I've been buying a lot of AR15 stuff lately. Ammo cans, ammo, more mags, etc; and now I'm looking into a nice 1911, but before I spend another dime on guns, I need to address my rear brakes.

As of late, no matter how I adjust my rear brakes, they quickly loose a lot of their grip. The result is in stop times that put me dangerously close to the rear end of the vehicle ahead of me.

So, a new set of wheel cylinders to replace my dura-doesn't-last cylinders and a new set of adjuster levers to replace the damaged ones so that they self adjust. I do need to confirm my brake size (fairly sure it's 10 inch), but that's no big deal. $24 is cheap insurance, I figure. I don't like the fact that I have to replace these nearly-new parts but, oh well. I'll be trying Dorman wheel cylinders this time off rockauto.

I'd also like to shell out for some new drums, too, but I've admittedly spent myself into a bit of a hole that I need to recover from..... Oops. Eventually I'll get new drums, but mine are working, so I won't complain.

 

Checked tracking info and my two wheel cylinders and adjusting levers will be here today, so I'll throw those parts on, bleed the brakes as the system must be opened, make sure they're adjusting and go for a drive to confirm the repair.

I'll ammend this post when I'm done (either tonight or tomorrow) with results.

I chose Dorman wheel cylinders for both left and right and an adjusting lever from BENDIX. For $1 per side I figured it wouldn't be much of a risk to try them and see if they last. If this doesn't last I'll force myself to go with an adjuster repair kit from raybestos. I'd go motorcraft on that, but 17 dollars per side? Really?

 

OK, I got the parts BUT.... those bendix brand parts? Completely. Wrong. Would be more expensive on my part to send 'em back then to keep them so, I guess now I order the left and right adjuster kits from rabetos.

 

 

Cool!

 

Thanks! It feels like a dream, too. Leather wrapped no less.

 

A couple days ago, I put in the raybestos self adjuster kits and both dorman wheel cylinders, adjusted 'em and they're working flawlessly now. Time will tell how long these last, I suppose. So far so good, though.

Learned today that my bed can very nicely fit about 33 bags of mulch in a perfect 3x3 square.

Also learned how strong my ranger really is. Was at the junkyard the other day and they let me take my truck back there to collect a pair of six way power seats. Low and behold, someone put an S10 to be picked from right smack dab beside the mountaineer I was pulling the seats from (same mountaineer I got the new wheel and airbag from). Lucky for me, the bed was being held on by a heavy duty ratchet strap which was strong enough for me to hook between my tow hooks and the front frame of the S10. Kicked in in reverse and pulled up the slack and just kept rolling. The S10 didn't even slow me down, actually. Was a manual S10 with four wheels, but no tires; unless you count the completely flat tire on the front passenger side.

For the curious, no the Mercury badge won't stay. I'll stick on a round ford logo in it's place. You'll see what I have in mind if I decide to hang onto it.

 

WOW ... What a nice find. It looks like you got all the buttons now.
Can't wait to see those nice seats in there.

 

I'll try out the mountaineer seats, but it'll be unlikely that they'll wind up in my cab. My father and I were there the day before I went back and that night he handed me some cash and told me to go get them. If he doesn't wind up putting them in his, they'll be resold.

If they were tan, they'd already be wired and bolted in. Unfortunately they're the lighter grey. I'll likely wind up getting a pair of seats that still work and getting them reupholstered in black if I ever decide my seats are no longer good enough for me. All the explorer/mountaineer seats out there (other than the rare gems) still work but the leather/cloth is trashed.

Loving the steering wheel though! Finally fixed my blitzing left turn signal. The mountaineer I pulled the these goodies from also donated it's multifunction switch to me, and seems to work just fine.

 

Wow Cam, looks like I've missed a lot!

I love the need wheel, but instead of slapping a sticker on it, why not get a Ford airbag? (I could pull you one if your yard has none)

And you used your front hooks to move a S10?! Any damage to the hooks or did they hold on? (These past few weeks I've seen a few L2s and all of them had a damaged driver side hook - bent up like it was yanked on)

Anyways, truck is looking awesome!

 

I could easily get a ford airbag, but I can get some good quality emblems that are strong enough to hold onto center caps.

No damage to the hooks what so ever. I'd imagine if I had floored it and it didn't budge then maybe some damage, but actually the most damage I encurred was the heavy ratchet mechanism scratching my valance. Not enough to really notice but enough for me to notice.

 

OH SNAP! ... I thought they were the tan seats. At least you got them before someone else bought them.

