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2020 edit: The original-and-forever-a-project truck: Post more of the truck? Sure, why the gently caress not! I haven't taken enough pictures of it all in one piece in entirely too long, so I need to fix that once I get poo poo squared away.    Included that last one because I have basically no recent photos of the grille for some reason? That's a 17-year-old photo of the truck, pre-LS1 swap, on the farm where it spent the first few years before my grandpa gave it to my mom. --- So as most of you know, I've got a 1970 GMC that I've been working on (on and off) over the course of the last 13 years. Unfortunately, lately has been more off than on. I'm tired of having my project languish in the garage covered in junk, so this thread is as much to help motivate me as anything else. Of course, real life priorities have to come first. With my impending fatherhood, I'm going to be leaving the nice, safe, and modern Mazdaspeed3 at home with my wife and soon-to-be-child; my beater Ranger is now going to be my commuter vehicle too. It's had a lot of maintenance deferred by the previous two owners that I need to resolve, primarily around the suspension. At just shy of 170k, I think most everything underneath this thing is original. Click for bigger, if for some reason you really want to see this poo poo in high res.  The patient at hand - 1998 Ford Ranger, in 'old man special' white with green stick-on stripes. 2.5L Pinto four-cylinder, five-speed stick, and not much else.  Passenger wheel off. Not much to see yet...  That shows the upper balljoint on this side. All four balljoints look pretty much the same as this. Oddly the tie rod ends look pretty good. Already have the upper nut off of the shock; most of the guides I found online were discussing having to grind this off. I love Arizona vehicles   Old shock out of the truck (the front shocks are ridiculously easy to remove) and new one next to it. Right front shock could be easily compressed by hand and would never re-extend. Left front at least would try to rebound.  New one in, bolted in at the bottom only.  To do either balljoint, you have to separate it from the spindle - and pulling the caliper is a drat good idea since it takes 30 seconds to do.  After removing the pinch bolt and smacking the spindle a few times with a hammer, the upper joint is free. Clacks around with the lightest touch.  Pickle fork makes short work of the lower joint. Left the tie rod attached, put the rest on a bucket for support.  Lower joint is a press-fit with a C-clip. Hit it with the Autozone rental press and a breaker bar...  ...and out it comes.  Just a bit dry in here!  Protip: While the regular Autozone kit will get the old joint out on its own, you need to grab the 2WD adapter set too to get the new ones in. You can make a stack of adapters that fit the ball joint with the regular kit, but they're too drat tall for the actual press. With the adapter set as shown, it's easy.  Look, it's even a greasable one, unlike the factory piece!  Shiniest piece of the whole truck, right here.  Comes with a new C-clip too.  Upper ball joints, at least on this era of Ranger, are not officially replaceable within the control arm. You can actually buy the joints themselves, but the only account I've found of a replacement without replacing the whole arm, required pulling it and using a very large press anyway. So, out with the bigass bolts that hold the arm to the truck.  Eccentric bolt, camber washer, and nut. I'm going to need one hell of an alignment after this.  Also a teensy bit dry here.  Control arm removed, upper shock nut installed.  New upper arm next to old one.  And on the truck.  Lift the spindle up under the new lower joint, thread the new castle nut on enough to hold it. Then start playing with the upper to line it all up, unless this happens:  The boot popped out of its crimped base  I pulled it off, pushed it back in, but as soon as I had the whole thing assembled and the suspension at full droop, it popped loose again. Lesson learned, don't buy the Dorman arms; get the nicer Moog ones. I may yet try to press it back into place with it still on the truck, but I may also just see how long it lasts as it is. Everything pretty much put together on the passenger side now. Up to this point was all wrenching in yesterday's hot sun. Between the heat and impending family gatherings, I stopped until this afternoon.  Lather, rinse, repeat, it's the driver's side! On the plus side, it went much more quickly having done it all once and not having to run to Autozone in the middle of it for those adapters.  Everything up under the fender liner. Yes, the boot covering the steering U-joint is ripped; no, I'm not replacing it unless the U-joint itself ever gets sloppy.  