kishy's 1985 Ranger

[kishy]

A minor update, as this has still been seeing periodic use (such as to pick up that '90 K-code rear end recently):

Following the brake work, there is an awful metallic rattle noise coming from the front end when going over minor bumps. This goes away when the brakes are applied even very gently. Seems I cleaned out the channels the pads and calipers fit into a little too well and now the pads are rattling around. Will need to figure out some sort of way to silence this. There are no anti-rattle clips, but a quick glance at RockAuto suggests there are supposed to be.

The cap/topper that is on the truck currently continues to be most of what I want. One of its shortcomings has been that I haven't had keys that fit its locks, and when I inspected the latches to see if I could pull them apart and maybe re-key them myself, it was too much of a corroded mess to get apart nicely. I browsed around on Amazon and eBay looking at similar hardware and bought this in April:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/221788248265

Which looked like it would do the job nicely.

Tonight, I installed them. This entailed:

• Disassembling the existing latches to obtain the nuts and inside-facing handle pieces to be reused on the new latches
• Running a thread die down the square shaft of the new latches to match the threaded length of the old ones
• Thoroughly lubricating everything and assembling the new latches on the cap with the mixture of new and old parts

And like that, I now have a locking cap. Obviously, someone could just break a window if they see something they want, so I continue to try to come up with some sort of tool and cargo concealing solution.

[kishy]

The Ranger kept its liability insurance all year, and did some work relating to my move. I ventured out on Sunday to my friend's place in Detroit, and the first snowfall of the year came during that journey (it didn't stick around, but it fell nonetheless). The truck continues to be a reasonable performer but some issues require attention:

• The ignition switch is a little crappy and bumping it just the right way will shut the engine off. This can be avoided by hooking my keyring on the upper/further forward protrusion of the lock cylinder so the weight pulls it forward, but still, not ideal. It is a newer switch and feels correct, so it may just be a matter of subtly tweaking how it's mounted. It's the same garbage design as the boxes, though.
• There is a minor misfire at specific load conditions, at one consistent throttle position, which is just a little bit past "off-idle". I'm going to clean the MAF (re: 1993 engine controls), and check out the TPS on an analog multimeter. Running the self-tests on this is not straightforward as the clutch switch isn't wired into the computer...something that's been on a perpetual low-priority list in my head.
• The parking brake does not release if applied, and being a winter vehicle, stick, and equipped with a remote starter, I'd really prefer that it worked properly.

Tonight, I took a look at the parking brake. The left side releases, but right does not. Eyes on the cables suggest the outer plastic sheathing has cracked off and the inner metal is all rusted. I used a cutoff wheel to snip the cable right in the middle of the worst rusted section and the brake immediately released. I was debating maybe letting this be the first repair that I just don't do, in favour of shopping for a better condition winter rotbox, but gaining proper remote start use for this winter is worth a few bucks so I've ordered the cables.

With the salt trucks having been out in force, the wagon is done for the year.

[gadget73]

good old liquid evil on the roads. Probably will see it here soon. I need for my mom's insurance co to get their sh*t together and get her paid so she can buy another vehicle. She's driving the Continental at the moment and I do not want that to see salt. For as poor as the cosmetics are, its an incredibly rust-free car and I want to keep it that way.

[DerekTheGreat]

...There is a minor misfire at specific load conditions, at one consistent throttle position, which is just a little bit past "off-idle". I'm going to clean the MAF...

I think a good 90% of the Fords I've had did that. Hell, my Town Car does, but very rarely. I never looked into why, but I've always wondered. If you figure out why, I'd be thrilled to know the solution.

[gadget73]

when my Towncar was doing this, it was EGR related. The vac regulator wasn't regulating, it was just snapping the EGR full open just off-idle. A vac gauge on the EGR showed me, but simply unhooking and plugging the EGR vac line will confirm it. If the problem goes away, its EGR related. If no change, its not that.

The other part of that was a missing VSS signal, but that was more about the later than stock ECM that I had installed, and the fact that 1986 models did not have a VSS signal but that 1989 ECM wanted it. I don't entirely know why VSS input is required for the EGR to not open at stupid times but apparently it is.

