New Boy Here (since late 2021)

[RainjerBill]

Greetings, I'm the owner of a clean, secondhand '98 Ranger XLT 2.5 5 speed RWD, with a colour-matched canopy. I'm mainly a moto guy, with the garage space reserved for them, since my cars and this pickup have their own roofs. I've enjoyed fiddling with the various imported cars I've had over the years. I bought this tidy little Ranger from a colleague who was gifted a newer Dodge Ram diesel. It was used round his hobby farm so has the usual minor dents and dings, but was maintained regularly as evidenced by the thick wad of repair order receipts from the early naughts - he got it from inlaws who towed it behind their RV - to 2021 when I got hold of it.
Once in my possession I switched into overalls and crawled beneath it to change all of the driveline fluids, brake fluid, & coolant. Next up, NGK sparkies and NGK leads went in. Ain't those last two holes of eight on the right hand side a b*itch to reach?! I did it with a "wobbly," a 12" 3/8" extension, and much patience. Air & fuel filters were next. A new heater fan resistor restored the multiple interior fan settings. It came with two sets of 15" alloy wheels, likely from an Exploder, one with studded Hankook snowies, the other a set of Toyo all-season, both rated for light trucks. I whacked a JVC stereo unit and speakers into it for more thud and thump after the OEM unit pushed up daisies. A separate thread shows the issue I have had there. I've been a silent partner on this forum since joining about 20 months ago. Thanks for having me.

 

[Blmpkn]

Welcome!

 

[RainjerBill]

Thanks all. Good to be here. Mine's pretty basic compared to some member's vehicles I'm reading about.

I failed to mention, as part of my original fix up work, that new headlamps, front turn indicators and taillights were sourced due to cracks and/or lens fading. It's amazing how relatively inexpensive - and obtainable - decent quality replacement bits are for these Rangers. The brake booster needed replacement as well - such crud build-up between it and the brake master cylinder. Advance Auto had one in stock for under a hundee. My Audi A4 B8 pieces never come this cheaply.

Next up, bleeding the clutch hydraulics, and for later on, I wanna work out a relatively bolt on upgrade to the bare bones front disc/caliper and rear drum set-up, which was ok in the day but is barely adequate. There must be a thread here somewhere.
Cheers.

 

[MXGerry]

Welcome! This is the place for knowledge

 

[SenorNoob]

98 should already have the dual piston front brakes which are as good as it get except for Sport Trac upgrade. Which uses the same calipers. Just on a larger rotor.

Rear can be swapped to Mustang rear disc or the whole axle swapped for an Explorer rear disc model.

Both can be made to stop VERY quickly. A stab of the brake pedal with the front you already have and Explorer rear stops fast enough to leave a bruise from the seatbelt.

 

[Ranger850]

@RainjerBill How are those NGK plugs and wires doing. There was a small discussion about this the other day.

NGK

My '95 V6 pushrod had a miss. Especially when cold. Pulled the plugs and checked wire resistance. Found this at approximately 2k miles on the plugs. BTW what is proper resistance for the wires. Manual sas 5k at a foot of wire. Kinda made me laugh. This plug could have been a real major problem.

www.therangerstation.com

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site.