Old lower on the driver's side. The only one that I could actually make clunk by hand. For having shredded boots, there was a surprising amount of grease left in these things.  Driver's upper.  Again, a lot of grease still in here for a destroyed boot - and these aren't greasable parts. (Neither are the Dormans I'm putting in for the uppers)  I ended up getting the lower joint cocked a bit initially, so I needed some air help to get it in all the way. Thanks again, JnnyThndrs!  This one came with a 90-degree zerk that wasn't preinstalled for whatever reason. Installed, and greased.  Driver's side all buttoned up. Took it on a short test drive to return the tools to Autozone, definitely needs an alignment but it's definitely a good bit quieter over bumps. Still some noise that I think must be the passenger lower control arm bushings but I'm not replacing that unless it gets some serious play and can't be aligned. Still to come: rear shocks, rear brake rebuild, power steering hoses, and a cluster swap to get a tach. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Aug 6, 2012 06:00
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A mod that actually fiddles with cars? I don't know how I feel about this development... Nice work otherwise, I am surprised it didn't feel like a completely different vehicle with those garbage shocks replaced.
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Aug 6, 2012 07:18
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It definitely feels 'better' but with the alignment all kinds of screwy, it also wants to wander - which is distracting from the improvements. I'm going to try and squeeze it into the shop for an alignment this week.
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Aug 6, 2012 07:36
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No photos today since I didn't do anything I wanted to spend any time with a camera for. Changed the oil on the MS3 (holy hell was it hot today) and got the Ranger aligned. Annoyingly enough: the stock control arm bolts on the Ranger / Explorer have a very limited range of adjustment. With the new parts, the shop couldn't get anything more than about 2.5-3 degrees of caster, so I had to pay for some new adjustable bolts. Wish I had known beforehand so I could've bought some for $20-$40 and put them in with the control arms, instead of paying shop prices and rates so that I didn't need to pay for the bolts AND another alignment. Does drive a lot better now, though.
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Aug 11, 2012 03:35
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Does your wife actually use the MS3 or is she not the hooning type?
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Aug 11, 2012 11:14
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She's taken it a lot faster than I ever have, so yes  She's the same one who drove a 1985 Toyota 4x4 and a 1973 Opel GT, and helped me with the LS1 swap. Fun cars are very much not lost on her.
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Aug 11, 2012 15:26
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IOwnCalculus posted:
I got me one of them JnnyThndrs guns, too. Replaced my HF Earthquake and... wow, what a difference a "real" gun makes! If you run into any problems with it, it breaks down into 3 pieces in about a minute and most moving/wear parts are available in a $35 IR Tune-up kit.
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Aug 11, 2012 16:42
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Meatpimp: Good to know about the gun. I did have to crank the regulator on my compressor from 60PSI to 100PSI, though. Look, it even does real-truck things! 160 pounds of yard debris. Had a dead tree in the yard that finally toppled over. Thing was even drier than some 2x4's I've bought (and thus, extremely light) but drat if it didn't feel like I was caber tossing when I was one-handing a 6' chunk of the trunk into the dumpster.
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Aug 11, 2012 19:49
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 Only about 800 miles to go before I can swap to my new gauge cluster without having to muck around with an odometer swap. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2012 05:40
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How long until a 5.0 gets dropped in?
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Aug 20, 2012 08:42
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Heh, almost certianly never. The Ranger's number one goal is to be cheap transportation that I don't need to worry about. Besides, I've done the newer V8 swap. If I do an engine swap, the only one I could possibly think of that I'd want to do would be swapping a Mazdaspeed3/6/CX7 turbo 2.3 in. After all, the later Ranger came with the naturally aspirated 2.3L Mazda...
