kishy's 1985 Ranger

[Mainemantom]

I just bought Nexen white wall tires, 225-70-15. So far they are decent. White wall and that size are getting hard to find.
When I was in CA. I bought the Pep Boys house brand. Futura/Definity were the names

[Tiggie]

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

I tried the Vercelli 787 and they are noisy. Not recommended.

[Arquemann]

I've been running Nankang Toursport N605 with 1 inch whitewalls. Dunno if theyre available in US but theyre pretty good for the price. Only con really is the tread pattern that seems to get small stone stuck pretty often.

[kishy]

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

Toyo Extensa A/S is available in 215/70R15 (correct for a box), and is available with (more commonly without - but can be ordered with) a white wall. It's a decently long lasting tire that rides nice and isn't stupid expensive. I even found it did alright in snow.

I bought my set in 2013ish to go on my 91. When I did the 98-02 brake swap on it in maybe 2015, they went unused from then until 17 or 18 when I got them mounted on the wire spoke wheels for the Lincoln. They're still on that car now. They don't have a lot of mileage on them but they are now quite old, but still clean up really nice and are in good shape. Refer to this post: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post828389

[87gtVIC]

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.

Nice. I am a big fan/owner of the M12 line up of tools.

[jaywish]

Milwaukee is nice but almost all made in China. Dewalt is mostly made in Mexico and elsewhere. I have seen nothing from dewalt made in China though there may be some things for instance the music boxes?. Also Dewalt makes very nice tools. I am still using my 18V tools but I have used the 20v line and they are even nicer than my 18v tools. Never had one dewalt tool fail me. My stepson had a few minor PITA problems with a couple of Milwaukee drill,drive,hammer tools.

[kishy]

Milwaukee is Chinese-owned, but only partially Chinese-made, with other production facilities elsewhere which do include the US. Their management and product design is done in the US, as well. At the top of the chain, though, at least a chunk of the profits end up in China.

If you want tools made in USA with USA ownership at the top, buy Craftsman. Not everything is, but a bunch of stuff is. SBD is doing right by the brand name and my understanding is the tools aren't half bad, either. Craftsman products majority assembled in USA are clearly marked bragging about this fact, so they're easy to spot on the shelf.

I believe SBD is also bringing a fair bit of DeWalt production back to North America as well. SBD of course being the parent company to both brands plus a bunch of other stuff, and is headquartered in the US. DeWalt stuff seems to perform well and is fairly rugged - I've seen a drill get thrown hard at a cement block wall in a moment of frustration, and it looked and performed no different afterwards.

My decision to go Milwaukee was based on the variety of tools they offer (some unique offerings), anecdotal and also real reviews/performance commentary, and warranty. I don't beat on the stuff every day, accordingly, if it's going to break prematurely, a 3 year warranty might not be long enough to catch that failure, but the 5 year offering from Milwaukee might be. I've got enough semi-pro and pro mechanic-type folks in my circle who swear by Milwaukee that it was the obvious choice.

I consider their Chinese ownership to be unfortunate, but ultimately it was inconsequential in my decision.

I might choose to flex some modmin abilities and bump these replies out into my upcoming Milwaukee impression thread, when I make it. Hopefully nobody sees that as an overstep.

[kishy]

The Ranger has been shifting poorly (synchros don't feel very synchroey). Step one was verify it still had oil.

As a refresher, this has a Toyo Kogyo TK5 manual transmission, which is a sibling to the RX7 Turbo II transmission. This is not an M5OD like later Rangers and other trucks use. This trans was DIY-rebuilt (bearings and seals only, reused synchros) very recently.

Rebuilt trans went in at 141,739km on 2019-11-23.
Odometer currently shows 147,967km on 2021-12-12.

Inspection for leaks found there was a backed out bolt on the housing which was leaking. Tightened that, no other leaks found.
Fluid level checked out as correct because I had mildly overfilled previously.
However, the oil had a fair bit of metallic shimmer from probably the new bearings wearing in.
Decided to change it, but didn't have enough of the desired oil (Redline MT-90, synthetic 75W90 GL4), so had to see what the parts store could hook me up with on short notice.



