This is Chuck. Chuck is a Ranger I just bought. Chuck is old, but he roundhouse kicked me in the face by only costing $100. I would have paid TWICE that.
Not only that, but there's 90hp of Lima goodness under the hood.
At first, he only ran on three cylinders. Fortunately, I know how to pour BG 44k into a gas tank. Fixed!
Near as I can tell, all I have to do is replace everything and it'll be a good truck.
I had a fox body with a turbocoupe swap, and my temptation is to follow that route again. Though every dollar I spend takes away from the Miata and the P71. Lima's make power for relatively little money. And there's the added benefit of how big a piece of crap it looks like, maybe people will leave him alone. Anyways, thanks for reading.
I like chuck... voting him up
See Chuck run
P71 tires and wheels make Chuck stealthy! (1/4 spacers help on the front)
Luke
SuperDork
9/2/11 6:40 a.m.
belteshazzar wrote:
Near as I can tell, all I have to do is replace everything and it'll be a good truck.
Hah! 
Cool find. I can't think of many better ways to spend $100.
Nice! And for $100, completely unavoidable. Seems like the perfect 'round town runner and general purpose vehicle. BTW, one request... if you do the "turbocoupe" swap, please make sure the motor really does come out of a Turbocoupe and not an XR4TI... it saddens me greatly when yet another XR is relegated to the junkyard due to nothing other than being an engine donor.
First thing that came to my mind...can we call him Chucky, for short?
cwh
SuperDork
9/2/11 7:33 a.m.
Hey! Chuck is a strong , powerful, name, belonging to strong and powerful men. Name your truck Chuck and it will be feared and respected by the lesser trucks.
Chuck Hanlon
mtn
SuperDork
9/2/11 7:43 a.m.
Awesome! I've always wanted a danger ranger.
less chucky, more cordell walker.
According to Top Gear US, Chuck likes sheep. Perhaps you could verify?
darkbuddha, i promise, no viable cars will be destroyed. i'm not one to let ANY car go to the yard, unless rusted or damaged beyond functionality.
A turbo coupe swap sounds chuckin' perfect. Or a SHO swap.
I like where this thread is going.
Turbo swap and remove the R on Ranger.
Preliminary inspection and repair estimates:
Oil pressure reads zero. New sender? $10
If I drive it all day, the temp needle gets one third of the way up. New thermostat. $10
The steering was terrifying. I changed the drag link ($35, new). Now it is merely sloppy. New inner and outer tie rods, and upper and lower ball joints. $110
The front wheel bearings are loose and loud. New SKF inner and outer bearings for both sides, $32.
The shocks are toast. I bought a pair of KYB GR2's for the front, $50. In the rear I bought some Monroe air-shocks, $55. Haven't installed them yet though.
The clutch is nearly done. I can probably nurse a few months out of it. Sachs makes a H/D option for this app, $169 for the kit. Ford put the slave cylinder inside the bell housing. They're $100 for a Sachs one. I don't want to pay that much, but I also don't want to remove my transmission twice.
All four tires are different. One is even a different size! I am currently negotiating a set of ford explorer steelies with blizzaks on them that were used one season.
One good thing, the bottom of this drivetrain is DRY. So dry you wonder if there's any fluids in it at all.
Neat! I love cheap trucks!
belteshazzar wrote:
One good thing, the bottom of this drivetrain is DRY. So dry you wonder if there's any fluids in it at all.
If it ain't leakin', it's empty. 
Chuck has a lot of problems, incontinence apparently is not one of them.
