My DD 92 Ford Ranger

[gabegt90]

nice little truck Jacob my old co worker has one same color except its a 4 wd nice clear headlights by the way

[packman]

Yeah, the dealership that I got the truck from shined it up real nice. I'll post the rest of the pics later. They're on my old Nikon.


Packman

[sly]

those trucks are very hard to come by down here... those that have them don't want to sell them until they're broke in half or well over 300K miles and in need of a new drivetrain.

[packman]

They're getting increasingly difficult to find up here as well. I didn't appreciate that until after my other Ranger was totalled. The only thing going for me is that these trucks are not that aesthetically pleasing; so many people around my way pass them over. When Spring arrives I will get a good look underneath and start rust proofing and all that. I am contemplating new wheels; something like the 2nd gen Lightning 5-spoke wheels or go the more common route and get the '03 Cobra wheels. I may even take the turbines from the CV and run them on the Ranger during the winter months. Then get 17" steel wheels with winter tires for the CV. Then I can get the big brakes for that car. Lots of options now.


Packman

[packman]

I will see if I can keep the lopo in the garage when the time comes. The 4.0L pings in OD; and only in OD. It doesn't ping in nuetral or in any other gear; just OD. Dunno what that could be, too steep of a OD ratio? Until I figure out how to fix the problem, I will definitely consider keeping the lopo until the unthinkable happens to the 4.0L. Hopefully nothing happens and I can attend to the other projects for the time being.

I got a good look under the truck after the rear springs and shackles released their ghost. It's fairly clean under there; not that much rust. When the weather is a little dryer, I will break out the paintbrushes and POR15.


Packman

[packman]

A couple shots of the engine after last weekend's project. Basically replaced the valve cover gaskets and intake gasket. I got the VC and intake from an Explorer in the JY. I was hoping to figure out where all of the vacuum lines go to, using the Explorer as a guide; but I couldn't find a truck that wasn't molested in some way. So I just painted the pieces and stuck them on there. For now, I don't smell any oil burning; the dipstick will reveal the truth though. I also painted the throttle body as well, but since I couldn't get the old one off, I had to stick the throttle body from the old engine back on.






Packman

[fmansfield444]

Nice man, the 4.0L is pretty strong, I've driven some Aerostars with it

[packman]

Over the weekend I replaced the mid pipe, muffler, and tailpipe on the Ranger. From the looks of it, I still had the factory muffler on there. The truck had been getting progressively louder; to the point where I could hear it from the 3rd floor of the house. So up on the jacks it went. I replaced the muffler with the Summit turbo that was supposed to go under my mom's CV (discovered that the Dynomax Hemi Super Turbo was better). I cut the S-bend off of the mid pipe and everything lined up. Finished it up with POR15 so that it can possibly hold up for another 2-3 years. Fired it up and it was quiet, but not quite enough. So I scrounged around the garage and found the exhaust tip that I had on the Cavalier those many decades ago. Cleaned it up, cut the tailpipe back a bit, and installed it. There is still a little burble at idle, but absolutely no drone inside.

One day (if the 4.0L hold up) I will get headers, Y-pipe, 3" cat, 3" piping, 70 series Flowmaster with 3" inlet and dual 2.5" outlets, and a dual cat back from LMC. I have two 4" exhaust tips that I was going to the install on the Malibu (before I knew better) years ago, that I will install on the exhaust. That should keep the truck quiet while freeing up the exhaust.


Packman

[packman]

Here is the headlight relay upgrade. Really simple. I got it from LMC Truck. I forgot the number offhand. I will post it when I get back home. I hope it's a coincidence, but my passenger side headlight bew out this morning. Everything was working fine for the past 2 days.





Everything is labeled as you can see. Nothing complicated. The only qualm I have is that the relay plugs are short; so that you HAVE to mount the relays right next to each other. I probably could have pulled the wire loom apart and separated them. When I get home tonight; and the snow isn't too bad, I will replace the headlight. I hope that it's just an old bulb.


Packman

[gadget73]

I put one of those in the Mark VII. Got about 2 months out of it before the goofy relays failed. I re-wired it to use standard 40 amp Bosch relays instead of the original 20 amp Tyco and that lasted another month before the relays burned out again. I also went through a couple headlamp bulbs during that time. Once, both low beams burned out at the same time. After that happened, I gave up on it and put it back to stock. I have had zero trouble out of the somewhat messy harness I built for the Towncar though. The concept is good, I just don't know why the one for the Mark failed so badly. Maybe it was the thin wire. I used 12 or 14ga on the Towncar, and the Mark harness was probably 16 or 18, no thicker than the stock wiring.

[packman]

It figures it would be a "too good to be true" purchase. I guess I gotta make a harness. I will try the quad harness for the CV though.


Packman

[packman]

I replaced the headlight and so far I seem to be good. Time will probably tell. Also, the LMC part# is 47-3661.


Packman

[packman]

So, two weeks ago, my exhaust tip fell off. I guess laying on the garage floor for 15 years and a few floods, the innards of the exhaust tip separated from the chrome outter shell. In any event, I got another resonated tip and installed it last weekend. I had the clamps and adapters and only paid for the tip itself. A couple hours later, presto! Here are the pics.








Packman

[sly]

[packman]

Mo 3G's yo!!!!





I did this upgrade 3 weeks ago, right before my fuel pump issues (hopefully that was it). I used up my 4 gauge on the CV, except for a small length that I ended up using as an adapter to fit onto the alternator charging post. The rest of the cable is the 2 gauge that we stripped off of the '01 F-250. Overkill, I know, but I didn't want to buy any cable either. Just had to buy the fuse and the alternator.

Packman