So we figured we needed an xtra truck around, and after selling the dually I found a 1 owner 83 F250 4x4 gasser with a 460 and auto, never seen a days work or towed, bone stock with maint records. Thought it would be as good as it gets for an 83 truck. So what makes a person so stupid to buy something like this? That would be me of course. 7mpg, gutless , Now that ive been under it and checked every thing out ,front end suspension etc. All I can say is time to sell or junk. what a POS.I really was overwhelmed with how clean it is. There must be 400 miles of smog related lines under the hood, and gizmos Ive never seen at the end of them. Now it wont even start, probably smoked the ignition or? just hosed it off and washed it. must of drown the poor thing. I for the life of me will never figure out why ford trucks are the #1 selling vehicle in America, and yes I have had experiances with new ones as well here at work with the same thoughts, and luck. Not to bash anyones ride but I still think anything made after 1972 is junk as far as American trucks. Of course that excludes my 93 CTD

 

Duh, see Im so pisseed I thought this was the Other section

 

Let it dry out for a day, it'll start.

 

Once you go diesel you'll never go back! I think Ford really hit a low spot in the 80's...and in some cases they've never fully recovered from their engineering marvels of that time.

 

'79 furds were strong............ 351 win,cle,mod were good motors tho Im not sure what the diffrence was.................. the highboy was a cool idea also after that.....f-o-r-d = j-u-n-k

 

Geez, it sounds like my old '83 Ford. Even with a new distributer cap, rotor, plug wires and plugs it would still give me fits when it got wet out. Never did figure that one out. BTW, it was a 5 Litre (302).
Tom

 

I had an '82 F150 302/2v - talk about miles of emissions-related vacuum lines. It took me all $!@#$!@! day to change the passenger side valve cover gasket. But, as bad as it was, it didn't even compare to my '84 Bronco with the 351/2V. It had a feedback carb and the early ECU - talk about a piece of garbage. Between the carb, EGR sensors and solenoids, crappy wiring harness, and the miles vacuum lines, it's surprising the thing would run at all.

Most vehicles in the early '80s were junk. They came up with all sorts of half-baked ideas to get them to meet emissions standards, and after a few years they became even bigger pieces of junk than they were when they rolled off the assembly line. I made the mistake of owning three vehicles with feedback carbs ('82 Toy, '82 Cherokee, and the Bronco) - you'd think I would've learned after the first one....


Oh, and in case you didn't know, the 460 is probably the worst engine you could have picked for fuel economy.

 

My biggest problem with Ford trucks over the years, is the constant supply problems. I can walk into a Napa, ask for a TPS for my V-10 Dodge truck, and they list maybe two options, spanning 5 years (I had to use the part not listed for my truck, and it worked flawlessly!). I went to Napa and asked for a TPS for my father's Ford ranger, and they needed the engine number, the VIN, and the build date. Turned out that Ford had approx. 6 different options, depending on where and when the motor was built! Our '81 Bronco was just as bad. Could find distributer parts for an '80 or '82, but the distributer was different for the 302 in '81, and isn't available. We tried to swap to an older dist., but it wouldn't work. The newer one let the motor run, but power, mileage, and drivability were not existent. We finally found another '81 302 in a junk yard, and got the dist. Everything ran right again. What a nightmare!!

My In-laws have been diehard Ford fans for many years, and have had similar experiences with the Taurus. I must say, the Taurus is a nice family car, drives nice, and is comfortable. My Father-in-law is getting a little concerned -- his '96 Ford is getting up there in miles, he doesn't like the new F-150's since the '97, but has been scared away from Dodges by all the Transmission troubles he has been hearing about. I tell him he probably wouldn't do wrong with a Dakota QuadCab, as he wants more room than his Ford Standard cab, and doesn't really need a full size truck anymore. My Mother-in-Law would never go for a diesel, but I will try to lean him that way, since I get better mileage with my 2001 5.9 Cummins 4x4 than two guys at work with 5.2 and 4.7 gasser 2x4 Dakotas!
I agree though: Ford has an unaccountably high owner loyalty, considering the stories I have heard since th '80's.

P.S.: I really lost alot of favor for a dodge truck, when I looked under the hood of a brand new '93 Ford ranger on the lot, lifted the hood, and saw a very big MAZDA on the air cleaner cover for the V-6. I know every manufacturer uses other engines (DUH! CUMMINS??) but regardless of the company, and the fact Ford owns(?) Mazda, it really set me wrong. At least my Cummins has a Dodge name and Logo on it, along with the Cummins. I even liked the little Dodge D-50 trucks, rebadged from Mitsubishi, but they too had Dodge on the Engine covers. I found it amusing that they added the little "Imported for" to the bottom of the "D" in Dodge on the tailgates.

 

That's why it's gutless. We really do live in the "good old days" now. Small blocks make better usuable torque today than the big blocks of not too many years ago.

 

I am loyal. However, it is only to me and my pocketbook. In my 15 years of driving, I have owned quite a few vehicles:

4 dodges ('77 PowerWagon, Shadow, Stratus, and my new truck)
4 Fords (Tempo, Topaz, Thunderbird, Expedition)
2 Toyotas (Tacomas)
1 Pontiac (Grand Am)
1 Porsche ('96 911)
1 Mazda (626)
1 Isuzu (pickup)
1 Honda (accord)

And, I must say, each vehicle had it's quirks. My first was the dodge. After a lot of abuse, I bought it as my first vehicle. It say my abuse. It was a gutless (perhaps not tunes right) 318. It had lots of problems. When it would start to overheat for no problem, I finally let it die. The Stratus was ok, except it's trasnmission started to have problems (auto-stick).

The Tempo and Topaz had heater problems. Mainly shorting out of wires. I was in Alaska at the time and the heaters were a necessity of life! The Thunderbird had transmission problems.

The Toyotas didn't have many problems, though they made a lot more noises than I would like. I hate creaking noises. Drive me nuts.

My favorite cars have been the Porsche, for obvious reasons and my Pontiac. Performance, build quality (never squeeked), looks, etc. The Grand Am was a great little car. It was a 93 GT, right after the body style changed. My wife and I loved that car.

With that said, I bought my dodge truck, but it wasn't the only truck I looked at. For me, the deciding factors were build quality (Edmunds rates the truck over Dodge and Chevy) and price. I was looking at a Deisel and so my options were limited. I must say, at this point, I am very pleased with my choice. Of course, we will hit a whopping 200 miles today.

 

I also feel the autos of the 80s were produced during what I call the dark years. Struggling to meet emissions and the like. It amazes me at some of the ideas. Anyhow,I finally got it running, even after blowing out the dist 3 times. Water just keep reappearing from somewhere and killing it. Like a dumb azz I took the truck without a smog cert, seemed to run good on the test drive, and it had only had 2k put on it since the last smog a year ago. Man it runs crappy now, time for a tune up. I never realized how spoiled Ive become with the diesel. No more plugs,wires, carb problems,etc,etc. In my near 30 years of motoring Ived owned over 100 vehicles, some good, some not so good. I used to be a Ford man, shoulda kept my 75 F250,4spd, 4x4 Hi Boy, gotta admit they went downhill.

 

Yup, it's too bad that the parts are different on the same vehicle depending on what time of day they were built. Seems to me if they have to keep making changes to the parts to correct problems in the same model year somethings wrong.