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Aug 20, 2012 17:43
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IOwnCalculus posted:If I do an engine swap, the only one I could possibly think of that I'd want to do would be swapping a Mazdaspeed3/6/CX7 turbo 2.3 in. After all, the later Ranger came with the naturally aspirated 2.3L Mazda...
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Aug 20, 2012 17:53
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I'm quite certain the engine mounts for the 2.3L Mazda are very different than what I have in my 2.5L Pinto powered truck, though I don't know if that's something that can be easily swapped or if it's a new crossmember. Then on top of that, I have no idea if the transverse 2.3 has the same mounting capabilities as the longitudinal 2.3.
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Aug 20, 2012 18:02
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So, I did stuff again today! Where we started the day - still no tach, and just for fun the trip odometer has started not wanting to reset to 000.0 recently, so I'm glad I don't have to swap the odometer over to the new cluster.  Three screws and some yanking gets the center portion of the dash out. Shown, my wiring job on the radio as well as the wiring for a relay I added to make the power port trigger based on the amp turn-on wire from the head unit.  More screws and more yanking pulls the dash surround out. Conveniently, since the last time I had this apart I forgot to actually screw the cluster in, it just pulls out!  Never rattled, amazingly. And what's left after I pull it out. That daylight in the back was a good sign for me - one of the two things I wanted to accomplish today was hiding the USB cable that runs up to my car dock on the windshield. Turns out I didn't need to drill a single hole in the dash, there's already a significant gap up there that is more than large enough to get a micro USB connector through...  As shown. Just had to wiggle it around enough near the VIN and I was able to fish it up.  Snake it behind one of the supports to get it over by the radio, and we'll pick up the other end of that cable later.  So my donor cluster is out of a 2000 Mountaineer - and supposedly transplanting into "older" Rangers can result in the CEL illuminating the wrong idiot light. The info on what constitutes older is a bit sketchy, though. I decided to just check for myself. This is the back of the original cluster, which having fewer gauges is pretty easy to trace. The seller of the cluster included hacked-off ends of the wiring harness, so I just had to strip the appropriate wire and go from there.  Tested it on the old...  And confirmed continuity on the new. In that first picture I actually had the wrong wire - I had traced the common ground with a few other lights, and not the actual signal wire. Tracing the right wire on both showed that the CEL was still on the same pin on both the '98 Ranger and the '00 Mountaineer, so all was well here.  So I've had the cluster out before, and it was to replace all of these damned 194 bulbs that Ford apparently got from the world's cheapest source. Sure enough, most of them on the donor cluster were burnt out too, but I just swapped the year-old bulbs from the old cluster in, until I came to this one. The white residue on the tip was a bit odd...  Oh.  Factory firestarter! Couldn't tell a whole lot about it through the hole, but I had to pull the cluster apart anyway so I decided to investigate further after I did so.  A smattering of T15s and the front cover is off. Couldn't actually find my T15 but luckily they are so low-torque that my T10 did the job, and they're hex-headed too.  So the white stuff is just heatshrink, and I was able to shove the bundle up and against the plastic for the illumination to keep it away from the bulb.  After popping the center cluster out. All three sections of the cluster just pull out from the back, which makes this nice and easy.  The original reason I had to pull it apart anyway - the donor was an auto, but my Ranger has a stick so I don't need this. This literally just slides out and you can slide the blanking plate from the stick cluster into its place.  The back of a PRNDL.  Blanking plate installed after disassembling the original cluster in the same manner.  Remember the USB cable earlier? My stereo install kit has a little drawer included with it, and these holes are already almost big enough to pop a USB cable through, if the one you have doesn't have a lot of rubber around the head. Mine does, of course, so out came the drill press.  Small hole made larger with no apparent change in integrity of the box, and now the male side of the USB comes out under the radio again to plug into my USB adapter.  And now we're at everyone's favorite step - installation is the reverse of removal. Plugged it in and cranked it up, and everything worked right away.  Skipping well ahead but the interior of this thing seriously comes apart / goes together in like five minutes.  The new center dash area. I'm almost tempted to hardwire a USB adapter behind the dash eventually, but I really don't want to just have a cigarette adapter plugged in somewhere I can't quickly unplug it. So, now I have a tach - which means maybe I'll get some visual indication when it decides it doesn't want to idle anymore! I suspect it's probably a dirty idle air control valve.
