hear much today. Don't know if it makes a tire in your size. Might be worth looking for.

 

[Roert42]

Nope! They don't carry any 225/70/15 tires. Nobody else nearby stocks them either.

I had a hell of a time finding 225/70/R15 s last summer when I wanted to order new tires. Nobody stocked that size. I ended up just going online and ordering some Mastercraft P tires, pretty disappointed. Seemed like online there was still pretty slim picken's for selection.

This must be what the guys with 14" wheels feel like.

 

[superj]

maybe go up to the 235/75/15. those seem to be fairly common


i swapped back to the street tires and put the new 30s in teh garage on the rack for future use. the ac is still shutting off sometimes when driving so i will definitely have to work on that over the winter. but other than that, the ranger is still rocking and rolling

 

[Roert42]

I haven't looked at street tires for 235/75/15, but I did run a set of cooper AT from my 4x4 on my 2wd. They rode really nice with the taller side wall, but I noticed a drop in power. Plus, I didn't like how tall it sat.

May be time I need tires I will regear and just live with the taller tires. The truck did look better with the taller tires.

It seems like the only 225/70/15 were mostly AT tires, and I would rather a Highway tread.