Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Matt Black
New Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2024
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 3
- Location
- Kentucky
- Vehicle Year
- 1999
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Transmission
- Manual
1999 XLT 2wd, 2.5L 5spd manual. (Sorry in advance for the long post, skip to second paragraph for the meat!)
A little background... Truck has been sitting about 5 years total. I bought it from a guy at work who hadn't driven it for a couple years due to "rear brakes needing work". I had it towed to my place and pulled the passenger side drum. Everything that was supposed to be connected to the backing plate fell out on the ground. Springs, pads, wheel cylinder and a bunch of rust came out in a twisted mess. Apparently something had come loose and the axle turning had just acted like a blender. I went over to the passenger side, went to pull the drum and found it was in two pieces. There was a crack all around the circumference of the drum, the wheel mounting surface was totally seperated from the braking surface "ring". Since the wheel cylinder mounting stud had been broken off the backing plate on the passenger side, I bought a junked rear axle assembly from a wrecking yard and used the backing plate from it to replace the passenger side one with the broken stud. Anyway to make a long story short, my quick flip turned into a long term project that I've messed with off and on over the last three years. Recently, due to my kid needing a cheap vehicle and much to the delight of my wife (who has come to hate the sight of this thing in our driveway) I've been getting it ready for the road. After a bunch of work it's more or less road worthy and I'm just whittling down the various issues and codes which bring me (finally) to the reason for this post.
After starting the truck, the ABS light lights and I get a dinging chime from somewhere in the center of the dash. The chime goes away after a minute or two but the light stays on. At first I supected it was due to issues I was having with the brake pedal returning, but another bleed and some lubrication of the brake/clutch pedal took care of that. I had the codes pulled at a local parts store and it came back as "P0500- Replace Ignition Warning Chime Switch- indicates a fault in the VSS "A" for a predetermined amount of time. Suggested parts: Alarm Chime Relay". After doing some research, and since my speedo doesn't even twitch and my odo is also at a standstill, I suspected the VSS. Also, I couldn't find any mention of an "alarm chime relay" anywhere online or in the relay/fuse guides in the manual. Using information I found in the sticky thread, I tested resistance at 1.9 so replaced the rear axle VSS. No change at all. I saw another post that mentioned water intrusion in the cab affecting a connection and I do have issues with this. The drivers side floor is damp after a rain (finding the leak is next on the list) and there is quite a bit of rust on the parking brake mechanism and the seat mount bolts as well as the brake/clutch pedal shaft. I also suspect other gauges arent acting right either. Temp gauge reads normal even when the truck is off. The fuel gauge was on 1/2, I filled the tank (it took 10gal) and the gauge read full and has dropped a little since (i've put probably 50mi on it since filling it) so it seems right but it holds it's position even when the truck is off, which seems weird.
So.. what's my next step? Can anyone tell me which relay is the "Alarm Chime"? Should I start checking continuity in the VSS wiring or maybe check out the connector under the driver's seat? All fuses check good, but it did look like a couple had been replaced with ones that were rated for higher than they should have been, which isn't good.
If you made it all the way through this, thank you! I appreciate any suggestions.
A little background... Truck has been sitting about 5 years total. I bought it from a guy at work who hadn't driven it for a couple years due to "rear brakes needing work". I had it towed to my place and pulled the passenger side drum. Everything that was supposed to be connected to the backing plate fell out on the ground. Springs, pads, wheel cylinder and a bunch of rust came out in a twisted mess. Apparently something had come loose and the axle turning had just acted like a blender. I went over to the passenger side, went to pull the drum and found it was in two pieces. There was a crack all around the circumference of the drum, the wheel mounting surface was totally seperated from the braking surface "ring". Since the wheel cylinder mounting stud had been broken off the backing plate on the passenger side, I bought a junked rear axle assembly from a wrecking yard and used the backing plate from it to replace the passenger side one with the broken stud. Anyway to make a long story short, my quick flip turned into a long term project that I've messed with off and on over the last three years. Recently, due to my kid needing a cheap vehicle and much to the delight of my wife (who has come to hate the sight of this thing in our driveway) I've been getting it ready for the road. After a bunch of work it's more or less road worthy and I'm just whittling down the various issues and codes which bring me (finally) to the reason for this post.
After starting the truck, the ABS light lights and I get a dinging chime from somewhere in the center of the dash. The chime goes away after a minute or two but the light stays on. At first I supected it was due to issues I was having with the brake pedal returning, but another bleed and some lubrication of the brake/clutch pedal took care of that. I had the codes pulled at a local parts store and it came back as "P0500- Replace Ignition Warning Chime Switch- indicates a fault in the VSS "A" for a predetermined amount of time. Suggested parts: Alarm Chime Relay". After doing some research, and since my speedo doesn't even twitch and my odo is also at a standstill, I suspected the VSS. Also, I couldn't find any mention of an "alarm chime relay" anywhere online or in the relay/fuse guides in the manual. Using information I found in the sticky thread, I tested resistance at 1.9 so replaced the rear axle VSS. No change at all. I saw another post that mentioned water intrusion in the cab affecting a connection and I do have issues with this. The drivers side floor is damp after a rain (finding the leak is next on the list) and there is quite a bit of rust on the parking brake mechanism and the seat mount bolts as well as the brake/clutch pedal shaft. I also suspect other gauges arent acting right either. Temp gauge reads normal even when the truck is off. The fuel gauge was on 1/2, I filled the tank (it took 10gal) and the gauge read full and has dropped a little since (i've put probably 50mi on it since filling it) so it seems right but it holds it's position even when the truck is off, which seems weird.
So.. what's my next step? Can anyone tell me which relay is the "Alarm Chime"? Should I start checking continuity in the VSS wiring or maybe check out the connector under the driver's seat? All fuses check good, but it did look like a couple had been replaced with ones that were rated for higher than they should have been, which isn't good.
If you made it all the way through this, thank you! I appreciate any suggestions.
