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

[Rick W]

Just a follow up, but I don’t know how the water got in, but when I was inspecting the driveshaft before it broke, everything looked OK. No rust bubbles or anything like that. When it finally snapped off the cap that holds the u joint, the metal tube actually twisted off, and it was as thin as a sheet of paper on that rear, lower end. When I kicked the clutch is when it twisted off, but it’s obviously something that happened over a long period of time.

 

[rubydist]

Would a driveshaft out of balance vibrate randomly? I can drive at 65mph one day and have vibration and then the next day at the same speed have nothing. I always thought if a wheel or driveshaft was out of balance it would vibrate regardless at the same speeds.

Luckily for me there's a reputable driveline shop a few miles from my work.

If it comes and goes, it is more likely a tire. I have a tire now that is perfectly fine sometimes, but other times at ~75 it has a shake.

The driveline shake will be at 3-4x the frequency of a tire shake, depending on your rear axle ratio.

 

[Ed K]

I thought about shooting it, Im tired of it not working as intended. but its a Ford so... there is that.

I threaten my 2000 Ranger with a mid caliber( Win Model 94 30-30 ) engine-ectomy all the time. It's always broke down. I'm lucky if I get a week, sometimes not even a day before something else breaks, rusts out, or stops working. Sometimes I find something else broken the same day I get something else fixed.
I even wrote a parody of "Working on the Railroad" in my head while lying under it one day, just trying to maintain and off gas without causing more repairs for myself.
I'm not sure if my little rewrite would violate any standards or I would post it since I know many others have felt the same way lol.

 

[Ed K]

If it comes and goes, it is more likely a tire. I have a tire now that is perfectly fine sometimes, but other times at ~75 it has a shake.

The driveline shake will be at 3-4x the frequency of a tire shake, depending on your rear axle ratio.

Not sure how related this would be but- After driving my Ranger for awhile after buying it and getting my teeth loosened after 60-75ish every time, I thought the tires might not have ever been balanced, turned out I was right. I got all 4 balanced and now it rides like, well, like a 25 year old small boned pickup truck should ride.
If your tires are all balanced, it could be the tread cupping, a flat spot, or even a broken steel belt. Uneven tire wear due to an alignment issue is a possibility. Or even mud on the inside of the rim.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

No one has mentioned Fix-a-Flat and similar products. If one has been used, that can throw a tire/wheel out of balance.

 

[Ed K]

No one has mentioned Fix-a-Flat and similar products. If one has been used, that can throw a tire/wheel out of balance.

Good point, I forgot about that since I haven't used them since 1987 in a 72 Harley Sprint front tire. It didn't go well, and made a hell of a mess so I never used that kind of product again.
Now I see car companies are installing this crap in newer cars in lieu of jacks, ridiculous.
Another issue is often improperly balanced wheels. I've seen pictures of entire rows of the newer weight pads being installed on wheels making the wheel and tire imbalanced, defeating the purpose of balancing them.
Of course it could always be a front end issue like ball joints, tie rods, wheel bearings, brakes, cv joints etc.

 

[Rick W]

These posts gave me the afterthought, maybe you’re starting to have a tread separation. That’s when the part of the tire you see, the tread, starts to pull away from the “balloon“ underneath, usually where the steel or poly cords are. It could start as a little inconsistent Wheel wobble, or vibration, and it gets a little bit worse with time. The problem is that all of a sudden, it will go from a little tiny defect to a big piece of the tread coming loose, and can throw the car out of control. If it truly rips apart, it can also rip your fender off as it goes.

A lot of times, when it’s just starting, it won’t show up when you’re balancing the wheel when it’s cold. And again, once it starts getting worse, it can let go all of a sudden. It’s most common on older tires, or on tires that have been subject to a lot of heat, like in Arizona or such.

The spare tire in my 88 Lincoln had never touched the ground. About five years ago I got a flat from a piece of metal laying on the road, and I put that spare on. It didn’t last 24 hours before it came apart. Michelin, and still had the nibs on it. The only thing I can figure is it baked in that dark blue car trunk for 30 years which cooked all the chemistry in the tire.

Only suggestion I have, if it is a tire, is to move it from side to side, and or, front to back, and see if the vibration moves around. Or, you can put the spare tire on, and see if it goes away. Again, unfortunately, the tire can look like new, and it might still balance, it’s something that comes up with heat and running down the road

My two cents, hope it helps

 

[Ed K]

These posts gave me the afterthought, maybe you’re starting to have a tread separation. That’s when the part of the tire you see, the tread, starts to pull away from the “balloon“ underneath, usually where the steel or poly cords are. It could start as a little inconsistent Wheel wobble, or vibration, and it gets a little bit worse with time. The problem is that all of a sudden, it will go from a little tiny defect to a big piece of the tread coming loose, and can throw the car out of control. If it truly rips apart, it can also rip your fender off as it goes.

