Hi. I'm a carpenter by trade and my mechanical knowledge is limited (just inexperienced) anyways I got a good deal on an 89 f250 supercab runs and drives and body is in decent shape. My plan is to fix it up for my son for when he gets his licence in a couple years (in the meantime it will make a great hunting truck)
anyways it needs a new exhaust any suggestions? I like the sound of the truck with the broken pipe before the muffler so we want an aggressive sounding system
and it needs tires so I'm wondering what rims will fit? Is it any year f250 16" or only up to a certain year or what are the actual dimensions. I've read problems with the center piece being an issue

when I'm driving my wheel is 90 degrees to the left what should I check out first? Apparently upper balljoints were done recently but I'm not taking his word on anything as I found out it was literally a soupcan connecting the exhaust pipe where it was split.

2nd gear is a it hard to find and when I downshift to 2nd it rattles maybe normal as I've never owned a manual truck just cars.

I need to replace a rear brakeline he says I can splice it and use co nectors but I'm wondering is it much more work to just properly redo the whole thi thing? Of course safety is a factor

There is oil residue all over the left side he said there was a pan issue but it's fixed is there a pressure test or anything I can do or get done to assure it's all good

lastly I was looking at 4" lifts an y suggestions? Should I base my tire purchase around this.

 

I'm not sure on everything you're asking, but here's what I can tell you:

1) The steering wheel being off center is an alignment issue. Ball joints (good or bad) would not affect this. You need to be looking at the steering linkage - pitman/idler arm, tie rods, and steering column from the firewall to the gear box. The easiest way to check everything is to have an assistant turn the steering wheel back and forth (wheels on the ground) while you are looking at it from underneath. You don't need to go stop to stop - just a quarter turn in either direction will be enough to see which components need to be replaced. The truck will need to go to an alignment shop after any repairs.

2) What do you mean by which rims will fit it? Are you looking to put bigger tires on it? Any 16" tire will fit the rims, but if you're not looking for bigger tires, just replace them with the same size that's on them now.

3) Brake lines can be spliced as long as the ends are properly flared, but if the line is only a few feet long, you might as well replace it. Most auto parts stores have ready-made brake lines available where you can buy one that's close to the length you need and route the excess in such a way that it won't get pinched.

4) If the oil is any more than a couple of inches above the oil pan gasket, there's probably another leak.

 

If everything looks an operates fine after the above procedure is done, you can turn the wheels to straight, pull the rag joint between the gear box and steering shaft, move the steering wheel to straight, then push the rag joint back in place. The proper name for a rag joint is steering coupler, btw...just in case you decide yours needs replaced. When I bought mine, the wheel was always 45 degrees off...after rebuilding the entire steering system, I realized I could clock the wheel. I replaced the rag joint and a week later, the whole steering shaft, and now the only original part in the system is the pitman arm.

 

So for clarification - you ended up replacing the steering column and the gear box?

Just curious, because from a diagnostic stand point, if I knew the linkage was in good condition, the alignment correct, and the steering column didn't have any problems (loose u-joint for example), then the steering wheel being off center means something is wrong inside the gear box. In which case, clocking the steering wheel would only be covering up a problem, not fixing it.