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Just got my first B-II


alwaysFlOoReD

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I would also pull the front drive axles. They are getting hard to find used and I don't think you can get new.
 


RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Lots of progress on the tear down of the farm truck. Most of the interior is stripped and the transmission and transfer case are out. We're going to pull the bench seat for my brother's 91 ranger since his seat is currently held together with zip ties. :icon_rofl:


The interior before the transmission was removed.


The seat will be reused by my brother for his Ranger


The haul from this weekend

The black dash will be going in my b2 eventually. I'm going to get it passed inspection before I go playing with it. The manual transfer case will be going behind the 5 speed I took from the parts b2. The TK4 4 speed will be put up for sale. Know anyone looking for one? It's in good shape!

I finished taking the flywheel and clutch assembly off of the parts b2 then took pictures and put it up on Craigslist. It still has a supposedly running 2.9 and both axles. I decided not to pull the axles to leave at least some meat on the bone. We'll see. If there's no takers, I might pull them.
 
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RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Beautiful weather! Yasssss! My craigslist ad for the parts b2 didn't go anywhere, so I decided to pull the engine to keep as a spare. I might try my hand at rebuilding it. My uncle builds race motors, so I can get some pointers from him if I get in too deep.



Luckily Bella was around to make sure nobody messed with my b2 while Rog and I worked on the parts truck.



We ground off the last few screws that were holding the fender on the Ranger, so the front end is completely stripped now. Then we took the benches out of my 83 and my brother's 91. His bench is in really bad shape and mine was pretty good, so he's going to install that and the rubber floor mat into his. Sorry didn't get pics of that. It was getting late and I still had a 45 minute drive home, so picture taking wasn't on my mind.
 
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bobbywalter

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sawzall?
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it is easier to fix and understand than "her"
i am jealous.



would love to get something that nice close to home.
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
I was surprised when it came up so cheap. Normally around here, if it's less than $1K and runs, it's got major rust issues. But this thing is about as rust free as I've ever seen something from the 80's in these parts. :yahoo:
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Took the B2 down to Car-X to have it safety inspected. It failed (surprise, surprise). All 3 rubber brake hoses had cracks, the exhaust pipe had become loose at the inlet and outlet of the muffler, and the power steering pump was leaking.

All-in-all, nothing severe. It would have all been pretty simple if Ford's engineering department wasn't full of sadists. The location of the nut where the metal line attaches to the rubber line on the passenger front couldn't be less accessible. Even with a line wrench, I ended up rounding the fitting because I couldn't get the wrench at a good angle. Nor could I get any PB Blaster on the fitting without just "spraying and praying". I ended up cutting the line and making a new one.

I decided to put on a new muffler rather than trying to reattach the old one. It was pretty crusty. So I bought a Magnaflow Rumble fully welded muffler at autozone and welded it on. :icon_welder: Well, mostly welded it on. I used clamps in a couple places because I'm lazy. :icon_thumby:







I thought I could use both of the new lines I had just put on the farm truck ranger, but the 2.3 and the 2.9 use different high pressure lines. Luckily, it looks like the low pressure line was the problem and they appear to be identical. So I changed that and just cleaned up the high pressure line.



So you want to paint your truck with bed liner, do you? WELL DON'T! Unless you like washing your truck with a kitchen scrub brush. I absolutely HATE that this thing has bed liner on it. It looks ok, but it sucks when you scrape against it, you can't put a cup on it cause it just slides off, and it weighs a friggin ton. What a terrible idea. But it won't scratch on the trail! STFU and go get some plastidip.</rant>





My garage space:

 
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swynx

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hows that muffler sound?
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
It sounds great at idle and driving around the block. I haven't had it on the highway yet, but I suspect it might drone a bit at higher rpm. 6 cylinders are hard to make sound good. Lol.
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
I dropped the b2 off at car-x last night and they did the state safety inspection today. She passed! So I'll be getting plates on my next paycheck.

The drive over to car-x confirmed my fears over how much the muffler will drone. At around 3000rpm it starts to get pretty loud and droning ing the cab. Might have to go back to a stock style muffler.
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
There's been done interest in the muffler, so here's some details. It's a Magnaflow R22541. They call it a "Rumble performance muffler". It sounds nice at idle but is very drone-y at higher RPMs. It's pretty loud in the cab and not in a good way. I'm neither happy nor unhappy with it. I paid $34 for it at autozone.

Pics of the packaging:




 
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RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
I had some time, so I did some tidying up under the hood. I cleaned up the intake and the plastic over the grill. As I came to the battery, I noticed a cut wire. Anyone know what it's for? I'm thinking A.C., but I'm not sure. It goes into the biggish loom that runs along the core support.



I moved on to the battery after that. The terminals were terribly corroded. I'll have to check the charging system. But I cleaned the negative up with a wire brush and got it looking usable again. The positive was too far gone. The copper wire had corrosion going deep into the insulation. So I decided to replace it instead.










While removing the positive from the starter solenoid, I found that the solenoid's case was cracked at the positive stud. As I tried to remove the nut, the whole stud came with it.



So off to the parts store for a replacement. I picked up a new positive cable and a terminal protection kit while I was there. She actually seems to start faster and idle better now. Now it lights off almost as fast as you can turn the key! I forgot to take pics of the terminal and solenoid installed. But here's some pics of the intake and plastics cleaned up.



 
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alwaysFlOoReD

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I believe that wire is ground to body [rad support]. Anywhere would do.

Took a second look and the broke end goes to the battery terminal connector.
 
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RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Aha! Thanks. The electrical around the battery seems like it's been poorly treated. I'm not sure what happened. The starter solenoid had that crack in the plastic that held the stud in, the small wire that goes to "S" on the solenoid is missing its terminal and is just wrapped around the stud. The positive had two small accessory wires coming off of it that just were just out flapping in the breeze. Just waiting for a good ground to connect with. :dunno:

I'm stopping by the parts place today to pick up an assortment of ring terminals so I can start fixing some of this stuff.
 

RayInStl

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Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Got the terminals and cleaned up the wiring a bit more.



This was how the ignition "S" wire looked... no terminal.


Fixed


Done
 
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RayInStl

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St. Louis, MO
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Ford
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2.3L
Transmission
Manual
My credo
Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else!
Got plates last night and drove it work this morning. The transmission is toast. I had to manually shift it till it warmed up. RPMs were high on the highway (around 3K @ 60MPH), so I think the manual swap will be happening sooner rather than later.

I was hoping to find an M5OD to put in it since everyone seems to agree that the FM145 is junk. But if I want to enjoy this thing at all this summer, I've gotta stick with what I have. This weekend is shot, but hopefully the weekend after will be open and I can get to work. :icon_welder:
 

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