I jumped on my rear bumper to see if I could duplicate the noise I was hearing going over bumps. To my surprise, the entire rear bumper just sagged down when I jumped on it. Looking under the truck I found that both sides of my frame were rusted/rotted away and the rear bumper was just hanging by a thread (of frame left).
As it turns out, there are big oval holes at the rear on both sides of the frame....at the top of these holes the frame is broken, and just a thread of frame is now holding my drooping bumper on.
Is this a known/chronic problem w/ Rangers? Although 11yo. my Ranger only has 80K miles....I cant believe they made these frames of such CHEAP steel....and those big oval holes that do nothing.

BTW, the noise I was looking for was rotted off leaf spring shackles and bracket riveted to the frame right in front of where the bumper brackets are rotted.

 

mine was rusting pretty bad but i caught in time before it got that bad. do you have any pics of it?

 

You live in the rust belt....fix it and move?

 

your truck the frame is 2 peices you can go to the junk yard and get the rear half of the frame

 

the big oval holes that do nothing....do something. a: hitch bolts go through there. b: other holes in the frame are for securing the truck on a flatbed or during transport from the factory to wherever it goes.

Not to be harsh, but did you just get the truck? Rust things like this don't happen over night. Have you never looked under that truck in years?

 

regular washing goes a long way! like shane said, you need to take a look under there once and a while, as well as get a hose up under there.

 

I haven’t seen too many ranger frames rusted til they broke, and I have been around some rusted beater rangers. The Spring Hanger is somewhat common though. I have fixed a few; they are really cheap to buy from a ford dealer. I know the late 90’s Crown vics had a bad rep for rusted out frames in the rust belt. Maybe they use the same supplier. Hope it all works out, I have seen some nice cars get scrapped cause of bad frames.

~HJ

 

It's not a problem with the frame itself, it just hasn't been taken care of. I sold my 98 a couple years ago with 145k miles with no rust problems, but I lived in Oregon.

 

Mine did that, But I live in NH. Id say about 2 of every 5 rangers in the area are having these issues, Ive been failing trucks for Inspection in the year of 98-2002 because of the rear frames rotting behind the shackle bracket and to the bumper supports.

 

No, it's a known/chronic problem with MA.

 

It's a northeast problem. My frame is cracked at the rear upper shock mount and my shackles were rotted away. I've gotten new shackles and I have to replace the rear frame section over Thanksgiving Break. My next truck I'll be sure to wash the undercarriage of the truck every few days in the winter. I failed to do so when I was younger and as a result I have major rust.

 

Its becoming a known and rather chronic problem, Lots of trucks are showing up with rot in the rear.

 

Again, look at your location....


The belt spans from Maine and makes a U and ends in about Minnesota.

 

True, but I have seen Very well taken care of vehicles here in the rust belt, have there frames rust out. Salt and other various Chemicals they put down in some areas are a *****. Even the weekly washing won't guarantee your immunity. Depends on the state too. Minnesota is pretty bad, but South Dakota uses little to no salt even though they for the most part are saddled with the same weather. I don't think Oregon is all that Bad, with weather, maybe it depends on your area, but all the friends I have that live in oregon and washington, never seem to ahve the snow and ice that we have hear. A lot wetter, but they never seem to get as cold.

~HJ

 

u will have fun changing the shackles and they hangers, just did mine yesterday and today, worked from about 10 to 8 yesterday and bout 10-1 today so ur in for some fun.

 

^^^ it took me less than 4 hours to do all of them on my truck

 

well you got lucky then.

 

The shackles on my 1990 ranger snaped and replacing them was practically impossible. I had new leaf springs and I didnt want to destroy the new bushings by heating the shackle. Getting the top bolt out was impossible....took foooorrrreeevvvveeerrrrr. Goodluck.

 

Did you use an air compressor, with an air chisel, and a impact? and a grinder and a saw zaw? I'm doing this on Sunday and I really don't see how it can take long.

 

Took me 4 hours at work to change both on my 92, at work. Hardest part was getting the bolts out of the top of the shackles, ended up taking a die grinder and cutting off the nuts and then driving the bolts out.

 

torch is the best way to get the rivets out on the for the brackets. then the cut the bolts with a sawzal then pound the bolts out of the leaf springs. when i did mine i replaced the shackle and bracket. that made it a little easier

 

used a grinder. you will find out, your truck will be really rusty, the rivits are in kind of hard spots to get to, and i was worried about grinder through frame.

 

no, no no, it STARTS in Minnesota.

Im so going out to look under the back of my truck right now.

 

This was what i found when i looked under mine. That was the right side and this one was the left.

 

wow thats pretty bad. how long have you had the truck?