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Sep 9, 2012 01:32
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IOwnCalculus posted:
Why not pull off the ignition wire on the radio harness? I did that for a DC-DC power supply and LCD without issue.
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Sep 9, 2012 07:44
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Run the USB to the back side of the cigarette lighter using the remote wire from the head unit to toggle the relay on and off. If something bad happens and you need to power down the USB-powered GPS or whatever just turn the radio off.
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Sep 9, 2012 17:03
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Alright, you guys sold me. I found a spare USB adapter I have no problem hacking up and hardwiring in... and then lost it again  I'm debating whether I'm going to use a project box or just see if I can cram it all into a mess of heatshrink.Nothing photographic to report. Changed the belt today now that I'm satisfied that the dents I managed to put in the A/C compressor pulley aren't damaging anything. The one on the truck only had a very, very worn Motorcraft logo - I wonder just how old that thing was. At least it's a very easy job to do, but as I was letting it warm up I discovered where my slow coolant loss has been going. The heater control valve that I replaced not long after I bought it has already failed again, in the exact same way (and actually leaking more than the one it replaced). So much for the Autozone part; got a Motorcraft one on its way from Amazon.
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Sep 23, 2012 05:29
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So no less than 30 seconds after that last post, I remembered where I put the drat thing, and decided to get to it. Sticking this in here since it was on the camera. Hanging out in Ryan Hunter-Reay's garage last weekend, about 8 hours before he pulled off one hell of an upset to win the Indycar championship. All of you jerks who like racing should seriously watch Indycar.  The patient. I was worried I might have to go nuts cracking this case off...  Nope. Unscrew the tip, take off a teeny plastic lip holding that chrome ring on, and both halves fall apart.  While they were obnoxious enough to use red wire for ground, they at least labeled it as such. Interestingly enough the near contact is just a spring, only the other one is actually grounded.  Out to the garage to desolder the wires I won't be using anymore.  That was easy.  Soldering it back together, not so much. I managed to obliterate the copper trace around the ground hole, so I ended up just connecting the ground wire to another point along the trace and jumping back to the capacitor around my damage.  So I went with shrinkwrap of various sizes and electrical tape. I'll test it with 12V tomorrow and maybe wire it in if I get a chance.
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Sep 23, 2012 07:14
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Just a heads up, most cheaper chargers (particularly the kind with a detachable cable) don't short the data pins together - resulting in the phone/mobile device thinking it's connected to a computer. Which results in it pulling 500mA instead of its maximum.  If you're using an Android phone, if you go to settings -> battery, it'll show either AC or USB. If it shows USB, it's only pulling 500mA (tops). If it shows AC it's pulling as much as it can.My phone actually (slowly) discharges with a 500mA power source if I'm using a navigation app with the screen on. It pulls 1 amp if it thinks it's connected to an adapter (or if I enable fastcharge, but that's with a custom kernel and rom), which is enough to (slightly) charge it with GPS + screen + bluetooth all running. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Sep 24, 2012 |
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Sep 24, 2012 07:00
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I'm pretty sure it treated this charger as AC and not usb. I've definitely encountered the under charge scenario, but it was on an actual usb port on my laptop.
