i have some questions about bronco 2's

[olred90]

hi all,

i'm going to look at an 88 bronco 2 on saturday. its a 5 speed 4x4. 158,000 miles. its inspected until march. the guy says it'll only need tires for inspection (which i can take off my ranger). is there any key spots i should look at. what are some known problems broncos have?

thanks

 

[snoopdoggie]

Cracked heads.

 

[mjonesjr]

Can't really tell if the heads are cracked by just look at it.

Look the rear quarter panels for rust. Also look at the driver and passenger floor boards for rust; You can look under neither and see those.

Other than that, if it is decent, runs, and the 4wd works, it would be worth $1000 or so.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

I think you can get a good guess if the heads are cracked by looking at the oil dipstick. If it's kind of snotty, they are possibly cracked. But this can also be caused by it not being ran for a while. So I'd let it run for a few minutes then check the oil. If it's baby barfish, then you got cracked head(s). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[olred90]

hes only asking $600.

 

[mjonesjr]

That is a good price.

 

[souldoubt88]

That is a good price.

X2 yeah i would offer $500 cash and call it a done deal.

 

[snoopdoggie]

Can't really tell if the heads are cracked by just look at it.



I've been through several sets of bad heads and all had externally visible cracks running from the valve cover gasket surface down towards an exhaust port. Look in those areas.

 

[olred90]

so i went and looked at it today. it was alright. decent shape. barely any rust but thats because they tried to bondo it and did a quite shitty job with it. i brought my dad with me because he knows more about vehicles than i do. he said it'll need ball joints and maybe valve cover gaskets or something like that (i can't remember what he said). 4 wheel drive works. it sure is a quick little truck. definitely needs tires, and a good cleaning. the inside wasnt that clean. rear ashtray was still filled with cigarettes. i even found an empty box in the passenger door. the main concern was that the passenger side windshield wiper linkage was broke. we have no clue how to fix it. offered him $450 but he said he got 2 calls this morning, who knows if hes telling the truth or not.

 

[joldtown]

The guy is probably full of it. Wait him out a day or two then reoffer. Parts for the linkage shouldn't be hard to find. Valve cover gaskets, no prob. easy to access. Be careful of the rear quarters... they hold a lot of road junk and RUST. Hard to fix that problem. Yes, let the truck run for SEVERAL minutes and look around the heads, pull stick and check oil like 99Ranger said. Good luck, I hope it turns out for you. I miss my 89. was one of the best rides I ever had.

 

[olred90]

thanks.
it ran good. i checked the oil after about 10 minutes and it looked fine. the parts for the linkage might be easy to find but how do you fix it. they're inside the cowl and its welded on. i don't want to pay a garage to do it for a cheap truck.

 

[kunar]

there are a couple access panels under the hood. open those covers and you should be able to get to what you need to. it's a pain in the ass, but it can be done.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

yeah, the window linkage isnt too hard to fix. theres two panels with 3 screws in them that you have to remove. then once you get them off youll need to place a flashlight in one hole so you can see what your doing. there is a clip on the end of the wiper motor that needs to be released and then you can slide the linkage arms off the motor shaft. i used tape to mark where my blades were sitting on the windshield so that when i reinstalled everything it would still be lined up right. you might also have to remove the wiper arms which is simple and also the reason i marked the widow with tape. they are splined, so if they are installed a few splines off they will either attack eachother when on or they will go too far down and not seat correctly. i figured it all out using a haynes manual so i imagine you could also do the same if this was confusing.