More on the truck

The truck is doing about the same.  I replaced the tie rods (with the steering wheel upside down!) and had to get them removed, replaced, and the truck aligned at Sears.  They also replaced a ball joint.  My truck still has a wobble factor which may be due to a bad steering gear box, bad joints in the steering column, or some other wild cause. 

I did manage to change the passenger-side plugs to try and alleviate issues with rough running.  To do this costs around 400.00 at a shop.  I had to take the wheel off, remove the splash shield, use a long screwdriver to remove the plugs and blow out the recesses with an air compressor. I installed the plugs.  I put back the splash guard but not without cursing a blue streak.  The truck still doesn't run smooth but does run a hair better.  It's also low on gas.   Another fly in the ointment is that I was told that the camshaft position sensor is out of whack. 

I'm worried about the bump I get when I put the truck in reverse.  There could be a transmission situation that I will have to tend to later, especially if shifting gets worse.

I need to sand the roof and strip the hood and paint both.  I want my truck to do good on a trip to everywhere short of Atlanta. 

My truck

Yes it's my truck. I got it from an individual the last week of January. It is a burgundy 1996 Ford Ranger XLT with a V6 4.0L engine. The first thing I did was to get it insured. I didn't have good luck with the insurer for the Honda I now drive but I did get connected very rapidly with State Farm. Boom! I was insured with a few clicks. It got a trip to a car wash. I got to the tag office just in time the following week and got a new tag. I didn't get the blue and green tag; I just got a white one with a peach.

I was set to drive it other than having a few mechanical issues. The exhaust gasket between the Y and the first catalytic converter was gone and both halves of the three-bolt connector were 1/2in apart. This turned my truck into a gas chamber. Even with the window down I felt I was being gassed. The machine steered and accelerated rather oddly. I replaced the driver's side spark plugs. I plan to align the truck later and take care of

I took the truck to a mechanic and he said I had worn brakes, a canister purge solenoid issue, a leak near the transmission pan, and the exhaust issue. He took care of all but the brakes and did an induction cleaning. It cost me $620 or so dollars. I was expecting worse. I did the front brake pads myself and sanded the glaze off the rotors. The pad on the right side was so worn the metal wear tab was a few millimeters away from the rotor. Judging from the rust on the caliper bolts it seems that the truck's brakes were not done recently.

The brake lines will last another year or so. The  sensor wires lost part of their external sheath. A mechanic will have to deal with both of those issues. The same goes for getting it aligned. My steering wheel should be at the 9:00 positiion and not 8:30 when I go straight.

On the passenger's side I did not replace the plugs. This may explain some of the rough running. Fords require you to take the wheel off, curse, and twist the wrench onto the passenger-side plugs. The most valuable and potentially money-saving tool is a short piece of hose to hold the spark plug. It holds the plug just enough to let you hand-screw it into the engine. Cross-threading forces the hose to twist without moving the plug.

I've been reading John Jerome's "Truck"; a book he penned in 1977. He was a New England resident who once lived in New York and worked in advertising. In the coldest of winters Mr. Jerome took apart and reassembled a 1950 Dodge almost completely by himself. He sent part of the engine to a machinist and did the rest of the overhaul. His effort took two years. I don't think I'll be that brave.