Spend a couple bucks at Pick n Nose Arlington, snag several and stick them in your socks. You only need a couple tools to do the work
Last time I picked up a junkyard battery, it was done for within a month or two. Might be alright to try one more time, but I am hesitant.
I do them because, well, I'm poor. Plus, I've had ones that lasted a few years. I always look for Interstate batteries; IMHO, they last longer, even if they sit a while.
Invest in one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/4a-fu...ntrolled-battery-chargermaintainer-63350.html It's slow, but it also reconditions batteries that are not too far gone. Only had one battery out of more than a dozen that did not come back to life.
One problem with going to the kind of tire shops that will touch out-of-date tires is that they're not exactly concerned about quality. Picked up these tires from a friend who got them from a friend, and now I have properly-sized non-winter tires, but man, they sure do shake. I'm guessing they're out of balance. Oh well. Once the virus blows over and the economy picks up again and I get my raise, I'll start looking at new tires, just for peace of mind. And while they were putting them on, I was looking at what would prevent me from going with 30" or 31" tall tires, and it looks like only the rear lower corner of the front fender. I could trim it, but that's something for a ways down the line.
Hey Paul, I had a similar issue with brand new front tires that had a shake. They tried conventional spin balancing a couple times, with no improvement. Then they suggested a "road force balance". The machine looks like a regular spin balancer, but it also has a probe that follows the rim, and a way to measure the heavy section of the tire vs.the heavy side of the rim. Then they mark the two heavy areas, deflate the tire, and turn it on the rim so the two are opposite each other. Worked like a charm!
I run 215/70/15s, and they're about 27" tall, but have no rub issues. A 235/75/15 is about 29", and even with the fact my front end is higher without a change in the springs (from the engine trans swap), I had tried a pair, and they would rub both turning, and on a full jounce.
So after some conversations with friends and observations of my own, the tires might actually be balanced. They could just be slightly out of round from sitting for so long and unloaded, but the brake drum doesn't index on the axle brake pilot correctly (probably because I'm running small bearing axles with conversion bearings, and so they're for lighter duty brakes with smaller pilots). I'll order some centering rings, and also orient the brake drums so that the weights are indexed to the retainer bolt access hole in the flange. There is a witness mark on the frame rail from the tires rubbing at full lock, but I guess I haven't noticed any rubbing on the fender at full jounce yet. I might try some spacers to get some clearance there.
I'd recommend no more than 1" thick, and make sure you reset (and regularly check) the bearing preload and amount of grease in the bearings because of the extra load the spacers put on them. I had to redo the front bearings on my '96 F150 because there were 2" spacers all the way around.
I have a bunch of 1/4" spacers, so I was just thinking of doing one of those. I do have some 1" spacers that I used to mount some modern wheels on my Mustang, but that was just because the offset was different. Ultimately, I want to use longer control arms to push the wheels out a bit and gain some travel, but once again, that's a ways off. Need to save up for some coilovers, and I'll have to cut the spring pocket and fabricate a new shock tower and probably also re-engineer the upper control arm mount to allow enough droop.
You know what might just work? Using the torsion bar suspension of the '90s Explorers. Take a look at one (another reason to go snoop around at Pick n Nose), see what you think.
Honestly, grafting the front frame section of a '98+ Ranger was pretty high on my list of possible modifications, largely in part because there are aftermarket long travel kits for them from outfits like Camburg. But I think I can actually piece together a pretty good setup with Coleman Racing control arms and by either clearancing the frame for the upper arms, or by raising the arm and using an extended ball joint. Or perhaps practicing my cast iron welding to make the spindle bigger. Honestly, the spindle is probably the biggest weak point in the whole thing. Someday, I might just try building my own to make an ideal offroad suspension especially if I can't find a factory type one that'll work.
The reason I suggested an Explorer is because the front suspension is specifically used for both 4WD and the 5.0L AWD. That means a form-fitting oil pan, front axle that fits under it, and proper ground clearance for the axle under the oil pan.
Hmm. I probably won't end up going 4wd realistically, since that's more work and expense than I really want to do. I think I'd rather put that time and money towards turbos and cylinder heads and a TKO. And upgraded shocks.
Oh trust me, I've thought about it. But then I think back to when I had a 4x4 '94 Explorer, and it was more fun to drive in 2WD in the snow than in 4WD.
I had that 5.0 AWD '97 Exploder, and until the cats melted down (around a thousand dollars to replace), I had lotsa fun and zero driving problems with it.
For whatever reason, my new-to-me Holley double pumper seems to just dump the entire content of the primary float bowl into the engine. Looked like it was coming from the idle transfer slots on the primaries. I pulled the carb apart to look for an issue, but I can't find one. The base plate gasket is fine, the power valve isn't ruptured, there were no tears in the metering block gaskets, the air bleeds and bowl vents were clear. All I can think of is that the siphon bleeds are clogged with debris? I'll have to get one of my wire drill bits and poke around in there, see if that helps. And I have some hub-centric rings showing up to help center the brake drums over the axle, since I think they might be rubbing on the shoes as a result of the small-bearing axles not having the correct brake pilot diameter, and so they aren't really centered. If it's not that that's causing my high speed vibration, then it's probably the tires. With those two issues solved (plus getting the gas tank cleaned out and getting the gas gauge working again and hooking up the oil pressure sender), the Beast should be much more driveable!
in regards to the high speed vibration, if the wrong wheels are on it hub-centric rings are needed ( not so much for the drums) they are usually fit on the axle hub pretty good. If you do not know this.. Here is a tip: vibration felt in the steering wheel go after front end, balance front tires (check for out of round) Vibration felt in the body (or in the seat) go after u joints, rear tires, out of balance drive shaft (and if it has it- center carrier bearing for drive shaft)
I mentioned in my comment that I'm running small-bearing axles, which have a small brake pilot diameter, so the only thing actually centering the brake drums are the wheel studs. The brake pilot on the axles is 2.45" (since they're small bearing cut-to-length axles for a Mustang), while the drum pilot diameter is 2.77" There's nothing in the steering wheel, the driveshaft is new, u-joints are new, tires are newly mounted, and the vibration sometimes goes away sometimes after going around a corner, meaning it has something to do with the ends of the axles, whether wheels or brakes and goes away when they're synchronized. Since the wheels were recently balanced, that pretty much leaves brakes, or the wheel shop sucks.
