Just bought my 87 f150
05-05-2015, 10:36 AM
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Just bought my 87 f150
I just bought an 87 F150 that's seen better days. She's really not all that bad but she's a little wobbly and unstable, and there's play in the wheel but the engine runs strong. If you guys were buying an 87 f150 what would you replace right off the bat? Thanks
05-06-2015, 10:12 AM
#3
1994 F150 XLT 5.8L 2wd
^, and bleed the front brakes too, all new brake fluid. Grease the calipers and wheel cylinder rods.
If you are planning on keeping it a while then the following:
*Upper/lower ball joints (if the current ones have grease zerks then they have been replaced and you can skip these)
*Repack or replace inner/outer wheel bearings (they are cheap and easy so I would replace)
*Shocks
*Trans fluid and filter
*Clean up all of the chassis grounds you can find, sand the frame and eyelet until shine, use wire brush on the bolt, put back together then coat with dielectric grease to keep moisture/grime away.
*Clean any electrical connector you can find, unplug, spray male end with quick drying electronic clean, brush contacts with wire brush, respray and insert multiple times into female end. Light coating of dielectric grease around the plastic of the male by the seal (where it seats in the female) to keep moisture/grime out.
*Pick up a 120ct assortment of fuses online (rockauto $12, ebay $7) and replace all of your fuses.
{Doing the last three will save you major headaches in the future, a good percentage of electrical problems with these trucks come from those three things, get proactive and don't get stranded}
*Replace the small diameter vacuum lines as they will crack and give you problems. I ordered 22ft of 4mm hose from (http://www.siliconeintakes.com/silic...686d47fdf65361), $0.99 a foot, super thick walled, silicone so they will last forever and not be affected by heat/cold (like the rubber hose or plastic line).
*Clean your Throttle body blades (sides and back) and where they contact the throttle body, wouldn't hurt to get anything in the TB that you can reach with a toothbrush and rag. Use TB cleaner. Taking it off and doing the entire thing is pointless in my opinion, unless it's caked on super thick, as it gums back up right away-nature of the beast. Wouldn't hurt to hit the IAC valve either.
*Replace battery terminals, another culprit for common electrical problems.
*Pull your PCV valve and shake it, if it rattles it's good, if it doesn't rattle or isn't a motorcraft PCV replace it with motorcraft. They can be found for <$8 online shipped. Going with some other brand will only lead to problems, same goes for the TPS-motorcraft only!
*I also recommend doing the E-fan conversion, you can do this for fairly cheap, $20 for this controller, pull a dual blade mopar fan from 97-06 chrysler sedan/dodge sedan/sebring coupe/convertible from a junk yard for $40, a couple relays and inline fuses and wire. The power gain is noticeable and the engine noise is dramatically reduced. If you do this upgrading to a 3g 130amp alternator is almost a must.
*Flushing cooling system-install Prestone Flush Kit $4@walmart- use a chemical flush (prestone chem flush $4@walmart) and follow directions for the 2-3 day flush. Make sure to disconnect the heater core hoses from the pump after you flush the system and back flush the heater core from each hose to help remove deposits.
If you are planning on keeping it a while then the following:
*Upper/lower ball joints (if the current ones have grease zerks then they have been replaced and you can skip these)
*Repack or replace inner/outer wheel bearings (they are cheap and easy so I would replace)
*Shocks
*Trans fluid and filter
*Clean up all of the chassis grounds you can find, sand the frame and eyelet until shine, use wire brush on the bolt, put back together then coat with dielectric grease to keep moisture/grime away.
*Clean any electrical connector you can find, unplug, spray male end with quick drying electronic clean, brush contacts with wire brush, respray and insert multiple times into female end. Light coating of dielectric grease around the plastic of the male by the seal (where it seats in the female) to keep moisture/grime out.
*Pick up a 120ct assortment of fuses online (rockauto $12, ebay $7) and replace all of your fuses.
{Doing the last three will save you major headaches in the future, a good percentage of electrical problems with these trucks come from those three things, get proactive and don't get stranded}
*Replace the small diameter vacuum lines as they will crack and give you problems. I ordered 22ft of 4mm hose from (http://www.siliconeintakes.com/silic...686d47fdf65361), $0.99 a foot, super thick walled, silicone so they will last forever and not be affected by heat/cold (like the rubber hose or plastic line).
*Clean your Throttle body blades (sides and back) and where they contact the throttle body, wouldn't hurt to get anything in the TB that you can reach with a toothbrush and rag. Use TB cleaner. Taking it off and doing the entire thing is pointless in my opinion, unless it's caked on super thick, as it gums back up right away-nature of the beast. Wouldn't hurt to hit the IAC valve either.
*Replace battery terminals, another culprit for common electrical problems.
*Pull your PCV valve and shake it, if it rattles it's good, if it doesn't rattle or isn't a motorcraft PCV replace it with motorcraft. They can be found for <$8 online shipped. Going with some other brand will only lead to problems, same goes for the TPS-motorcraft only!
*I also recommend doing the E-fan conversion, you can do this for fairly cheap, $20 for this controller, pull a dual blade mopar fan from 97-06 chrysler sedan/dodge sedan/sebring coupe/convertible from a junk yard for $40, a couple relays and inline fuses and wire. The power gain is noticeable and the engine noise is dramatically reduced. If you do this upgrading to a 3g 130amp alternator is almost a must.
*Flushing cooling system-install Prestone Flush Kit $4@walmart- use a chemical flush (prestone chem flush $4@walmart) and follow directions for the 2-3 day flush. Make sure to disconnect the heater core hoses from the pump after you flush the system and back flush the heater core from each hose to help remove deposits.