Came home with Carquest Premium 85W140, listed as GL5/GL4/GL3 compatible. The GL4 bit is quite important, probably way more important than the viscosity, because of yellow metal compatibility. Under the guidance of a friend who knows the RX7 trans (and by extension this one), mixed some of that with some DexIII/Mercon and filled it up.

I wouldn't say it drives particularly nice. The synchros might just be toast, but I remember that it was sort of awful when I first got it, and when I originally changed over to the Redline product it got much better. Going to try to get a more appropriate oil and change it out quickly, see what happens. I'm sort of hoping that somehow, magically, the synchros are fine and just aren't happy with the lubricating abilities of the oil that's in it.

From there, moved on to the remote start.



First, I modified the neutral safety switch to meet my needs.
The transmission has a NSS installed that Ford never used (Ford used a clutch safety switch and disregards shifter position for starting purposes). Presumably some other application of this transmission uses that NSS, but not this one, so it was available for me to wire in with the remote starter to simplify some aspects of the setup a bit.





With the NSS altered to meet my needs, I wired in the remote starter. It's a simple 2-button unit, it does support lock features but those are going unused here. Used some insulation-displacing splices in spots that I couldn't do a more proper job, and soldered all critically important connections. I left the clutch switch in the picture for starting with the key, but I bypassed it for the remote start, which goes through the neutral switch instead. Shifter in N and hood closed, remote start will function. Shifter in any gear, and/or hood is not fully closed, remote start will not function. I opted to configure the module for an "automatic trans" installation, so I don't have to manually tell the remote starter every time I get out that I want it "ready" for next time. The NSS functionally fills that role, in case I park in gear and forget about it. I typically don't park in gear, but if I'm on an incline I will.



The finished install actually isn't too hideous, I did a nice job shortening wires and tucking them up neatly plus I deleted all the wires unused in this installation by completely de-pinning them from the connectors. It only ended up being 11 wires plus the antenna cable.

[kishy]

Minor development. Drove the truck a fair bit today, the transmission is feeling better. I think because the ATF floats on top of the gear oil, it needs to see some mileage to stir things up, and it does feel way better. Not great, but better. I picked up two different possible fluids to try, a Valvoline product and a Royal Purple product. I don't buy the hype on RP but it specifically claims yellow metal compatibility and most likely that's what's going into this on next change, which will be fairly soon I think. The Valvoline product is concerning because while it states it's GL4 compatible, it specifically says "non-synchronized" transmissions as a use case, and does not list "synchronized" ones, which makes me hesitate to put it in.

The remote start stopped working. It gave a flash code (via the parking lights) indicating the brake light circuit was active. I looked and saw that the lights were not on, and made sure that they did still work with the switch (they did), couldn't make any sense of it at first. But while idling via the key later on, though, I saw the brake lights glowing...that whole ECM cruise voltage thing. I had fuse-protected the resistor that pulls that voltage down, and the fuse blew. It was just a 2A fuse, so I put in a 5A, and it fixed the problem.

[kishy]

Found a couple of these I forgot to post, from after I got the rear cargo lighting working:



Not bad.

Trans oil was changed above at 147,967km, 3 days ago. While it did start shifting somewhat better than it had been with the Redline MT90 contaminated with finely ground bearing dust, it still wasn't quite right. I set out to figure out what I could get my hands on easily without breaking the bank, and considering I was heading across to Detroit for the junkyard stuff on Sunday, made sense to look at what I could get there...Canadians will appreciate what a special experience it is to be able to buy application-specific auto parts or specialty fluids at 8pm on a Sunday. We don't get that sort of accommodation here.

I ended up with two quarts of Valvoline synthetic 75W90, and two quarts of Royal Purple synthetic 75W90.

