Well let me spit a quick verse on here about myself,
Im 27 year old rookie truck enthusiast. I don't believe in paying to fix for ur problems. so with that being said, i bought a lemon in a 2002 Ford Ranger XLT 3.0L V6 Vulcan Flex fuel from a shitty dealership. But my personality doesn't allow me to scrap it or resell it. SO i've began to do some work on her. First off was the Right rear axle, which i crashed one night whilst acting as if i was tokyo drifting like an idiot into the curb. Between parts and my time i must have spent $120. once i asked a mechanic for a quote on the job, i realized mechanics are for engine lovers and those who are physically unable to fix their own ****. So here we are now, The truck is a lil beat up internally. on the body she just needs a paint job. I've made some minor fixes to the truck. Gasket replacements, coil pack replacement, Spark plugs replaced, coil overs replaced and im currently fighting a Cylinder 6 Misfire. Working an that as i'm also about to open her up and look into a rattle in the timing chain.Sounds like a whole lot of fun coming my way with this truck. But honestly, i'm learning and i cant complain when ur learning how to be efficient or at least somewhat knowledgeable of what you purchase and use on the daily.

Hope to share some great stories to come with this beaut

 

Welcome to the forum, Mike! Sounds like your truck may have been neglected by the previous owner, but with a little work you can have it running great again! :)

 

Unusual for a noisy timing chain to develop in a Vulcan...
They're good for the life of the engine, 300K _ how many miles ?
There's no guides or tensioners involved.

Slip the belt off so it's not driving anything, see if the noise doesn't go away.
Don't run it like this for more then a minute _ no water pump being driven.