Which gears should I use for going up hills?

[valleyvinyl84]

Not a fan of rice but my 2" Autometer on top of the column looks sweet. Just an idea if you cant find a OEM cluster.

 

[ILLEGALCONCEPTS]

I was going to say, you can get smaller ones. I personally have the 5" Moster Tach, it fits the build of my truck very well.

either way, I think you are going to be very surprised to see what RPM you are running at.

The 4.10's will help the OP with his driving style. At any given MPH his RPM should be higher putting the truck closer to its power band.

James


Sorry pic is so LARGE, I'm a little slow when it comes to this stuff LOL

 

[scotts90ranger]

with a '92 you have to be careful, that's the year they changed the wiring at some point to the '93 style, and I don't know what month they changed... I don't know about explorer year changes...

 

[Hahnsb2]

So are you guys telling me that my ranger won't go faster than 45mph uphill even if a put in lower gears? Am I doomed not to be able to drive past 45 mph? Putting the engine inside another power band I always thought should make it faster.(In the low end of things not top speed. Let's not get into that discussion.)

Also I'm confused about how you can go that fast in third. My transmission has a granny first gear maybe everybody else's doesn't. Believe me when I tell you the max speed for each gear and that I'm not shifting too early because the engine hits the rev limiter every time I shift. That's just the way I use it.

I can go up the steepest hill around here (MUCH steeper than anything on a freeway) at 55 with a 2.3 5 speed ranger with 3.45s, it's called using 3rd gear and the skinny pedal.

 

[Fast Fords]

I've never seen my check engine light come on when I hit the rev limiter.....odd. Maybe something else went out of specs to trip it.

James

well after spinnin' in some snow a year back, the check engine light came on...got to work, threw the scanner on it and got a code either an intake restriction? i think and something worded as Engine Speed Limiter reached (can't remember). Truck ran fine when the light was on, so i cleared the codes; never came back on. I thought it was kinda funny

 

[Bryan22]

with a '92 you have to be careful, that's the year they changed the wiring at some point to the '93 style, and I don't know what month they changed... I don't know about explorer year changes...

the older ones have a yellowish background color. the newer ones have green color.

 

[Rico]

I'm starting to think I may have some unknown engine trouble. Getting a tachometer is now going to be my #1 priority now. I don't remember seeing a check engine light and she's always gotten awesome gas mileage so I never thought anything was wrong.

 

[oldjohnny]

Just quit being paranoid. Your truck will be fine. I ain't no grease monkey, but I've comed to learn around these forums that the 2.3s engines can take a beating!

I used to be the same way when I got my ranger. I was like "My ranger is old and if I push the thing too much, I may blow something". Let me tell you, it is a good thing I don't have a tach, because if I did, I would probably still be paranoid. I've hit my 95 ranger 2.3 Manual all the way to 62-63 on 2nd gear. Shit, just this past weekend, somehow, I downshifted from 5th to 4th to go from 80 Miles to 90. I also hit the 100 Mile mark for the first time (always tought it was impossible for a stock ranger)!! I wanna say the wind helped me, but still a 100 is a 100!

About adding a stock tach, I would probably check and ask around if those tach are accurate because I read (forgot where) that if you were going to put a tach on from another ranger/explorer, you had to make shure the tach came from the same engine you have. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[valleyvinyl84]

I'm starting to think I may have some unknown engine trouble. Getting a tachometer is now going to be my #1 priority now. I don't remember seeing a check engine light and she's always gotten awesome gas mileage so I never thought anything was wrong.

Don't worry about it you just think your engine is spinning alot faster than it actually is. Get a tach and you'll soon be goin uphill at 55 in 3rd like the rest of us.

 

[MikeInIdaho]

We've got some uber-steep hills here in Idaho, too. I used to think that keeping the revs down in the 2000-2500k range was somehow good for my truck, but after driving it for a while I've discovered (with the help of the fine people on this forum) that lugging it that low is actually worse for the motor than wringing it out a little. I had to take a bed full of junk up to the landfill and had no problem accelerating up some steep grades doing about 45-50 in 3rd. Trust me, you're not going to hurt your motor by keeping it in it's power band. If anything, you'll stand less of a chance breaking shyt revving to 4-5k going up a steep grade than trying to tackle it bogged down to 1500k. You probably don't have any internal engine damage and don't need to waste your time/money swapping in a new axle. All you need to do is take some friendly advice and alter your driving habits a smidgen!

 

[locovaca]

About adding a stock tach, I would probably check and ask around if those tach are accurate because I read (forgot where) that if you were going to put a tach on from another ranger/explorer, you had to make shure the tach came from the same engine you have. Can anyone confirm this?

I swapped in mine into a 2.3 from what I believe was a 3.0 and didn't have a problem.

 

[Fast Fords]

I swapped in mine into a 2.3 from what I believe was a 3.0 and didn't have a problem.

i swapped a b4000 cluster - the colour and needles are different and the placement of some idiot lights have changed but the basics are the exact

 

[MikeInIdaho]

I'm starting to think I may have some unknown engine trouble. Getting a tachometer is now going to be my #1 priority now. I don't remember seeing a check engine light and she's always gotten awesome gas mileage so I never thought anything was wrong.

If you've been getting awesome gas mileage, haven't noticed any kind of check engine light being on and haven't had any reason to think anything is wrong then you don't have any internal engine damage.

I agree that getting a tach would be a good idea. That way you can see for yourself that there's no harm in winding your motor up a bit or downshifting into third @ 50mph to make it up a steep hill. Don't waste your money on deeper gears or a different axle, as others have already said that will make your situation even worse (if you don't change the way you drive).

 

[Ford 460 Boy]

I have a 90 Ranger with the 2.3 and a 5 speed with 4.10 gearing and mine will run about 45 MPH in second at redline and about 60 MPH in third at redline I think you should just run it for what its got, because they don't have much. If you want to run third gear put a 4.0 in it.

 

[PlumCrazy]

I have the tach out of a B3000 in my 2.3 94 Ranger. The only difference was the colors and of course the tach.

-plumcrazy