Thinking of a Bronco II

[Mr. Breeze]

Hey guys (and gals). I'm new here and I was hoping to get some advice. I am thinking of getting a BII and I have a line on one for $600. It's an '88 with 160k miles, runs good and the 4wd works. The body and interior are pretty straight too. This will be more of a project for me to play with and wheel when I get the chance.

Any advice on what I should look for when I check this thing out? Anything I might want to avoid? Thanks in advance!

 

[unoleisu]

It depends on what you want to do with it. If it's pretty straight and clean, sounds pretty good to me. Check for normal stuff as always. Rust, oil leaks, gauges and all electrical working correctly, how loud are the lifters rattling, ect.
I personally would use any of these as bargaining chips to lower the price as much as possible, I.E., ( "uh, there's alot of rust on the rear quarter panel, and the fuel gauge doesn't read right, so I'm not sure about this....will you take $400 cash? No?..meet half way, say $500?" )

Most of the stuff the average guy would concider a real problem, is only a "techincal difficulty" on this sight, so you can pretty much find out how to fix any of it here. If you plan to strip it to the frame and rebuild the whole thing into an extreme machine, it's probably as good a doner as any.
just my $2 (inflation, ya know)

 

[CraigK]

Cracked head. So many otherwise nice 2.9's with this problem.
(Reason I ended up with an Explorer after my BII was damaged.)
Sometimes hard to diagnose.
- too much/white exhaust smoke
- exhaust smells slightly sweet
- low coolant level
- interior heater intermittently hot
- emulsion in oil on dipstick
- white emulsion inside oil filler cap and under PCV valve
Watch out, because if the owner knows this is a problem, they'll change the oil and top-up the coolant, so, odd as it sounds, beware of fresh oil.

CraigK