I hope to be here for a while I own a 1996 Ford Ranger XLT extended Cab and it has 208,000 miles on it and only had to change clutch twice now because of hauling a heavy trailer behind it when I was working. Now retired I have been hauling stuff to build a wrought iron fence in front of my property. Been hauling a lot of 80 lb. sacks concrete for the curb I'm presently putting under the fence line. But today I went to pick up my spayed felines and on the way home something went wrong with my little truck and it started to sputter and cough even though I still could hold a 55mph limit no problem didn't sound good but when I got home removed the intake housing and removed valve cover drivers side where you could hear a definite tick tick tick and found the last push rod was bent like a pretzel. After I ordered a new push rod started to investigate further and found the plastic cone on lifter was off from the looks of the piece it may have jammed the rod and popped it from the rocker where it jammed against the rocker arm and bent it. I was wanting to know If I can run the new rod without the plastic cup on the lifter as I really didn't want to pull the manifold. I really need this truck or I will have to use my dually which I use to pull my fiver and that is not what I want to do. Thanks for letting me join your forum it will help me when I need to work on the ranger.