What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[superj]

I put one of those tailgate extender cage deals on my ranger. It was originally for a nissan titan but i cut out some from the inside so it fit and bought the mounting brackets on amazon for 12 or 13 bucks. The cage thing says amp research and thats who the brackets came from. I trimmed the feet down on the part towards the top so the bed cover closed without hitting it and its great.

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

COPIED FROM ANOTHER RACER
Saw this on Facebook and thought it was cool enough to share for all of you non-racers out there.

The calm before the storm.... Doing the burnout before my round, where I'll go against one other person, and it's either me or them, one of us will win and continue on, the other will go home. Drag racing is not for the faint of heart, or a weak ego... It's brutally stressful.
Unlike other sports, especially other motorsports, where one has time to correct their mistakes, one has time to improve, one has time to struggle and maybe conquer, and crawl back from behind... In drag racing, everything is compressed into one moment, where just a few seconds is literally broken down into hundredths, thousandths, and even ten thousandths of a second. The intense focus involved to deal with such tiny fractions of a second is hard to comprehend, much less perform.
It takes 0.1 secs, a tenth of a second to blink one's eye quickly, that's the equivalent of an entire day to a drag racer. Now break that tenth down 10 more times, to 0.01 sec, a hundredth of a second... that's like an hour to a drag racer. Then break that hundredth of a second down 10 more times to 0.001 sec, a thousandth of a second... that's where drag racers live, in the thousandths of a second.
Trying to react in a world in a thousandth of a second, is an incredibly small world, almost a quantum world. A place where normal humans can't even comprehend, but where drag racers live. Drag racing is being able to predict how long your car will react to your reactions before the light tells you to react, a drag racer has to predict when the future will happen, and calculate when to react before the future becomes the here and now... all in thousandths of a second. And that's just the start of the race, at the end of the track at the finish line, is another separate race, being able to cross the finish line within a specific hundredth and thousandth of a second, while going very, very quickly.... And in the end, one can win or lose by 0.0001 sec, ten thousandths of a second. It's beyond difficult, beyond stressful.
Anyone who says drag racing is easy, doesn't have a clue... time is squeezed down into such a tiny compressed reality, that there's no time to correct any mistakes, you either do it perfectly, or you get sent home. So sitting in the staging lanes waiting your turn, is where you try to get into the zone, the quantum zone.

 

[ericbphoto]

COPIED FROM ANOTHER RACER
Saw this on Facebook and thought it was cool enough to share for all of you non-racers out there.

View attachment 107294

The calm before the storm.... Doing the burnout before my round, where I'll go against one other person, and it's either me or them, one of us will win and continue on, the other will go home. Drag racing is not for the faint of heart, or a weak ego... It's brutally stressful.
Unlike other sports, especially other motorsports, where one has time to correct their mistakes, one has time to improve, one has time to struggle and maybe conquer, and crawl back from behind... In drag racing, everything is compressed into one moment, where just a few seconds is literally broken down into hundredths, thousandths, and even ten thousandths of a second. The intense focus involved to deal with such tiny fractions of a second is hard to comprehend, much less perform.
It takes 0.1 secs, a tenth of a second to blink one's eye quickly, that's the equivalent of an entire day to a drag racer. Now break that tenth down 10 more times, to 0.01 sec, a hundredth of a second... that's like an hour to a drag racer. Then break that hundredth of a second down 10 more times to 0.001 sec, a thousandth of a second... that's where drag racers live, in the thousandths of a second.
Trying to react in a world in a thousandth of a second, is an incredibly small world, almost a quantum world. A place where normal humans can't even comprehend, but where drag racers live. Drag racing is being able to predict how long your car will react to your reactions before the light tells you to react, a drag racer has to predict when the future will happen, and calculate when to react before the future becomes the here and now... all in thousandths of a second. And that's just the start of the race, at the end of the track at the finish line, is another separate race, being able to cross the finish line within a specific hundredth and thousandth of a second, while going very, very quickly.... And in the end, one can win or lose by 0.0001 sec, ten thousandths of a second. It's beyond difficult, beyond stressful.
Anyone who says drag racing is easy, doesn't have a clue... time is squeezed down into such a tiny compressed reality, that there's no time to correct any mistakes, you either do it perfectly, or you get sent home. So sitting in the staging lanes waiting your turn, is where you try to get into the zone, the quantum zone.

