I recently purchased an 87 F150. Im wondering what you guys might think of it or might have suggestions on preventative maintenence. It has the 4.9L 6 cyl., 4 speed w/granny, 6" suspension - still has the TTB but the leaf springs were replaced with coils - 33x15.50" tires, open diffs front and rear. What problems am i going to face with this thing!! seems to be a little slow on the bottom part of RPM range, but i have no idea if that's just how these 4.9s work. Can yall help me to discover what kind of drivetrain components are in this thing? I am new to the F150 series of trucks.

I know that the power steering pump is going out - how hard is that to replace and how much should I be spending on it? Also one of the HUB lockouts is broken - what brand should i replace it with, or should I stay stock?

any help would be appreciated!

Tyler

 

Sounds like you just picked up a great deal. If you have a granny gear you probably have the ZF tranny instead of the M5OD. The 300 I6's aren't known for great acceleration or top end speed, but you will have awesome low end torque. That and you have one of the most dependable motors ever put in a Ford truck. For your power steering pump, if it is making a low whine/growl, that increases/decreases respectively with RPM's it is fine. A lot of Ford cars and trucks make that noise. Has to do with how the pump was designed. As for the hub locks(i am assuming you have 4x4) I would go with a good set of Warn manuals. I am replacing my auto hubs with a set of Warn hubs next month. I hope you enjoy the new truck.

 

your 4-speed trans is a NP435

 

thank you so much.
when i have time ill tell ya how hard the steering pump was to put in.

 

If you have never removed the power steering pump from an inline 6, let me tell you, it isn't the most exciting thing in the world to have to try and figure out a pulley puller that's supposed to be used with an impact wrench. I must've busted my fingers about a hundred times or so. So I thought this was going to be a breeze. In the Hayes manual, it states to remove the adjusting bracket with the pump still attached to it. I looked and looked and looked. All I found was the bracket that holds the steering pump, A/C, and the tensioner pulley. This is all one piece and was attached at various different locations on the engine. I didn't purchase a pulley puller because the guys down at Advanced Auto said, "Bring the pump in to us and we will pull the pulley off of the pump, and we will press the other pulley back onto the new pump." Of course I shouldn't have believed them, but to my dismay I did.

As I was loosening up the bolts that hold the pump to the bracket, I noticed that the pulley was going to be in the way for the removal of the bolts that hold that pump to the bracket. Off to the nearest auto parts store I went for a power steering pump puller. Upon arrival both of the guys that were helping me we just standing around in the cold day air. We immediately were perplexed by the pump puller, for it didn't look anything like the one the Hayes manual looked like. Swell, I thought...Anyway, a little ingenuitive thinking and we had the pulley puller attached to the old pump. We had to loosed those bolts all the way to allow the pulley puller's bolt that goes on the end of the pulley enough room to clear the radiator housing. After a little while of wiggling and moving things, the pulley puller went on. We pulled off the pulley, removed the old one, and started thinking of how in the heck we are supposed to put the new pump w/the old pulley back on the damed truck. After about 10 min. we found out the inside of the pulley shaft is threaded. This was a major factor in re-installation! This is where all things went to the crapper though. We threaded the pulley installer back onto the shaft (we put the pump back on the bracket first....hahaha) and noticed the screw to thread on was really long. Which allowed about .99999 of a millimeter of room to put the installer onto the pulley shaft. Well, we almost got the pulley on and lined up with the tensioner pulley when the installer bolt screw popped out of the pulley shaft with the threads all chewed up! We had cross-threaded the damed thing onto the pulley shaft! This was close to the final straw. We looked through the packaging and found another bolt ( lst time for everything....the bolt was shorter than the one that came with the pulley puller/installer kit- go figure...problem solved there). More loosening and readjusting the pulley installer into the pulley shaft, and finally, the pulley was installed! too much work for such a simple process! Death to the designer of this bracked mount.

 

I have an 88 F-150 with auto hubs and wanted to convert to man. I got a hold Warn,Superwench,Milemarker's websites and all of them told me that ther is no manual hub conversion for the 1987 and 1988 F- 150's If I'm wrong or was told wrong and any body has converted please enlighten me.:-X12

 

Turns out if you find a wrecked '89 F150 with the unflanged setup that it's not too hard to do a switch-over. I purchased the spindle forward (including the calipers) for just over 200 dollars. Pretty much a simple swap out. I can't wait to get my hands greasy and get my 4WD back!

'87 F150,
Black w/Red Stripe paint,
6" Lift,
33"x15.50",
I6 300 4.9L,
3.55 true-loc rearend,
Destroyed HUBS (flange type)