hiya.. I need some advice.
my old nissan PU has served me well for many years but is on its way down. I found a 92 ranger thats in reasonably good shape, run nice, no smoke no knocks, i'm pleases wit it. BUT the one thing putting me off this purchase is the guys that own it disconnected the power steering pump, because it went bad, and they have been driving it this way for a while.
Would doing this dammage anything? am I looking at something expensive to replace here... other than the pump itself?

also, Ive never owned a ford truck before, I know my old chevy and nissan mules were easy to repair myself and cheap to buy parts for. Am I looking at a user freindly truck in the 92 ranger or is it something I'll contasntly need the ford garage to fix? (user unfriendly parts)
I know thins is a ford forum (thats why I looked ya up) but be honest here, I have to do the work myself a lot so how user repairable is the 92 rangers?
thanks for your input. if I buy it I'll be here a lot i imagine..

edit..
its a 4 cyl 2.3L fuel inj. with 137,000 miles on it. the guy wants 500 bucks, and its pretty solid bodywise.
if that helped!

 

Welcome to FTE!!!

Overall they are pretty good and that sounds like a good deal for 500.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

 

That's a great deal for $500. The 4cyl still leaves adequate room for manipulating your hands and arms into the engine compartment. Driving with no pump shouldn't have done any damage. It depends on how long he drove it that way though. The only thing I could think that would happen would be a few seals would go bad due to lack of fluid. And for what it would take to fix that, the price of the truck still makes up for it.

 

he drove it up here this afternoon for me to take a good once over it. it has been hit in several places, its cosmetic dammage only, and it passed inspection that way. it runs very quiet, shifts smoothly and doesnt make any noise in the engine at all. I was pretty impressed.
I'mput off by the rear suspension, it has ONE leaf spring. I haul a lot of firewood and stuff and my nissan mule has 5 leaves and a coil spring helper, so I can load it down quite a bit. this ranger had about 12 old tires in it and was sagging.
I reall ylike this truck, but the suspension i know will be an issue FAST. we got the hood open (it was stuck so thins is the first ive seen the engine) I'm suprised on how little "hose and wire" garbage is on the rangers system... pretty minimalsitic, I like that alot. the oil is dark but clean (it leaks out a quart a month he tells me).
for a 5oo buck truck, its very fixable, with NO rust in the bed (has a bedliner also, and a bed trunk box) or the body, and the frame is clean.

you replace the rear suspension on these rangers with a minimum of expense? I'd have to add leaves and add coils, are ford aftermarket parts easy to fget and how are they priced? I know fom having chevy trucks those parts are cheap and easy to find, nissan parts are cheap but hard to find what you want in these "half year" models like I have.
my two blocks here are the suspension and the mileage. I could spen 3 times that much in the spring for a bigger truck with a better suspension, But I cant stand passing up good deals.
i was suprised how easy it steers without the power steering hooked up also. my overall impression is they are a pretty heavy built truck for the size. really low gearing also, in 2nd i'm fying in the nissan, and it took me till 3rd gear in the ranger just to get moving smoothy down the road. Better transmission? stronger? or is that the longer stroke of the ford engin that does that?

lots of questions for the ford guys... if i'm gonna focus on a ford I need to know lots of stuff. LOL.
thanks for the help.

my bro has a 75 ford 1/2 ton 4x4 he got years ago to restore, it was a real rag, with a 6 cyl... its been sitting in the weeds for a year and his kid (a ford man) said just start it dad.. bro said nah its not going to start ...
the kid pumped the gas a few times and vrooom... idles like a new one.
problem is with all these ford guys they dont have any answers... go figure. LOL.

 

It should be easy to pick up some rear springs from a junkyard and drop them in.

 

86 the ranger... i found more what I was aiming for. a 65 3/4 ton (yea its a ford). someones project truck they lost interest in. damn nice shape too for 1000 bucks!! going sat or sun to give it a better look see and most likely buy it. It's "ready to run" no repairs needs and with a rebuilt motor to boot. owner has had it for 15 yrs. lucky me!
I'll post some pics in the old truck group after i claim it (if). Thanks for the ranger input!