Blue coyote
New Member
- Joined
- June 15, 2013
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- BC Canada
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 89 Aeroscar
Just joined...
I've been semi-active in the RBV circles for many years, and some will likely recognize my username from other forums. Notably, I'm a long-time member and part-time moderator over at broncoii.org, despite being without a BII for about a decade.
I've never owned a "3rd generation BII (
) " but have owned and built a few 1st gen BII's, and currently have an '89 Aeroscar XL with the factory towing package. Not my first Aerostar, but the first I've actually put any miles on...
I bought it last spring for $450. It had been parked outside for a year or more, accumulating slime, moss, mould, and lichens in the temperate rainforests of New Westminster, BC, Canada. 3.0/A4LD (with a large aux. tranny cooler, fortunately!) , 4.10 Trak/Lok and the stock 14" wheels. I promptly put plates on it, spent a few hours cleaning it up, made sure the fluids were still fluids, (over-)loaded it, and drove it from the west coast to central Ontario with two cats, a husky, and a husky/wolf hybrid on board.
Most of the gauges didn't start functioning until I had put at least 2k KM on it, but now they're all working just fine. During the course of the drive to Ontario and back to BC, it has overheated once, blown the heater core, worn out a set of brake pads and blew the intermediate brake line while cranking the calipers back...grrr!, and cooked an alternator, which has been a surprise for a sub-$500 minivan with over 300,000 KM and no rocker panels, although it does leave a fair bit to be desired in the hp & torque departments (0-60 in about 16 seconds, and torque peaks at about 2500 RPM...it actually accelerates faster AFTER it kicks into O/D!)
I've done a few minor modifications, such as adding about 720 watts of stereo, replacing the rearview mirror with a rally 5-panel one, replacing the worn-out stock buckets with some mismatched but free Windstar buckets, etc.
I'm not sure yet whether to replace the missing rockers with stock-ish sheet metal or some 2x8 rectangular tubing. I'm also contemplating an attempt to convert from the 3.slow & A4LD to my old but trusty "monster" 2.8 and a 5-speed, and I would LOVE to look at converting it to AWD as well, but on this beater that may or may not come to pass before it simply falls apart
I've been semi-active in the RBV circles for many years, and some will likely recognize my username from other forums. Notably, I'm a long-time member and part-time moderator over at broncoii.org, despite being without a BII for about a decade.
I've never owned a "3rd generation BII (
) " but have owned and built a few 1st gen BII's, and currently have an '89 Aeroscar XL with the factory towing package. Not my first Aerostar, but the first I've actually put any miles on...I bought it last spring for $450. It had been parked outside for a year or more, accumulating slime, moss, mould, and lichens in the temperate rainforests of New Westminster, BC, Canada. 3.0/A4LD (with a large aux. tranny cooler, fortunately!) , 4.10 Trak/Lok and the stock 14" wheels. I promptly put plates on it, spent a few hours cleaning it up, made sure the fluids were still fluids, (over-)loaded it, and drove it from the west coast to central Ontario with two cats, a husky, and a husky/wolf hybrid on board.
Most of the gauges didn't start functioning until I had put at least 2k KM on it, but now they're all working just fine. During the course of the drive to Ontario and back to BC, it has overheated once, blown the heater core, worn out a set of brake pads and blew the intermediate brake line while cranking the calipers back...grrr!, and cooked an alternator, which has been a surprise for a sub-$500 minivan with over 300,000 KM and no rocker panels, although it does leave a fair bit to be desired in the hp & torque departments (0-60 in about 16 seconds, and torque peaks at about 2500 RPM...it actually accelerates faster AFTER it kicks into O/D!)
I've done a few minor modifications, such as adding about 720 watts of stereo, replacing the rearview mirror with a rally 5-panel one, replacing the worn-out stock buckets with some mismatched but free Windstar buckets, etc.
I'm not sure yet whether to replace the missing rockers with stock-ish sheet metal or some 2x8 rectangular tubing. I'm also contemplating an attempt to convert from the 3.slow & A4LD to my old but trusty "monster" 2.8 and a 5-speed, and I would LOVE to look at converting it to AWD as well, but on this beater that may or may not come to pass before it simply falls apart
