Quote:
Originally Posted by ford4thot
Good looking old truck, the work looks unfortunately all too familiar. Brings back bad memories haha
Wagon looks like a fun project
|
I kinda like the character of the first gen Rangers, so even if it is a bit of a sh!tbox in various ways (and believe me, that title is well-justified), I enjoy doing the work.
I don't have any sort of auto repair background other than high school auto shop. Some may see that lack of experiencing coming through, but I think I do OK.
The wagon is...something else. If it weren't for having brought the Ranger back to life (and earning a bit of a confidence boost from doing so) I wouldn't have taken that project on.
I've taken the Ranger on a couple short test drives and the clutch fully engaging has moved a little further up in the pedal travel. Still nowhere near how bad it was before (almost completely off the pedal before it grabbed) but I'm wondering if maybe the normal, by-design engagement point is just a little high on these to begin with.
Oh well.
I did explore the possibility of getting a Turbocoupe 2.3T for it from the junkyard, but there were too many unknowns. Like why was the bellhousing attached to it but trans missing...implies the car was scrapped with trans gone...if the owner had the means to do that, why not keep the whole engine? Started wondering about cylinder head cracks or sloppy main bearings. Computer was missing so I wouldn't have been able to test run it soon enough to make use of the warranty, so I scrapped that idea.
Pulled the valve cover to try to figure out why it loses so much oil. Mating surface is totally screwed on the VC. Previous owner had already put on a PermaDry squishy rubber gasket, evidently chasing the same issue. I'll likely go back and get that 2.3T valve cover since it looked to be cast aluminum instead of stamped sheet metal.
