Re: 80s F350s, what faults to look for?

Posted by Truck on January 01, 2003 at 07:12:57 from (152.163.188.227):

In Reply to: 80s F350s, what faults to look for? posted by Boyd on December 31, 2002 at 23:41:59:

Rust, rust and more rust.Also the early and mid 80's Fords tend to have wire insulation problems. You will notice the wires in the engine compartment will get very crumbly and bare wire will show up everywhere. Also the radius arm bushings in the frame get loose, and on abused trucks the bracket that holds them can actually loosen up on the frame.
Other than that typical stuff for any truck: Kingpins, brakes, clutches, etc. They are a pretty tough truck in general, and the above mentioned problems are all fixable.U Haul used a ton of them and many are still on the road. I had a rollback and tow truck of that vintage and both served me well until the rust bug had hit badly. The rollback went thru rear brakes like crazy, but that's cause it was constantly at 100-150 percent of rated GVW and we live in hilly country.But then again, anyone in my area with a one ton rig wore out brakes like mad.That's why almost two decades later, everyone has much larger trucks, like Freightliners and Internationals.

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