1982 Ford Bronco - V8 & manual transmission

Continuing the grand tradition of starting a project thread before actually owning the car, this will be a thread regarding a 1982 Ford Bronco I am bringing home in a few weeks.

I've been helping a co-worker who is helping his mom clear out her property in preparation for sale. Her husband passed away ~14 months ago and had some cars laying around. One is a 1957 Ford F100, as seen in this thread (1957 F100). Another is a 1982 Bronco. It evidently ran when parked. I'm not exactly sure why I'm buying it (a sentiment shared by my wife), as I really don't have any mechanical ability whatsoever. I suppose this is my first real attempt at learning something about how cars work. Needless to say, I'll be leaning heavily on the hive for assistance!

Stampie joined me last weekend to retrieve some of the spare engines that he had in his stash. From what Stampie could tell, the Bronco started life as a 6 cylinder, so it received a engine swap at some point in it's life. I am not sure what V8 is in it, but the goal is to get it running and see what's there.

And now for the pictures!

All purpose red duct tape.  Rust repair, upholstery repair, band-aids...

What engines were in the stash?

A 351W and a 460 BBF

Fun stuff

I've always liked that generation Bronco and I'm looking forward to see this one progress.

Loaded and unloaded! Best part is we hooked up the battery, hit it with starter fluid and it fired up!!

I've mentioned before; I didn't like it when Ford decided to change their trucks from having body lines, to a square box in '80. But, over the years, the 80 - 86 nose has really grown on me. My favorite of any of the OBS (80-97) 

that is a really good looking Broncos. Great vehicle to learn pullin' wrenches on. 

I just picked up a 87 cab and front clip; might get used on a 450 chassis I have. Would love a early front clip to it. (Not mine, just reference!)

Glad ya got her home ok, and I'm looking fwd. to seeing more. 

That babies clean.  

03Panther said:

I've mentioned before; I didn't like it when Ford decided to change their trucks from having body lines, to a square box in '80. But, over the years, the 80 - 86 nose has really grown on me. My favorite of any of the OBS (80-97) 

that is a really good looking Broncos. Great vehicle to learn pullin' wrenches on. 

I just picked up a 87 cab and front clip; might get used on a 450 chassis I have. Would love a early front clip to it. (Not mine, just reference!)

Glad ya got her home ok, and I'm looking fwd. to seeing more. 

Thanks! I'm excited to start learning as well. I'm really clueless when it comes to how cars actually work, so this seems like a good one to get my feet wet with!

Now this is what I come here for! What is your goal for it? That dash may be mostly saveable but I don't know if I'd trust that wiring.

It may look rough but, if you look at it as a nearly blank slate it's not so bad. I'm at that stage with my project, well I've kinda been there for a while but that's beside the point.

This is one of those I'd love to have bought but the sane side of me says I already have too many. I think you'll have fun with it. 

My good friend who is a master mechanic, came over last night to give it a once over for me. We found new brake lines, newer radiator hoses, a newer brake booster and a newer starter solenoid. The registration on the license plate is 2020 so it doesn't seem like it's been parked that long.

According to the engine bay sticker, it's a 4.9L 302 V8.

So here is the initial plan. Please (truly) feel free to critique.

First, clean the heck out of it. It's pretty nasty!

Then, change all fluids, belts, battery, battery cables, spark plug, plug wires, cap and rotor. I've never done any of those, so lots of firsts!

I think I'm going to need new tires too, as the ones that are on there are pretty old and showing some dry rot.

Any other things I should address immediately?

EDIT: I also ordered Haynes and Chilton manuels!

And the shocks are blown, so I'll need to replace those.

I would definitely go through the wiring, at least a general look around, to see what repairs have been done. Old, dusty, crusty tape repairs can come apart and if a live wire is swinging in the breeze it can cause problems. Probs not catastrophic or anything but more of the gremlin variety or blown fuses. Or tail lights going out and getting you a ticket or something. Similarly, I've also recommend checking fuse values, sometimes people don't fix why a fuse is blowing and just jam bigger ones in until it stops blowing. This is what's known in the trade as 'not good'.

Check the brakes. Definitely check the brakes.

