I'm glad you got it repaired, Allen. :)

Spud :)

Years ago, my wife was driving our '89 Mercury Sable (with a 3.0l), and the water pump bearings gave up at about 90000 miles. It was a violent departure, which caused the serpentine belt to part company. As you can imagine, she lost power steering and the car overheated right away. The alternator was on a dedicated belt.

I was amazed at how easy the repair was. That was my first experience with a serpentine belt tensioner, and thought it was a genius design.

Glad you got it back on the road, Allen.

Made the 22 miles to the office without a problem. Now that the waterpump is fixed I can hear new noises. :lol:

Also not sure what happened, but no signal lights now. Guessing a flasher or relay. No hazard lights either.

Parked in the office lot for the week while I am in Alabama. Will have to look next Saturday.

New problem. My brake lights are out along with the hazard lights.

Bulbs?

Going to check that first, but I don't think so. Taillights and turn signals are working.

:oops: Easy fix. It was the fuse.

Next it sounds like rear brakes. I hear some noise there now that the waterpump isn't howling.

Having a hard time not letting the ranger go in hopes of a grown-up truck.

I believe that my starter is out now. It will turn over a few seconds, but not stay engaged. Only does this after its hot.

Like the Bendix is giving up, or like the solenoid is tired?

I am thinking bendix. I jumped the solenoid and it did the same thing.

Probably Bendix then.

I'll guess it will be cheap and available at pretty much any autoparts store.

Is it easy to access on the 4 cylinder? My 4.0 and it's accessories pretty much fills the engine bay of my Ranger and it's not particularly easy to get to some items.

I think so. I haven't really looked.

I have noticed that if the engine is cold it will start just fine. When it is acting up the truck starts like it is flooded.

Been suspecting the TFI ignition module as culprit for some other issues and reading some other info leads me to believe that it may be causing the issue. Truck tries to fire and it kicks the bendix out.

Sometimes if the engine is working and getting hot the truck starts missing and loses power.

Another ranger I had with a 4cyl would just quit. You would spend about 20 minutes waiting for it to cool off and start again.

Might try a new module. It started fine yesterday at least 4 times. Engine never really warmed up all short distances until the last when it was warm up alittle. Sputtered to a start at the junkyard. I parked on a hill just in case. Even then it sputters to a start if hot.

You're describing the dreaded GM starter hot-start trouble. In an older GM, the solenoid is mounted on the starter, and they can be a bear when hot. Do you plan to rebuild or buy a new starter?

IMHO, a module would cause no-run, not poor running. With a poor module, the engine will be running fine, then it will just die, as if you switched it off. Once it cools down, it will often start and run fine again. A hillbilly test is to tap it once it's running, and see if it stalls.

I don't have much to offer other than saying you can use a heat gun or a blow dryer to simulate a hot condition on the suspected part.