Hi, all.
New to these forums; just bought an 87 F250 w/ 67,000 original....
Saw it in a local classifieds here in Bozeman, MT.
Been looking or a tow vehicle for my new boat; this one looks like it can do the job.

Went to go see it yesterday, older couple in Belgrade MT (early 70's) were selling it. They advertised it for $5000 obo. Its an F250 Lariat XLT 2WD.
460 motor, C6 trans, 3:55 standard differential it has a 5th wheel hitch (gotta go) & a U.S. Gears 2 speed underdrive gearbox attached to the C6 trans. (why underdrive, I have no idea; it was apparently installed by the original owner.)
These folks claim they are the second owners & the milage is original. They only put 12,000 miles on it in 12 years, but the old man claimed he started it up every month and ran it around, even though it did do a bit of sitting, as the mostly used iot to pull their 5th wheel.

Super clean interior, custom bucket seat's, everything seemed to work (except the AC compressor clutch seems to be malfunctioning.)
Original front end parts, very tight looks & seems good.

Engine compartment super clean, under chassis super clean, undercoating, no rust and a pretty nice paint job on the body done at the local dealership about 5 years ago. Motor runs pretty good, but a slight miss at idle. Oil clean & up to level, tranny fluid clean & up to level, no burnt smell.
Test drove the truck for a few miles w/ the old man in it, (w/ the windows up), it seemed O.K., although the trans shifts a bit soft.
Gave (offered) them $4500 for the rig as the trans input shaft seal appears to be leaking a little bit, rear tires need r&r & I figured it was probably gonna need brakes.

So I got in the truck and started heading over to a buddy's house about 6 miles away. Since the AC didn't work well, I had the windows down.
About 4 miles down the road (as the drive train was heating up), I started hearing a whining sound coming from under the truck which started to get progressively louder; by the time I had gone 6 miles it was howling....Damn!

I wasn't sure if it was coming from the trans or the rear end, so I pulled into a tranny shop I know (honest); & had the owner do a small ride along to see if he could figure out if it was the C6 or the rear end that was making the noise.
He said it sounds like the diff. carrier bearings.
They checked the fluid level & milky looking, water contaminated gear lube came out...He believes worn pitted carrier bearings (shot) w/ a good chance the ring & pinion are wasted.
$1200 estimate for parts & labor, complete rebuild (it's a corporate 10.25" diff., Sterling.)

I believe the sellers KNEW about this, theres no way you wouldn't notice it (loud) once the drivetrain heats up. Sounds fine until the drivetrain heats up, then gets louder & louder until it's pretty much howling.
I immediately asked them for my money back, they refused and wanted to know "what I had done to the truck"? Scammers.
Nothing like getting yelled at by a nasty old lady, plus, they outright lied to me about the truck.

It seems like a pretty nice truck aside from the diff. problem, but I'm now concerned about other 'issues' I might find....


Anyway, taking the damaged diff. into consideration; I'm wondering if I did O.K. on this deal?

 

First off, welcome to FTE. Lots of good knowledge and people here!

You didn't mention body style (crew cab, extended cab, regular cab). That'd make a difference in value.

Without seeing it, the fact that it's not rusty and the frame is in good shape is a huge plus. The underdrive, of course, is another added value if it's something you'll use. Honestly, depending on the weight of your boat, I really can't imagine a situation that you'd need it.

I'd say at 4500 you did OK, aside from the rear diff issue.

It does suck though, that the sellers weren't honest about the rear diff problem. I think you're right, there's no way they didn't know about it. Not sure of what the laws are where you live, but here in the Northeast, many states have the same 30-day warranty law that a dealer has. If it's broken, they're liable.

BTW, since you're going to be pulling a boat, and most likely launching at a ramp, it may be a good idea to either find a junkyard axle with a limited slip diff and swap it in, or have your mechanic add a limited slip when doing the rebuild.

 

It's the XLT extended cab, w/ a standard long bed.
Boat & trailer weigh a total of 6800 lbs. Dual axle trailer.
Dual tanks & factory towing package (they claimed), but no anti-sway bar, so I'm wondering if they were lying about that, as I don't see it on the option sticker.
Has all the bells & whistles, power door locks, power windows.
Glass is all good. Exhaust is good.
Shocks & springs all good.
All the rubber bushings & front end grease seals are primo, along w/ the paint job (truck appears to have been garaged most of it's life).
For some reason it's got a Holley 4 barrel on it, which I thought was a bit odd (I thought all 87's were EFI w/ it starting that year?)

