kishy's 1985 Ranger

[kishy]

I have been given a complete 3.73 limited slip 7.5 rear end from a 2000 Ranger, with a trashed pinion bearing, but otherwise seemingly just fine. Will be rebuilding that and putting it in the Ranger. As we've discussed in the past I like my current gears (3.45:1) but limited slip will be very nice. Haven't decided which gears I'll run. Nice thing about having a complete axle assembly is my truck will see zero downtime for the rebuild, just when the swap time comes.

The passenger side mirror broke internally, causing it to no longer hold its position. These mirrors were off a Bronco II in a junkyard back in 2015. The failure (not yet diagnosed by disassembly) feels like the cage which holds and applies the spring pressure to the pivot ball has rusted apart.

I had a mirror off the doors I used to get the vent window parts, and tried to take that mirror apart thinking I'd rebuild my broken mirror (the one on the truck was in otherwise better condition besides the broken bit). Unfortunately the glass broke, and once I got inside, I realized that these are not able to be opened without destroying them. Everything I need to open is held together with adhesive and access angles to pry things apart are poor; it all just gets mangled. I found that Dorman sells a supposedly-direct-fit mirror to replace these and have ordered them, will probably have those Tuesday or Wednesday.

The mirror is the only item holding me up from seasonally switching from the wagon to the Ranger. We are probably still a few weeks out from salted roads, but I don't want the wagon seeing salt, not even for one quick errand.

The parts you see below are from the previously-intact donor door mirror, the broken one I wanted to fix is still on the truck. Had I known what I do now about how these go together, I'd have just swapped the mirror onto the truck and dealt with its cosmetic faults. Hindsight...

[Tiggie]

I tried an aftermarket replacement on the Ranger project I had a few years ago and was disappointed. They were plastic and changed position if you shut the door too hard. They looked good, however.

[gadget73]

I remember reading the instructions on how to do something on box mirrors. Maybe it was replacing the heater element. It started out by telling you to smash the glass with a hammer in order to get to the screw behind it. Would have been better if it said to smash the glass out, then go to the parts department and get a complete replacement mirror.

[kishy]

The Dorman mirrors (955180) arrived, and are a good match. They are not perfect, however. Some considerations:

• Out of the box, the tension on the ball stud is not enough, and they will flop around. Tightening the screws around the ball stud corrects this. I have no idea how much range of adjustment there is, and it's too early to say if periodic adjustment will be required.
• Although the arms that the mirrors mount on do appear to be functional replacements for the factory ones, in my case, I opted to reuse my old arms. When I retrofitted this style of mirror, I cut corners which would make life harder now if I wanted to swap the arms as well. The Dorman mirrors are manufactured as two distinct assemblies: the arm, and the mirror, so this is easy and not an issue.
• This mirror is not sold in a convex variant, and although some catalogs specify "LEFT" or "RIGHT" (only one side specified in any given catalog, but catalogs from different suppliers conflict as to which side it is), the mirror is completely reversible. The original Ford mirrors (regardless of convex glass) are shaped differently from left to right and so do not interchange.

The attachment that holds the factory mirror onto the arm is a single steel Torx screw (maybe T30?) with a countersunk head, through the aluminum arm, into the steel ball stud part of the mirror assembly. Because of the triangular shape of the arm, it is hard to get a tool on that screw. Mine was badly rusted and between the tool access issue, the rust, and what seems to be really aggressive galvanic corrosion, the screw stripped and didn't budge. I applied heat, shock impact (hammer), impact wrench, tried with a standard ratchet...didn't budge.

Angle grinder with cutoff wheel was applied to the ball stud, flush against the arm. I tried to use a hammer and punch to knock the remaining screw head out but it didn't work (remember, it's countersunk and corroded-in). I grabbed my new super tiny 3-jaw puller and rigged it up to pop the screw head out. It took a fair bit of force and then rocketed out when it finally let go. I'm not surprised I couldn't get it to turn.

The new mirror went on trouble-free. Anti-seize was used. I experimented with an additional 6" round convex mirror (not shown) in a couple positions but couldn't find a way to mount it that I really liked, so I opted to just use the Dorman mirror, but add a large round convex stick-on mirror (not shown).









I took the truck to the carwash, to take off a thick layer of dirt from sitting. Airborne particulate is common here, due to the types of industry upwind of this area.

It cleaned up alright. The rust is definitely bad. Despite what the body looks like, the frame is solid.



