Ford Ranger

1994 Ford Ranger 4.0 liter v6 howto or howtos and other info

Water pump and cooling fan r and r (r&r , removal and replacement)

Obtain parts

Drain Coolant

open radiator cap

open drain plug in radiator

Note:may have to use 2 drainpans since liquid hits crossmember and runs across

Remove air inlet tube

Break loose water pump bolts

Remove fan/clutch assembly(leave in shroud).

Note: fan clutch may be reverse threaded -- check fan shroud for label or marking of threading. 'right hand' is normal threading.

Note: There are lots of methods of removing the fan clutch, from special tools to prybars to leaving the belt on and hitting a wrench with a hammer. I removed two of the waterpump bolts to have more clearance for a 12" adjustable wrench + cheater pipe, loosed the other two water pump bolts and used a prybar across them pushed up against the frame rail. In my case the fan bolt was ~36mm

Remove Serpentine Belt using 3/8 drive ratchet

For your reference, belt routing

remove shroud and fan together. Shroud in my case has two small bolts at the top, and metal clips at the bottom that it pulls out of.

If you want, finish removing the water pump pully

Remove heater and radiator hoses. Found help with slip-jaw pliers to break heater hose loose. Still needed to be replaced due to balooning and pinching of clamp.

Remove water pump. There will still be water behind it so have a drainpan around. Mine had 12 bolts, all the same size. 2 were hard to get to (behind alternator bracket and one the crank sensor wiring loom next to it)

Replace water pump. Clean surfaces as is typical, and use a thin layer of rtv if you would like.

bolt torque:

When reinstalling the radiator and tightening "hold the case fitting and install the transmission cooler lines. Torque to 19 ft. lbs. (28 Nm)" (assuming similar for 1994)

Front main Seal Replacement (and problems)

Forward:

I did this while doing the water pump, so there are probably steps missing.

It seems hard to do without removing the radiator, in order to fit a balancer puller where it needs to go :(

I damaged my radiator using a prybar and slipping while doing this, so ended up having to buy a new one :(

I tried doing this with a shorter bolt as puller main shaft with radiator in , but to no avail. The bolt i had was only threaded for 1 inch and this wasn't sufficient to come in contact with the center bolt.

You will need to hold the crank still somehow. Good luck.

A note on main seal size:

The Timken 2012V That I got from rockauto.com is about 1mm too small to seat properly in the timing cover. Its dimensions are listed as housing bore 2.165. I measured the outside dimension of the seal to be about 2.175. The original I removed measured about 2.205 O/D. The housing bore I measured at about 2.20.

The SKF W0133-1816662 is listed online as measuring 55mm OD. This is about the same as the Timken and too small for the housing (55.88mm).

I found the local NAPA had the correct seal: SKF 16473 listed as having 56.26mm OD and made for a 56mm Bore (2.215 OD/2.205 bore)

Original vs Timken 2012V

SKF 16473 VS others

Some 4.0's apparently have the front main seal sandwiched between an oil pan or mid oil pan. This means that replacement of the front main seal cannot be done "properly" without doing the oil pan gasket as well, which is a much much larger job. As you can see, this is not the case with my 1994.

Procedure

Remove Belt as noted above in water pump info

Remove harmonic balancer. One youtube video here.

Threaded holes in harmonic balancer are m8x1.25. Bolts to go through puller and balancer should be 100mm long.

Harmonic balancer bolt is m12x1.5

Removed center bolt to harmonic balancer

I held the crank still using an old screwdriver jammed between the frame and the balancer puller.

As per video, picked up a bolt 1" longer than harmonic balancer current bolt (m12x1.5x100)

As per video used puller on this bolt until it stopped pulling (about 1 inch), then removed puller, backed out bolt some, re-installed puller and continued.

Take note of how deep the seal is from the front surface of the engine. We need to be sure the new seal clears the dust shield on the harmonic balancer, so it should probably go at least this deep. There is no seating flange.

Remove seal, using screwdriver/etc trying not to score the seating area in the timing cover

Press in new seal. I had a socket handy that was the right size.