Take a peek at the weatherstripping, better to find it in the dry season than wait til spring and find your floorboards full of water.

Exhaust leaks? Always good to know about and not just because they kill whatever passes for gas mileage on that beast.

If you're gonna bust the rust this is not a bad time of year to do it, particularly on the inside so you can go ahead and get it painted (if you're gonna) and clean up the interior as you see fit.

Error404 said:

I would definitely go through the wiring, at least a general look around, to see what repairs have been done. Old, dusty, crusty tape repairs can come apart and if a live wire is swinging in the breeze it can cause problems. Probs not catastrophic or anything but more of the gremlin variety or blown fuses. Or tail lights going out and getting you a ticket or something. Similarly, I've also recommend checking fuse values, sometimes people don't fix why a fuse is blowing and just jam bigger ones in until it stops blowing. This is what's known in the trade as 'not good'.

Check the brakes. Definitely check the brakes.

Take a peek at the weatherstripping, better to find it in the dry season than wait til spring and find your floorboards full of water.

Exhaust leaks? Always good to know about and not just because they kill whatever passes for gas mileage on that beast.

If you're gonna bust the rust this is not a bad time of year to do it, particularly on the inside so you can go ahead and get it painted (if you're gonna) and clean up the interior as you see fit.

I will take lots of pictures and share them here. The hard part is I could examine every inch of wiring and I wouldn't know it it was good, bad or ugly.

Once I get the initial items tackled, I'll drive it a bit and see what crops up.

Ford called their 6 cyl inline 300 cu/in enging the 4.9 when the US started using a few metric terms, and the 302 V8 a 5.0. That sticker is prolly from the original engine, not the current. Although it prolly IS a 302!

Minor nit-pic-ity detail, but accuracy counts - sometimes! Is that a Ford 2 barrel carb. I kinda see hiding under the old school air filter housing?

There might be more old truck/4x4 build threads on GRM than actual, go-fast cars now, and I'm here for it. 

This looks like a great foundation to learn on. It's a good platform with lots of support, the body looks solid, and you got it running. You're already ahead of the game! 

03Panther said:

Ford called their 6 cyl inline 300 cu/in enging the 4.9 when the US started using a few metric terms, and the 302 V8 a 5.0. That sticker is prolly from the original engine, not the current. Although it prolly IS a 302!

Minor nit-pic-ity detail, but accuracy counts - sometimes! Is that a Ford 2 barrel carb. I kinda see hiding under the old school air filter housing?

Here is a picture of the sticker. Can you tell from that what it came from the factory with? Interestingly, Wikipedia shows the straight 6 and V8 both as 4.9L engines. Carb picture below too.

It's all just marketing. 302 cubic inches is 4.9 liters, but 5.0 sounds (is) bigger/tougher. Same with Chevy's 350; actually 347.8 cubes. 

I have an '80 F100. Same generation. I love it. With a handful of exceptions, parts off the 1980-1996 model years all fit. In my case, rebuilding a 3-speed column shift with completely nla parts, parts from the 60s all the way through the 2000s can fit!

The factory service manuals are available often on eBay. Search for Light Truck Shop Manual. They come in two flavors: Body Chassis Electrical, and Engine

This VIN breakdown will tell you the original engine. 8th digit is engine. F=302 v8, E=300 I6. Since Ford always refers to the 302 as the 5.0 and your sticker says 4.9, and Stampie said it was probably a 6 cyl, it probably came with the 300 I6 (mine too!)

The engine that's in there now has casting numbers too that you can decode. I'm not a Ford V8 expert by any means at all, but it sure looks like a 302.

Carson said:

This VIN breakdown will tell you the original engine. 8th digit is engine. F=302 v8, E=300 I6. Since Ford always refers to the 302 as the 5.0 and your sticker says 4.9, and Stampie said it was probably a 6 cyl, it probably came with the 300 I6 (mine too!)

 

The engine that's in there now has casting numbers too that you can decode. I'm not a Ford V8 expert by any means at all, but it sure looks like a 302.

I checked the VIN and the 8th digit is E, so confirmed it left the factory as a 6 cylinder. 

There's lots of room in the engine bay and these are pretty simple creatures. Great project to get your hands greasy with.