I bought the 88 Ford F-150 with the inline 6 cyl, 4.9L, 300 Cu In engine and M5OD transmission. Runs good but has a hydraulic clutch that was out of fluid.
There is air in the clutch hydraulic system now and the clutch pedal had to be pumped up several strokes before it would disengage the clutch. The truck runs and drives fine once the clutch got pumped up and they took $100 off because of the clutch problem, I bought the truck for $700. I have a hand vacuum pump and I'm planning to connect to the clutch bleed and see if I can remove the air from the slave cylinder with it.
Anybody here dealt with the Ford hydraulic clutches? I'm wondering what the worst case cost to have this repaired is. I'm guessing the concentric slave cylinder has to have the transmission removed to replace it. I don't want to put a lot of money in this truck because it is old, not worth much, and has no air conditioning but yet if I can drive it 7 or 8 months per year it could save many miles on a more valuable car and give me something to drive while having another vehicle serviced.
I saw an ad for a 4 cyl Ranger with 179K miles on it. Are you aware of how long the 4 cylinder engines typically last? It's a 1997 and they are asking $2995 for it. Looks pretty good if it has much life left in it.
The courier to ranger change was in '84, I think. My first ranger was an '85, with a 2.8. Great little truck, good on gas and peppy*, great for city traffic since it looked like heck and no-one would mess with it. Very rugged. One potential problem with these was cracking at the top of the a-pillars, can be easily confused with a windshield leak. * Last year with the carb, which tended to ice up, so I bolted the air cleaner bypass to permanently draw from the heat riser, seemed to fix it...then it was peppy. One advantage to the older generation is that there are ton of aftermarket body parts for them, since they are cheap and common they get used as a platform for further modification...
94 was the start of the more rounded body (wife had a Mazda). '96 was the start of the OBDII and had an interior redesign (my current truck). Heater cores are easier to replace on 94, just remove a panel, dash has to get pulled on a 96. The OBDII is easier to diagnose, and means I don't have to put the truck on a treadmill to pass emissions...
Well, there is one other difference: Ford used galvanized rear quarter panels, Mazda didn't. If you're anywhere near the Rust Belt, this can make a big difference. It's one of the reasons why the wife's Mazda got taken off the road...a friend said you could see this difference between the older rangers and Mazdas even in Texas, which most don't think of as Rust Belt. I don't know if this holds true for the newer ones or not.
The 4.0 in the wife's truck was a fuel hog, and knocked on anything less than Hitest. I understand that this motor can carbon up, which can cause this, and that there is a way to clean it out with a dealer water injection kit, but never tried it. Great motor for towing, though.
23 here with a 2.3 manual regular cab and cap. 25 if I go easy on the go pedal or put an extra 5psi in the tires. If you have to haul a lot of stuff, a trailer will get you better mileage than a roof rack.
Another thing to check if you're in the rust belt: the brackets and shackles for the rear springs. Every one of these trucks I've owned has had to have at least one replaced. Not too bad a repair if you have access to a minigrinder and an air hammer. Details on request.
" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@k9g2000vbl.googlegroups.com:
Trucks that go to the beach - we have a LOT of beach - and don't get washed off afterwards collect rust easily.
Those in North Texas get subjected to road "salt" in the Winter, too.
A simple, DIY, carbon removal process that you may wish to try: run it in Second for a couple of days. The high RPMs will "burn out" the Carbon from the cylinders, valves & pistons. [I'd once had the proverbial 10- year-old "owned by a little old lady that only drove it to church and the grocery store and never went over 30 MPH" cars. (That thing was so heavily carboned up that the engine would nearly shake out of the engine compartment at 45 MPH when I got it.) I used this approach and it worked very well. ]
Growing up, we inherited a '72 Valiant from someone who lived about 5 miles from work and never let it warm up. My brother decided to do a rebuild on it--when he pulled the head the valves looked like Tootsie Roll Pops. Once the new chrome rings finally seated, it turned into a very nice car... --Glenn Lyford
Simply take a spray bottle, plant mister, the usual, and as you gently rev the engine...spray tap water down the carby. Pretty good stream of it. Ive used a coffee can with a 1/4" hose to simply run water down the carby. Run water until engine starts to sputter, stop water for a bit until engine revs come back, wait a bit, run water again.
Do this OUTSIDE!
The water turns to steam, softening and then blasting the carbon out of the engine. Makes a hell of a cloud of carbon belching out of the exhaust pipe. It also removes the carbon from the exhaust system..so it can get really messy.
I dont have a clue as to what it does to the cat converter. Most of the engines Ive done this to didnt have one.
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206 HP to the rear wheels on a '63 170 incher - with automatic tranny. That baby could really scamper after it hit 30.
60 in low, 90 in second and over the top of the speedo in third (6000 RPM plus) And no, it wasn't stock - and no, there were no expensive bolt-ons.
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