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When is it time to call it quits?


wild horse

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Well after much thought I've decided to call my rig project " Bad Company" Because thats what it's turning into lol ! I think it;s going to need front floor pans soon and I wounder when it's time to just call it quits? It's sat the last 4+ years without being touched and i'm finding alot (alot) of stuff wrong with it. Not to mention it keeps blowing brake boosters and I'm tired of buying them. What do you all think? Scrap it or keep going and hope for the best?
 


wild horse

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On top of it the motor has a cracked cylinder and when I pulled the tranny dipstick out the fluid was black and has a very bad burnt smell to it . But the last time Idrove the thing it shifted just fine? I'm at a loss of what to do?
 

jhammel85

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It's all about how much you are willing to put into it. Frankly, it sounds like it needs a total restore. If you aren't into that, you should sell it.
 

Twister

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Sounds like my truck. When I fix one thing, another thing breaks. It also loves to eat batteries like thy are free. But what do you expect from a 27 year old truck lol

Sent from, wait how did this get here?
 

wildbill23c

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I have an 84 Bronco 2 as well, and the previous owner practically destroyed it. I'm in the slow long process of eventually getting it all back to at least somewhat factory appearance. Here's my list of initial problems.

1. Brought it home without having the alternator charging (hauled on a trailer), previous owner didn't have it hooked up right. (Repaired in 5 minutes)

2. Head Gaskets were bad (Local High School replaced them as a project in the auto shop)

3. Carburetor wasn't installed and adjusted properly (Repaired in a few hours of tinkering)

4. Flywheel bolts were stripped, flywheel came lose causing a horrible knocking noise (initially I thought a rod about to let lose). (High school auto shop diagnosed, and repaired).

5. Clutch Master Cylinder failed. (Repaired at high school auto shop)

6. Massive oil leak from back of oil pan that will require the replacement of the oil pan to correct the problem. (Will be doing an oil pan replacement sometime in the near future.)

7. Tons of rust problems, including needing a new driver's side floor pan or welding the seam on the current one, the whole passenger side lower body needs rusted out panels replaced. Driver's side not so bad other than at some point the previous owner must have hit something in the back quarter panel by the driver's side tail-light.

8. Hood needs replaced.

9. Needs new tires/matching wheels.

#7/8 will be done some by myself and some by a local body shop eventually to include new paint job.

Ok, so after all that rambling, here's my take on it, the bronco 2's are getting harder to come by, if you have one that the body is in descent shape, you can part it out or sell the running gear and body for more than what a scrap yard will give you, trust me I know I was thinking about doing the same when I started having issues but after thinking about it, and how hard I had to work to get it by making small payments on it over 3 months, I'm not about to give up on it. After all the work I've had done so far, it runs awesome just looks horrible as you can see from the pictures.


Engine:


Passenger Side:


Front:


Driver Side:


Back:
 

wild horse

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Thanks for the imput you all. I hear what your all saying and it just sounds easyier to just scrap the thing because of all the problems and all the money invested when things just keep breaking , But I think I'll stick it out a little long and see if my luck turns around. And if anybody is in the puyallup,washington area and wants to help if they have free time just let me know and I'll help you in return.
 

wildbill23c

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If you aren't able to perform the work yourself, before you go to an expensive shop to have the work done, if you can get the parts here and there go talk to your local high school auto shop instructor and see if they would be able to do the work of installing the parts for you. That's what I did because I don't have an enclosed shop to work in and when my problems started I wasn't about to try to work in below zero weather it just wouldn't have worked. Granted it took the school shop almost 2 months to get things done for me, but I've been driving it for a little over a week now and haven't had any issues other than normal old vehicle quirks LOL. I'm liking my bronco 2 more and more as time goes by, I was in your shoes about 2 weeks ago when things kept going wrong at the shop, but I got to thinking, I paid $975 for this truck knowing it needed work, and knowing that it is 30 years old, its going to need a lot of help to get it back to the way it should be.

Here's what I found out for scrap prices.

Local scrap dealer 4 miles away said they would give me a maximum of $150 for it.
2 other scrap dealers about 30 miles away said they would give me $350-400 for it.

I laughed at them and told them they could keep their thieving hands away from my truck for those prices. These guys want your vehicle absolutely, what they don't tell you is that the $150-400 they give you is pocket change to them as they're going to part it out before they scrap what's left. In that parting out they'll make sometimes $2,000 or more on what they sell by parting it out. Even your transmission, axles, etc. are worth far more to someone than you will get by scrapping it. The scrap prices are based on the weight of the vehicle, it don't include any accessories added, or anything else just base model weight and often times that doesn't change from a 2WD to a 4WD model the just look at the lightest weight for that vehicle they could find and that's what they use for payout of scrap.

