1985 Ranger -- should I buy??

[99RangerKrazy]

Ok I found this 1985 Ranger in town, 4x4 4cylinder (i thought 4 cylinder only came in 2wd, but I'm no expert that's for sure), 4 speed, camo'd paint. 4 inch lift with 32s. It has an on board air compressor, cb radio, cd player, black in bed tool box, it has a new alternator, battery, plugs, and wires. The guy wants $900 for it, but I think I may be able to talk him down to $700..if that's the case should I go for it? I already got a 99 Ranger which is my DD but I don't really want to offroad it because I don't want to ding it up, so I was thinking of getting this 85 Ranger to offroad in. I haven't talked to the guy yet, so I'm assuming it runs reasonably well..so what do you guys think...yay or nay?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Sounds like a good deal to me as long as the engine/tranny work good. They did put a 4cyl in 4x4's back then so it could be original. With that much work already done to it and it being 22 years old it could have been swapped in as well.

 

[Joe_Roofer]

As long as it does run reasonably well,
I'd say go for it!
Worse case if it is a POS you can recoop a lot of the $ parting out.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Ok, I got an e-mail back from the girl who is selling the truck...she says that it had a 6 cylinder that ceased so they put in a 4cylinder to replace it. She says it need an alignment and a valve cover gasket. Now I'm no truck expert.. how much would it cost and how hard would it be to get replace the valve cover gasket?? and also the difficulty of the job...thanks guys!

 

[samsonitesamsonite]

valve cover=easy under $10 and maybe 2 hours of work.... and an alignment at the shop i used to work at last fall was 49.88

 

[06yellowranger]

sound like a pretty good deal to me, especially if all it needs is an alignment and a valve cover gasket, I say go for it

 

[Natedog]

sound like a pretty good deal to me, especially if all it needs is an alignment and a valve cover gasket, I say go for it

X2, heck yeah!!! Buy it!

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Yeah I'm gonna call her tomorrow and see if I can go look at it and test drive it possibly. She said she won't go lower than 800, but I'm gonna try to use the alignment, valve cover gasket, and if she doesn't have paperwork for the recently rebuilt 4 cylinder, against her to get her to lower it to 700. (heck, i'm only a cart pusher high school kid haha, 100 bucks is a lot)