Dan's 97 Ford Ranger

I in hearted this truck from Dad. She is stock with nearly 150K miles which she'll pass this week.

Three years ago when I inherited my Ranger from my Dad's estate I brought it up here to Ohio after spending 2K on all sorts of repairs and maintenance after the truck sat for a few years in the Florida sun and 100K plus miles... I had the timing belt, water pump, tune-up, brake service, new clutch, clutch master, clutch slave, brake master, cooling system drain and service, oil change, ALL fluids, and transmission removal rebuild and service and a few smaller items... basically I went through the whole thing loaded it full of stuff and drove it home.

Last time I drove it I noticed the front left brake was sticking... Today I took it apart to find this...



Both lower guide pins looked like this... this is THE result of only two winters in Ohio!!! Three years ago when I got home I took the brakes all apart and greased the pins and changed the pads... I'm telling you all this story because I didn't spend the $17 freaking dollars to replace the guide pins, rubber boots, pad glides and pin bolts like I should have... Today I spent the $17 and 60 minutes (cleaned and detailed everything) doing what I should have three years ago.

I'm also going to ask what you guys use as lube for the guide pins etc... I use this...

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More...

Here is my write-up for installing my new stereo... I won't use 10g wires in the MAzda stereo I build, I think it's over kill for my needs/intentions.

I've installed several new head units over the years in several cars and trucks but never a complete system with a sub woofer and amp before. Here is the story of what I did for my 97 Ranger. I got the truck from my Dad, it's from Florida and it just turned 140K miles today.

I started out by pulling out the interior seats dash parts and such including all the shifter parts and trim.


The hound didn't wait a New York second to jump into the vacant cab.

My Dad once said he "didn't care about this truck" because it was for hauling him and his stuff from point A to point B and he was right, the cab was a mess.



I found a leak in the back window and the cab was "extra" loud so I used a couple cans of Great Stuff to sound deaden the back wall and B pillar areas. This also acted as a space filler for better bass response from my back speakers as the cavern behind the seat belt mounts made the old stereo echo. Here you can see how much that foam expands. In the second picture you can see I backed up the holes with painters tape. That seemed to help keep the overflow down...



I taped down all the old speaker wires. You can see where I filled in the big hole.



The placement of my amp, 1000w, and 250W 10" sub.

6.5" Polk marine speakers in the doors and back mounting positions you'd never know I replaced them.


The door mount...



The old stereo was a double din fake!!


Can you guess why I wasn't getting good radio reception? I replaced the antenna too.


I forgot to mention I cleaned up the interior, it smells and looks better now.

The dash mount... I used a double din mounting kit that came with the stereo, I bought a Pioneer touch screen job I'll show later.


I'm not sure why Ford has a bad quality rap.... not!!



I used 10 gauge wires for the speakers and 4 gauge wire for the power and ground lines... I bought a wire kit from Best Buy but next time I'll just buy lengths of wire from Lowes. It won't be as flexible but I don't think it matters.

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Here are the differences in wires from the power and speaker lines.



My Crutchfield kit came with wire and connectors for the speakers, which I didn't use because the wire connections on the speakers were much smaller, so I used direct connections instead. I think those are mainly revered for when you use the factory harness connections/wiring harness. I used all new wires as shown above.



One thing Crutchfield does del, installation and hook up instructions. Although the instructions were lacking in the door mounting and Antenna replacement for my Ranger.



Heat is a killer for these so you need to make sure you have them in a well ventilated place. Most people put them under the seat but my floor was not flat and left no room under the seat for it. I installed mine on the back wall and even with the seat all the way back it has air flow across it all the time. this AMP is a Polk Audio 660.


I started with a powered Kicker 10" sub but the driver seat had to be moved too far forward and was uncomfortable to drive. I changed to a powered 100W Bazooka 6 inch and installed it in the same place. It's definitely not as powerful or full sounding but it get's the job done.


I used a kicker "converter" to hook up bare wires to RCA plugs. This worked great!!


A 100 AMP fuse to protect things... a new battery with anti-corrosion spray on the terminals.



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The finished product... It looks as though it was always there.




I picked this unit because it had:
Touch Screen
DVD
CD
DVIX
Sub preamp outs
Main preamp outs
BlueTooth phone control with hands free operation.
RDS
Satallite radio - If I choose to use it.
Full Ipod control
Video playback
USB and SD card readers

and a lot more...

I love this head unit!!!

The old stereo...
You need these to take it out, if you don't remove the entire radio bezel.


See the small back support piece in the middle, I had to loose that because the new unit didn't fit.

You also need to loosen the dash, yes the entire dash to get the new antenna installed. It has to make a really tight turn to get the line past the back of the air duct behind the glove box. It too has to be taken out - the glove box and door that is.



If your route your wires around past the doors you may need more "remote" turn on wire, I just bought a big spool because I knew I'm going to redo my B2200 too. This is the line used to remotely turn on the AMP and sub so they are only one when the head unit is on, not draining your battery.


More to come...

My latest fix...

Spring has nearly sprung so I seized the opportunity to do a quick repair on this 59 degree day this past Friday.

Since last fall I've had a rattle when going over small bumps which seemed to come from the front end. I have 150K on her, my daily driver, and have replaced all the normal wear items in the front end/suspension (tie rods, rotors, pads etc).

The only thing left was the sway bar bushings which I didn't think was the culprit. I ordered end links and bushings from Rockauto (great place to get parts - no I'm not a shill, they have great prices on parts you get locally for a lot more).



I jacked her up and started to dismantle her

Yeah these rangers love to rust up on the frame, What I did to mine was get a bottle of rust-mort and put it in a spray bottle, after thoroughly pressure washing the frame, I let it dry and then misted the rust-mort onto the frame and axle too - this converts the rusted surface to a hard black coating and stops the rust process - then I undercoated some spots. If you simply undercoat it, the rust will continue till nothing is left.

You can even simply leave it to the elements after applying the rust mort, it won't rust up again for a long time.

Thanks Angus

It does say that and you can paint it but it'll take a long time to rust over even if you don't.

gotcha, thanks.