 

Same here. Looking forward to making some cash from 'em.

Although, I did put something else in my truck today..... Behold!

 

SWEET!

 

Those silver needles look so cool in there.

 

Thanks! I pulled them from a 3rd gen explorer with a whiteface cluster. The speedo and tacho needles aren't quite as long, just a hair shorter, but they seem to work fine.

 

A sticker like that might actually look cool!

And funny, when I was experimenting with different needles, I never tried those ones. They look amazing!

 

Here is what he has in mind:
4PCS 56MM Wheel Center Hub Caps Emblem Decal Stickers for FORD White/Black 1079 | eBay

I bought a set of these for the center caps of my new wheels (that I haven't installed yet).

 

^ Yes, that's what I'm considering if I decide to stick with this setup; which is very possible. I like how I can hold the wheel lower than what I could with the stock ranger wheel. Bit of a bummer that the cruise pods are the wrong color. I may have to get a pair of pods from the junk yard and try my hand at SMD soldering. It'll be tricky but, it can't be that difficult.

Thanks on the needles, Keegan!

 

After helping my father with his Ranger, I decided to tear into mine again.

Unbolted the rear bumper and hitch and cut the wire to my aux reverse lights and set the parts aside. One of the bumper bolts was outrageously tight. Had to use a breaker bar AND the long handle off my jack to get enough leverage to crack it loose, and that's after using a wire brush and a good penetrating oil. Jeez!

Just finished installing a connector for the reverse lights so I can disconnect it in the future.

The whole reason I'm doing this is to kill the rust on the back of my rear bumper before it eats through to the other side. Wire wheel, rust reformer/primer and paint. Given how rare these stepside bumpers are, I want to make this one last as long as I can.


In other news, my 3.0 has developed a tick when warm. Sounds like a lifter. Not happy about that, and I'm hoping it's not a huge problem in the making. I want to buy a pistol, not an engine and transmission.

...I say 'transmission' as well, because if I'm going through the cost of getting a junk yard motor, I might as well throw an extra 75 bucks in there for a tranny and upgrade to a bigger engine. Ripping it out anyway if that's the case, and 4.0s are plentiful out there. Not to mention PnP.

 

Why replace the whole motor for a junkyard one that you know nothing about all because of a lifter?

 

I'm not replacing the motor as of yet. I mentioned that if it did turn out to be something major that would paperweight the engine.

 

Oh okay gotcha

 

Over the last few days, I pulled off my rear bumper and hitch to kill the rust on the back of my bumper before it completely destroyed it. Thankfully I caught it early on before it was able to do any real damage.

Took care of it in the usual way with a drill and wire brush in the chuck, airgun, primer and high performance enamel. Love that stuff. Rustolem for the win!

Also took the opportunity to give my step pad a repaint since I had to take it off the bumper anyway, and painted my hitch with undercoating. Not bed liner, undercoating. I don't have any photos of me after putting it on the truck, but I have these progress photos.

Lucky for me, I had some zinc plated, 1/2, grade 8 bolts with stainless steel lockwashers (with nuts) unused. Had bought them months ago to 'refresh' a set of ramps older than me my decades, but turned out they were too big, so I wound up tossing 'em in a drawer. Came in handy, because two of the six bolts I replaced were seriously cheesed. So cheesed in fact that the threads were mashed together.

One of the bolts refused to come loose, actually. Specifically the bolt holding on the bumper on, not the hitch. Impact wouldn't cut it, breaker bar wouldn't cut it, penetrating oil didn't help. I had to resort to sticking the handle of my floor jack on a breaker bar and reefing on it to get it to snap loose, at which point I didn't care if I had destroyed the fastener. If I had any propane at that point I could have torched it I suppose, but sheer leverage proved to be enough. I was starting to contemplate cutting the bolt....

In other news, I discovered an awesome way to get rid of the majority of the crud from the inside of a wheel. A cordless drill (note the cordless part), a bottle of "Fantastik", a pressure washer, and a wire brush attachment for the aforementioned drill. Clean off as much of the surface crap off as possible, then brutally attack the grit that remains. With some work and some time, a set of wheels can look brand new; or at least spades better. I neglected to take progress photos of that, but I have a stack of wheels I can play with to get the photos if so desired.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the photos of my latest maintenance project.

 

Oh, and BTW, those wires that are exposed were not left that way. I had snapped that before I slipped some split loom over them. Exposed wires is asking for trouble.