Note: Unlike all of the german cars i've worked on, the seal does not have a seat so you could accidentally punch it through into the crankcase-- don't do that! It seems the original seal is about 7mm deep, and the dust shield on the harmonic balancer is about 6mm with maybe a mm of clearance between it and the timing cover. Be sure the new seal is at least as deep as the original seal, perhaps another 1mm (double check seal measurements tho!)

Handily, the wrong seal they sent and a mirror helped with insuring the correct new seal was straight and inset far enough. The thickness of the wrong new seal was approximately the same as the harmonic balancer dust flange, so I just slid the wrong seal in on top of the new seal to check depth and squareness.

Press on the harmonic balancer

I just used the extra-long bolt from removal and the old balancer bolt, first one then the other. Unlike what is says in this video, I did not have to apply very much force (didn't even have to lock the engine in place) so it seemed safe.

TIghten front main bolt

1 Tighten to 40-50 Nm (30-37 lb/ft).

2 Tighten an additional 80-90 degrees.

I happened to install a new bottom radiator hose and a new water pump to heater core hose in the meantime, since it was easy to get into.

Be sure to re-install the heat shielding and abrasive shielding on the heater hose to protect it from the exaust manifold and the intake box.

Heater to water pump hose:

Bottom Radiator Hose:

Other good reference

http://www.howstuffinmycarworks.com/Ford_Explorer_water_pump.html - nice write-up but doesn't have torque specs

"My Haynes manual specifies 72 to 108 in-lbs for the V6 water pump bolts and 14 to 18 ft-lbs for the water pump pulley bolts."

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2509603&postcount=4

A Rant/note on aftermarket radiators and fans, 'supercooling','HD cooling', etc

While looking for a replacement radiator or cooling fan, you may run across mention of 'super cooling' or 'supercooling'. It seems to also be called "maximum cooling" or "HD Cooling".

It appears that super cooling is a heavy duty cooling package that included a radiator with a deeper core.

It also appears that it was a standard package for trucks with Auto tranny and A/C (with 4 liter)

Radiator

The stock supercooling radiator itself has a core thickness of about 2.2 inches.

The napa replacement radiator I received has a core thickness of 1.75 inches, even thought it was sold to me as the NR-2217 which specifies a 2.2" core thickness.

The radiator listed in-stock at Schucks/Oreilley's had the core thickness listed as 1.75 inches.

The guys at napa called the supplier, and discussed the problem. The supplier noted that sometimes they would change the cores over time.

So- It appears some aftermarket 'supercooling' radiators have reduced the core depth to 1.75 from 2.2 inches. On top of that, the specification sheet for the radiators are not necessarily correct. The radiators with 1.75" thickness are still a two rows, they just aren't as deep.

After looking online at Oreilley's and trying Napa, I tried another local parts store, "The Dalles Auto Parts"

The spectra CU1146 I purchased from a local auto parts store had the full width core! :) YAY. It appears that rockauto.com has the same radiator for significantly cheaper than what I paid, but in this case I got to inspect the radiator and with rockauto I would have had to ship it back. Additionally, i'm not sure if the radiator I got was old stock, or if all of the spectra radiators still have the full depth core.

Here are pictures of the stock radiator vs the Spectra CU1146

The differences I noticed:

- The A/T cooler fittings of the OEM are an odd stamped steel nut, the Spectra is brass and looks nicer.

- The input from the water pump has a different seat for the hose to limit insertion. OEM is nicer, the Spectra is just a cut out piece of plastic.

Some pictures:

And then this passes to the fan as well--

Fan

Having a deeper core means the fan blade is offset a different distance from the clutch (and possibly the shroud is different).

The replacement fan I ordered from rockauto came with a spacer to make up for the offset. There is a problem though- the spacer doesn't appear to be quite thick enough to offset the new fan the same of the stock fan. It does work, but ends up 1/4-1/2 inch closer to the radiator. Additionally, it requires purchase of new screws that are twice as long. (x25mm)

It appears to keep sufficient clearance from the radiator, at least without a bad motor mount/etc.