My brain has the speed of a sleeping sloth. Drag racing fascinates me. But I'm not up for it. Great photo.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Any job worth doing is worth doing twice, or something like that.

I’ve been there, fortunately, not in a while, but it always sucks. Sorry for the trouble.

You said the hose popped off the filter. Sometimes when I’m putting a hose on a smooth fitting, I will run a tubing cutter around the fitting in two or three places, not to cut it, but just enough to put little grooves in it, that will help hold the tubing. Sometimes I Ruffin up a little bit with the file. It can be done quickly, and of course doesn’t cost anything.

The other thing is to shoot the inside of the tubing, and the outside of the fitting with some brake cleaner, and slide it together and button it up before it all evaporates. It momentarily softens the rubber, but will add to the grip when it dissipates.

That’s two or three suggestions I think. You might want to go slow, and just use one suggestion each week when you fix the fuel line that week, and then see which ones work out best in the long run.

Seriously, praying for you, hang in there, don’t let it get to you!

So what originally happened was that I was unable to disconnect the fuel line from the fuel rail line. Which lead to buying some -6 AN PTFE braided line and fittings and just replaced the entire section from the filter up to the fuel rail line with AN. The stock fuel filter for a 2000 Ranger has too short of fittings on it to accommodate the -AN adapter and conveniently when I was in search of a different fuel filter set-up (I wanted a canister filter style), I couldn’t find any available that were rated for EFI systems, everything was rated for low pressure carburetor systems. So I dug up a part number for a different filter that was a larger sized canister with longer fittings that matched. Think it was for a different EFI Ford or something. That paired with a 3” stainless mount for rigid electrical conduit solved my filter problem.

Well, at least I thought it did. When I took the old filter off, the one tank side hose fitting came partially apart. I thought it went back together, but then it blew apart completely not long after I got it running. Of course, parts stores sell repair bits, but not the ones I needed. So I shoved a repair barb in the plastic line and ran an EFI rated rubber bit with two fuel injection clamps on each end up to the filter. Had to adjust the clamps a little after that, then it was working and I kinda forgot about it until it blew off the filter today. I was so mad I shoved the rubber line past the rib on the filter fitting this time and now I have a clamp on both sides. I’m going to order the fittings I need since I have the line. The only concern is that I need a short right angle fitting and I’m not sure if I can source one.

So frustrating, but my fault for not fixing it correctly from the start. All in all, it could have been much worse.

 

[Rick W]

I didn’t realize, or I would’ve thrown in the duct tape option also.

On those fittings, look online on eBay. I’ve been able to find all kinds of crazy stuff.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I didn’t realize, or I would’ve thrown in the duct tape option also.

On those fittings, look online on eBay. I’ve been able to find all kinds of crazy stuff.

My concern is the one line off the fuel sender assembly goes straight up out of the top. The other two fittings for fuel line on the tank take a 90* bend on top of the assembly. My concern is with the one that goes straight up, the factory line has a short 90* adapter for that line that goes straight up, but I haven’t found anyone who makes or sells a 90* EFI fitting for AN, you have to put a straight EFI and then a 90* AN. I’m not entirely sure how well that will fit. Might almost have to pull the bed and build some sort of protector so the line doesn’t get banged if/when the bed comes on/off again.

 

[sgtsandman]

My brain has the speed of a sleeping sloth. Drag racing fascinates me. But I'm not up for it. Great photo.

 

[Bill]

I attempted to install a new stereo in it, but I can't get the front speakers to work.

