WhiteRabbit87
New Member
- Joined
- September 25, 2018
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- maine
- City, State
- Gilead, ME
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1987 Bronco II XLT 2.9
Hello! so ive been in love with old fords since i was a kid. My dad used to have a full size bronco that he had painted a deep purple and thats what i rode in everywhere while growing up. My first truck was a ranger and i always thought i would get a full size bronco someday but i actually ended up getting not one, but 2 B2s. the first one was one that i had seen over and over for a few years while i worked at advance auto parts and i loved it. its an 87 that came from texas and is 2wd. i had my eye on that forever and he offered to sell it to me but i didnt have cash at the time. fast forward a couple years and the same truck shows up on facebook marketplace for $800. i bought it the next day without even asking much or driving it at all. Its a little rough but i had to have it. Body wise its great, no rot, paint needs to be redone and theres scratches but i dont care. i had to have it. i had a new set of tires put on it as the old ones were really cracked, and i drove it daily on my nearly hour long commute to and from work for a couple months before it started to have issues. pulling out into the road, right at the first shift point, it would bog waaaay down and almost stall. it would do this almost every time i pulled out from a place if i had shut the truck down while there, ie, gas stations, or my driveway. very hard to figure out the issue because this truck had been hacked. also, when it bogged, i would pull over and it would come out of it, and drive fine the rest of the trip. previous owner had the same issue and had replaced almost everything trying to solve it. and at one point there was a fire under the hood and the wiring was all a mess. i found a couple live wires loose and dangling, and theres about 1 1/2 harness total all spliced together. its horrible. still no remorse, i needed that truck.
next, maybe a month after i stopped driving it, i was working as a service writer at a garage and this old man came in for an oil change on his mini van. he was chatty, and while he waited he asked me to make him up a quote on a muffler installation for his....87 BRONCO II....i was tickled to hear that he had one. he was 88 years old and only spent the summers here in maine, said he never drove it in the snow. he parked it in a barn while he went south for the winter. i was talking to him about how much i love mine even though i cant drive it and after about an hour, he offered to sell it to me for $800. i drove up the next day cash in hand and bought it. This one is gorgeous..so clean, not a speck of rust, light blue with a dark blue middle band and blue interior. 2.9 auto, 4wd. this little old man was so confused that i was so willing to buy it even without driving it. i literally backed it out of his barn and said yep ill take it! it needed nothing! i drove it daily for 3 summers exactly as i had gotten it. last summer i did a tune up and it still had factory spark plugs and wires haha, the wires said 1987 on them. everything but the rear shocks was completely factory.
a month ago, the transmission started to slip. it has 188xxx and the fluid looks...original. i dont dare try to flush it at this point, it wont solve anything. ive parked it for the summer and im making plans on swapping. the motor in the gold one is the issue, and the trans in the blue one is the issue there. so im going to take the trans from the gold one and put it in the blue so i can drive it next summer and start on a 4.0 swap into the gold. i have a 1998 ranger with a 4.0 that i drove for years and years but retired it last year when i bought myself a brand new F150 with the 2.7 ecoboost. poor ranger is just sitting there. so i plan on swapping that drivetrain into the gold bronco for learning, as well as to make it driveable again. 3 birds stoned at once essentially. Blue one drive-able, gold one converted, and ranger no longer being wasted.
i wish i had pictures but i cant upload any right now, ill add them asap if i can figure out how to do that
next, maybe a month after i stopped driving it, i was working as a service writer at a garage and this old man came in for an oil change on his mini van. he was chatty, and while he waited he asked me to make him up a quote on a muffler installation for his....87 BRONCO II....i was tickled to hear that he had one. he was 88 years old and only spent the summers here in maine, said he never drove it in the snow. he parked it in a barn while he went south for the winter. i was talking to him about how much i love mine even though i cant drive it and after about an hour, he offered to sell it to me for $800. i drove up the next day cash in hand and bought it. This one is gorgeous..so clean, not a speck of rust, light blue with a dark blue middle band and blue interior. 2.9 auto, 4wd. this little old man was so confused that i was so willing to buy it even without driving it. i literally backed it out of his barn and said yep ill take it! it needed nothing! i drove it daily for 3 summers exactly as i had gotten it. last summer i did a tune up and it still had factory spark plugs and wires haha, the wires said 1987 on them. everything but the rear shocks was completely factory.
a month ago, the transmission started to slip. it has 188xxx and the fluid looks...original. i dont dare try to flush it at this point, it wont solve anything. ive parked it for the summer and im making plans on swapping. the motor in the gold one is the issue, and the trans in the blue one is the issue there. so im going to take the trans from the gold one and put it in the blue so i can drive it next summer and start on a 4.0 swap into the gold. i have a 1998 ranger with a 4.0 that i drove for years and years but retired it last year when i bought myself a brand new F150 with the 2.7 ecoboost. poor ranger is just sitting there. so i plan on swapping that drivetrain into the gold bronco for learning, as well as to make it driveable again. 3 birds stoned at once essentially. Blue one drive-able, gold one converted, and ranger no longer being wasted.
i wish i had pictures but i cant upload any right now, ill add them asap if i can figure out how to do that
