A co-worker has a problem with her '92 F-150.
the parking brake cable broke and the truck rolled into the water at a boat launch.

The insurance company totalled it.
they are going to buy it back and try to get it going.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
-srw

 

If I'm not mistaken, Ford had a recall because of parking brakes. Otherwise, they will have a lot of work ahead of them...

 

Depends on how submerged, how long and what got wet! If it has been sitting for over 24 hours and the engine was submerged, your gonna have a lot of rust to contend with. I had two cars go through a flood about 20 years ago. I drained about 2 gallons of water out of the crankcase before I got to the oil, changed the oil and had to push it to break the crank loose after it locked up from the rust. Got it running and sold it cheap!! Car number 2 only had a little water in the crankcase, engine seemed OK. Had to put in a complete new interior; within 4 weeks it was drinking oil and barely running. I guess some sediment got into the engine and just caused total breakdown. In other words, there could be extensive work in getting this thing running right; engine, wheel bearings, transmission, u-joints, rear axle, switches all over the place, dry out the interior, etc., etc.

 

It was only underlong enough for themto get it towed out. Not very long as it was a busy place.
But it was up to at least the dash.

 

I ended up in the drink in my 86 F150 back in the great floods of St. Louis..... not as deep as your freind, but deep enough to learn how much water gets trapped in each seam, lap, weld joint,..... I now live in the desert, with no rain at all, and my truck is the only one out here that is STILL rusting.

If the oppurtunity presents itself for an expedient withdrawl, consider taking it!

 

 

Old thread I know; but, I put this here as it may help others in the same situation.

About fifteen years ago, a friend who had a big old T-Bird, one of the REAL CARS before they started selling all this plastic disposable junk, in the pitch dark, attempted to dry-ford a creek that she had crossed hundreds of times; what she didn't know was that a recent flood had washed out the crossing.

When she clumb out the window onto the roof, the roof was about three inches under.

Help came an hour or so later and fished her out and log-chained her home.

This old gal was, like myself, somewhat financially challenged.

All those who had never in their life experienced such a situation were giving her all sorts of negative advice.

I told her to go to some of the local mechanics and talk them out of several gallons of their used oil and get a bucket of cheap tractor hydraulic fluid.

She drained the crank-case and transmission and the oil-filter and poured in the proper amount of used oil and put the cheap hydraulic fluid in the transmission --- drove it a couple days, drained everything, and refilled again.

She did this about five times and then replaced the old oil with bargain-brand new and a new oil filter and then about six months later replaced this with her normal brands of stuff.

Since then, she has drove the ____ out of it; I met her a few days ago and it was still going strong.

The moral of this story is, considering all the naysayers, what did she have to lose ?

Another friend let his 2002 Dodge/Cummins with a 32-foot load of cattle roll away from the barn, over a steep hill, and into a big pond.

Within minutes, they had two big tractors ahold of the back of the cattle trailer and pulled the whole mess out and back up the hill.

They folded some feed sacks for the driver to sit on, fired it up, and sent some kid with it, muddy wet cows and all, to the stockyards some 80-miles away; and, as far as I am aware, never did anything special; it is untelling how many big loads of cattle that truck has pulled since and it is still going strong today.