[DerekTheGreat]

Hmm. You know, I think you mentioned that before in a similar thread. I took the regulator thing apart and snorted WD-40 in it like you said. It's been awhile since I've noticed that stumble off idle, so that could've fixed it.

[kishy]

I poked the TPS with an analog multimeter and found it to be flawless. I hit the MAF with some sensor cleaner. No difference. It sounds and feels as severe as possibly being a brief dead miss when it happens. But then it's right back to normal as long as I play with the pedal a little.

EGR operation being a problem is actually a very real possibility. This PCM expects to have a VSS input but I never gave it one, so the computer only knows RPM and airflow information, it has no idea that the vehicle is even moving. The truck has always been a little stumbly/jerky at lower speed operation since the engine swap, but I do believe this has gotten worse, so I'm not sure if I should gaslight myself into believing it always did it (post-swap) or continue chasing it as a newly developed problem.

The parking brake cables have now been replaced, but this was more complicated than it should have been if I'd properly diagnosed it first. I replaced the rear two cables on Dec 15, then realized the front one was also seized. It seems one of the rears and the front were seized, with the other rear just dragging a little. Last night, I replaced the front cable, and now the parking brake works beautifully smoothly. I used Dorman cables this time around, which are poly-coated and will outlive the truck at this point. I think.

As for the overall outlook on the truck, the cab is catastrophically rusty and even a minor fender bender would seriously threaten my life with the way it's falling apart. Repair panels to fix it are not produced because the problem is far more severe than just the floor or cab corners. I am giving a lot of consideration to what to replace the Ranger with. The short list of options is:

• A friend of a friend in Detroit has an Aerostar which I'm told is pretty clean, but has a couple driveability issues which are causing him to consider selling it cheaply. This would effectively be a vehicle with the same capabilities as the Ranger, but a high degree of interior comfort and plenty of passenger capacity, so I'm giving it some serious consideration.
• Bring a Ranger up from the southern US, perhaps with a trashed powertrain (it's not rare to find a 2.9 truck with a bad engine), which would provide parts commonality with what I already have. I would insist on it being an extended cab truck, however, which unfortunately means it would have the short box. It would need to be 100% rust-free, which is a significant challenge on these vehicles as even in the south, there are major water leak issues with some seams in the cowl area and these trucks lose their floor boards even in the south.
• Return the 84 Town Car to winter duty. The fact is, the 84 is a very solid, mechanically-sound vehicle but it's a little ratty and rough around the edges, and nobody anywhere will ever put the effort in to bring it back from the cliff it's approaching in terms of roughness. It may not be the worst outcome for me to reduce the fleet size by a vehicle and put this one back to work doing the task I originally bought it for, which was always supposed to be my winter beater. It's not like I'm driving it otherwise, I think it sat all this past year.
• A friend on this side of the border has offered to sell me his Nissan Homy (that's an M), which is a cab-forward RHD diesel AWD van imported from Japan. Committing it to winter death is not something either of us really wants to do, but it's been sitting for maybe 10 years now with no realistic prospect of being driven otherwise, so it's an option we're both considering. It would be exceedingly cool and fun in a few ways, but parts availability could be a challenge.

[Mainemantom]

I would not buy the Aerostar or a Windstar for any price if it is an Automatic. Those transmissions were horrible even when they were new. If it is a manual it may be ok as it is more than likely a Mazda transmission. It will have a tall floor mounted shifter .
Is the Nissan a vehicle that was made for Canadian use, even though it is RHD ? Vehicles that are for the Japanese market are not the quality as those made for the US market. They will not pass the safety standards. Even the sheet metal is thinner.

[kishy]

I would not buy the Aerostar or a Windstar for any price if it is an Automatic. Those transmissions were horrible even when they were new. If it is a manual it may be ok as it is more than likely a Mazda transmission. It will have a tall floor mounted shifter .
Is the Nissan a vehicle that was made for Canadian use, even though it is RHD ? Vehicles that are for the Japanese market are not the quality as those made for the US market. They will not pass the safety standards. Even the sheet metal is thinner.