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Sep 24, 2012 07:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:So no less than 30 seconds after that last post, I remembered where I put the drat thing, and decided to get to it. Lovin' these AI Easter eggs
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Oct 3, 2012 22:52
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I'd very strongly suggest putting that power supply in a sealed aluminum project box, or at least adding a very conservatively rated fuse upstream of it. Chinese USB power adapters are not known for reliability or ability to keep the smoke/fire inside them, and I would hate to see the truck go up in flames because that was behind the dash. Hell, at my last job I had a supposedly high quality Cisco 120AC to 48DC IP phone power block go up in smoke. It was powering a long distance microwave link transceiver in a rack with $20k of equipment in it, and I got off the subway and got to the microwave room at the datacenter just in time to see it start smoking. If I'd missed one train or the outage report had come in a few minutes later there's no telling what would have been on fire by the time I got there.
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Oct 4, 2012 06:24
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amenenema posted:Lovin' these AI Easter eggs I was wondering if anyone had even seen it  kastein posted:I'd very strongly suggest putting that power supply in a sealed aluminum project box, or at least adding a very conservatively rated fuse upstream of it. Chinese USB power adapters are not known for reliability or ability to keep the smoke/fire inside them, and I would hate to see the truck go up in flames because that was behind the dash. I wouldn't, it's insured and I could use it as an excuse to buy something a little less beater-tacular! In all seriousness, I actually did get it wired in the other day (took a few pics, haven't bothered looking to see if they came out - but honestly it's two wires) and it's wired into the exact same circuit it would be plugged into if I was using it in the auxiliary power socket, which has a... ...20 amp fuse Alright, I'm ordering a fuse holder since I've got $1.37 of eBay bucks to spend and nothing else to spend it on. Either that or some fuses and I'll swap it out for a much smaller one since the only other thing I might ever plug into that circuit is another 12V->USB adapter.
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Oct 4, 2012 17:28
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IOwnCalculus posted:...20 amp fuse What I wound up doing for splitting up the power on my AUX circuit was buying one of those fuse blade bus terminals that can fit 4-8 fuses, and run all my extra hardware off that. I'm actually looking at replacing a unused rear passger audio control panel on my truck with a custom made control panel with a AC or DC Outlet, a rocker switch, and a few USB ports wired up as A/C Power [1-2 amp]. I'm hoping I can source the raw electronics instead of buying something off the shelf and gutting it, or maybe I can go that route and reverse engineer the setup and build my own from components... ehh... that'll be a fun project
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Oct 4, 2012 18:09
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I've actually got a busted small sine-wave inverter sitting in my garage you can have if you think you've got the skills to make it work. It shipped to me with a coil that had broken off, I tried to get it to work but I couldn't get anywhere with it. So, content! First, some old pics I never uploaded from when I finished hardwiring that USB plug.  Where my wiring in the Ranger started off - already having modified that plug for the relay control.  More splicing and heatshrink to power the hardwire USB.  Finished product, ignore the mess of adhesive left from trying to velcro my neighborhood's gate remote on the dash. poo poo won't hold up in the heat.  We have power!  Hmm. These look beefy as gently caress but I don't think they fit the Ranger or the GMC. Wonder why they're here...  Ah right, the MS3 needs some love once in a while too. Dealer fixed an airbag issue but also discovered that the passenger engine mount was trash. Since the MS3 mounts are about as strong as melted cheese, I'm replacing both of them with JBR 70-durometer mounts.  Speaking of molten cheese... I didn't know it when I came across this but the passenger mount is liquid filled. Mine had ruptured and was squirting instead of supporting.  This is actually all you need to take out to pull that mount out. Kinda nice, my only previous experience with replacing engine mounts in place was the GMC right after I turned 16 and that was a very painful experience.  Old and busted. Not shown are the shiny marks on the inside of the outer portion where those rubber snubbers have been smacking the frame harder than they should.  Poking and prodding at the old mount showed lots of cracks around the center, and nasty rear end orange fluid would weep out if you poked too hard.  