'Bout a year ago I had a Ranger that would die randomly. Now I have a Ranger that isn't allowed to die, and I know more about mechanics than I did.

Back in '17 I bought it from a friend who was changing careers. Paid more than I should have because I was young and dumb, about 8k.

Has some frame rust, not too bad, interior was good, worn components, not amazing maintenance, former workers truck.

I really wanted a full truck that wasn't 90% air like most modern trucks. Didn't know the legend of the name "Ranger" that I was purchasing.

Held up decent for a few years, standard fluid changes etc.. Drove it all over, including El-Paso -> KY with a bed full of everything I own, myself, and my doggo.

2022, I had issues with it eating batteries. If I let it sit for a couple days, the battery would drain completely. Fuel pump went out. Fuel filter hose couplings went out, alt wend out, starter went out, coolent return line went out. Truck would die randomly when throttle applied, or when hard breaks applied. Airbags had the claymore recall, headlights were busted, tailgate latch half broke.

Was gonna scrap it and get a new one, but decided to use it to learn. (Couldn't do a Ranger dirty like that) So I made a blood (oil?) oath to the Ranger gods and got to work.

Got most of the small, or part replacement work out of the way. Starter, alt, tubes, filters, relays/fuzes etc.. Then my buddy and I decided to look at the sparks. Yup, oil in the sparks.

The standing issues were:

Dying with throttle/breaks Fuel pump working intermittently Claymore airbags Gasket seals bad

So I did what any of us would do:

Got the oem DC motor for the fuel pump manifold, replaced it, works great. Bought the seals, pulled the engine apart, went on a work trip for a few weeks, had my house half explode/collapse due to frozen pipes. Had to juggle that, the truck, work (I got 3 whole days off to move out, and in to a new place) and another few work trips.

A month or so later, probably edging to 2 months, I was able to pull the tarp off the engine bay, ignore the surface rust, clean out the oil with a reverse bong vacuum and a lot of paper towels, and replace the gaskets.

I put the engine together, left the bed, front bumper, and hood off.

No change in behavior.

It was the "crash switch", the fuel cutoff switch. Ripped that out, hotwire skipped it, and:

She roared to zombified life and I rode her like that for another couple weeks. I had another work trip and my neighbor put my hood, bumper, and bed for me as his going away gift. He also gave me a nice fluke multimeter.

Praise be the Ranger.

I haven’t had to do anything to my 4L, but gosh does it look crowded in there.

Story behind this?

I haven't done anything in my engine bay other than 3 batteries in the last 3 years but I've done pretty much everything else

All hail the FFR

Sweet man. I have the 4.0 SOHC, and boy is it daunting to work on. I will get the balls someday

Gorgeous 🤩🤩🤩

Got an '05 with 184k miles. Best truck ever, so easy to work on. Just got a new clutch for about 2k. Next is shocks and brakes