If I were you I would seriously get the bugs worked out of it and drive it. Even if you do an engine swap to fix your engine problems get it fixed get it looking good and sell it. Engines for these can be found pretty reasonably if you look around along with many other parts as well.

Wish I lived closer I'd haul it into my local high school auto shop for you and let them work on it as you get money for parts. Like I said my Bronco 2 was in their shop for 2 months, they would just push it out of the way while waiting on parts. I had a few kids working on mine, but because one of my family friend's son is in auto and I know his skills and know quite a few of the kids in auto through him I knew I wouldn't have to worry about anything, plus at the same time I was like well its broke now, I can't use it, what's it going to hurt letting a high school shop work on it and learn from the mess. Worked out great as I'm driving it as a daily driver now, like my pictures show it looks like crap but it gets me from point a to point b and I drove it up in the hills this past Sunday for about 80 miles and not a single problem. I just know I need tires, shocks and springs really bad now LOL.
 

wild horse

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Yea the high school idea sounds good but I dont trust them as they have alot of the gang type that go there and i'm not allowed on the property (grins) because I was a bad boy when I went there years ago and got arrested on school grounds for being stupid lol ! And the vehical is not movable at the moment. (Tore apart) but I'm just going to stick it out and see what happens?
 

wildbill23c

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Ahh I see, definitely stick with it, by the time you get it back together and your problems fixed it should run very well for you. I'm in the process of messing with my carburetor to get it dialed in as it seems to not be getting the right fuel/air mixture, runs ok, but kind of hesitates a little, but should have it running better tomorrow as I have tomorrow off from work so I'm going to tinker with it a bit more. This past tank of fuel I got 16mpg and that was driving in town, and about 3/4 of that was offroad on gravel roads in the hills, so I think its doing better already sure beats the 8-10mpg I was getting when I first got it and the adjustment screws had about been turned completely out LOL.

Good luck with your truck, and keep us updated and as always post questions when you have them and be sure to use the tech section when needed I've found a lot of cool stuff in there to help me with my 84 Bronco 2 and basically gave me the strength to fight through the breakdowns I was having with mine, and gave me the knowledge to say yeah that's gonna take time but cool I know how to do it. My printer hates me now from all the tech stuff I have printed, but I feel more comfortable driving my B2 now knowing that the issues that arise are easily fixed, or at least know what the problem is so I can get it fixed.
 

richard booth

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Hey Wild horse, I live in Tacoma and I just bought a pretty clean 88 B2 on craigslist for 500 bucks because it needs a tranny. If I was you I would obviously flush the automatic trans before it dies and see about finding another B2 that is younger and not rusted out and use the present one till you work the bugs out of the younger one. Just a suggestion as rust never sleeps and carburetors are not nearly as dependable as fuel injection. Wish you the best whichever way you choose, Rich in Tacoma.
 

chazzone

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Just a thought, if you're continuously fixing or replacing the same thing, then there is another problem. I've got an '89 with more than 350,000 miles on her, and I have fixed everything twice, but not often.
 

wild horse

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Thanks for all the great input and I'm going to stick with it . And to wildbill if you are running a 2.8 in yours let me know because I have parts for one that I will hook you up with if you want so just let me know? And thanks richard for the idea of buying another B2 but I'm unemployed at the moment and dont make a whole lot of money and my license is suppened so it wouldent do me any good but Thanks to all!
 

wildbill23c

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2WD
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0
Total Drop
0
Tire Size
215/70-R14
My credo
19K, 19D, 92Y, 88M, 91F....OIF-III (2004-2005)
Thanks for all the great input and I'm going to stick with it . And to wildbill if you are running a 2.8 in yours let me know because I have parts for one that I will hook you up with if you want so just let me know? And thanks richard for the idea of buying another B2 but I'm unemployed at the moment and dont make a whole lot of money and my license is suppened so it wouldent do me any good but Thanks to all!
Yep, running the stock 2.8L V6, just got the oil pan fixed this morning just took out the bolts in the back and re-sealed with sealant for now till I get extra bucks from my Ebay sales to get the new oil pan. Running awesome now well after last night anyhow its no longer sucking air between the carburetor base and gasket, I found that there's a nut missing on the back and one on the front that was about to fall off.

Let me know what you got and list some prices on here so everyone else can get to those parts as well.
 

wild horse

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I want to get other peoples option on weather I should stay with the 5.8 or swap out to the smaller 302 ? What do you all think?
 

94 lngbd

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Darrel, Scrap the hole thing I will come haul it away for you..


Just kidding

Hope things turn around for you & your Bronco II
 

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