05-06-2015, 10:27 AM
#4
I had two of that generation and both stranded me because a stupid little pot metal piece in the steering column broke. It is part of a Rube Goldberg setup that starts the truck and locks the wheel. I ordered the part (just a few bucks and kept one in my second truck and I needed it within a month.
05-07-2015, 11:27 AM
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^, and bleed the front brakes too, all new brake fluid. Grease the calipers and wheel cylinder rods.
If you are planning on keeping it a while then the following:
*Upper/lower ball joints (if the current ones have grease zerks then they have been replaced and you can skip these)
*Repack or replace inner/outer wheel bearings (they are cheap and easy so I would replace)
*Shocks
*Trans fluid and filter
*Clean up all of the chassis grounds you can find, sand the frame and eyelet until shine, use wire brush on the bolt, put back together then coat with dielectric grease to keep moisture/grime away.
*Clean any electrical connector you can find, unplug, spray male end with quick drying electronic clean, brush contacts with wire brush, respray and insert multiple times into female end. Light coating of dielectric grease around the plastic of the male by the seal (where it seats in the female) to keep moisture/grime out.
*Pick up a 120ct assortment of fuses online (rockauto $12, ebay $7) and replace all of your fuses.
{Doing the last three will save you major headaches in the future, a good percentage of electrical problems with these trucks come from those three things, get proactive and don't get stranded}
*Replace the small diameter vacuum lines as they will crack and give you problems. I ordered 22ft of 4mm hose from (http://www.siliconeintakes.com/silic...686d47fdf65361), $0.99 a foot, super thick walled, silicone so they will last forever and not be affected by heat/cold (like the rubber hose or plastic line).
*Clean your Throttle body blades (sides and back) and where they contact the throttle body, wouldn't hurt to get anything in the TB that you can reach with a toothbrush and rag. Use TB cleaner. Taking it off and doing the entire thing is pointless in my opinion, unless it's caked on super thick, as it gums back up right away-nature of the beast. Wouldn't hurt to hit the IAC valve either.
*Replace battery terminals, another culprit for common electrical problems.
*Pull your PCV valve and shake it, if it rattles it's good, if it doesn't rattle or isn't a motorcraft PCV replace it with motorcraft. They can be found for <$8 online shipped. Going with some other brand will only lead to problems, same goes for the TPS-motorcraft only!
*I also recommend doing the E-fan conversion, you can do this for fairly cheap, $20 for this controller, pull a dual blade mopar fan from 97-06 chrysler sedan/dodge sedan/sebring coupe/convertible from a junk yard for $40, a couple relays and inline fuses and wire. The power gain is noticeable and the engine noise is dramatically reduced. If you do this upgrading to a 3g 130amp alternator is almost a must.
*Flushing cooling system-install Prestone Flush Kit $4@walmart- use a chemical flush (prestone chem flush $4@walmart) and follow directions for the 2-3 day flush. Make sure to disconnect the heater core hoses from the pump after you flush the system and back flush the heater core from each hose to help remove deposits.
If you are planning on keeping it a while then the following:
*Upper/lower ball joints (if the current ones have grease zerks then they have been replaced and you can skip these)
*Repack or replace inner/outer wheel bearings (they are cheap and easy so I would replace)
*Shocks
*Trans fluid and filter
*Clean up all of the chassis grounds you can find, sand the frame and eyelet until shine, use wire brush on the bolt, put back together then coat with dielectric grease to keep moisture/grime away.
*Clean any electrical connector you can find, unplug, spray male end with quick drying electronic clean, brush contacts with wire brush, respray and insert multiple times into female end. Light coating of dielectric grease around the plastic of the male by the seal (where it seats in the female) to keep moisture/grime out.
*Pick up a 120ct assortment of fuses online (rockauto $12, ebay $7) and replace all of your fuses.
{Doing the last three will save you major headaches in the future, a good percentage of electrical problems with these trucks come from those three things, get proactive and don't get stranded}
*Replace the small diameter vacuum lines as they will crack and give you problems. I ordered 22ft of 4mm hose from (http://www.siliconeintakes.com/silic...686d47fdf65361), $0.99 a foot, super thick walled, silicone so they will last forever and not be affected by heat/cold (like the rubber hose or plastic line).
*Clean your Throttle body blades (sides and back) and where they contact the throttle body, wouldn't hurt to get anything in the TB that you can reach with a toothbrush and rag. Use TB cleaner. Taking it off and doing the entire thing is pointless in my opinion, unless it's caked on super thick, as it gums back up right away-nature of the beast. Wouldn't hurt to hit the IAC valve either.
*Replace battery terminals, another culprit for common electrical problems.
*Pull your PCV valve and shake it, if it rattles it's good, if it doesn't rattle or isn't a motorcraft PCV replace it with motorcraft. They can be found for <$8 online shipped. Going with some other brand will only lead to problems, same goes for the TPS-motorcraft only!
*I also recommend doing the E-fan conversion, you can do this for fairly cheap, $20 for this controller, pull a dual blade mopar fan from 97-06 chrysler sedan/dodge sedan/sebring coupe/convertible from a junk yard for $40, a couple relays and inline fuses and wire. The power gain is noticeable and the engine noise is dramatically reduced. If you do this upgrading to a 3g 130amp alternator is almost a must.
*Flushing cooling system-install Prestone Flush Kit $4@walmart- use a chemical flush (prestone chem flush $4@walmart) and follow directions for the 2-3 day flush. Make sure to disconnect the heater core hoses from the pump after you flush the system and back flush the heater core from each hose to help remove deposits.