Some pictures of the replacement

Fan Clutch

I am unsure of the differences between the standard and supercooling clutches.

Dash Cluster Removal and Replacement (fix those burned out bulbs!)

So, one issue with my ranger was that only 1 of the bulbs for illuminating the cluster worked. Removing the cluster is a bit of a pain or made for folks with small hands, but its not horrendously hard.

All bulbs in my cluster (both illumination and warning) are GE 194 bulbs. I chose to order a couple of bulk 10 packs online and replace all of them. There are 17 bulbs in the cluster.

I found 10 packs of Sylvania 194LL long life bulbs for a bit over 12 bucks each including shipping out of seattle.

Pictures in reverse order; didn't have my camera when i took it apart.

Sticking points;

realizing the column cover had to come off to loosen the automatic transmission indicator cable

getting the column cover (clamshell) off without breaking it

removing electrical plugs from back of cluster

removing speedo cable

Order of Disassembly

NOTE: you may have to put the car into drive/1/neutral/etc to do bits and pieces of this

remove dash face. Remove ashtray (2 screws), then pop-off. Damn plastic things break. Clips are plastic, but dash-face is. Be careful!

NOTE: This includes the stereo, so you may have to pull your radio first.

remove lower dash knee panel (helps to get off steering column clamshell)

remove steering column clamshell (2x screws)

remove 1x screw and push-pin for the auto transmission selector

remove 4x screws for the instrument cluster (black, the gold/silver hold the unit together)

unclip electrical cables. This is a pain in the ass. If you can get one clip pushed off, the wire will let you rotate the clip around until the other comes loose

First pics are so you can see where the plugs are and what they look like

unclip speedo cable. You need to push down on the squared off portion of the plastic surrounding clip. See first pictures to see how it locks on to the groove in the speedo

jimmy out

Replace the bulbs, reassemble, be happy!

This is inline with the fuel gauge. To stabilize? or something.

The Culprits!

Front Ball Joint Replacement 4wd 4x4 Four Wheel Drive

Remove front calipers and rotors (excellent video here):

If you're going to replace the brake rotors or ball joints, it would be best to know what drive ratio and what axle your truck has. This can be found on the back of the passenger side suspension arm. There are dana28's and dana35's. I believe the 35 uses a top pinch bolt on the ball joint and a bottom castle nut, wheras the 28 uses castle nuts/tapered ball joint on top and bottom.

Raise front of truck

Remove wheels

Remove calipers pins by pounding out pins (weird!)

Slightly compress caliper piston to give clearance

Remove caliper and hanig

Remove c clip from driveshaft

Remove washer behind c-clip. It is has grooves that match the driveshaft and may have to be rotated and jimmied around some to slip off.

Remove First retainer (mine were loose, may need special tool)

Remove washer with holes all around it

Remove second retainer(special tool, will need it to torque to spec when re-installing)

Remove Rotor by pulling straight out. Outer wheel bearing is loose, don't drop it in the dirt! Inner is retained by seal.

Remove Spindle, Axle and steering knuckle:

Remove spindle (remove nuts and pull straight off studs)

Remove Drivers axle shaft (Drivers side pull straight out. Have a drain pan ready! See next for passengers)

Remove Passenger axle shaft (Passenger side has slip joint. pull clamp off boot extension bellow. I did innermost clamp - if i were to do it again, i'd probably do outtermost clamp. Have a drain pan ready!)

Now the ball joints are easy to access.

Excellent video of ball joint removal, except on a F150. Ranger is very similar design depending on front axle.

You may want to take this chance to replace U joints in the driveshaft as well. That is a separate section below.

Remove the steering knuckle, by loosening both ball joints and removing the tie rod end

Tie rod end first, to allow some space for loosening bottom ball joint nut. May need to use puller or pickle-fork.

Remove cotter pin and back off nut.

One trick is to get pressure on it with a puller then smack the side of the housing /knucke with a big hammer (cast part). It's helpufl to have the nut on the end of the threads to keep from gouging them or having the puller slip off the end of the stud.

This worked well for me.

Don't let the steering rod hang low enough it seems it could be damaged.

