What did you do to your Ranger today?

[MountainGoat]

They put Golf Tees in the holes, keeps threads clean and open

I wish they did that to mine!

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[DukeCanBuildit]

I cussed at Soupie a lot today. Well, actually not Soupie but at the McGard tailgate lock thing. =(

I really lost it when I nearly lost the special keyed driver. It bounced off the Race Deck floor and I thought it went into an open cinder block. The foundation of my garage are cinder blocks making a form for the concrete pad, but they are stacked three deep! No way I'd ever be able to recover that thing if it went down there. PLUS ... the keyed bolt was partly driven in and on the Loctite, so I needed to have that driver ...

Thank God (and I had already dropped to my knees with a flashlight and magnets) it rolled under the tire. Phew (and thank you God, I mean it!).

BUT ... what a gigantic pain in the butt it was to install that thing!

Once you see how it goes, then it makes sense but the B&W pics in the instructions are useless, at least to this old cranky fart. =p

I honestly think it would have been easier to do it with the tailgate closed. It would be far easier to drop the bumper!

okay, good start, all's here, I'm backed into the fairly well light garage on a 44° day

first aggravation was peeling the backing off the "decal" they include, seems pretty useless ... note the tab on the far right pointing into the camera

Cheech is too short to help, so I did this to support the tailgate (don't look at my plate #, oh no ...)

ended up peeling the BedRug completely off the tailgate - removing the existing bolt easy with 10mm (!!!)

duh, of course the driver is SAE at 1/2" ...

ratchet too big, trying an offset ignition wrench

thank God for the o-ring on the driver to hold it in a regular wrench (almost used new Knipex pliers wrench but was too aggravated to go to the basement bathroom to get it)

did it one sixth of a turn at a time until it was as tight as I could push - done (now I can sleep better at night when leaving the tailgate open with a dump load, of course I then realize my tail lights might get stolen and don't sleep ...) =p

For anyone trying to decipher this next pic, the tailgate is on the right and bed is on the left and the camera is facing out to the passenger side.

I held the tailgate open at about 45° with my hand holding the McGard bracket from underneath (arm outside of tailgate) and clipped the tailgate back in (I put the actual plastic clip on later).

Keep holding the bracket and close the tailgate. Then feel the bolt hole and line them up with your pinky. I started the bolt by hand for several turns (that was a tight fit with sausage fingers and more cussing).

Then I opened the tailgate and drove the bolt home (pic above). Btw, you don't need to unclip the tailgate cable.

make sure this tab is visible here before moving the tailgate too much and before putting the bolt in

Verdict: I don't know if I'd do it again, it would be a royal pain if you ever need to remove your tailgate for loading purposes. Also, if you're cool, calm, and collected, it'll probably be far less hassle than the 20 minutes I spent dorking around with it! =D

David, maybe you need some of these…

Also, a few more pictures would help.

Oh, how’d the commode installation go? Better than this, I hope.

 

[AndyMedic]

Started my truck to move it to do Kilmat. It isn’t happy with all the seat sensors and pretensioner’s unplugged. Most alerts I’ve ever seen lol.

1/2 way done with sound deadening. Had to go do stuff with the Mrs. Only worked on it 2 hours or less.

 

[airline tech]

David, maybe you need some of these…

Also, a few more pictures would help.

Oh, how’d the commode installation go? Better than this, I hope.
[/QUOTE

David, maybe you need some of these…

Also, a few more pictures would help.

Oh, how’d the commode installation go? Better than this, I hope.

Nope - Cheech will steal and bury them / they are known as Dog-Bones among techs

 

[Bob902]

David, maybe you need some of these…

Also, a few more pictures would help.

Oh, how’d the commode installation go? Better than this, I hope.

I like the ratcheting wrenches. Have a set of both English and Metric.

 

[subquark]

David, maybe you need some of these…

Also, a few more pictures would help.

Oh, how’d the commode installation go? Better than this, I hope.

You know, I do have a ratcheting 10mm that I bought for Soupie. It's the only metric one I have.

I have a few SAE ones but I think they're too fat to fit (they're cheapie and old, like riveted together ones just like the pic below).

But you bring up a great point for anyone doing this. You might have to use another box wrench as a short cheater bar, but the ratcheting 10mm would have allowed for the removal of the original bolt without the need to remove that side of the tailgate.

Edit: commode went in great, a few plastic shims and some caulk and all is right with the world!

