Aerostar armrest in Ranger

[jarz21]

I had already replaced the worn solid bench seat in my '96 B2300 regular cab with a 60/40 split bench from a '96 Ranger, but it did not include an armrest. All of the 3rd generation Ranger/ B-series armrests were either broken or removed at that particular junkyard. I considered a non-console armrest like I had on my '92 Ranger, but was actually enjoying the large gap between the driver and passenger seats, which gave easy access to the space behind the seats. Didn't want buckets or an Explorer center console, so began looking at Ford Aerostar vans. I unzipped the driver armrest cover and removed the T45 torx bolt. I had removed several armrests from different years to find the one that was in the best shape. I believe I ended up with one from a 1994 Aerostar, and noted that the mounting spacer/washer for the later Aerostars was slightly different (but probably still would have worked). Also, I should mention that I removed the armrest cover and soaked it in some OxiClean, which worked well for cleaning off years of nastiness and some residual junkyard grease.


Seat without stock storage armrest (pre-1998 only had a single bolt mount on the driver side)

Close-up of mounting hole and spacer for armrest

Back side of Aerostar driver armrest

T45 bolt and spring washer

Armrest installed

Note that if you tighten the bolt too much, it won't be able to raise up