broken ranger differential repair

[chips2481]

Hi I had bought a 90 ranger with 2wd. I had thought the problem with the noise was the bad center drive shaft bearing since it was so bad that the axle would shake when it drove. I replaced that and it stoped the driveshaft from shaking but didn't fix the noise I am new to rear wheel drive vehicles. Anyways it looks like the last idiot who drove this thing didn't take care of it and now I bought a 1500 truck with a bad differential and bad motor mounts...I am assuming that the bad drive shaft bearing's shaking had ruined both the diff and motor mounts. Also when I am going over 55 the engine ticks because it can't handle all of the power the engine needs to produce at such a low rpm... so I think one of the valves is bent as well, maybe it got bent from the engine shaking from the bad mounts. Any ways I am past the fact that I got jiped out of cash and just want to repair this thing. First I looked for a replacement diff and couldn't find a used one. I have spent a few minutes looking for a new one at autozone.com and found nothing. So now I am trying to figure out how to repair it. I see the site below has some parts to repair it but no new entire diff replacement.
http://www.autozone.com/N,11201707//shopping/partTypeResultSet.htm
Will any of these parts fix it? I have taken the drive shaft off and the diff has back lash, which is what my dad told me I have knowledge of differentials but it is loose and will move alot when you turn the drive shaft. How would I go about fixing the diff completly?

 

[gijoecam]

I had one... Don't miss it for anything.

For the diff, there are plenty of options. Tons of them are rusting away in junk yards, and there are about a million or so shops that can rebuild them. Rebuilds are not cheap, but not outrageous.

Motor mounts aren't tough either.

As for the spark knock at 55, I had that issue. You can pull the shorting bar to retard the timing, and that will help for a while. Running high quality and higher octane fuels will also help. Eventually the best course of treatment will be to pick up a can of decarboning fluid from the dealership or a can of Seafoam from anyplace that sells it and run it through the intake. It will remove the carbon build-up from the combustion chamber which should, in turn, reduce the tendency to spark-knock.

-Joe

edit: In my opinion, the easiest thing to do would be to off the truck while you might still be able to get your $1500 back. Even if it cost you a $400 loss, it's still cheaper than rebuilding the rear end and changing the motor mounts. I mean, it's an 18-year-old truck with who-knows-how-many hundreds of thousands of miles on it...

 

[manaen]

Wow Joe, I'm just guessing here but I take it you've had a bad expirience with a 90's ranger :scratch:

 

[chips2481]

Thank you for your help Joe. I have wanted to do the sea foam thing but I have no idea how to use it other than to throw it in the gas tank or oil but I have heard there are better ways like you said of putting it in the intake. Is there a thread in here that explains how? I have no idea what a shorting bar is could you explain where it is and how to pull it? As for selling it I really don't think anyone would buy it until I replace the diff because the noise is very noticable. How much is it to have a shop rebuild it?
Thanks
Troy

 

[manaen]

There are many thread that explain the usage of seafoam. just do a search for seafoam and you will see the numerous how-to's

 

[gijoecam]

As for the seafoam, as they already mentioned, there are numerous threads. Run a search here and you'll find more info than you could possibly want.

When I did my Ranger back in the day, I would pull the vacuum line off the booster, start the engine, (it'll idle high due to the vacuum leak) then stuff the hose in the can of cleaner so that it sucked up about 1/2 -2/3 of the can and stalled. Then, let it sit for as long as possible (an hour is good, overnight is better). Then, start it up again (it would be tough, but it would run) and let it suck the rest out of the can. Then, I'd take it out and drive it like I stole it, fogging the neighborhood with the smoke. That was usually good for about 4-6 months.

The octane shorting bar, IIRC, was a gray connector behind one of the headlights. It was about 3/4" round connector with a simple plug in the end of it. Yank it, and it would retard the engine timing by some amount (I forget the exact amount). It would reduce the power, but also reduce the spark knock. Again, it was good for about 2-3 months after it started to knock.

So, my routine was run the cleaner through it and leave the octane shorting bar in. Run it until it started spark-knocking, then pull the shorting bar. Then run it til it started knocking, then run mid-grade fuel for another months. Once it started knocking on 91 octane, I'd do it again. If I was lucky, I could milk it for a year.

As for the diff, I can't estimate it... depends on the problem. The longer you wait, the more expensive the repair will be. Fix it early, and it does the least damage and, therefore, costs the least to repair.

Yeah, I've been down that road. Wait until you try and change the spark plugs on that 98Hp monster!! All 8 of 'em....

 

[manaen]

Yeah, I've been down that road. Wait until you try and change the spark plugs on that 98Hp monster!! All 8 of 'em....

8 plugs? :scratch: he said he has the 2.9L that's a v6 isn't it, where are the 2 extra plugs located.

 

[rickcdewitt]

if its like mine the plug used to disable the advance is over the pass side valve cover and is rectangular.if the ring and pinion are salvagable it will be about 500$ to have a shop set up a diff.if it needs everything it will be more like 800-900$some slop turning the pinion flange is normal clearance in the spider gears,i'de be worried if the yoke moves when prying forward and backward on opposite sides of the flange.you might pull the cover and see if the carrier bearings let the carrier move left to right at all.if so it needs new ones(pretty common on the 7.5)