 

[rio-ranger]

Bought this Mighty bump step but it does not fit in to the last hole so it sticks out to far. Also it needs one more hole drilled in it to bring it closer to the truck. does anyone else have one they like?

 

[subquark]

You know, I do have a ratcheting 10mm that I bought for Soupie. It's the only metric one I have.

I have a few SAE ones but I think they're too fat to fit (they're cheapie and old, like riveted together ones just like the pic below).

But you bring up a great point for anyone doing this. You might have to use another box wrench as a short cheater bar, but the ratcheting 10mm would have allowed for the removal of the original bolt without the need to remove that side of the tailgate.

Got a new dedicated USB stick for Soupie's updates. I swear when I don't need a drive they're laying all over the place ... Maybe I'll add it to my key chain with a quick connect.

Anyway, mine's the little Sync 3 non-touch screen with no apps or maps, so the upload is always pretty fast. This one was about 10 minutes and was the 3.4.22251 to 3.4.23188 update.

$9.79 from Amazon and 64 GB - couldn't find a decent brand one in red

without AzScorpion, Soupie's simply filthy ...

seemed to take a bit longer to start (like about 3 minutes)

once it started, it took about 4 or 5 more minutes

a minute later - Life! and yuck, look at that dust! where's Dave!?!

normal display back ... or is is?

as I went into settings, this popped up?!?

Phew, completed again! a 2-fer I guess!

guess it actually completed. but I didn't do that "turn off ignition and open door step". only the turn off and remove stick, so I didn't have that XML file for proof it did the update (not that I was ever able to upload that file on the Ford.com site anyway)

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!

I've updated Sync a couple of times, via USB, and the confirmation file upload to the site has never worked. On this latest update, it didn't even create the confirmation file.

I figured it's because I didn't do the last step properly. BUT the center display showed that I did have the latest update.

I've also always left the Wi-Fi option enabled for over a year, but it never did the update (despite being very close to the router).

Well, today I logged in to Ford.com to see my monthly health report. In the past, it always said I needed an update but not today!

So I looked and it actually did see, I guess via Wi-Fi, that I do have the latest version! =)

Gratuitous pics for @DukeCanBuildit quota =p

 

[Jhbryaniv]

I wish they did that to mine!

I'm not saying I bought an entire Tap and die set just so I can clean my threads out... But... ?

 

[LawnMM]

Mounted up the Rough Country Diff skid plate today ?

This was the second go around, and I'll explain why. The skid plate is pretty beefy, and it protects the yoke and rear of the cover plate. I like that, a lot of other covers just protect the bottom.

Having said that, the hardware they send to replace the factory diff cover bolts and mount the plate... is S H I T. Do NOT use it.

It's straight off a home depot aisle and it's regular hex head instead of flanged head like the factory bolts. "but Rich, why does that matter?" you might ask.

Well, the thing is heavy, do it right and put it in a piece of plywood and use a floor jack or jack stand to lift it into place. However, we all get excited and try to just get it close by holding it or throwing some random crap under it, which makes aligning the holes harder.

Why the flanged bolts are important is for when you start them by hand. Even when you have it aligned properly, with a jack, the bolts they send will flop around in your socket loosey goosey without the flange.

You have to thread the needle with them through a hole and through a mounting bracket behind the hole in the plate, and then INTO your diff housing.

On top of that I'm pretty sure the heads are fractional and the threads are metric m8x1.25x25mm. So when you use a metric socket it never really holds the non flanged head securely... can you see where this is going?

I almost cross threaded one of them but knew it was snugging up WAY too early and stopped. Got pissed, yanked it off, threw the bolts across the garage and put the factory bolts back in the cover.

Next day I ordered m8x1.25x25mm flanged bolts from O'Reilly's and when those came in the whole thing went together like it should have. 2 out of the 4 they sent were hard to even get started at all, I did gauge both theirs and the factory it's the right pitch it's just shit quality.

Anyway, the hardware that came for the bracket that goes around the neck of the diff casting in the front was fine, I did do the ranger forum mod and added 1/2" chrome steel spacers.

It's on and all is well now but beware that hardware I'm tellin ya ?

I did pull the spare wheel for extra room to work, my shoulders aren't as flexible as they used to be.

 

[Mellow]

I cussed at Soupie a lot today. Well, actually not Soupie but at the McGard tailgate lock thing. =(

I really lost it when I nearly lost the special keyed driver. It bounced off the Race Deck floor and I thought it went into an open cinder block. The foundation of my garage are cinder blocks making a form for the concrete pad, but they are stacked three deep! No way I'd ever be able to recover that thing if it went down there. PLUS ... the keyed bolt was partly driven in and on the Loctite, so I needed to have that driver ...

