Well, I figured out what my mysterious "noise" was. Its the lovely timing chain rattle that sohc's are destined to get.

Basically what i'm looking to get out of this is:

1. What causes the rattle? Tensioner? Wear?
2. How hard is it to replace? Looks fairly cut and dry, as long as i aquire the balancer pulley tool from advanced auto.

Thanks in advance guy's, and girls.

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2001 Ford Ranger Supercab (4dr), Oxford White, 4.0 Sohc, 4x4, Manual trans (hurst equipped), 4:10's, 3" body lift.

Bump anyone?

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2001 Ford Ranger Supercab (4dr), Oxford White, 4.0 Sohc, 4x4, Manual trans (hurst equipped), 4:10's, 3" body lift.

well unfortunatly its not really cut and dry. the front chain might not be as bad but the rear chain thats on the back of the motor requires you to pull the motor to change it. the tensioners are the issue, they get weak and dont tension the chains properly causing the rattle. from what ive read you need some special tools to re-align the timing gears and such too. ive considered doing this on my truck but ive yet to work up the motivation to do it, mines been rattling since the day i bought it when it had 10,000 miles on it and it now has almost 90,000 with no issues at all so im not too worried about it, its just annoying.

Edit: check out this thread, its long but theres alot of good info about this issue in there.

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/for...d.php?t=125526

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so its not detrimental to get it replaced?..

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2001 Ford Ranger Supercab (4dr), Oxford White, 4.0 Sohc, 4x4, Manual trans (hurst equipped), 4:10's, 3" body lift.

We had one at work that was this year, and at about 140k miles it quit doing anything, turns out it jumped time. Good idea to replace it.

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2004 Ford F150 Automatic FX4 SuperCrew 5.4L 3V Triton V8, No Muffler, true dual straight pipes, 3.73 Gears, 18" rims with Wrangler A/T's
White 2004 Ford Ranger XL, Auto, 4.0 SOHC, 4x4 Base Model, 16" Explorer Rims. 3.73 Gears, No muffler(Sold)
White 1997 Ford Expedition XLT 3inch Suspension lift, 38 Firestone M/T's 98 4.6L Police Interceptor high flow injectors, Super 44, brand new rebuilt transmission, with 3.73 gears(Not mine no more)