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Bad news at the shop       #: 2066
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 Posted: Tue Apr 7th, 2020 09:43 am
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Tsquare
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Stock, single cab, short bed, rides like a brick on wheels from the factory. It gets bouncy and squeaky with loose steering when things aren't close to being in spec.  There is a lot of feedback though the steering wheel.



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 Posted: Wed Apr 8th, 2020 10:16 am
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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Well, now there's a rattling sound on the drivers side when I go over bumps or on a crappy road, and a slight popping noise when I turn the wheel lock to lock while stationary. I'm thinking it's the driver's side inner tie rod, it has a fair amount of play in it. Luckily I'm off on Friday so I'll probably try the rack and pinion then. Also I'll go ahead and re tighten as many bolts as I can, I was thinking it was the shock not being tight enough but I don't think that's it, maybe the coil spring isn't seated correctly (hopefully not, I don't wanna take anything else apart) so we'll see what it is.



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knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Wed Apr 8th, 2020 09:10 pm
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VelociRanger wrote:
 I'm not 100% sure how to read it but I've got a pretty good idea on what everything means
First you have to stand on your head.....   :-)



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00 XLT 4WD RCSB 3.GO! Jalapeño
01 XLT 2WD RC Steppie 3.0 auto Silver
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 Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2020 08:20 pm
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Justin, also check the 2 front sway bar end links, if they are worn the washers will rattle when going over bumps & if one is broken the sway bar could bang also.



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 Posted: Fri Apr 10th, 2020 12:54 pm
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Here's another thought on the rattle noise.
My '88 had a thumping noise on bumps, couldn't find it no matter what I tried.
I did the 5.0 Swap and found the trans mount had separated, replaced it during the swap and the thumping went away.
Conclusion, broken transmission mount can cause noises too, the littlest things go unnoticed.

Ltr



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Ltr,
2003 EDGE, Std Cab, Steppie, E4 Red, 5sp, 4x
5" SuperLift, 33" x 12.50 x 15"
Hurst Shifter
Mod'd Backrack to fit Steppie
Front and Rear Bumpers by Custom 4x4 Fabrication, OK; now Mike's Welding and Fabrication.
Working on more Mods, just need more time, longer days would work !
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 Posted: Sat Apr 11th, 2020 09:19 pm
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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Update: got the new rack in on Friday, it was actually MUCH easier than I initially thought. It took me 3 hours (1 hour was spent eating and 30mins was spent soaking a bolt in wd40) to get the old one out and the new one in. I guess 2wd coil spring trucks have it WAAAYYY easier than the torsion bar/4wd guys....lucky me, lol. I'm going to do a write up on it, all full of details and pictures but it's rained today and should tomorrow as well. To anyone who needs to do a rack and pinion on a 2wd coil spring truck: it's easier than doing drum brakes!!



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Sun Apr 12th, 2020 04:28 pm
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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So I did the rack and pinion on Friday, drove it a little and it seemed fine. Now, today I drove to Walmart for milk and there's a lot of feedback in the steering wheel. Meaning that if one side of the truck goes into a low spot on the road it pulls me into it a little bit, and I can feel it in the wheel. I also noticed that while turning into the Walmart parking lot (it's concrete and not asphalt) that it sounded like my front tires chirped a little while doing a sharp, low speed turn. I couldn't get it to do it again, so it may have been someone else's vehicle. But, I got home and jacked on wheel up, and well this is what I noticed....




Now, the steering wheel isn't locked in the truck and so I was able to jack one wheel up and move both with somewhat light force. Is this normal and a sign of a good rack, or did I mess something up during install? Afterward I went and locked the steering wheel and there is no play in any of the balljoints whatsoever, and the wheels didn't move. The truck still tracks straight as a rail. Maybe the toe is out of alignment now? I counted the turns on both tie rod ends (twice actually, just to double check) and so it shouldn't have changed much if at all. Thanks for the help so far, and apologies if I'm keeping a thread going on for too long.



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Mon Apr 13th, 2020 10:09 am
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410customs

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that motion seems pretty normal to me
After you installed the rack did you bleed all of the air out?
Basically with both tires jacked up you need to turn the wheel left to right full clock to full clock and keep checking the fluid level in the pump
Do this until no more air comes out and fluid is at level

You can check your toe with a tape measure
You should be 1/4" tow in or 1/8" toe in per side from perfectly straight
So with a tape measure you can measure at the front of the tires and will see like 34-1/2" and at the rear of the tires you should be 34-3/4" (a 1/4" further apart)

If the alignment is off your truck will pull side to side and corner wildly as the tires are not tracking together



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 Posted: Mon Apr 13th, 2020 10:19 am
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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Yes I bled it out. Before I turned the truck on I added more fluid and had my girlfriend start the truck and before she turned it it sucked fluid, and so I immediately added more. After it leveled out for a second I had her turn it lock to lock a few times, all while checking the fluid and keeping the cap off to let the excess air escape. After we did that a couple of times I let it sit with the cap off to continue to let the air come to the top, and after a couple of hours went back out to check and top off the fluid if it needed. I guess I'm just being paranoid and not used to new parts lol. I'll check to toe tonight when I get home, if the movement is normal then the alignment is most likely the cause. Thank you for responding, and thanks everyone for the help. Hopefully this is the last time I post a question to this thread!



