Hey, we just bought a 1982 F150 Explorer. Runs not too bad. Solid frame. Oddometer says 06XXX, based on the condition i'd say its at 106k. Drove it home and got up to 55 with no problem. It is a fuel hog! 50 miles after filling up the rear tank and its at half full!

I've owned a few older trucks a few years ago. A 1979 Jeep J10 and a1974 Land Rover Series III. Regret selling them both. My wife's a Ford girl, so we've since bought a 2010 Ford Transit and now the F-150.

I went and bought the engine, body/electrical, emissions, and vacuum t/s guides. Waiting for them to arrive. Need to read up on them. Will probably get the parts CD as well.

I think it has some carb/choke issues. I think it is getting stuck in half choke, there is this vacuum plunger that doesnt appear to operating that connects to the choke, i think that may be causing it. It starts right up but stalls when going into gear. With the air filter off manually moving the choke to full opens smooths things right out.

Tranny shifts nicely. Bed is solid. Heres a pic. Nice to meet you guys.

 

The vacuum thing is the choke pull-off or choke qualifier. When the engine is cold, you hit the gas pedal once, this "sets" the choke and the choke door slams completely shut. Once the truck starts and builds vacuum, the pull-off pulls back and cracks the choke open a little bit so the engine doesn't flood out. Then as the engine warms up, the choke slowly opens.

Someone probably messed with the choke adjustment if the pull-off is not working. The adjustment is the round black thing on the carb. Also going to this round black thing should be a hot air pipe. Make sure this is not rotted off, it should go down to the exhaust manifold and the come back up to the top of the carb to a hose nipple up there.

Cross your fingers, if someone hasn't messed with it too much, and you do some reading on the choke system, you might be able to get it working again.

 

Welcome to the forum, BlueTransit!

 

Thanks. Its cold out and I don't have a garage so haven't spent too much time under the hood.

The vacuum pump and A/C belt isn't connected, so I know the emissions system isn't working, a few lines are hard/cracked/disconnected. I've read a few posts about the "duraspark" conversion. Im not in a emissions state(ohio). How hard/expensive is it? How does it impact fuel mileage? Am I best just going that route now rather than trying to patch it together for now and then throw my hands up in 6 months.

Willing to spend a few hundred bucks on this guy initially so it runs nice for the next while.

 

I am not sure your truck has a computer. Look at the distributor. If you have a silver can on it with a vacuum line you are ok, you already have the dursapark II from the factory.

 

I'll bet you have the computer. I had the twin to your truck in year, primary color, and it was also an Explorer, although mine was a 351W. It had the computer under the driver's seat and I removed it and converted to DS-II. Someone had neutered all of the emissions equipment and the computer had the timing locked in limp-home mode, so the power and MPG were awful. I put in a new distributer and a wiring harness and DS-II box from the salvage for less than $100 and the difference was night and day.