I have now applied several cans of DIY oil spray product to the frame (inside and out), the underside of the bed, both inboard and outboard facing surfaces inside the rear bed sides (e.g. the outside of the bed and the inside of the quarter panels), cab mounts, floors, corners and rockers, and lower sections of the front fenders. This cab is absolutely shot, it's done, beyond salvation. But the truck has life left in it yet so I'll continue doing what I do.

Unfortunately, last year it was possible to get front fenders for this for 50 USD each, or thereabouts, and now it looks like they're out of production. If I'd known that was going to happen, I'd have bought a couple. The bed side sections are still available.

I also removed the band clamp I used to join the new exhaust to the medium-old exhaust, filled it with a generous amount of RTV, and reinstalled it. I also tweaked the hangers a bit. This seems to have quieted some offensive noises I was getting.

Aesthetically, I miss the old cap/topper. It was in poor condition and it also weighed an absolute ton, plus the new one affords me valuable utility, so I'm better off now...but it looked more fitting with the old one.

[kishy]

On the 14th, I set out to solve the issue of leaves being jammed in the blower motor squirrel cage.





You can see the terrible recirculate retrofit I did, as well.

Leaves get into this because the prominent vents on the top of the cowl are large enough openings to let leaves in, and as best I can tell, the only exit from that cavity which is large enough for the leaves to go through is into the HVAC system, when "outside air" is open. There are water drains from that space which go out into the fenders, but I understand them to be small.

I decided at this time to follow the guidance I received from an old man with an 84 near-twin of my truck locally...he told me if I wanted the floors to last, I'd need to block off those cowl vents. He had siliconed down some white aluminum panels over top of them on his truck. Seems there is a significant opportunity for water to enter the cab in that space and without extensive body dismantling, you can't get in there to do anything about it.

I used some scraps of aluminum siding, and polyurethane adhesive:



This does not make the cowl space be waterproof, but it does reduce how much goes in. The openings around the wipers are still an entry point. When using the "outside air" setting on the HVAC, air is now pulled in around the wipers, presumably as well as in through the ends of the cowl space from the fenders (but point being there is still a source of high pressure fresh outside air at highway speed when wanted).

Thursday, a friend sent me a link to a Facebook Marketplace ad for a set of Town Car wheels for $100, in St. Thomas (2 hrs away, and yes, "that" St. Thomas). They are the simulated spoke wheels, and include caps as well as aging but usable tires. No hesitation there at all, and provided an opportunity to put some mileage on the Ranger.



This truck desperately needs sway bars, and I will be looking to add cruise to it. As I recall the 93 ECM running it currently did have cruise so it should just be some buttons and some wires. A nicer steering wheel will be part of that project. Black leather is the goal. Need to break up the sea of red in this thing.

It is losing a bit of coolant, seems to be an external leak, but haven't studied close enough yet to figure out the source.

As we are now firmly in salted roads season (not daily, but as weather deems appropriate), this has now replaced the wagon as my driver.

[GM_Guy]

If you got advance warning next time you head this way, holler. I'm spitting distance from St.Thomas.

[kishy]

Will do. Not often stopping in the area, and this was short notice, else I'd have mentioned it as I did know that.

In November 2019, I got wind of some clearance tire deals at a local Canadian Tire, and went there to see what I could find.
I found a set of 4, 205/70R15 at $30.00 each, and a set of 4, 185/65R14 at $25.00 each, both sets being Hankook Winter i-Pike RSV, which are rather decent winter tires.
Manufacture dates in 2017, so the clock was ticking on them. But at that price, roadworthiness alone is all I can really ask for.

As an aside: if you do not believe tires "age-out", you are mistaken! Old (very old) tires have a tendency to remain pliable and safely usable for a very long time, but newer tires made with newer rubber compounds do not last, and even sitting on a shelf, a tire can degrade meaningfully. Winter tires might be the type of tire affected most by this as they need to be soft and squishy to work properly, and that is the trait which will disappear first from age alone.

My intent was unclear, loosely assuming I'd put the 15s on a Panther, and the 14s on the Ranger, but after further reflection I don't plan to winter drive any of the current Panthers anymore. I decided to take my 15" steelies, which had my previous set of winter tires (still plenty of tread but now hard as rocks, and in a less desirable size, 215/60R15), and swap the new Hankooks onto them, then put those on the Ranger.