Look Tusen, another FoMoCo logo! Thankfully that orange-brown poo poo pretty much wiped away.  Of some concern is how much of the liquid apparently got sprayed onto the alternator - it was pretty well caked in black gunk. Hopefully I don't have to dive back in here to replace it.  A ground cable runs from the factory mount to the subframe, but there's no provision for it on the JBR mount. Took forever to find my 8mm socket so I could put one end on the timing cover.  Other end to a different subframe hole, conveniently already tapped and in the perfect location.  New mount just drops in at this point, though I had to jack the oil pan up a bit more here to get enough threads through the upper portion to engage the nuts.  All bolted down. Took remarkably little leverage to get it all lined up. The Snapon trim tool the dealership left in the car three years ago by accident works great for holding the mount at the recommended 3/16" gap between the subframe and the mount!  Now, the rear mount. Something many MS3 owners do proactively, even without any failure, because it's super soft.  Five easily-accessed bolts and it's out. The corrosion on the one running through the bushing itself is slightly concerning; even now I'm debating figuring out the specs for that bolt and buying a replacement.  Just waiting for that giant hunk of billet aluminum and urethane to slide on in.  Original mount, turns out it was on its way to failure as well.  It didn't take much pressure at all on the center to make that cut open up.  One of the few times where "installation is the reverse of removal" is actually appropriate. Trip report? Vibration increase is absolutely noticeable, even if it's not bad, but much more noticeable is the drastic increase in engine noise. It's also not bad, but it is pretty significant. These are the softest mounts that JBR makes, and some of the softest on the market (at least one of the other manufacturers won't even do less than 88 durometer for MS3s) but there is absolutely no mistaking the car for one with the factory mounts. Of course, that's also a good thing - the engine and transmission have always been flapping around up there, even when I bought the car with only 24k on the clock. I haven't had a chance to properly flog it yet but I absolutely believe everyone who says it feels like they're able to actually make use of the power the car has since the drivetrain is no longer trying to rip itself free. So they're staying.
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Nov 4, 2012 07:13
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After seeing the pics of the alternator location, suddenly my silver turd doesn't seem as horrible.. looks like Mazda dropped it about where my power steering pump is, with a bit more room. I will say, if my PS pump ever shits itself, it's getting abandoned and I'll be going with manual steering. gently caress pulling the intake manifold to swap a PS pump.. or PCV valve.. If you can't unload that inverter to someone else, let me know; Nikola Tesla sometimes passes out shitfaced here on his way home from the bars.
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Nov 4, 2012 10:33
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In my experience the bushings will 'calm down' after a few weeks of driving. They just need to be smacked around a bit, then you're left with a mild increase in nvh overall.
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Nov 4, 2012 17:00
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some texas redneck posted:After seeing the pics of the alternator location, suddenly my silver turd doesn't seem as horrible.. looks like Mazda dropped it about where my power steering pump is, with a bit more room. I will say, if my PS pump ever shits itself, it's getting abandoned and I'll be going with manual steering. gently caress pulling the intake manifold to swap a PS pump.. or PCV valve.. From what I've seen, replacing the alt isn't actually too bad - lots of room behind it there, and with the coolant / PS reservoirs out of the way and maybe the engine mount too, you have a pretty wide area to reach in from. I am actually going to have to pull the intake manifold soon and do a valve cleaning since as a DI engine, there's zero fuel coming across the back of the intake valves, so I'm quite certain they look like 116k miles of hell right now. Seat Safety Switch posted:In my experience the bushings will 'calm down' after a few weeks of driving. They just need to be smacked around a bit, then you're left with a mild increase in nvh overall. Well today, either due to already being used to it or even just a little smacking / heat cycling, it already feels a bit better.
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Nov 4, 2012 19:18
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This is probably as good a chance as any to ask: What did you use for engine management on your LS1 pickup? I have considered planning a v8 swap for the 280zx in the next few years, and I am turned of on the LS1 option by the thought of having to cobble up an engine management system and wiring harness.