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Wed Apr 22nd, 2020 09:32 pm
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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Last update: I got the alignment, got everything installed, aaaaaand the rattle came back. It would progressively get worse as time went on, so wheel bearing was out because I didn't think it would deteriorate that quickly, and so I checked to make sure the shock was in all the way and it was. Then I check all the bolts on the balljoints and tie rod end, and they were tight and hadn't moved, and today while I was dropping off some stone at my coworkers house I happened to look at the suspension and notice the nut on the sway bar bushing on the control arm was back off about half an inch. Of course I noticed it the one day I don't have my tools on me. Anyways, I decided that I would drive it home and on the way stop to get some thread locker (the blue kind) and so I did. When I got underneath I noticed that the rubber bushing between the nut and the bottom of the control arm had deteriorated so bad that it had fallen out, so I grabbed the extra rubber bushing from the old shocks and put that on there for now, and the rattle is gone. Yay! Lol. Thanks for all the help everyone. :cheers



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 10:38 am
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410customs

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Sweet way to stick with it
Sway bars are a huge PITA
Where we live the sway bars take a beating. I am constantly replacing bushings and tightening bolts....... on my BII I just removed them years ago.... guess who's truck goes the smoothest up and down our road? You guessed it....the BII. So now the shock mount bolts come loose once in a while! HAHAHAHAHAHA whenever you fix something the problem just moves upstream



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 Posted: Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 06:28 pm
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mhoward
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Glad you got sorted out! :-)



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 Posted: Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 08:42 pm
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VelociRanger
I’ll probably do it tomorrow


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Thanks! This is the load of stone I mentioned before




And this is how my truck sat loaded:


That's 1,440 pounds in the bed. I know because we weighed it at work (we cut stone here) and we sell some stone by the weight of the pallet. I was originally told it was only 1,080 by my coworker and I thought that can't be much heavier than a load of firewood, but when I asked my boss how much it actually weighed he showed me the readout on the scale. They print it every time for the records or something, idk. I believe the max load in the bed for my Ranger is 500 pounds? The funny thing is I didn't even feel it back there. Obviously I wasn't flying around or nothing, but I did have to downshift to 4th for going up the super long steep-ish hills and brake a little earlier. I was actually amazed lol

Last edited on Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 08:44 pm by VelociRanger



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Fri Apr 24th, 2020 08:02 am
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mhoward
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1440 pounds!  The truck really isn't squatting that bad, considering the amount of weight. :thumbsup:



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2003 Ranger Edge / Extended Cab / Flareside / 3.0L FLEX / 5r44e Auto / 2WD / 8.8 LS 4:10 / Sonic Blue Pearl

So many mods... so little time...



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 Posted: Fri Apr 24th, 2020 10:47 am
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dude put that Ranger to work!



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 Posted: Fri Apr 24th, 2020 07:01 pm
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Tsquare
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They can take it.



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 Posted: Sat Apr 25th, 2020 09:54 am
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yes they can but often they like to crack leaf springs............ I have seen so many rangers with broken rear leaf springs in the last two years they must be getting to "that age"



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 Posted: Sat Apr 25th, 2020 11:03 am
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mhoward
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Yeah, our babies aren't getting any newer...



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So many mods... so little time...



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 Posted: Sat Apr 25th, 2020 06:55 pm
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VelociRanger
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Any suggested spring upgrades?



____________________
knowing when to quit is wisdom, being able to quit is courage.

1983 Ranger, reluctantly taking apart. Donor/project vehicle.

1997 Ranger Ex Cab Manual 4.0 2wd, dead on arrival. Hopefully reviving for a daily driver.

1984 Ranger, currently in ≈861 pieces. She’s donating what’s salvageable.
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 Posted: Sat Apr 25th, 2020 07:06 pm
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mhoward
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That's a bit out of my area of knowledge.  I've never bought new springs for any vehicle I've owned.



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So many mods... so little time...



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 Posted: Sat Apr 25th, 2020 09:44 pm
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When my ranger was loaded I worried about hopping a curb and snapping an axel tube.

Knowing how my springs looked when I had my truck loaded, I imagine the springs on that truck were completely horizontal🤪



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 Posted: Sun Apr 26th, 2020 11:00 am
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I have seen a few ranger owners now make their own leafs using main springs from a F150 or 4 door explorer.........seems to work out very well especially for carrying additional weight in the bed.
You can of course buy replacement leaf springs from just about anywhere, Alcan spring in Colorado, Deaver spring I know sells replacements, you can even find them on Rockauto and amazon last I checked.
A good 2" lift spring would be a nice upgrade to level most rangers and bring the load carrying ability back up to snuff



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