Trucks New-to-me F150....

RememberGoliad

Veteran Member
a 1988 with a straight six and 5 speed standard....been sitting since I guess 2008, as it's got an inspection sticker that expired in the fall of that year. Was running when parked, for those of you familiar with the ~77-91 Fords, the push rod that goes from the key down the top of the steering column to the ignition switch that wears out, well it wore out on this one and is the reason for the parking of it.

Winched it up onto a buddy's car hauler and got it out to my family farm shop. I know the usual drill of resurrecting a mass of field ballast--all the soft stuff under the hood--hoses, belts, etc., fuel tanks dropped and rinsed, probably fuel pump, filter, once it fires up, drop the oil/filter. I suspect the clutch is stuck. Good whack on that should free it up. I know it's gonna need tires, anything with modern (<20 year old) tires is gonna be flat on the bottom after that long. Shame, they did blow up and hold air...what a waste :/ Brake fluid is dry, but it's a Ford, so that's to be expected :xpnd:

Old enough for antique plates, so that's what it's getting after it goes, stops and lights up. I will probably have to put front brake pads and rotors on it, probably will whether I have to or not.

Anything else I'm missing that y'all can think of? I'm sure there'll be something. Pics coming when I get some.
 

tech

Veteran Member
Being a 4.9 and sitting up that long, you'd probably do well to go ahead and change the tappet cover and valve cover gaskets...those were notorious for leaking. Take a good look at the plastic vacuum lines and hoses as well. The plastic gets brittle and will turn to powder, the hoses become hard as rock. Carefully inspect the insulation on the engine harness, especially any places there appears to be oil on it...if gentle flexing cause it to crack, problems are in your future
Check the clutch and brake master cylinders inside the cab for any sign of fluid where the pushrods come through...and the clutch slave cylinder.
Overall, they are good vehicles, but time does take its toll!
Oh yeah...rear wheel cylinders, too.
 
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RememberGoliad

Veteran Member
Thank you sir! I've run into some of those before, as I like to resurrect older Fords, but haven't done it enough to know what is 'common' and what is something one just waits and sees. Never played with one young enough to have fuel injection, so this is going to have a bit of a learning curve.

Pretty much anything flex-y will have flexed enough in 31 years or sat enough in 8 years to need attention. With TLC though, and time put into it, these things are nearly bulletproof (not literally) on the high dollar stuff, so long as one keeps up on the fifty cent parts and keeps those in good shape ;)
 

RememberGoliad

Veteran Member
Well, worst case, it looks like I bought a $200 vinyl covered bench seat and a trailer, some (dis)assembly required. No matter, needed a seat for my '94 and can always use an 8' trailer. And since I haven't found a seat for less than $250 in decent condition, this was a bargain.

Thing's ate up underneath the cab with rust. Must've been a fishing truck. Not worth pulling the engine, rebuilding, and reinstalling. That's what I planned to do, and kinda half-ass patch the leprosy all up....but when I got up under it with a good light, it became obvious it was more than that. Might go find another one with a good (or at least better) body and empty under the hood. Block and head are probably in good shape, but engine wouldn't turn over with a known good starter on it. Kinda thinking whichever intake valve was open got its rings rusted to the cylinder. It's got Marvel oil in all 6 now, after Christmas I'm gonna see if I can make the thing go a whole revolution with a 3/4 ratchet and the appropriate socket on the crank nut. If it'll spin, I'll put the time into seeing if it'll run and just go from there. If not, I'll part it out. Definitely break even on it. Not the end of the world.
 

Carl2

Pass it forward...
We had a 1989 F150, 4-speed, 300 CID 6-cylinder. A nice truck, but the enviro's had forced Ford to make their trucks lighter. In this one, the clutch master cylinder quit working (in heavy traffic) because the fire wall broke. I got it home; it was a known problem and Ford had two repair kits, "major" and "minor". Our truck needed the "major" kit and the dealer ordered the "minor" repair kit, thus forcing me to sit idle for a week awaiting the repair while we were moving out of state.
 
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