1988 Bronco 2, What Would You Do

[bronco2fan]

Yeah, that's a lot of money to throw into the BII. It would be different if she were pristine probably. I know I replaced my 2.8 20 years ago and it wasn't anywhere near expensive. 6K gets you a lot of vehicle nowadays. I got my 97 Jeep GC, 5.2 for 2k with only 128k on it. Keep her and look for a better ride or do it yourself. I've dropped many a tranny in my driveway before I had a house with a garage. And had them back in in about 3 hours. In the end it's your call.

 

[wildbill23c]

Yeah, that's a lot of money to throw into the BII. It would be different if she were pristine probably. I know I replaced my 2.8 20 years ago and it wasn't anywhere near expensive. 6K gets you a lot of vehicle nowadays. I got my 97 Jeep GC, 5.2 for 2k with only 128k on it. Keep her and look for a better ride or do it yourself. I've dropped many a tranny in my driveway before I had a house with a garage. And had them back in in about 3 hours. In the end it's your call.

I don't need the engine replaced, just the transmission rebuilt. They did more diagnostics today and just some fuel system issues was causing it to flood the cylinders and not fire. So its just a transmission rebuild and to me its not in that bad of condition. Considering the amount of money people on the forum dump into these vehicles in modifications and such I don't see where $4k in transmission repair, larger cooler, AC repair, front and rear driveline rebuild, brakes and repack bearings, windshield wiper motor and governor repair, and heater motor and resister repair is that bad LOL.

Its just something I want to do, yes probably doing the repairs as part of a loan isn't the greatest idea, but the way things are going right now I feel for me it was a good decision and a way to rebuild my credit.

If my driveway wasn't sand and gravel it may have been ok but winter is coming and having only weekends to work on it, it just made sense to spend the money and have a shop do the work especially since I happened to have found a shop that has an older ford mechanic that knows the ins and outs of the B2 working on it.

 

[bronco2fan]

Well like we said, if you really like the BII and it's gonna be your DD, having a reliable shop do the work may be worth it. Warranties are a great thing as long as they don't come with red tape and hard to prove problems. IE it broke because you drove it to hard, that's a common one. Good luck and post some pics of this BII .

I personally love my BII and will keep it till I can't climb in it anymore lol.

 

[wildbill23c]

Well like we said, if you really like the BII and it's gonna be your DD, having a reliable shop do the work may be worth it. Warranties are a great thing as long as they don't come with red tape and hard to prove problems. IE it broke because you drove it to hard, that's a common one. Good luck and post some pics of this BII .

I personally love my BII and will keep it till I can't climb in it anymore lol.

Exactly my thoughts. I want to read over all their stuff before I sign off on it. I don't want a repeat of the 93 Ranger transmission failure within a year of having it rebuilt and the only good thing was it failed in the driveway that time LOL.

I feel that its worth it, and I plan on repainting the hood where its all faded.

 

[Doofy]

Good advice, Shran. Tons of quality used vehicles out there. I buy "Disposable" Not junk. I maintain them myself. If I do wreck one or have a catastrophic failure...I can walk away and go buy another since I have saved so much money.

I spent 50 years in debt, living paycheck to paycheck. I bought new cars and now, I don't. The car emergency fund is actually a great idea and anyone can manage one with a little thought and planning.

 

[wildbill23c]

Good advice, Shran. Tons of quality used vehicles out there. I buy "Disposable" Not junk. I maintain them myself. If I do wreck one or have a catastrophic failure...I can walk away and go buy another since I have saved so much money.

I spent 50 years in debt, living paycheck to paycheck. I bought new cars and now, I don't. The car emergency fund is actually a great idea and anyone can manage one with a little thought and planning.

Kind of where I'm at with the Bronco 2, there are tons of them here most are in terrible shape body wise because people just beat them up. Already have this vehicle so I'm putting the money into it to use it...no point in having it if I can drive it and no point in having it sitting around if its not driveable.

I plan on picking up something in better condition but right now this one will do just fine as a DD, I don't want anything new, I like the older ones better LOL.

Compared to the 84 B2 I had originally this 88 is tons better LOL...I had the high school work on my 84 otherwise there was no way I would have had it as long as I did, it ran but the body was falling apart as it spent too many years in Utah by the previous owner.

Since this B2 is an 88, what other years would these parts swap into? I'd like to get another one in better condition soon and have this one for just parts. Having the shop just put stuff together enough to bring this one home and keep out back to I can scavange parts from. I feel like $800 for this one in running condition minus the transmission would be reasonable for parts, but I seriously don't see putting $4k into this one into something unknown, then again what's to say I find one for $3k and it blows a transmission LOL.

 

[wildbill23c]

Well all the worries I had about the bad stuff I kept finding on the B2's and these 2.9L engines turned out to be nothing more than some fuel delivery issues, and the transmission.

I've got the B2 back, had some issues with the transmission after initially getting it back, but AAMCO got it taken care of and its running and driving great now.

I took the money I had thought about using for the B2 and paid down the loan, so now I'm just back to the original debt payments . No loan money was needed to get the ole B2 on the road again, so happy about that.

This payday I'm going to have the alignment and bushings taken care of and that should do it for services for a while. Drives kind of squirrely right now due to the alignment and bushings are shot.

Now onto the minor things that I can do here and there as I get time, and save money up again. Probably in a couple months I'll have the hood painted I'm going to do the prep work myself and even possibly if I can get some matching paint somehow I may just paint it myself, I have a sprayer so I don't see why I couldn't do it.

 

[Slammin Sam]

If you need to have major work done, ask friends and neighbors to find a good independent shop. Stay away from the national chains. For that kind of work, you will get bent over every time. If you have $6K to spend, you should be able to find a super clean low mileage B2 that doesn't need an engine and tranny.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I burned my first trans up in my Ranger back in high school (2002), dad got a $200 truck that hit a pole hard, swapped the trans and it lasted until I pulled the dying 2.8 in 2011.

It doesn't really take any special tools to do it either, a bunch of extensions to get to the top bellhousing bolts is about as exotic as it got.

 

[wildbill23c]

The transmission I went a head and spend the money on to have it done plus a larger cooler added.

I'm tackling a lot of the little stuff myself, got a local shop that can do a lot of the other work if needed but I'd rather do as much as I can as I get extra money to do so and not pay a shop for the simple stuff LOL.