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

[Roert42]

Shot some black on the bumper today.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Was going to do some repairs to the red Ranger but couldn’t get ahold of my buddy so I worked on stuff in the house

 

[Bgunner]

Drove it to the mail box and figured while it was running I'd grab the beer I had forgotten to stop and get yesterday. Damn USPS, They say they attempted to deliver a package today, I was home all day and the reason I went to the mail box, but they ran into issues and said to look for a note they left. No note, No package and the site says the package in the city and I live in a town with its own post office..... and they wonder why they are going broke and don't consider times like these make people choose other carriers. I vote No Confidence in them!

 

[racsan]

Ive got a large plastic box on my porch, think it was meant for garden hose storage or other yard stuff. Ive plainly marked on it “parcel delivery box”. fed ex & ups have been pretty good about putting packages in the box but the damn post office will put whatever wont fit in the mailbox beside the front door, next to the box. I really wish they would stay away from anything other than mail, they cant even do that right let alone packages.
Today I drove into town and back , picked up some 7’ ramps for the flatbed I bought last august.

 

[2drxploder]

modified my charging/ac harness for the v8 swap. wired most of motor, still have starter, ac compressor, intake tubing wiring (basically all accessories) but the hard part is hopefully figured out. this website and yall have been a great help, especially @Junglejoe recently has answered quite a few questions for me.
ricksrangerz tranny crossmember arrived yesterday. friday i ordered a por-m 80 mass air.

 

[sgtsandman]

Upgraded the antenna for the quad band radio on the 2011. The previous one disliked highway speeds and would fold over at the spring loaded break away point at anything over 50 mph.

 

[Bgunner]

Watched it get snow covered and sat at the PC and renewed its registration for the next 2 years.

I like being able to stay home and take care of things from the PC like Bills, Renewals, Shopping... No wonder I'm getting fatter.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Filled up the tank of the '97 for the first full tank since I put the new to me Hankook's on and adding for the 7% the odometer is off (verified on the speedo test section of the local freeway) it's showing 24mpg instead of the 22mpg it normally gets! We'll see about next Wednesday when I need add fuel again. I haven't even been driving in an efficient manner...

So apparently tread design makes a big difference in fuel mileage possibly, the previous tires were Cooper Discoverer M&S, not very aggressive

 

[funguy26]

look at it.

 

[Rick W]

I picked up an OEM am/fm/cd/cassette radio for the 97 from a 2001 Sport TRAC. It’s my understanding it will fit if I cut out some little brace in the back in the dash, since the 97 and earlier stepped off in the back and the 98 and later are square in the back and would interfere with the brace. Can anybody shed any light on that? I only paid $50 for the radio and the speakers when the guy upgraded his, and I could flip that back out on craigslist if it’s not going to work, but it’s the only one I found. (I can’t find an 8-track anywhere so I can use the Lincoln tapes!)

I also ordered two tachs for the 97 and 87 with shift lights for $35 total. For the drag racing I’m going to do....

 

[97RangerXLT]

I picked up an OEM am/fm/cd/cassette radio for the 97 from a 2001 Sport TRAC. It’s my understanding it will fit if I cut out some little brace in the back in the dash, since the 97 and earlier stepped off in the back and the 98 and later are square in the back and would interfere with the brace. Can anybody shed any light on that? I only paid $50 for the radio and the speakers when the guy upgraded his, and I could flip that back out on craigslist if it’s not going to work, but it’s the only one I found. (I can’t find an 8-track anywhere so I can use the Lincoln tapes!)

I also ordered two tachs for the 97 and 87 with shift lights for $35 total. For the drag racing I’m going to do....

You will also need a wire harness adapter. I have a cd/cassette/radio from a 98 Ranger and it fit just fine in the truck physically but the harness would not fit. At the time there was a company that made an adapter harness but I was a broke college student and couldn't afford it, so I never swapped it out

AJ

 

[Roert42]

If you have saved a chunk of the wiring harness that plugged into the back of the radio you can always just look up the wiring digrams for both and splice them together with your own plugs or butt connector. That's what i've always done when I had to replace an original radio with a new one, but a new aftermarket one always comes with a new wiring harness.

 

[Rick W]

You will also need a wire harness adapter

Thanks guys. How do I spec it? Do I get both radio numbers and surf eBay? By year model? Or? Where in line?

 

[97RangerXLT]

While Roert42's method is totally workable... I hate messing with the wiring harness if I don't have to. so I just googled "how to make a 1998 radio work in a 1997 Ford Ranger" and got a few hits right off the bat. YOu could order the harness and plug it into your existing harness and new radio and never have to et out the wire cutters.

AJ

 

[Dirtman]

You still gotta splice the adapter and new radios harness together. Same thing you'd be doing if you got the end plug peice of the harness from the donor trucks radio and the adapter. Unless I'm missing something here.