Good morning all, my name is Ray and I recently purchased a 1993 Ranger XLT with a Knapheide stake bed. It is 4x2 with a 3.0 automatic.
As a little background, I had recently purchased a few acres in the country and noticed that most of the farmers had full-size stake bed trucks with extra fuel tanks on the back to fuel tractors and such. I decided that I would look for one to fuel my newly purchased tractor. But when I started looking for one they were WAY out of my price range. Then I saw an ad on Craigslist for the Ranger. I drove over an hour into the hills of TN, bought the truck and headed home with my wife following. 25 miles from home the truck started smoking. When I stopped and looked I realized that the transmission had started to leak and was dripping on the exhaust pipe causing the smoke. This caused a lot of stress, but I kept going, trying to get the truck to our farm. I was on one long road which pretty much went through the country and to our land. When I got to a stop sign I went straight (as I should have) but something told me I went the wrong way? I did a u-turn, went back to the stop sign and turned (now I'm going the WRONG way) I went a few miles with the transmission slowly going out. I realized I went the wrong way and was getting lost when I see a billboard for a towing company right by a city park. I quickly turn around again, turn into the park, and the transmission dies. I walked 20 feet to the billboard, call the tow company and they show up quick! I tell the driver where to take the truck (farm), but when he tells me he knows of a good transmission shop, calls the shop and gets a guesstimate price, I tell him to take it to that shop. They rebuilt the transmission and I got it back in one week! Quick service! This was a stressful situation - getting lost in the middle of nowhere with a dying vehicle. I feel it was Divine intervention which caused all of the things to fall into place. If I had gone straight on that road towards our farm, I would have broken down in the wide-open country, probably without cell phone service. (My wife was following in another car so I wouldn't have been totally screwed, but...)
This truck was rear-ended in the past and they replaced the bed. It has the larger 15" tires which, according to the door sticker, are appropriate. However, when making sharp turns or going over a bump in a turn I can sometimes hear rubbing.
The AC doesn't work. It sounds loud like an exhaust leak, but I don't think there is one. The air charge temp sensor is broken and laying on the manifold (air leaks!). It idles rough at starting and you have to flutter the gas pedal until it warms up. The wide open throttle sensor has been replaced with a junkyard part (paint marking on it). The DPFE was not hooked up. I could keep going, but won't right now, I'll post queries as I fix things.It is old and in need of repairs, but I feel good about doing ANY auto repairs except transmissions! I can rebuild motors, and in fact have a 62 Ranchero that I've rebuilt a 5.0 and squeezed into the engine bay (after removing my shock towers and welding in a Mustang II front crossmember/suspension/steering rack). Biggest alteration on that truck/car though is the monster-sized C6 tranny. That was a squeeze!
I look forward to conversing with y'all and hope to learn a lot!

 

Sound like a project for sure. Plenty of info here and great folks full of knowledge.

 

Yous in the right spot! I’ve got a 2002 3.0 and love it. Having some problems but can always rely on the forums for those weird, unexplainable nasties. Hope to see ya around the forums.