I am Brian
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2021
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 11
- Points
- 3
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Vehicle Year
- 1995
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
Greetings. As my username says, I am Brian. I'm a project manager/developer for a serious gaming company. When I was younger, I went to a trade school to become a mechanic. I didn't like working on cars for strangers and switched to business, eventually getting an MBA. I bought my first Ranger in 1990, a plain 1986 standard cab with a short bed and blue vinyl bench seat. This truck had zero options. It was a 2.0L 4-speed manual with manual steering and manual brakes. It could barely break 70 on a steep incline and died in the mountains in NM. I replaced it with a new 1993 XLT 2.3L 5-speed manual standard cab long bed. It was much nicer and I really enjoyed it. I got away from trucks for a long time because I didn't need one. Now that I'm a homeowner, I definitely have the need again so I've been casually watching Craigslist, FB marketplace, and the rest.
I found my 1995 Ranger XLT 2.3L manual standard cab short bed with 173k miles in February. It was posted for sale or it was going to the junkyard. I went to check it out and it was misfiring like crazy, completely baked from the Florida sun, and had a lot of "deferred maintenance." On the plus side, it was one owner and it was dirt cheap. Nostalgia made me do it even though I knew it was probably a bad idea (I have trouble with impulse control). It scanned with P0301, confirming what I already knew. It had zero compression on cylinder one that didn't go up with the leak-down test. The rest were around 190. I peeled off the valve cover to start investigating and found the rocker arm had fallen off the cylinder 1 exhaust valve. There was no debris, no damage to the arm, and it wasn't touching the cam. On a whim, I popped the rocker arm back on and it runs like a champ for several hundred miles now. Problem fixed for the price of the valve cover gasket. I don't know how long it'll last but I'm prepared to do the work if it fails.
Since then I've been fixing minor issues, taking some age out of the appearance, and planning. It's going to be a third vehicle for us so nothing fancy. I'm going to keep the survivor look but fix some things like the scorched and surface rusted roof. The tires are 13 years old and, since it's been hard to find 14" tires at a decent price, I picked up some 15x7s from a junkyard. I'm in the process of stripping, repairing, and clear coating them before mounting new tires that I have yet to buy. I've ripped out the god-awful home brew security system that was in it (the original owner is an engineer), swapped the cluster to add a tach, replaced every coolant and vacuum hose, and flushed the mud from the cooling system. I'm going to take on the A/C this weekend.
I've found some great information here and look forward to participating and getting to know you.
I found my 1995 Ranger XLT 2.3L manual standard cab short bed with 173k miles in February. It was posted for sale or it was going to the junkyard. I went to check it out and it was misfiring like crazy, completely baked from the Florida sun, and had a lot of "deferred maintenance." On the plus side, it was one owner and it was dirt cheap. Nostalgia made me do it even though I knew it was probably a bad idea (I have trouble with impulse control). It scanned with P0301, confirming what I already knew. It had zero compression on cylinder one that didn't go up with the leak-down test. The rest were around 190. I peeled off the valve cover to start investigating and found the rocker arm had fallen off the cylinder 1 exhaust valve. There was no debris, no damage to the arm, and it wasn't touching the cam. On a whim, I popped the rocker arm back on and it runs like a champ for several hundred miles now. Problem fixed for the price of the valve cover gasket. I don't know how long it'll last but I'm prepared to do the work if it fails.
Since then I've been fixing minor issues, taking some age out of the appearance, and planning. It's going to be a third vehicle for us so nothing fancy. I'm going to keep the survivor look but fix some things like the scorched and surface rusted roof. The tires are 13 years old and, since it's been hard to find 14" tires at a decent price, I picked up some 15x7s from a junkyard. I'm in the process of stripping, repairing, and clear coating them before mounting new tires that I have yet to buy. I've ripped out the god-awful home brew security system that was in it (the original owner is an engineer), swapped the cluster to add a tach, replaced every coolant and vacuum hose, and flushed the mud from the cooling system. I'm going to take on the A/C this weekend.
I've found some great information here and look forward to participating and getting to know you.
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