Finally, after almost two months, the truck is back! I wasn't driving it because the PS pump was going out, and it was squealing like a pig. I thought the squealing was from the pump, but it wasn't.

Anyway, here are some pictures of what was taken out, and put back in!

old:


new:


The only trouble we had was taking that pressure hose off. My dad was looking at it for a few minutes, and then goes to his work table in the shop, grabs his grinder, and says "Well, lets see if I can catch your truck on fire!". I immediately said "Should we just use a jig saw?" to which he replied "Well, where is the fun for me then?".

Obviously the truck didn't catch fire, thank god!

Anyway, we got the pump in, fired it up, and it was still squealing, and my dad saw that the tensioner pulley was not spinning. Bearings went bad. Once we got it off, you could see how it chewed the **** out of them:



And trip three up to the car parts store (only reason I went to the far away one was cause I was getting better prices from the local one, and I also had a 10% discount card there) landed me the new one:



Got that all put back together, cleaned out the throttle body, and was back in business. I'm real happy now that I got the Ranger back, because it cost me $95 to put gas in the beast, which hurt quite a bit.

So, in total:

Pulley removal tool: $24.29
Power Steering Pump: $55.79
Power Steering Pressure Hose: $32.39
PCV Valve: $3.59
Tensioner Pulley: $62.09

Grand Total: $180.66

If my mechanic would have done it, I bet it would have been double that.

Anyway, I'll have some back road driving pics up tomorrow, though I would at least share the fact that it's actually drivable now!

 

Glad you got it back on the road. Is the new pump a lot quieter?

 

As of yet, no. I am still working the air out of the system after taking it all apart. But no Ford pump I have ever heard on the older models are quiet.

 

if you would have turned the wheel back and forth about 25 times before starting it the first time it should have bled the system.

Did you try to press the bearings out of that tensioner? That is what I have done in the past and those bearings are only around 10bucks each.

 

I did turn it a bunch. I dug some good grooves in my driveway from turning it. My dad just says on some rigs it takes longer then others.

And we don't have a press, so I couldn't really do that, and I figured I might as well go ahead and get the new pulley. I guess I should have tried to figure out a redneck mechanic way to press it.....

Either way, I am just stoked it's on the road. I was starting to really dislike the manual transmission in the Dodge, just cause I am lazy!

 

Glad you got it back drivable again. I hate it when the trucks down.

 

glad your truck is back on the road. mine was off for 6 months up until 2 weeks ago. i bet your just as happy as i was!

 

sweet, good to hear.

 

yeah it is a good feeling when your truck gets fixed