Aerostar and Windstar are completely unrelated vehicles, with the Aerostar being RWD with optional AWD and the Windstar being FWD. The Aerostar has a degree of parts commonality with the Ranger, as well. The AXOD-family FWD transmissions definitely have a well-earned reputation for trouble, but the A4LD family RWD automatics are reasonable, probably about equal to our AODs in terms of how frequently they present serious issues.

That all aside, manual Aerostars were built, and they share parts with Rangers as the Aerostar is based on a good amount of Ranger engineering. For a reasonably clean body with powetrain issues, I'd be giving serious consideration to putting my current 2.3+TK5 into the van if required.

As for the Homy, no, that was never a North American market vehicle. I have some reservations regarding your comments in this direction, but honestly don't particularly care anyway - I'm not worried about crashworthiness as-built, but rather crashworthiness as affected by significant structural rust, which the Ranger has and the Homy does not.

But the option that's probably best for everyone in the long run is putting the 84 back on winter duty. It's a car I already have, I already know and well-understand its problems, I have a ridiculous parts hoard for it, it's thoroughly undercoated, and its market value is pocket change.

[gadget73]

isn't the A4LD the one with an input shaft that shears and makes it completely stop working? I seem to recall my friend having a Bronco II that did that.

[kishy]

isn't the A4LD the one with an input shaft that shears and makes it completely stop working? I seem to recall my friend having a Bronco II that did that.

Maybe? Not something I'd heard of, but a quick Google makes it sound like related problems (the splines it connects into, perhaps) do happen sometimes.

But it's not like the AOD has never sheared a direct drive output shaft before, so at what point do we acknowledge that a 40 year old design maybe had a couple shortcomings but not really a huge quantity compared to its contemporaries?

Personally, I'm a lot more scared of the 4.0 V6 than the A4LD. But regardless the Aerostar option isn't the outcome I'm gunning for, really.

[87gtVIC]

I would run the 84 TC. Makes the most economical sense.

[Tiggie]

Re: Aerostar, they rust in the rockers! Any salt exposure and they die quickly. I do like the van from a retro perspective, and dabbled with an AWD 4.0 1991 Extended model. It was actually a rocket when compared to my 2.3 Ranger. I wouldn't be afraid of the 4.0, but the van engine compartment kind of sucks. But not much of a winter beater.
Makes sense to subject the Lincoln to the weather, if needed. I threw my 88 wagon back into duty for winter use only and I'm loving getting some use out of it.

[gadget73]

Maybe it was splines. Either way it suddenly wouldn't move at all.

The OHV 4.0 is not bad, the SOHC abomination they put in the late Rangers though, that thing can F right off.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Maybe? Not something I'd heard of, but a quick Google makes it sound like related problems (the splines it connects into, perhaps) do happen sometimes.

But it's not like the AOD has never sheared a direct drive output shaft before, so at what point do we acknowledge that a 40 year old design maybe had a couple shortcomings but not really a huge quantity compared to its contemporaries?

Personally, I'm a lot more scared of the 4.0 V6 than the A4LD. But regardless the Aerostar option isn't the outcome I'm gunning for, really.

The original OHV 4.0L engines were decent enough. If you're thinking about that wacky SOHC deal that came later with the jackshaft that runs the timing chain for the other half of the engine, yeah, those aren't worth the time.

My only experience with a A4LD was in a '86 Ranger with the 2.9 Cologne V6 that I did work on. The 2.9 was incredibly underwhelming, and that transmission was arguably crap, at least at that point as the 1-2 shift resulted in a very harsh bang shift by whoever rebuilt it prior. Eventually that transmission failed and quit moving forwards, and the truck was sent where Nick and I have gotten AODs repaired at. Took them several months to source a valve body that wasn't scored and ruined. Eventually they managed to repair it, but the owner of that Ranger told me most places besides them didn't even want to touch it. I do remember it was one of the first Ford ECU 4th gear lockup controlled transmissions. Perhaps they got better with time, but I was not impressed by its habits.


Honestly, I'd say try the southern look for trucks if you're trying to keep that for a winter beater. That '86 did not have significant cab rusting issues. Only had surface rust on the roof top as the paint had burned off. Honestly, unless your '84 TC is much worse off from the last photos in your photos, it honestly looks pretty nice given what it has been through.