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It's been a few thousand miles since getting the salvage Ranger back on the road, and off-road as it were. It's a great vehicle for what I use it for. One thing I've been very impressed with is how well it handles on pavement. It almost matches my Q5 or Touareg for sporty handling. Off-road it...

Well said. Getting out of debt, saving and investing wisely is the key to any level of personal financial security. Selling the Ranger would allow me to pay off our house. We're that close. That's why that option is currently on the table. The inherent problem with any business that trades...

I worked for corporate American for several years until in the mid nineties became fed-up with the BS and personal agendas and went out on my own. For some of us, being in charge of our own fate and destiny, as much as is possible, is preferable to working for someone else even when times get...

Sorry for the very late response. Had totally forgotten about the thread until an email alert notified me of a post. Truck is excellent and runs great. Very happy with it. Only issue is two of the Goodyear Dura Trac tires ended up having a high Road Force imbalance. Had a vibration in the...

That is very kind of you. Thank you. On another note, Shawn at Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts said the spline spacing on the driveshaft looked good and he thought the spacers for the bolts were a good idea. Said he might start adding them with the bolts when selling the drive shafts.

Absolutely use thread locker. Blue is sufficient.

Yes, plenty of thread.

The recessed bolt head isn't an issue as long as you can get a good bite on it with a socket or beefy box-end. It's just proper and preferred to have the entire head of a bolt exposed to allow for the most head contact in order to avoid potential problems. One thing interesting is the stock...

Finally installed the Tom Woods one-piece drive shaft. Haven't given it a test drive yet. I want Shawn Woods to verify that the spline section looks correct. first One thing that seemed odd is the supplied longer bolts for the spacer at the transfer case end were not flange bolts. The bolt hole...

Haven't installed the one-piece drive shaft yet but ended up taking the Ranger on a "test run" through our local desert yesterday and today. It did great. The doors would bang around a little over rough stuff, and occasionally I'd hear the top of the window frame lose seal, but only over very...

The glass shop got the windshield placement corrected. The top driver side is now even with the roof line. The guy was honest and said they had missed the spacer somehow the first time and the windshield had been pushed too far into the frame, which is funny because that's exactly what I told...

Good to know.

Next, Tom Wood's one-piece drive shaft.

Well, the pressures are definitely not too high. Ambient temperature was around 70°. Engine idling. Low side was about 35 psi, high side about 120 psi. Those are slightly below standards for R-1234YF at that temperature. Just have to wait and see what happens long term.

Getting old-er. Got lazy. Just didn't follow-up properly like I should have.

Yeah, as a matter of fact I started looking a couple of days ago for the stickers to replace the ones that originally came on that cover. The only one on there now is a label maker label I stuck on showing the oil change info. Still feel pretty stupid. I don't usually make dumb mistakes like that.

Figures. Seems like when I was investigating capacities months ago when ordering the YF and vacuum pump, I recall thinking that 3 cans would do it - 24 oz. But today when looking at info there was one source that showed the "2.3L Eco Boost" capacity was 35 oz. So it's definitely overcharged...

AC day for Whitemare. Naturally there had to be some drama. The shop where the new/old steering rack was installed quoted around $550 to charge the AC system. To me that was like someone charging $80 to change a light bulb. They rationalized the high price of R-1234YF refrigerent, which is...

Normally I'm not a big fan of decals and striping on vehicles unless it's a muscle car, but have been toying with this graphic for the Ranger. Thought it might be a fun add. The FX sticker would be removed and the full splash graphic without cutout applied. Thought matching the wheel color...

Rhino Linings of Ogden, Utah. Great guys, excellent service, good price. They even gave me their "courtesy car" to drive home while they worked on the Ranger. Took them only about 3 hours.