A lot of times, when it’s just starting, it won’t show up when you’re balancing the wheel when it’s cold. And again, once it starts getting worse, it can let go all of a sudden. It’s most common on older tires, or on tires that have been subject to a lot of heat, like in Arizona or such.

The spare tire in my 88 Lincoln had never touched the ground. About five years ago I got a flat from a piece of metal laying on the road, and I put that spare on. It didn’t last 24 hours before it came apart. Michelin, and still had the nibs on it. The only thing I can figure is it baked in that dark blue car trunk for 30 years which cooked all the chemistry in the tire.

Only suggestion I have, if it is a tire, is to move it from side to side, and or, front to back, and see if the vibration moves around. Or, you can put the spare tire on, and see if it goes away. Again, unfortunately, the tire can look like new, and it might still balance, it’s something that comes up with heat and running down the road

My two cents, hope it helps

It was a common problem with retread tires when they were popular.
One tore apart on my 70s ( can't remember the actual year) Plymouth Fury III back in the early 90's. I had just come off the interstate here in Pa, late for welding school number 2 so I was in a bit of a hurry.
I had just come off the off ramp and got about a half mile when all of a sudden that big old Fury got picked up and thrown sideways in the blink of an eye. Luckily nobody was in the lane next to me and I got it straightened out and off to the shoulder. I'd had retreads come apart before but that one was violent. I thought a truck had hit me from behind but nope, it was the right rear tire that separated, just like Rick described.
The ass end came off the ground and next thing I knew I was broad side doing about 50mph. I pretty much set the record for breakdowns on the way to that welding school with the Fury and two other vehicles
before I finally made it through and got back to work.
But that tire separating was one of the worst I experienced, besides the drive shaft dropping out from the front and almost flipping the car on another occasion. Same Fury, same welding school lol.
I used to call it the Furious because it always seemed mad about something, anything.
It's been decades since I worked at Midas Muffler and Brake where one of my main jobs was mounting and repairing tires so I don't know much about the new tires except I can't afford them. So I don't know how much of a problem tire separation is these days, but it wouldn't hurt to have yours checked.

 

[Summers22]

Filled it up after going through the first tank of gas, 19.65mpg hand calculated.

 

[ben_2_go]

Filled it up after going through the first tank of gas, 19.65mpg hand calculated.

If you live in a flat part of Kansas, that's pretty good.

 

[Summers22]

Plenty of small hills where it kicks down to 4th, its 22 miles each way to work at 50 mph. My Superduty shows an average of 40mph lifetime as my daily. I also probably drove more aggressive than normal at times as its new to me. Hoping for 21mpg this tank.

 

[mtnrgr]

Last few days I did more work to my ranger. Did upper and lower radiator hoses. Resealed the thermostat with a new felpro gasket, motorcraft coolant..New hose clamps as well. Replaced the thermostat housing with a spare I had.

When all that was apart, I noticed the idler pulley was bad, had a new spare..thru that on. Also replaced the belt tensioner pulley as it looked bad.

Replaced the oil sending unit with motorcraft part. I also replaced the fuel filter with a motorcraft part.

It was a job...wore me out alot, yet I did it.

 

[Rick W]

About a week ago, I got the mid-shaft bearing for the two-piece driveshaft in the Road Ranger. I put it in the truck the next day.

Well, caffeine and octane is this weekend at the Kennesaw mall on Sunday morning (come one come all). So tomorrow, I’m going to take it out of the floorboard of the passenger seat and see if I can actually install it on the driveshaft (with the surgery on my elbow/arm, I’m still having some challenges, but I think I can do it).

I’ll probably be at caffeine and octane either way, I just may be driving the big blue 88 Lincoln town car if I can’t get it done. I think it’s bigger than the Road Ranger, so I’ll have to be careful driving, but it’s ready to go and it’s automatic, so I don’t have to shift it to get it there…

 

[Killakittie]

I appreciate all the helpful tips. The truck has a one piece aluminum driveshaft and the tires are new Kumho Solis TA51a 215/R14 96T tires... I actually did not ask if they balanced the tires when the shop put them on but I'm guessing they did.

 

[ben_2_go]

I treated the Strangler to a full tank of fuel when I went to lunch today.