The Valvoline product is not as explicit about its applications as I'd like. It is a GL5 oil, but they say on it that it makes a great replacement for GL4. OK, cool, that means great yellow metal compatibility right? If so, why does it go out of its way to specify "non-synchronized" manual transmissions, and not list "synchronized" ones too? Valvoline claims online to make their products safe for yellow metals but I got a bad vibe from it and decided not to run it. The Royal Purple, on the other hand, specifically mentions yellow metal compatibility on the bottle. That's what I was going to use, until...



I was trying to sort out what oil I needed to buy for the Focus with the MTX75. By most indications, there is a Ford specialty oil that is considered the best choice for them. Meet XT-M5-QS: https://www.motorcraft.com/us/en_us/...on-fluids.html

MTX75? Check.
"older transmissions including rear wheel drive that recommend GL-3 and GL-4 type gear oils"...also check!

So tonight at 148,167km (200km on the oil) I drained the 85W140+Mercon combo and put some of this stuff in. Took it for a drive. At the very least it's the same as the 85W140+Mercon, and I'm inclined to say it's actually smoother. The synchros might be synchroing again. I should mention that I had no opposition to running Redline in it again, but I only have 1 quart of it, and it's expensive stuff that requires special ordering to get locally.



Also: a NOS front sway bar (of the unfortunately less common design needed for my truck) is in the mail. Going to need to sort out some hardware issues, mainly a couple sorta unique U-bolts.

Photo courtesy of another Ranger person:


The U-bolts are the only pictured item that isn't already on my truck (therefore are the items I need to source). The width through the centre is important as they retain a bushing.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'm not a huge fan of Redline. Lots of hype and the price tag which goes with it, but not too solid in the test results department, much like Royal Purple. They're not terrible, but I don't believe they're worth the price they command considering other available options. I've attached a dusty test report from 2007 regarding gear oils for your viewing pleasure.A-Study-of-Automotive-Gear-Lubes [2007].pdf

Also, are you sure your clutch is disengaging 100% when you step on the pedal? I like to test for this by being completely stopped, in first gear on the clutch and then pull out of gear & hang out in neutral while still on the clutch and ready to go back into first gear. Wait about 10 or 20 seconds and then try to go for first. If it doesn't fly right back in, that tells me the input shaft is being spun by the engine still... Fast forward several years and depending how severe it is, that'll certainly result in toasted synchros as they have to work harder to well, synchronize.

[gadget73]

have seen that with bad pilot bearings before. If the inner race doesn't rotate freely it ends up dragging the input shaft along for the ride.

[kishy]

I will note that the special Ford oil has done wonders for the shifting, and while it still occasionally feels like you're clumsily knocking parts together inside the transmission, it feels smoother. Not harsh. An improvement by far.

Tried to test the way you outline Derek, but found results that either would be a 100% fail or a 100% pass, and it depends on exactly what is causing the feeling I get in the shifter. I don't think the problem is so much that it isn't synchronizing, it is more likely that it's just a very notchy transmission. And having had it apart and worked the shift forks by hand at that time, I think it may just be how it is. There is an extremely heavy "detent" feeling in the TK5 when it clicks onto a gear, like flipping a really firm light switch. The hardest engagements were first and reverse, and the oil seems to have made both of them better.

Tonight, I bled the clutch. Relatively trouble-free process, unlike the M5OD trucks. Full disengagement is pretty much completely on the floor, which is not something I'd call ideal, I'd prefer to see it a bit higher up, but it seems like this is just how it is. I verified while the drive wheels were in the air that with the trans in gear and clutch pedal on the floor, the driveshaft will not turn, not even a little.

Took it out for a drive, found the clumsy parts-colliding-together feeling is still sorta there, but maybe has been improved subtly more as well. I'll try to be more conscious of clutching all the way to the floor as well, because I think I've gotten sloppy with that.

[packman]

I love this Ranger. Really like your bed lighting. Question: when are you going to install the amps and subwoofers? LOL

[kishy]

I love this Ranger. Really like your bed lighting. Question: when are you going to install the amps and subwoofers? LOL

One good strong bass hit and the whole thing would turn to dust lol.

