New to the Bronco II

[Bam_Bam]

Hey everyone, I just did some trading and ended up with an 88 Bronco II XLT. Its 2wd, 5 speed and 2.9. Im going to get it and bring it home next weekend. I was curious what the typical issues are with these wagons. It has a really clean body and the dash is good. Need front seats but that's not a pressing issue.

 

[ab_slack]

Biggest problem I am aware of is cracking of the heads from overheating. That will put fluid into the oil and the engine will waste itself. Best thing to do is just make sure it doesn't get overheated.

These aren't high power engines but they aren't bad engines.

Valve train noise is very common and not necessarily a problem. Fuel pressure tends to suffer as the bearings wear and it tends to end up sort of light on top lubrication. Other than the noise this isn't a big engine killer. The engine will warn you when oil gets low quite early by an increase in valve train noise.

The age on these things sensors may be bad. I highly recommend doing the procedures to get the codes, get KOEO tests and KOER tests. This should give a basic report on the sensors. I ended up doing a full survey on the sensors. I don't remember what I had to do with each of them but between measuring resistances, voltages and frequencies I was able to either confirm function or confirm a problem.

Good luck with it.

 

[JerryC]

What AB said and here's my 2 cents...

All of the weatherstripping is probably bad, that's easy and fairly cheap to replace. The door striker bushings are probably also shot, they are cheap too. Replacing those two things will make a huge difference in rattles.

Bushings; radius arm and sway bar in particular get worn out. Radius arm bushings are a job if they haven't been before. Sway bar bushings are easy.

Leaks can be an issue, debris in the cowl can cause rust or just block the drain. The drip rails above the doors can have the old seam sealer crack and let water in.

Headlight switches and the plug to the harness sometimes get crusty and/or overheated.

If high miles the driveshaft might be worn out.

IMHO start out by going through battery cables, get those sorted out properly. Then the ground cables. There should be a ground to the frame, engine and body. The frame and engine ground are in the same area (sometimes the same cable) and the factory body ground went from the drivers side cylinder head to the firewall. If the grounds aren't good, electrical gremlins will drive you crazy.