My wife and I's friend had this 99 Ranger sitting on his property up north for about 3 years. Last year, he said it needed a new starter and asked me if I'd go up there with him and replace it. I did and although it now cranked, it didn't start. After determining it didn't have any fuel I noticed that the fuel filler hose was completely rotted out so that obviously needed to be replaced. This being a 4 hour drive north I was not keen on driving up there and replacing stuff part by part bringing limited tools and the local parts store having a limited supply, I wanted to get this truck back to my place and in my garage where I could properly diagnose everything and get started on repairs. But winter was coming and I didn't have the means to get it home.
Fast forward to this past June, one of my old army buddies who lives a little north of me helped me bring it down with his flatbed trailer equipped with a winch. After wheeling it off the trailer not knowing that the brakes didn't work and hitting the side of my garage, we got it in there, I got it on jack stands and started to get to work and yes, that's brake fluid leaking everywhere.
I took the bed off the truck first thing because I already knew I had to replace some fuel lines. The bed mounting bolts were so rusted and were a pain to get out, I had to cut a couple of them.
After replacing the fuel lines and the fuel filter I took care of the power steering cooler hoses up front.
Once the lines were replaced I wasn't getting any fuel delivery and after some quick troubleshooting determined that the fuel pump was bad. Once the new pump arrived I quickly discovered that somehow I had ordered the pump for the non flex fuel model. The plug was missing a wire and the wires were all routed to wrong spots.
I rerouted the wires so they were going to right spots and success! The truck is now running!! However, it is not charging...after determining that the alternator was bad, I got a new one and replaced it.
Now we were running and charging but I still had another issue to tackle, multiple rusted brake lines, pads, calipers, shoes, drums and a bad master cylinder. (The booster surprisingly was still good) I bought 50 feet of brake line and got to work on cutting, flaring and bending new lines for the whole truck. (Don't have any pics of that) I also had to replace the brake hose that ran to the back to rear brake drums. After replacing basically the entire brake system, I got everything bled and adjusted and that was another check off of a seemingly never ending list.
In addition to all of this I had to take care of a sticking gas pedal, replace all the spark plugs and plug wires, change the engine oil/filter, transmission fluid/filter, flush the cooling system which to my surprise had no rust in it and was as green as the day it was made, but I did it anyways. The next step was figuring out where the tires were leaking from. They all seemed to be still in really good condition and after spraying some water down on them found that there were multiple spots leaking from around the rim on all four tires.
I pulled all the tires off of the wheels including the spare, cleaned all the rust and grime off of them with a wire brush and wire wheel, cleaned up the beads on the tires and went onto mounting them back on the wheels. Three of them mounted back on with no problems and were leak free. The spare tire wasn't salvageable as it was severely cracked and dry rotted so I knew I already had to get at least one other tire. The last tire was giving me problems going back on the wheel and the bead started cracking and ripping apart, before I started cussing and yelling, I decided to go grab a couple good condition used tires down the street. They mounted right up and all 5 tires were now aired up and leak free!
I put the tires back on and got the truck off jack stands, now was time for the moment of truth, the road test...
I took it around the block through the neighborhood because I hadn't put the bed back on so I didn't have any taillights. It drove good and most importantly, it stopped great! After cruising about 25 mph for a little bit I wanted to open her up a little bit but didn't wanna go on the highway for obvious safety and legal reasons, but I had no qualms about letting it loose on 8 mile just south of me!! Got it up to 50 with no issues and this thing has got some oomph! I was realy surprised and how much get up it has especially considering that it was just sitting and basically rotting for 3 years.
Got it back to the house and the signs of a successful road test was no leaks in the driveway after the next few hours!!
After the road test I lubed up the door latch mechanism inside the passenger door because it wasn't latching, hence that clamp on there. Now it closes!
I did a quick scrub down on the inside and the outside and after work today with the help of the wife, I'll be putting the bed back on and this thing will be street legal and ready to drive!!
To to top it all off since we don't have a pickup and our friend has multiple cars and nowhere to store this one, it's basically ours until my wife can replace her vehicle from when her lease was up. Also, he will be reimbursing me for the price of all the parts which I was able to keep under $1,000 not including tools which I would've ended up purchasing anyways. Haha.