Thank God (and I had already dropped to my knees with a flashlight and magnets) it rolled under the tire. Phew (and thank you God, I mean it!).

BUT ... what a gigantic pain in the butt it was to install that thing!

Once you see how it goes, then it makes sense but the B&W pics in the instructions are useless, at least to this old cranky fart. =p

I honestly think it would have been easier to do it with the tailgate closed. It would be far easier to drop the bumper!

okay, good start, all's here, I'm backed into the fairly well light garage on a 44° day

first aggravation was peeling the backing off the "decal" they include, seems pretty useless ... note the tab on the far right pointing into the camera

Cheech is too short to help, so I did this to support the tailgate (don't look at my plate #, oh no ...)

ended up peeling the BedRug completely off the tailgate - removing the existing bolt easy with 10mm (!!!)

duh, of course the driver is SAE at 1/2" ...

ratchet too big, trying an offset ignition wrench

thank God for the o-ring on the driver to hold it in a regular wrench (almost used new Knipex pliers wrench but was too aggravated to go to the basement bathroom to get it)

did it one sixth of a turn at a time until it was as tight as I could push - done (now I can sleep better at night when leaving the tailgate open with a dump load, of course I then realize my tail lights might get stolen and don't sleep ...) =p

For anyone trying to decipher this next pic, the tailgate is on the right and bed is on the left and the camera is facing out to the passenger side.

I held the tailgate open at about 45° with my hand holding the McGard bracket from underneath (arm outside of tailgate) and clipped the tailgate back in (I put the actual plastic clip on later).

Keep holding the bracket and close the tailgate. Then feel the bolt hole and line them up with your pinky. I started the bolt by hand for several turns (that was a tight fit with sausage fingers and more cussing).

Then I opened the tailgate and drove the bolt home (pic above). Btw, you don't need to unclip the tailgate cable.

make sure this tab is visible here before moving the tailgate too much and before putting the bolt in

Verdict: I don't know if I'd do it again, it would be a royal pain if you ever need to remove your tailgate for loading purposes. Also, if you're cool, calm, and collected, it'll probably be far less hassle than the 20 minutes I spent dorking around with it! =D

Thanks, your post made it a 10 min job... especially the idea of using sawhorses to hold the tailgate.

 

[subquark]

Thanks, your post made it a 10 min job... especially the idea of using sawhorses to hold the tailgate.

Awesome and I bet you were more cool and collected than I was. =)

And I know Carrollton well. At least I did 30 years ago when I lived in Murphy as a firefighter and paramedic (way before it became a fancy town, my rent across from city hall was $400 a month), then north Dallas, and then bought our first home in Garland.

Was in Texas for 14 years all together (Galveston, Texas City, Clear Lake City before Dallas). I even road the mechanical bull at Gilley's before it shut down.

I sure miss Texas and especially TexMex! YUM! =D

 

[kendive]

I wish they did that to mine!

They did the Line-X today and he put round shaped metal tape where all the holes are so I can still use the threads or not. He said just punch a hole and you can use the threaded hole. I brought up the golf tees and he said it would not look good if he did that.

They knew what they were doing. Did a bang up job. I will find out when I install the swing box this week.

They also said leave the tail gate open for 24 hours and is why it's open in the garage.

 

[Mellow]

Awesome and I bet you were more cool and collected than I was. =)

And I know Carrollton well. At least I did 30 years ago when I lived in Murphy as a firefighter and paramedic (way before it became a fancy town, my rent across from city hall was $400 a month), then north Dallas, and then bought our first home in Garland.

Was in Texas for 14 years all together (Galveston, Texas City, Clear Lake City before Dallas). I even road the mechanical bull at Gilley's before it shut down.

I sure miss Texas and especially TexMex! YUM! =D

Nice, been here 32 years, nice and quiet neighborhood.

 

[MountainGoat]

They did the Line-X today and he put round shaped metal tape where all the holes are so I can still use the threads or not. He said just punch a hole and you can use the threaded hole. I brought up the golf tees and he said it would not look good if he did that.

They knew what they were doing. Did a bang up job. I will find out when I install the swing box this week.

They also said leave the tail gate open for 24 hours and is why it's open in the garage.

It looks good. It looks just like mine actually but I had to ream out the holes to install the tie downs and they didn't say anything about leaving the tailgate down. Maybe that is what made my tonnosport install a bit of a pita.

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