I totally can sympathize with you on the frustration that comes with an older truck. My '91 has been great and then at 137,000 it has cost me a grand in two months. Fuel pump went and in removing the tank they noticed the leak and BINGO! new tank PLUS pump. ICM went and also stranded me but they thought it was the coil first. Unfortunately I was far from my regular shop on BOTH occassions otherwise the repairs wouldn't have been so expensive (you know, $70 wires, $30 plugs, $30 cap etc.)
It always seems the actual problems aren't all that unusual but if you get stranded and the diagnostics and labor cost a mint then it can be insanely frustrating. I'm having my preferred mechanic do a thorough check on likely systems which might need inspection to see if it might be a good time to get another truck or if I'll be good (maybe) for awhile. I'm on my third Bronco and will always hopefully have a paid for, solid, reliable (most of the time) ride.
Sorry you've been disillusioned but overall it seems like the basic Bronco setup with the 302 is at least as sound as most of the other stuff on the road from most of the posts I've seen. If only they made the tailgate the way they did for the Explorer....

 

JBronco...My buddy just had the same problem with his F150 (dead truck without a spark). He went through the systematic replacement of everything (coil, distributor, "computer", etc.) I set and reset the inertia switch and he replaced the ground wire on the truck. It ran fine. It died again and he got mad enough to hit the wiring harness. Low and behold, the truck fired and drove away. It does trace to the wiring harness but what, besides being loose, we don't know.

 

That sounds like the exact wiring that was bad on my 89 that I mentioned earlier.

Glad you are back on the road again and hopefully troublefree for awhile.