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Nov 4, 2012 22:56
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I stuck with the factory ECM in mine (2000 Camaro) along with sending the factory harness to Speartech (he was the only game in town at the time, I'm sure others do the same thing now) to have it modified. Came back set up so that it basically only needed me to connect the gauges, +12V constant, and +12V keyed. Add a tune to eliminate things that were removed (EGR) and it's done. Really easy to work with, honestly.
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Nov 5, 2012 01:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:I stuck with the factory ECM in mine (2000 Camaro) along with sending the factory harness to Speartech (he was the only game in town at the time, I'm sure others do the same thing now) to have it modified. Came back set up so that it basically only needed me to connect the gauges, +12V constant, and +12V keyed. You make it sound pretty painless (though I am sure it is still painful!). Pricing on a harness isn't horrible: http://secure.ultracart.com/catalog/PSI/HAR-1013.html Luckily I won't have time/money/motivation any time in the forseeable future. Thanks!
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Nov 5, 2012 03:45
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IOwnCalculus posted:I am actually going to have to pull the intake manifold soon and do a valve cleaning since as a DI engine, there's zero fuel coming across the back of the intake valves, so I'm quite certain they look like 116k miles of hell right now. How are you planning on doing this? Walnut shells?
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Nov 5, 2012 11:07
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Snowdens Secret posted:How are you planning on doing this? Walnut shells? Yep, walnut shells and maybe B12 solvent.
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Nov 5, 2012 15:58
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Seat Safety Switch posted:In my experience the bushings will 'calm down' after a few weeks of driving. They just need to be smacked around a bit, then you're left with a mild increase in nvh overall. Yeah, they really have actually calmed down more than I expected them to. It's so nice to romp on it and not have to deal with the engine/transmission swaying in the breeze when you do. In less fun news, my Ranger started pissing coolant on the ground. Looks like the end cap on the driver's side has either come loose or cracked, I can't tell what but it's getting all wet even though the hose on that side is completely dry. Oh well, at least it was under $110 from Amazon, and Prime shipping to boot.
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Nov 26, 2012 22:33
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 So, because Amazon is awesome, my new radiator got here fast. Box had some minor damage but the radiator was fine.  Running the engine literally just long enough to turn the truck around in my driveway made this much of a mess, but the hose is dry. Has to be an endtank issue.  Drain the coolant, which ends up looking pretty damned brown by the time the bucket fills up. Time for fresh coolant too! Also showcased is the random missing chunk of my power steering pulley.  Two bolts to take the shroud off, two bolts to loosen the radiator, and two spring clamps, and the old radiator is ready to come out.  Well, there's your problem! Big crack in the end tank. Later inspection of the end tanks shows date codes on them for 1998 - so either this radiator is the factory original piece, or it was replaced at some point with one old enough to be original.  Shame, it looked like it was in pretty good shape other than the crack. Oh well.  So apparently I never took a pic of the new radiator in by itself, but it really just looks like the old one with less leaks. I picked this thing up, I'm pretty sure based on someone talking about it here. It's supposed to make filling the radiator a much easier process.  In-use shot. It comes with four different adapters that thread onto the neck of the radiator, a bunch of inserts that seal between the radiator neck and the adapter, and then the funnel itself. Stick the funnel in there and it becomes the highest point in the system by far. Dump in a gallon and a half or so of water and Prestone, fire up the engine, and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. It does make it a one-step process but apparently enough air was still stuck in there that it took forever for the thermostat to heat up enough to actually open. I also have a sneaky suspicion that the water pump impeller may be pretty far gone, since for much of the process the temperature gauge would only go off of cold if I revved it up (and then it would do so almost instantly). Once I was convinced I'd gotten the air out, it does come with a neat little stopper - you squeeze the upper radiator hose, and then pop it in from the top of the funnel. Then you can lift the funnel off without dripping anything, pop it into the overflow reservoir, and open it back up. Not the fastest way to do it, especially for the initial radiator fill (it's at least a third smaller in diameter than the Ranger's skinny neck) but it does make it pretty low effort. I'll be giving it another use here in the not too distant future when I replace the thermostat in the MS3.
