I came across a 1985 4WD F250 XLT, 460 V8, automatic transmission, farm truck thats for sale for ~$2000. What is the opinion of this make and model truck regarding brakes, engine and transmission. Is this combination plauged with mechanical problems or is it a pretty good truck. I want to make sure it's worth pursueing before making a offer. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

Brian

 

I bought an '86 F250 in late '96 for $3K, 351 W, XLT extended cab, auto 4x4 pw, ac, cruise, 120k miles. Bed in good sahpe, bad tailgate, body fair, engine a bit leaky.

I don't have any experience with the 460,the major difference might be gas mileage, I get around 10 mpg.

If you end up buying the truck, and you're in the snow belt, take a saturday and replace all of the brake lines before they break. It's not a hard job, but a bit tideous, better to do it in a planned fashion than to wait and have to do it in a rush.

 

Brian, If the cab and bed are decent and it runs and drives good, buy it !! Get under it and look at the floor boards for rust, this body style likes to rust on the outer edges of the floor pan. The 460 is a strong motor, this truck would also have the C-6 auto trans which is also very strong. Just try and get a feel for how he took care of it. Check the color of the trans fluid, see if it smells burnt. Jack up the front end if you can and check the ball joints and tie rods,etc. Also check to se if the front springs are sagging any. I've got an 82 F-250 4x4 with the 400M engine and C-6 trans, 3.55 gears. Dana 70 rear axle, with a 8600 lb GVW package and its a horse!! I came backwards from a 90 Ford 4x4 to this truck because of its simplicity and strength.

 

Brian,
I own a 1985 F-350 4x4 Crew Cab and let me tell you this is one great truck. My only complaint is the fuel mileage. I have recently considered converting to propane however I am concerned about gaskets drying out. I have also found the Holly carb a bit tricky to tune. You would not be disappointed in this truck. I have 154K actual farming miles and this truck is in near perfect condition. I would also suggest changing to synthetic lubricants throughout, this had made a tremendous difference in all areas.
P.S. If anyone has any suggestings on tuning the carb on the 460 I would appreciate the advise.

 

 

Hello,

I just bought a beautiful 1985 Ford F250 7.5L 460 4WD with 33" tires.

As I am being mentored to learn how to do maintenance and service to the truck with a great friend of mine - we were unable to replace the rear brake shoes, cylinder and mounting hardware due to the heavy-duty type of rear brakes, so we put the wheel back on and trying to figure out what to do next. It seems like a job for the mechanic, instead of home job.

Anyone has a suggestion?

Thanks!

Bill

 

You must have a Dana rearend. You will need to jack one side up at a time, pull the axles(take the bolts out of the piece sticking out of the center) take the spanner nuts loose, take the whole hub and drum assembly off, and then you will see the brakes.




F-250HD, F-350

1.

Raise the vehicle and install jackstands.
2.

Remove the wheel. Loosen the rear brake shoe adjustment.
3.

Remove the rear axle retaining bolts and lockwashers, axle shaft, and gasket.
4.

Remove the wheel bearing locknut, lockwasher, and adjusting nut.
5.

Remove the hub and drum assembly from the axle.
6.

Remove the brake drum-to-hub retaining screws, bolts or bolts and nut. Remove the brake drum from the hub.


Here's some pictures and more info.
http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

 

Thanks Dave! How long will the job take per side or overall for both sides? Bill

 

If you've never done it (EDIT: on a truck) before:

A while.

I'd suggest getting new axle shaft gaskets, they're only a few bucks each. You can also get a kit containing all the self-adjuster parts - springs & cables & doohickies & whatnot - I think they were around $30 ea. at NAPA. Since you're going through all this work on a 20+ yo truck, you might also replace the wheel cylinders while you're in there, they're also pretty cheap as I recall. And make sure the parking brake cables work and haven't corroded to the housings. I think I had to get a giant, 2.5" socket to get the wheel bearing retaining nuts off. I'd suggest looking up the procedure in a Haynes or Chilton's.

-chris
colorado, usa

 

Thanks Chris. I found a mechanic who would do the brake work for $220, which is a lot better than the other place that would charge me $650.

 

I have another question, again, my truck is 1985 Ford F250, V8/7.5L/4BL/460. It appears that radiator fluid is leaking through the temperature sender - if that is what it is called. I took it in to the auto shop and asked for replacement part and the guys there were surprised to see that my temperature sender was manual, not electrical. Does anyone know anything about a manual temperature sender? I took a picture of it, but probably can't include it here, but can be reached at YLmillerYL@aol.com.

Thanks!

 

Go up to the top of the page and click on "galleries" Go to manage/create and put your picture in your gallery so we can look at it.

 

By "manual" I'm assuming you mean "mechanical" and the other end is a gauge in the cab, I'm assuming it's not s sensor for a computer or sumthin'. Which implies you have aftermarket gauges, correct? To be honest, I sometimes prefer the mechanical gauges over the electric ones as they tend to react to changes much faster than electrical ones do (I'm thinking of the oil pressure gauge here).

Regardless, I've always used Teflon tape on those & similar fittings, are you using that? It not, you might try it. You might also just try tightening it (don't over-tighten it, though, this is not a part you want to strip out). If it continues to leak, the only thing I know to do is to replace the gauge + sender (they come as a pre-assembled unit).

Does this help? If you want, you can send your pic to my userid @ yahoo.com and I'll see if I can create a gallery and post it there for all to see (been reading from Franklin on how to do that).

-chris
colorado, usa

 

I have posted a picture of my truck as well as the temperature sensor/sending device that is leaking. Note the radiator fluid is leaking. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the reminder e-mail, Bill, I guess I spaced ya out.

First off, let me say that is one b-yooooooooo-teeeeful truck! Right now mine's a rusty POS that isn't even 1% as good-looking as yours is.

The coolant leak... yeah, it looks to be leaking. ;-) I'm guessing that's a 460 engine? I'm not familiar with sending units being located on top of the intake manifold, but, whatever. Regardless, it looks to me like Teflon tape won't fix that because it appears to be leaking from where the tube protrudes from the brass fitting. This tells me there's possibly a washer or flare fitting or something similar inside of there that is missing or isn't doing its job real well, perhaps a burr is keeping brass parts from fitting snugly.

Is that sender to an aftermarket gauge?

Regardless, if it were my truck (*pant* *pant* *pant* I can only wish mine looked so nice) I would take it apart, clean it, see if there's anything obvious wrong with it, try and determine if there's maybe a part missing or if perhaps a nylon or brass washer someplace might help it, then put it back together using Teflon tape and hope for the best. If it still leaks and I couldn't figure it out I guess I'd just get a replacement.

-ct