17 yr old Ford Ranger

[Mermaidman]

I was thinking of getting a beater pickup to haul stuff, and saw a 1990 Ford Ranger 5-speed. The owner is asking $1K. What issues to look for in an older vehicle?
Of course, this is all dependent on the wife agreeing to having a beater parked in our driveway 😛
<--(Waits for giant can of Old Milwaukee Light to fall from the sky)

 

[PingSpike]

I posted a thread similar to this awhile back. I have a dodge neon, 99 that I was thinking of trading for a compact truck, probably mid-late 90s era with around 100-150k miles. I'd want 4WD though.

I was originally looking for an s-10. But, it seems like from the research I've done that the ranger was a much better truck, at least during those years. Seemed pretty common to have a lot of balljoint problems with the s-10s from the 1990s for some reason? On edmunds at least, not a lot of problems were reported in customer reviews for the ranger.

The tacoma\toyota trucks from then are nice too...but sell for a bit more.

 

[desy]

I had that truck 🙂
If its 4X4 find out if the master and slave cylinder for the clutch has been replaced as its a very expenseive repair and parts to pull the transfer cases apart.
The ABS sensor goes bad and even though there is nothing wrong with the brakes the light nags you.
Air conditioning leaks and hard to keep a charge, too many o rings and a pain to try and find and replace them all, 2-3 yrs is all you'll get out of a recharge
I had the 6 cylinder no engine problems.
Replace the auto locking hubs with WARN manual ones if 4X4.

 

[Gillbot]

look for rust in the floor pans where the seats bolt, check out www.therangerstation.com and you'll get all the ranger info you'd ever want and more.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: desy
I had that truck 🙂
If its 4X4 find out if the master and slave cylinder for the clutch has been replaced as its a very expenseive repair and parts to pull the transfer cases apart.
The ABS sensor goes bad and even though there is nothing wrong with the brakes the light nags you.
Air conditioning leaks and hard to keep a charge, too many o rings and a pain to try and find and replace them all, 2-3 yrs is all you'll get out of a recharge
I had the 6 cylinder no engine problems.
Replace the auto locking hubs with WARN manual ones if 4X4.

..had endless emissions/trans/clutch probs wit my ranger. never again.

 

[AmigaMan]

my dad has a 94 ranger with 300K miles on it. Had a problem with the axle at 50K miles. Other than that it's been a champ. regular oil changes every 5K miles, retread tires when needed, new air filter here and there. A/C and heat work great, lacking a bit of power since it's the 4cyl though.