It's not a mystery anymore.
I've noticed an increasing fluid leak from under the truck to the point where it leaks noticeably just from idling a few minutes. I thought it was the rear main drying out.
Fast forward to today. I get an e-mail from Bryan that I can have a free Craftsman snow blower w/ B&S engine from one of his neighbors in his fancy neighborhood. It has some mystery problem but is probably fuel or spark (not totally destroyed, but doesn't start). So I am going to drive out to Lakeville after work to get it.
Tonight I decided to fill the gas tank. In my cul-de-sac, I put it in drive, went forward a bit, then decided to reverse just to adjust the brake drums (I do things at weird times). When I put it back in drive, nothing happened. Uh oh. Reverse. Nothing. Give it gas, bam, moving again. Uh oh. Drive again, go forward, reverse, then it loses drive again. Double uh oh.
Drive to gas station, fill up, drive home. Decide to check trans fluid level. Seems to be...almost off the dipstick?
Add 1-1/2 quarts. Go under truck to check leak. Trans cooler lines. Ah. Just rusty. So that'll need to be done pretty soon. But not before a ~2+ hours of driving tomorrow (work, Lakeville, home) to get my free snow blower. Seems worth it. AAA can tow a truck with a snow blower in it just as well.
Ranger, mystery fluid leak
Re: Ranger, mystery fluid leak
Took me about 15 minutes to find my tubing cutter. I really need to organize. Anyway.
The trip to get the snow blower went fine, btw. 120 miles on leaking trans cooler lines.
I decided to replace two ~18" sections of both lines where it was leaking. One line cut, working on another. Naturally, I got some trans fluid on myself. Never fails. I think it's a rule of the universe.
These lines were pretty big. 3/8". Also this truck has an external cooler plus the one in the radiator. I want to say the external cooler isn't stock but I'm not sure why someone would have added one. As terrible as I assume the A4LD is, I doubt there's much this 2.3 SOHC can do to harm it.
Nice new hose. One hose was an official trans cooler hose, which cost like $20 for 3 feet. The other is just a section of fuel-rated hose for like $4. I think the fuel stuff will handle oil products just fine.
Fixed! Shame on me for letting this go as long as I did.
The trip to get the snow blower went fine, btw. 120 miles on leaking trans cooler lines.
I decided to replace two ~18" sections of both lines where it was leaking. One line cut, working on another. Naturally, I got some trans fluid on myself. Never fails. I think it's a rule of the universe.
Nice new hose. One hose was an official trans cooler hose, which cost like $20 for 3 feet. The other is just a section of fuel-rated hose for like $4. I think the fuel stuff will handle oil products just fine.
Re: Ranger, mystery fluid leak
And now this is a problem again. Not my repair, mind you, but another point on one of the hard cooler lines. This time it was a pinhole leak in the front. I hastily patched it with more hose. Fixed...again. Need pics.