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RR Valley, ND; MN native | There is a '84 Ford Ranger at the farm. Dad bought it in '89...
I am the only one who drives it when I am there doing property maintenance since he passed 10yrs ago. A couple years ago, the temperature idiot light on the dash would come on.
I had replaced the original 30+yr old hoses and flushed the coolant maybe 2yrs prior. The original radiator had some corrosion in it. Assumed it was clogged up. So, I get a new radiator and thermostat.
Stupid me does not do my research and ASSumes the thermostat is under the elbow on the top of the engine (V6) like most typical V8 and V6 engines.
Go to remove the elbow and break off one of the studs in the aluminum intake manifold. I get the elbow off and there is no thermostat (!?)....
Come to find out the thermostat is on the lower hose as part of the water pump assembly.
Fortunately, I was able to get the broken stud out after several hours of work with some borrowed tools. Unlike a few years prior to that where on a different vehicle I went to take off the intake manifold on a V6 car engine for a new gasket (oil leak) and had bolts snap off on BOTH heads that in the end I had to pull the heads and have the machine shop extract the stumps.
Back to the Ranger....
I get it all back together and that idiot like still comes on after truck runs a while....
Turns out the real problem was the sensor switch was bad. $12 part and 5 minutes to replace compared to like $200 in parts and 2 weekends messing with the radiator, broken stud, and the thermostat, etc that was not the problem at all.
After all that, I joked that I should have replaced the water pump as long as I had everything else apart. Ate my words as a year later the waterpump shelled out...
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Ever have a repair that is like a Russian nesting doll?
