Was headed home from Xmas shooping and I got rear ended last night in my 2000 Ranger that turned into a hit and run. The rear bumper is pushed into the rear fenders, the gap between the bed and cab is smaller at the bottom than at the top now, and there is a strange grinding/vibration coming from the engine. I sounds like something in the flywheel area. The truck has a new rattle when starting, so I am scared to find out what is all messed up in the drive line.
Going to see the insurance man tomorrow morning, and considering the truck is insured to the hilt, and I have paid him more over the years than the truck is most likely worth, he better work with me on this.
All I can say is at least it wasn’t the Cougar, and if it had been my old 4X4, I would have just had the inconvenience of scraping a Pathfinder off my rear bumper and buffing out some scratches.
All I can do is wait and see what happens. At least I am getting the parts delivered tomorrow to put my grille back together on the Cougar and get the bumper reinstalled. Then I can drive that around for now while the truck is being diagnosed.
Well, I am getting myself ready to hear that the Ranger will be a total loss.
To comfort myself, I have been building up a shopping cart on the LMC truck site of goodies to make my 77 F150 4X4 back into a daily driver if need be. I can’t bring myself to make the Cougar a daily driver and increase the risk of the same thing happening.
Not too bad, only about $300 of stuff to make it pass inspection around here.
It deserves it, as it was my first vehicle I ever owned and I can’t stand to see it sit there looking lonely. Besides, 5000+ pounds of pickup truck with a big drop bumper hitch would have ensured that the guy wouldn’t have been able to drive away after rear ending me.
I’ll just need a 2nd job to keep the 400 in it well fed…
Looks like the truck will be totaled. I am going to buy it from the insurance company as a salvage so I can strip and sell all the aftermarket parts I installed on it over the years.
I already have buyers for the transmission, under drive pulleys, air intake kit, camper top, and whoever wants the engine gets the rest of the truck with it, computer, fuel system, wiring and all.
I’m eyeing a 2000-ish F250 quad cab, short bed, 7.3 diesel…
Sorry to hear about your truck. You are right on the 77 being a tank. I currently have a 97 with the 7.3 in it and like it. It is not cheap to feed though. about 12 miles to a gallon. I had a 79 F250. My first truck with a 460 in it. I loved that truck. One day while leaving work we came to the stop sign, I had a friend in the truck with me. A red car, not sure what, never even slowed down and hit us in the rear at about 35 miles an hour. We jumped out of the truck and I was really p*#sed off. I thought he had really screwed up my truck and was ready to kick butt. When I got to the back of my truck I started laughing. His hood was all crunched up, Fluid was dripping everywhere! Most of his grill was sitting on my bumper and we found a head light in the box. They had to jack his car up to get it off my reese hitch Then they put his car on a flat bed. I drove away. Only damage was red paint on my rear bumper!! Those 79’s were real tanks, wish I still had that one.
LOL, my “first” vehicle was a '72 F???, 36? something in it…that one was “tank worthy”, as the PO had removed the factory bumpers, and fabbed up his own steel-plate ones. You know the fuys that use a 2x12 for a bumper?? Like that, but steel…never did get to see how “the other car” would fare against it, thankfully.
T3, that '72 probably had a 360 in it, as that was the most popular engine from about '70 and beyond. Had a long-bed with the Ranger package (yeah, “Ranger” was a trim package, like the LTD over the Galaxie in cars) as my first pickup as well. 360, C6, A/C; but manual steering and brakes. Truck sat in the Tucson AZ sun for two years before I got it; in a year, every dried-out seal and gasket failed - making it the largest contrbutor of “toxic earth” in all of Pima County. 20 gallons of gas = 1 or 2 quarts of oil to show on the dipstick.
The 360 had little to no “top-end” but brutish torque. The development was perfect: FE block bored to 352 specs, 390 crank and rods. Made for an engine that was “asthmatic” above about 55-5700 RPM; but, with the long stroke, C6 and 3.56 (per the tag) gears in the 9" diff, you could get to those revs in very short order.
fordblue; sorry to hear about the Ranger. Those are cool little trucks. I’d take one; but don’t feel markedly “safe” with the idea of hitching up a 3250 horse trailer with 1.5 tons of horseflesh to the ack of something that small and/or light.
Yup, sounds just like mine…other 'n I had no a/c, and the PO(I assume) had put in these two semi-type spring loaded buckets that when you hit a bump JUST right, you got a good knot on your head. He’d also installed these “saddle” tanks over each wheel well in the bed, so, I could fill up those two, and the one behind the seat, and drive for a month! LOL. Was a great puller for my lawnmowing I did back in high school.
When you get it back, pull the rear bumper, have someone weld boiler plate to the back then re-install bumper! You won’t ever have that problem again. Shoot for that price you are only talking four payments on a new truck! Can’t go wrong there. Would still be nice to get that 77 up and back as number daily driver.
I took the 77 out for a spin the other night. I forgot how mean of an engine it has that I built for that truck. Made the turn out of my subdivision, was going down the main road at about 10MPH and nailed it. It shed a good layer of old rubber off of the rear tires, and they are 11.5" wide. I still plan to buy the shopping list of parts to make it pass inspection now that it is resurrected.
I just need to give it a once over, change all the lights burnt out, and swap the power steering pump. The one from Autozone with a “lifetime warranty” has a relief valve that sticks, so after a high RPM run, the relief will hang open and the pump builds no pressure. It is a mofo to try and steer that thing with no assist.
You’d REALLY miss it if it had the 400 crank, rods and pistons. Yeah, the 400 sucked a lttle more fuel, but the TORQUE! Nearly like a 360-390 FE engine. Nothing like a long stroke pulling the pistons down and pushing them back up to transition from a standstill to “haulin’ [butt]”.
Yep, my truck had a 351M in it and when I needed a new short block, I went for the 400. It doesn’t wind up as fast, but it is a huge difference in torque. Sizing the carb is key. I went from a 750 to a 600 and it gained A LOT more low end.
I have to call the body shop tomorrow and see how things are going with the Ranger. Hopefully the good news hasn’t changed.
The Ranger is back home again. New bumper, frame straightened, new bed sides, fresh paint, and since they scuffed the roll in bed liner I put in while straightening the floor of the bed, they painted that as well.
They even sanded down my trailer ball and painted it black to match the bumper since it was rusted when I brought it in.
It turns out that one motor mount was in a bad bind, so it wasn’t absorbing any vibration. They loosened it, let it drop back into place, and tightened it up again.
Just in time, I am going to tear the whole grille off the Cougar tomorrow and get all the latest goodies installed on it. Now I have my daily driver back and can get a lot more done with my day.
Then they put his car on a flat bed. I drove away. Only damage was red paint on my rear bumper!! Those 79’s were real tanks, wish I still had that one.