WTH is weighted thaaang blocking drain plug on BW1354???

[fixizin]

It's round, but doesn't rotate... there it is, right below the shift motor. And what size bolts are holding it?... looks like 12-13mm?

Just linked some TRS Lib pics, vs down-scaling and rotating and uploading my own... lulz.

Fill plug no prob, drain BLOCKED.

Older Version...

And WHAT the heck do it DO?... Vibration damper? Thanks in advance.

 

[Curious Hound]

Yes. Vibration damper doohickey.

When camping, you can take it off and use it as a weight to keep the wind from blowing the napkins off your picnic table.

 

[Snoranger]

It’s mostly used to scratch up the paint in the bed after you remove it, but before you get rid of it.

It’s second most common use is to hold the garage door open on a hot day.

 

[DILLARD000]

Yep, that's dead weight you're hauling around.
Take it off, if you then get "vibratious" in either 2WHi\4WHi\4WLo, put it back on.
Otherwise, pay an art shop a few hundred dollars for a fancy frame & hang it over your sofa!

 

[fixizin]

Thanks All Ye RKis!... I'll "live dangerously" for a few days, and hire a Taiwanese college girl, with a finely calibrated tushy, to ride shotgun and report any "vibratious sensationalismz" she detects.

 

[19Walt93]

Don't take it off, it doesn't hurt anything and absorbs some vibration. It's an engineer fixing a problem caused by poor balancing of driveline parts. The 04 I bought new had one and the 2011 didn't do I added one. Ford hung them on Fairmont rear ends trying to fix vibrations, Crown Vics and Lincolns had them bolted to the H pipe. Few vehicles in the 60's vibrated because there was enough mass to soak it up, when they got "efficient" the reduced weight didn't cause the vibrations but it sure made them noticeable.

 

[fixizin]

So when I get around to taking it off for the xfer case fluid change, are there any "vibration-absorbing" rubber bushings on the backside, that are going to crumble to the ground as black sand, and that FoMoCo wants beeeg-time $$ to replace??

Just waiting to get new crush washers (from NAPA) for the Tranny Fill+Drain plugs, so I can just do all the messy suction-gun jobs under there at one time. (Strangely, FILL plug on trans is leaking, no doubt from the 2 whole times I've had it out, coupled with the high lateral-G forces Rangers are known for... )

Too bad Mazda didn't adopt the NPT w/ 3/8" square-drive plug scheme that BW uses.

 

[19Walt93]

Nope, just unbolt it and put it back on when you're done.