 

I believe 87 was the last year for a carb on the 460.

I wouldn't go as far as calling the seller a scammer. If the truck did sit and sit and only get warmed up once a month, you'd never know that the rear end was full of water and rotting away. I think it was rather foolish of you to buy the truck without taking it for a good test drive and getting the whole truck warmed up, diffs and all, though.

You'd be wise to find a rear end from a junk yard and install it. It will be much cheaper than rebuilding yours. You could also find one with a L/S unit, like Bob said.

However, I really don't think you paid way too much, rear end aside. It's a 2wd, carb'd, 30 year old pick up that sat for most of its life. I bought my 89 (EFI, 4x4, 351w, etc) for $1500. And the rear end didn't blow up on the way home, the A/C worked, tires were good, brakes were new. I think you paid 2x too much for the truck at least, no matter how polished up it was.

 

I WOULD call the seller a scammer. I was told that they had last used the truck on on the week of August 10th to go to a family reunion in South Dakota, which is about a 1000 mile round trip from here, & about 2-3 weeks ago....They claimed the truck ran great w/ NO ISSUEs then.
theres NO WAY they didn't here the rear end howling on their way back.

This is what I get for EVEN trusting a nice elderly couple!

I figured that any tranny or rear end issues would be obvious w/ the (about) 2 mile test drive we took it on...

 

Ouch, hard to say about how you did on the truck with out seeing the pics or truck in person, but it does suck to get burned like that, could be a lot worse, I agree with the others just go and find a rear axle at the salvage yard and try for a limited slip diff other then that if every thing else works well I would say you may have paid a bit much for the truck but other then that you have a good truck to work on and build how you want it to be

 

My experience buying a truck that had a 5th wheel hitch in it would make me be a lot more careful any time I saw that on a truck I was considering. My '95 F-150 (yes, a half ton) didn't have a hitch in it, but the bed was obviously drilled for one. It was 3 years old at the time, and was about $3000 less than other trucks I was looking at, with about 5000 fewer miles. It looked like a great deal. Turned out it'd been driven hard and over heated (it didn't have a tow package or a higher capacity radiator). Both heads were warped and both exhaust manifolds needed to be replaced. It didn't turn out too bad. Those repairs (and adding a high capacity radiator) ate up my $3000 savings, but I never had any other issues driving it for more than 120K miles over the next 9 years.

But it seems that people that are used to driving cars don't understand how loads can kill a vehicle. RVs and trucks that pull big travel trailers seem to live pretty hard lives when their owners think "oh, it's a truck, it can handle it."

Not to say I wouldn't ever buy a truck with a fifth wheel hitch. Heck, even my F-150 ended up being an OK deal. But I'd be a little more concerned than I was.

 

And about the axle, the cheapest route will be to get a junkyard axle, and if it has a limited slip, that can be a plus. My guess is that you'll be pretty happy with the 3.55 gears you have now, so look at what ratio an axle has before you stick it in. 3.73 or 4.10 gears will be better for big loads, but with your C6 they won't be your friend on the highway. And if you were to pull a heavy load (like a fifth wheel) with 3.55 gears I think you might figure out why an underdrive. And since you have the underdrive you might as well have axle gears that can use it.

But if cheapest isn't your biggest concern, rebuilding your axle will let you put what you want in it and know it's not something that will belong back in a junkyard soon. With the underdrive you might even consider taller gears. And factory limited slips will slip a lot more as they wear, so rebuilding with a True-Trac will give you a more functional limited slip (my F-150 had a Loc-Right and I've had Detroit lockers in a Jeep and my Bronco, they were OK, but I wouldn't really recommend them in a tow truck).

 

I agree. You definitely need to look it over really close if it has a fifth wheel. About a month or so after I bought mine I took out the bedliner to clean under it, and noticed the holes drilled in the bed. About a year later I had to rebuild the heads and the Tranny died. The rear hasn't given me any trouble, but it has had some grease forced out.
Not that you'll have trouble with every truck with a fifth wheel. But it's something to take into consideration.