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

[pjtoledo]

drove about 100 miles to a central Ohio salvage yard to purchase a 2000 transmission, manual with tcase adapter.
took a walking tour of the yard, gonna go back with tools.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, I went out and worked on getting the leaf springs together, think I know how I want the packs, but before I cinch down the U-bolts I’m gonna jack up the back of the truck and see how it is. Didn’t make a lot of progress though, was fighting the cold and snow and dead batteries, broke two of the plastic end pads for the leafs because they were so cold. Had a couple other issues. One pack is built and partly installed.

Oh, and here’s my workshop and the nice rear diff cover…

 

[Curious Hound]

Well, I went out and worked on getting the leaf springs together, think I know how I want the packs, but before I cinch down the U-bolts I’m gonna jack up the back of the truck and see how it is. Didn’t make a lot of progress though, was fighting the cold and snow and dead batteries, broke two of the plastic end pads for the leafs because they were so cold. Had a couple other issues. One pack is built and partly installed.

Oh, and here’s my workshop and the nice rear diff cover…
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I admire your tenacity.

 

[DILLARD000]

...my workshop and the nice rear diff cover…

Impressive!
But you may be OCD, one of those guys who have everything in their shop just a little too neat & orderly?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Impressive!
But you may be OCD, one of those guys who have everything in their shop just a little too neat & orderly?

I call it efficiency, and when I have an actual shop building to work in, it will be much tidier than the outdoor shop

 

[scotts90ranger]

Picked up a '92 XLT 4x2 2.3L manual trans Ranger for parts, it's rustier than I'd hoped on the roof as it does have the rust spot in the front corner that you rust belt guys talk about but the roof is straight, the windshield looks good so maybe I can extract that too, has a rear slider... not sure what I'll do yet but it was cheap enough for parts... apparently missing radiator, alternator, starter and rear driveshaft, has grille and front bumper damage and missing some random stuff but fairly complete, apparently it got a new clutch but they couldn't figure out how to bleed the slave cylinder so sold it to the guy I got it from so new clutch! Worst case that will be good for the '97 and I'll use the rest at some point... I'll put up a pic later, there's still outside screwing around to be done

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Well, I went out and worked on getting the leaf springs together, think I know how I want the packs, but before I cinch down the U-bolts I’m gonna jack up the back of the truck and see how it is. Didn’t make a lot of progress though, was fighting the cold and snow and dead batteries, broke two of the plastic end pads for the leafs because they were so cold. Had a couple other issues. One pack is built and partly installed.

Oh, and here’s my workshop and the nice rear diff cover…
View attachment 88911
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Come on, you need to spray some salt water on the diff cover so it matches the axle.

 

[racsan]

took off my winter tires and put the m/t classic 2’s back on. Looks so much better and now the speedometer is back to being correct again.

 

[Curious Hound]

took off my winter tires and put the m/t classic 2’s back on. Looks so much better and now the speedometer is back to being correct again.

Living life on the edge, doing that in February. Aren't you?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Come on, you need to spray some salt water on the diff cover so it matches the axle.

It’ll get there, lol. Actually thinking of painting the axle with a home brew anti-rust compound. Or I might just take it in and have it sprayed after it’s running.

 

[racsan]

Living life on the edge, doing that in February. Aren't you?

yeah, but I think it will be ok, my work commute isnt that far, if it got really bad and I needed to go in to town Id take the escape, im not changing its tires out yet, still need to get a new set of not-winter tires for it, bought new rims almost a year ago but didn’t do anything more than put new valves in them.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, not much to the Ranger... but I did hook up a battery and plug my laptop in and program it. Forscan did a great job and it was easier than expected, I kept my original keys and PATs module and Forscan actually had a thing where I could tell it I replaced the PCM and it did some voodoo magic and told me to cycle the key a couple times and done. All of my original Ranger keys now work, didn’t have to program each one. At least I think they work. Picked two keys at random and bumped the starter over. I can also hear the fuel pump prime. Still have to finish getting the engine together, but it’s a promising start. To get to that point I also had to finish the wire loom work and hook a few wires back up.

The 65 series battery I have wouldn’t fully charge and was about dead from programming and a couple starter bumps but under warranty, so I ran it up to Autozone and they swapped it out. Also found that Ace, Tractor Supply, Home Depot and Lowes all don’t sell coarse thread 9/16” nylocks. Actually, they don’t have coarse thread 9/16” period aside from Home Depot had some bolts but no nuts. Also found that none of them can cut a chip key without ”programming” (copying) the chip between keys. My new key that has a built in fob has too big of a head to cut on my key duplicator (old Ilco machine). Guess I have to see if it will fit on my code cutter (Foley Belsaw).

 

[Bobber64]

Cut the front two frame sections off parts truck ( front 8” or so) cut the mangled sections off Roxy and welded them on. Pulled the TFI distributor and installed the new duraspark distributor. Removed all the crap from the engine bay not needed. Removed nice exhaust from parts truck. Removed Cat. and crap exhaust and installed new exhaust modified without Cat. Daughter helped put grill, valance and bumpers and new shocks on. Ran out of time to reassemble Motorcraft 2150 from parts truck. Tomorrow’s another day!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Here's the only pic I took of the new to me '92, that's the straight side, the passenger side is the one with all the damage

Just realized looking at the picture it's a long bed, that TOTALLY explains why the center of the drivers door had to be ahead of the front trailer axle... the '90 has been on that trailer MANY times...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Chipped away at my list. New 65 series battery is mostly installed, had to make some adjustments to the battery cables. Also had to bend the bracket for the ABS because the battery was hitting the one bolt.

Front sway bar installed with new poly bushings and end links, using the Explorer 34mm bar since it’s significantly beefier than the Ranger one. 98-01 Explorers had these and they mount exactly the same as the 98+ Ranger ones. 95-97 Explorers could have 36mm, but they mount different.

Built my second leaf pack. Few odds and ends. would have been nice to get more done, but I think that was good progress today.