 

[ben_2_go]

I attempted to install a new stereo in it, but I can't get the front speakers to work.

I never use the factory wiring with aftermarket radios or speakers. If I don't use RCAs to an amp, I use quality copper speaker wiring and go to the speakers. I've ran into similar issues where the factory wiring was weird or there was a faulty amp or crossover.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Cut the deck for a sleeping platform in the bed.

Also dropped off the cad file at the local fab shop to see how much it is going to cost to get the side plates cut out for my grille guard.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So yesterday I looked under mom’s Explorer because my parents said there was a leak. Looks like the pinion seal went. Joy. Problem for another day.

Also investigated the fitting situation for the fuel lines in my green Ranger and found there is plenty of room for whatever I needed to do but also discovered that I may have a problem with how short the stub is on top of the fuel pump. I think it will be long enough. Releasing the fitting may be an issue but as long as it fits and seals it will be good enough for now. Then last evening I spent time sifting through 80 pages of search results to try and find the fittings I need since my Summit app updated and dumped my cart since I’ve already done this once. That said, I did happen to find the 90* adapter fitting that I thought was made of unobtainium. Have to sort through a few things and possibly add a couple other bits to the cart after checking my stash of parts. Maybe today I can get that ordered.

While I was at it, I got stuff pulled out of my Ranger and put away that didn’t need to be riding around with me anymore and tightened as many of the drivers side header bolts as I could since they for whatever reason were coming loose and causing an exhaust leak. Couldn’t find my long ball end Allen key sockets so there’s two or three that I still want to check. Apparently dad has my sockets, so I’ll get that done today.

 

[superj]

I never use the factory wiring with aftermarket radios or speakers. If I don't use RCAs to an amp, I use quality copper speaker wiring and go to the speakers. I've ran into similar issues where the factory wiring was weird or there was a faulty amp or crossover.

talking about that, e30 bmws (and maybe all bmws) have a weird ground set up where if you use the factory amp, you just use the + side of the speaker wire when putting in an aftermarket radio. well, it turns out the early mazda6 are set up the same way. i put an amp in the 05 mazda6 for my son because he wanted his 12s in it and the amp wouldn't produce sound unless i disconnected the - side of hte input speaker wires. funny how some things are run

 

[Rick W]

That said, I did happen to find the 90* adapter fitting that I thought was made of unobtainium.

Have you tried ebayium? Craigslistium? You may also want to see if you can buy something bigger, scavenge the parts, and get rid of the carcass like I did on the 93 donor truck.

Never underestimate a little fuel hose and some hose clamps. If a tight 90° turn is the problem, you could put a rubber hose inside a slightly larger diameter spring that’s longer than the bend (from your shed of miracles), or run a corkscrew loop to out maneuver the tight bend.

Just some thoughts from the delusion

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Have you tried ebayium? Craigslistium? You may also want to see if you can buy something bigger, scavenge the parts, and get rid of the carcass like I did on the 93 donor truck.

Never underestimate a little fuel hose and some hose clamps. If a tight 90° turn is the problem, you could put a rubber hose inside a slightly larger diameter spring that’s longer than the bend (from your shed of miracles), or run a corkscrew loop to out maneuver the tight bend.

Just some thoughts from the delusion

When I originally put together a parts list for doing the lines from the tank to the filter, I looked hard for a 90* fuel fitting to -6 AN and no matter where I searched, I could not find such a thing. After taking another look at things yesterday I found that such a thing is available through Summit Racing. No idea if it’s a new thing or what, but what I originally was looking for now exists where I can buy it and it’s not stupid expensive. As long as it clips in place, I really don’t care if it’s never able to come off. My AN line will screw right onto the adapter and I could always just buy a spare adapter and throw it in my parts bin for if I need a new sender and can’t get it off the old sender/pump unit. Interestingly enough, I also found some adapters that go from the nylon fuel line to -6 AN…

 

[Bill]

I took a few things apart trying to hunt down the factory amp and didn't find anything.