Hello to everyone first of all. My 16 y/o son was given a 97 2wd ranger 3.0 by his uncle. Has a 150k on it. Don't know how much life these engines have to them. He was the original and only owner of this truck and it was regularly maintained.
My son took it alone for the first time to school and he noticed it sagging on the drivers side when he came out. I found the spring holder bracket had broken right off. Ground off the rivet heads last night but am wondering how to get the new nuts in with the gas tank right up to the frame. Will I have to lift off the bed to get to them. I do not want to remove the gas tank if it can be helped. Sure would appreciate any idea's

 

Those are really hard to get the nut behind the gas tank. I think I put the nut in a box end wrench and got it in the eventually.

 

i would just remove the bed its so easy to do. makes life so much easier

3.0L you will get an easy 200k out of them if not more if you keep them up

 

Is it really that easy to take the bed off?

 

take tail lights off. take out the bulbs. unscrew the filler neck 3 screws. take out the 6 bolts and lift off

 

Thanks to both John and Zack for the quick responses. Zack are the bolts holding the truck bed on welded by rust or will they come out fairly easy? Do you need someone underneath holding the nuts or are they welded in place?

 

its J clips they *should not* spin at all. personally I would put someone below with some eye protection and a Mapp gas torch you can pick those up at the auto store comes with the bottle and torch head.

if you have access to an impact gun use it. get the bolts/jclips really nice and hot and impact them out shouldnt be a problem the back drive one by the tank just be careful with the torch being the tank is plastic


when you go and reinstall the bolts never seize the threads so if you ever have to say do a fuel pump pulling the bed off again is easy

 

Zack, thanks so much. Will probably go that route and do both sides.
Thanks again.