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Nov 30, 2012 06:03
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14 years/170k ain't bad from the original. The top tank on mine split at 165k, also the original from 1998. That radiator is a lot smaller than what I'd expect in a truck.. probably about the same size as mine in surface area.
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Nov 30, 2012 06:18
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some texas redneck posted:14 years/170k ain't bad from the original. The top tank on mine split at 165k, also the original from 1998. The radiators for the 3.0 and 4.0 V6 trucks look to be a decent bit thicker, but don't seem to be any bigger in surface area. So, progress tonight...but not much Decided to tackle the rear brakes first. Back dat azz up.  Starting with the driver's side.  Leading pad, note the rather impressive chamfering going on here.  Trailing pad, much more even wear.  Some amount of pulling and cursing later and they're off. Oddly, the leading pad was riveted on both sides, while the trailing pad was bonded.  Hardware that came off of the brakes.  Naked brake setup.  Annoyingly it looks like the brake hardware kit I bought from Rockauto must've been for the 10" brakes, and not my 9" brakes - nothing really matches up, as shown with the adjuster here. Luckily the hardware seems to be in good shape so I'm leaving it as is. It looks like I lost the pic I took of it all back together to dead camera batteries, but it looks roughly the same, just with more pad material and copious amounts of silicone lube wherever appropriate.  Passenger side now.  Trailing pad. Note the slack in the adjusting mechanism there, I'm hoping I can deal with that just by reassembling it better than whoever touched this last and that I don't need to go buy more parts.  Leading pad, again with the chamfering wear. Some amount of swearing and pulling (less than with the first one, at least!) I decide to poke at the wheel cylinder, and, well...  gently caress  Plus side,  It is officially Cold As Hell out (shut up, I'm a local, 45 and wet is loving freezing to me) so that's it for the night. I just love leaving a truck on jackstands with a brake line open in the rain  Just the time it took to pick everything up that was sitting in the rain made my hands hurt like hell, so I guess I'm finishing this (and maybe getting to the shocks, water pump, thermostat, plugs, and wires) tomorrow.
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Dec 31, 2012 03:23
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So no photos today because it turned into a "gently caress you, I'm getting this done" sort of day. Awoke to find a non-trivial amount of brake fluid had drained into the ziploc bag I stuck around the open brake line, so I decided I would need to bleed all four wheels and not just the right rear. In the daylight, the reason for the slack in the adjusting mechanism became obvious - this little bastard failed on the passenger side:  The small round bit that's pressed in towards the car hooks into one of the shoes to tension the adjuster cable, and it was almost completely broken off of the original part. Thankfully OReilly sells these for $2 for a pair, so I have a spare if I own this thing long enough to pull the rear brakes apart again. Once I got the parts all in, it went together relatively easily, aside from my loving Craftsman 7000lb jack failing after I lifted the front of the truck. Thankfully not while under load. I had to do the rest with a HF 3000lb aluminum jack and that thing makes some really uncomfortable creaking noises while lifting the front of that truck. Bled everything with the Mityvac with no issues and now I have better brake feel than before.
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Dec 31, 2012 23:27
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Did a double take looking at those brakes, they're drat near the same as most of mine right down to the self adjuster hardware. In fact those self adjuster cable guides actually fit 2 of my jeeps as well as about a dozen other makes and models ranging from mazda and toyota to chrysler, international, and AMC. A lot of the shoe hold down hardware is the same exact parts too.
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Jan 1, 2013 00:54
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I think drum brakes are a thing a lot of manufacturers just buy from suppliers instead of developing their own; the wheel cylinder I pulled off was a Bendix unit, for example. Also, Checker doesn't even actually list that part as being compatible with my year of Ranger, even though RockAuto does. 
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Jan 1, 2013 05:00
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