With respect to the transmission: it has remained decently well-behaved. Not going to call it great, but probably OK. It would be nice to find a way to make the clutch engage higher off the floor, because I think that would help, but I don't see how to make this better. "Good" slave cylinders are only offered for the M5OD family transmissions, the earlier offerings don't have "premium" options on the market as best I can tell.

The AMP light keeps flickering at me. Sometimes it sticks on, sometimes it just flickers.

This felt familiar, and sure enough, December 2018:

I'll guesstimate about a month after the swap, I started getting a flickering amp light at idle. The voltage was normal, maybe a bit low, but still well north of 13V in all conditions. This uses a 95A side-mount 3G and I had purchased a new one for the engine swap. I swapped the regulator as a test and found it behaved the same. Wiring checked out OK, kind of miraculous given how much DIY I have into this. It began killing the battery when parked, so I'm thinking a diode popped.

That alternator was replaced, and resolved the concern. It didn't happen again until a couple weeks ago, when it began happening inconsistently and rarely. It has stepped up to frequently/almost constant. The battery is not draining however (vs above).

I went through everything looking for bad connections. I did find green crusty connections at the starter solenoid (the one on the starter - not the relay on the fender), as well as the main charge output on the alternator. The regulator harness looked as-new.

I de-crimped the alt output ring terminal from the cable, clipped the wire, found it's lightly green even going back up the wire a little bit. Best option here is to replace it, but I thoroughly de-corroded everything (individually sanded each strand of the cable, and wire-brushed the terminal) and then re-crimped it, and filled the crimp with solder which should deter corrosion for a while. Honestly it might be fine "forever" now. The green crusties at the starter aren't causing my amp light, but will eventually need attention before the starter stops working.







Traced the whole charge circuit, everything else checked out. Still have the amp light flickering and coming on bright and solid at certain times. Was noticing that sometimes, but not all times when the light is on, the voltage does drop by about a volt, but that's still about 14V as this alt charges at 14.9 (yes, too high, but it's always done that).

Swapped the regulator with one of my junkyard 130A 3Gs (Motorcraft original regulator), but swapped the brush holder assembly off the 95A original regulator (unbranded aftermarket regulator) as the brushes have more material left. The Motorcraft regulator with new(er) brushes is charging at a more sane 14.4V, but otherwise everything behaves identically. It continues charging at 14.3-14.4 at idle with the warning light on. Not sure what's up here.



The amp light circuit should look like:
12V from ignition switch into the cluster. Through the warning light bulb with a resistor in parallel. Out into the engine bay in the 85 original harness. Goes through a connector I re-pinned during the engine swap, into the 93 engine harness. Leaves the 93 engine harness via a connector into a sub-harness for the alternator and AC clutch (not present). That plugs directly into the regulator.

Functionally, the bulb gets its 12V from the cluster, and grounds through the regulator at times when the alt is not outputting (so bulb on when alt not spinning). But more importantly, the regulator takes the 12V that comes through the bulb and uses it to "excite" the alternator and cause it to begin outputting.

I checked everything under the hood and did shake/wiggle tests on everything, it's all rock solid.

So, we have one of these two possibilities:
1. The amp light circuit is being grounded intermittently by a wiring defect under the dash before the circuit exits the cab.
2. The regulator is actually turning the light on, because a fault that the regulator can detect is actually happening.

In pursuit of #1, I got the light to turn on solid while idling, and then unplugged the sub-harness that goes to the regulator. The light turned off. So there is probably not a short to ground inside the cab, as the light would have remained lit.
Also verified when I did that, that the alt stopped charging.
Plugged it back in, alt resumed charging, but light didn't come back immediately.

So with respect to #2, I think there is an actual fault, but I don't know what the 3G regulator is capable of self-diagnosing. From my perspective, all it should care about is output voltage. Is the voltage within a tolerance +/- of the commanded voltage? No warning light. Outside of the tolerance? Warning light.

I dunno. It's weird. If the light is off, I can bounce my foot on the accelerator gently and get it to come back (this is true under load/driving, and also idling in neutral). The same is true in reverse; if the light is on, I can bounce my foot on the accelerator to make it go out.