They're clearly decent tires. We had some considerably sloppy conditions last night after I got them mounted, and the truck grips like it's on dry pavement. Drove around a bunch and tried to get it to break free, and did a bunch of firm stops in snowy parking lots. No concerns at all.



This does leave the new 14" tires sitting unused for yet another winter, so I need to come up with a game plan for those. I had one in the form of the Focus, but then a set of 16" wheels with winter tires turned up in the form of the parts car.

Another aside: I've decided to buy-in to the M12 and M18 Milwaukee tool lineups, and have found myself quite pleased with the tools I've picked up so far. I'll make a thread about this at some point and talk about each of the tools. I was surprised and pleased to find the M18 brushless (but not Fuel) 1/4" impact made quick and easy work of the lugnuts on the truck. In my mind it is not the correct tool for that job (a 1/2"-anvil impact would be) but it handled it like it was nothing.

[gadget73]

I've found that old tires get hard and the wet traction gets bad, followed by the dry traction. They also tend to get loud. Never owned winter tires, it just doesn't snow enough here to justify the bother, but I can imagine they are affected in the same way as anything else.

On the upside if you have some slightly hard winter tires, they're probably still usable enough to just leave on the vehicle through the following summer and replace by next winter.

honestly I mostly replace tires for age reasons. I don't remember the last time I had a set legitimately worn out. I just don't put enough miles on anything to really get my money's worth. Unfortunately I can't bring myself to just buy the cheapest POS tires available, even though that probably would be the smart thing to do.

[jaywish]

Cheap POS tires are not the smart thing to do IMnsHO. You could reline your pads and shoes with leather or asbestos strips if you wanted but that might not be smart either.

[Arquemann]

Tires get old, but how they're stored makes the biggest difference. 4 year old winter tires can be quite soft still, if they were stored inside in the warm, in a tire shop or warehouse for example.
What your tires are doesnt matter too much in the summer, but atleast in the Finnish winter, good condition winter tires are a must. An inspector can and will fail the inspection if your tires are too old and hard.

[GM_Guy]

As an aside: if you do not believe tires "age-out", you are mistaken! Old (very old) tires have a tendency to remain pliable and safely usable for a very long time, but newer tires made with newer rubber compounds do not last, and even sitting on a shelf, a tire can degrade meaningfully. Winter tires might be the type of tire affected most by this as they need to be soft and squishy to work properly, and that is the trait which will disappear first from age alone.

My favorite article to debunk aged tires that I used for a long time;

https://www.motor.com/magazine-summary/trade-secrets-4-september-2008/

But specific tires also age out poorly. My rule of thumb is if it drives like crap when it didn't before, the tire is done for. Like newer rust paint, newer tires don't seem to have all the good chemicals in them anymore.
I've got some old tires that still perform as expected, I also have new and newer tires that have turned to absolute dog shit in a short period of time (work van, the badyears from the vomit comet). I've got an ancient bias ply spare in the nova I wouldn't hesitate to use, and have.

[Grand1]

I think the marketing of "60, 000+" mile tires is complete bullshit. I will buy a "40,000 mile" rated tire anyday. After 40,000 miles those "60,000" mile tires look like shit, might as well save yourself some money.

[DerekTheGreat]

I've found that old tires get hard and the wet traction gets bad, followed by the dry traction. They also tend to get loud. Never owned winter tires, it just doesn't snow enough here to justify the bother, but I can imagine they are affected in the same way as anything else.

On the upside if you have some slightly hard winter tires, they're probably still usable enough to just leave on the vehicle through the following summer and replace by next winter.

honestly I mostly replace tires for age reasons. I don't remember the last time I had a set legitimately worn out. I just don't put enough miles on anything to really get my money's worth. Unfortunately I can't bring myself to just buy the cheapest POS tires available, even though that probably would be the smart thing to do.

This. The tires on my truck were new when I bought it. Now after some four years, I've noticed wet traction has gone south big time. To the point I wish the thing had posi or the GM gov-lock. Shudder to think of how it'll be this winter. However, there is still tons of tread on all of the tires. Like you though, I've always replaced due to age, not from actual wear.

[GM_Guy]

High mileage tires are good if you are travel high mileage in a year. Those of us who only put a few thousand miles on a year are better off on the soft tire performance end of things and gain some sticky traction as a result.

[Lutrova]

The question for the Boxes is who still makes a decent white wall?