Ranger Rehabillitation

[cody93]

if only you weren't so far away, id take both 2.9s, one to power an air compressor(gwaii reference here) and another to run a water transfer pump

 

[AlaskanRider]

id take both 2.9s

Too bad, well ima put it up on the local craigslist. My four banger was in decent shape too, bad rings, but good oil pressure and good top end. It ran really well, but it burned a quart of oil every hundred miles and had wicked blow by.

Well good news, I got it running well. Swapped the plugs, wires and 02 sensor and it runs great now. Looks like one of the plugs wasn't sparking, as it was darker than the rest and had gas on it when I pulled it out.

I checked compression with my little gauge when I had the plugs out and it was SPOT ON! 180 psi or so on all cylinders, plus or minus 1 psi. Not bad for an engine that was locked up solid when i started!

Oil pressure is good too.

That is a happy little ranger, I like the 4.0 ALOT better than the 2.3.

Found a 150$ parts explorer, bad transmission, thinking pretty seriously about its rear end and front end! Then I'll have a 4x4!

 

[AlaskanRider]

Soo made some indirect progress the other day.
Hauled my welder home!

Its a beast. And its name is Hobart.

400 amps powered by a flathead 6.

Controls.

Somone hauled off bronco for me also. So now i got room for that explorer.

User 4x4Junky was kind enough to tell me about how the 2wd engine crossmembers are different than the 4wd crossmembers, making the TIB to TTB conversion much more complicated than I originally anticipated. Bummer!

Looks like a TTB is gonna be more work than an SAS. Been looking for anything cheap with d44's but no luck so far.

I talked to the guy with the explorer and he said hed take 100$ for it. This makes the whole situation more frustrating, somehow, lol.

So I'm going to have to get out my tape measure and do some figuring, but right now the game plan is to fabricate some lift brackets for the d35 TTB that will bolt to my 2wd cross member.

I want my truck to have the lowest center of gravity possible, so I'm hoping to only have to lift it a couple inches to make everything clear, but well see, It might end up being easier to swap crossmembers. I think I would rather go SAS if thats the case.

 

[AlaskanRider]

I thought I'd mention how much i've spend on this rig so far, my time is worth much less than my money.

$35 Ebay headgasget set. <--- will post if this bites me in the butt (i swear)
Free Totaled '90 Ranger Supercab.
$100 '88 bronco with 31's.
$140 used Radiator, Driveshaft, Throttle cable, Crankshaft Pulley, Fan Clutch
$150 new IAT, ECT, 02, Plugs and Wires
$10 Vacuum lines and Clamps

= $435+Many hours with a wrench, Unless I forgot something.

 

[AlaskanRider]

It just occured to me, Im probably going to have the lamest ranger on here for the amount of work I put into it. Is there some kind of award for this? LOL.

I will have a completely stock ranger with none of the parts that the truck came with. Pretty hilarious.

At this point I have loosened every nut and bolt on this thing, excluding the body mounts, the leaf to frame bolts, and the bearing caps in the motor.

Was looking at the long travel TTB articles in the tech section, Pretty Badass! Well see what all I can pull off, but 2-3" of extra wheel travel would be mean on this little ranger.

If all goes as planned, this trucks gonna need a Rollcage!

 

[AlaskanRider]

made some more progress today. That 4.0 will definately pull loads bigger than you should faster than you should go. Never floored it once, and was able to go as fast as i felt comfortable 45-55 mph.

Next time I do something like this I need put some serious weight in the bed. I did NOT like how the explorer pushed me around. Slick day in fairbanks, It snowed BTW.

New dry storage!

 

[AlaskanRider]

So i figured why it was running funky when cold.

I thought I broke it when i was putting it in, but the nice Napa lady said shed seen it before, and it was just a cheap plug. Well i asked for some cheap plugs when I bought em and that is exactly what i got. Upgraded to NGK platinums, truck is alot livelier and has a much smoother low end, lol.

Noticed the insulation was pretty bad on the wire leading to this cap.

I replaced it with the one from that explorer. Nobody every mentions these going bad on EFI vehicles. It seemed like you'd keep one in the glovebox on older trucks, I wonder why its changed.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Every capacitor I've run across looks like yours. I also wonder why nobody keeps a spare anymore. One of my local parts place employees didn't even know what I was talking about!
Good to see you're making progress of sorts,

Richard

 

[AlaskanRider]

Well I've just been driving the beast since school started up again. This engineering degree is hard!! Maybe I should just be a park ranger or something, where I don't have to think so darn hard (empty the trash can, maybe pick up some litter). Managed to pass everything though so I will be back at it in a few weeks here.

Did make some progress on ranger yesterday, finally got to put in a full day on it. Im about halfway through the explorer 8.8 swap.

The 8.8 was alot heavier than the 7.5, I'm sore from wrestling with it yesterday. Someone was kind enough to volunteer some shop space, he owes me money, so I can con him into letting me use his stuff in the meantime.

This is how it sits now.

And another shot.

I still have to weld on shock mounts, bleed the brakes, connect the e-brake and clearance those U-bolt plates. I used the explorer plates, and they catch my frame on the way up, LOL. I cut the shock mount ears off last night just so i could drive it home, but it needs a little more. I will probably weld the tubes to the carrier housing also.

I will be amazed if this breaks.

That was alot of work, it's so easy to get jaded, as there are so many AMAZING builds on this site. I would consider this a fairly easy job, as they go, but man is it alot of work. Brings a whole new level of appreciation to everyone else's builds on here.

 

[AlaskanRider]

Got my shock mounts welded on. I ended up ditching the sway bar.

also finished clearancing the u-bolt plate.

Finally feeling better about my welds. Not pretty, but I think that they are solid. I have a couple hundred hours of experience, but its been 2 years since I have had access to a welder.