Remove lower ball joint cotter pin and castle nut

remove upper ball joint c clip

Now everything should be loose but the bottom ball joint may still be solidly seated.

Use a pickle fork to get the bottom ball joint out. Leave the nut loosely on the top of the shaft to avoid dropping the knuckle

Once the knuckle is removed, remove the alignment concentric to clean it up and make the alignment folk's job easier.

First, mark it so you know how to put it back

I tapped mine up a little with a hammer, then used pliers to wiggle it back and forth and pull up on it.

Clean it up good with scotch-brite or something like that

Assembly notes:

Before assembly you may want to replace the rear seals in the wheel bearing or the wheel bearings themselves! See the section directly after this.

assembly: note the pin points out on the primary retainer!

Inner

35 foot pounds and spread grease around

16 inch pounds

Outer

150 Foot Pounds

hen, using a ratcheting torque wrench, tighten the lower ball joint to 35 ft lbs. Then, tighten the upper pinch bolt (on the upper ball joint) to 85-100ft lbs. Go back to the lower ball joint, tighten the nut to 104 ft lbs. Tighten it a little more if you have to, to make the nut line up with the cotter pin hole. Tap the cotter pin in and bend the ends of it. Put the tie-rod back on, torque it 51ft lbs

Axle / Spindle Seal Replacement:

Note on Timken SBK4 Parts Kit:

If you order the Timken SBK4 seal and bearing kit, you have to use all of the parts together. There is insufficient clearance to use the timken outer seal with the OEM style inner seals. I got everything torqued and back together, then found there was not enough room to get the C clip on the outside of everything.

The timken outer seal is really janky compared to the OE style one. The timken is just a plastic ring, and a rubber v grooved kinof o ring thingy. The OEM style has a metal housing that presses in place with a plastic backing plate. The plastic backing plate on the OEM one is stepped, to allow clearance with the OEM style inner axle/spindle seal.

I didn't want to mess with trying to pull the inner seals off of the axle shafts, so purchased from napa the OEM style outers, Made b SKF Napa/SKF p/n 13144.

On a side note, one of the two spindle bearings I got with the Timken kit was made in the US. A nice surprise. The other wasn't marked with country of origin.

Rear window seal Replacement

If you have a stain that looks like this:

You probably have one of two things; A leaking third brake light seal, or a leaking rear window seal.

when you notice water leaking in, dry off the area around the brake light and remove it. There is a metal frame rail directly under it, and you will be able to tell if it is leaking or not.

If it is not, you probably need to replace your rear window seal.

To do this you need to do a few things.

Remove the rear cab cover panel (over the cargo cover) (a few screws)

Remove the rear side covers (mostly pop pins, a couple of screws, have to remove seatbelt lower and side mount bolt, and door sill trim panel)

Here are the tools i used to pull the pop pins. Very useful - i managed to not break any of them, although one on each side pulled out the mounting bit it plugs into

Remove clothes hanger (one philips screw in my case)

Unscrew back window. Be careful not to break headliner, but it should have enough flex it it to slip a wrench around the nut. The screws along the top are directly above the screws on the bottom, if you are having trouble finding them behind the liner.

Starting at a corner, push trim out. (Leave a couple of the nuts on loosely to keep it from popping out unexpectedly)

Window is out!

Note the two gaps in the butyl for the drains for the window track.

You can see where the butyl wasn't stuck to the body on my truck at all here

Clean the old butyl tape from both the frame of the window and the body. I scraped, then used a solvent (orange king), then denatured alcohol.

Get yourself a new roll of butyl tape. The stuff i got seemed a bit large in diameter (5/16ths), but worked

Apply to window. Note the two drains for the sliding window. Don't butyl over the drains. Butyl goes on the OUTSIDE of the studs so that water won't leak into them.

Put window back in

screw down bolts - but not too tight.

My frame is pinched a little bit at the mounting points and I hope that the butyl evens out over time.

Update; it has evened out over time. I"m not sure if i will tighten more or not - probably not as the frame is pretty flush to the metal on the outside.

Side windows should be done the same way.