Five problems related to rear suspension have been reported for the 1997 Ford Ranger. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
1997 Ford Ranger driver side rear spring hanger rusted away & broke causing weight of vehicle to be carried by truck bed floor.
Rear leaf spring brackets rusting and breaking.
Found drivers side rear spring support (front) that attaches to the frame rail was broken from rusting apart. While replacing it, also found the rear spring supports (rear) on both sides broken from rusting apart. This appears to be a poor design or under engineered part. The truck is 1997 Ford Ranger pickup with only 73k miles on it and has never been used to carry anything heavy. This seems to be highly unusual that three brackets are broken on one truck from rusting apart.
Lost control of vehicle (most recent incident) when I hit a washboarded section on a dirt road (koehn rd. Between capac rd. At knoll rd. , mussey twp. , st. Clair county). Ranger repeatedly loses control when it hits bumps or washboards, often causing lane changes or severe skids. Dealer dismissed complaints, said it was "normal" for truck suspension. Our other trucks ('74 chevy c-10, '85 astro, '85 s-10 blazer, '88 s-10 blazer, '94 caravan, '95 sonoma) have never done this. We were able to alleviate a little of the problem by reducing the air pressure in the tires to 30 psi, but we still lose control frequently, on bumpy paved roads as well as dirt roads.
Whenever driving over a bump, such as repaired pothole or before a bridge, rear suspension jumps jumps to the side and gets out of control.