LERN ME: 1980's Mazda B-Series Trucks

I've been looking for a replacement weekend hauler lately to switch up my fleet, and stumbled upon one of these: 

It's a Mazda B2200 with the SE-5 package. It's cheap, appears to be rust free, but needs a few things. All I know about them is that my uncle had one in the early 90's that he drove for years as his weekend hauler, and he only replaced it when it rotted in half around 2000. I know that the Mazda REPU and Ford Courier seem to be its ancestor, but I know nearly nothing about these other than the fact that they look cool. 

LERN ME PLEEZ!!! 

I put about 100k miles on a mid 90s model as a delivery driver. Stop and go city driving, 6 days/week, 10-12 hours/day, through 115* summers and pretty serious neglect (power steering noises that only got worse, changed the oil only about every 10k (though that was only about 4 months) and a serious disregard for suspension longevity or payload max capacity)

The trucks are at least as bullet proof as any tacoma. And way less money. There were several (some of them still in use today) that kept right on going past 300k miles and two that lasted more than 400. 

And a small block Ford is a good fit.

The only thing that seems to kill them is rust.  The turbo motor from the MX6 fits nicely. 

In reply to Sonic :

I think there are a couple of those in the junkyard up the street from my house!

Slow but reliable. About the nicest manual transmission ever fitted to a truck.

Mojo's spidey sense is tingling.

I loved mine, slow but keeps on ticking. 

Best small truck ever made. 

The FET and F2T turbo stuff isn't a direct swap because the stock O2 sensor housing wants to be inside the driver's side motor mount.

Good trucks. I had a 1984. The truck in your photo looks just like one a co-worker of mine drove for years, before replacing it with a new Silverado. Ironically, Mazda built the Courier for Ford, and then in the end, mostly because of taxation issues, Ford built the B Series for Mazda as a twin to the Ranger

These trucks are FANTASTIC!

My first car was a red 1987 B2200 Max cab with Western dish wheels, no PS, bought in 1997 from dad's best friend. He still owns it today and it's never given him any real issues. 

I crashed it, my sister crashed it. We both learned to drive a manual on it. It has needed a clutch, and that's about it in 20 years. Starts every time no matter how long it sits. It does leak a little oil my dad told me, he didn't say from where. 

I can attest that the manual trans is pretty nice to row in it. The one we have is carb'd and is definitely not fast, but has decent low end torque actually. Like someone mentioned, they are way cheaper than the Toyotas of the era, and probably every bit as dependable. New shocks will make it ride very nice! The front has some weird suspension with no spring, maybe a transverse leaf, I dunno, but shocks matter. 

In reply to CyberEric :

Torsion bar suspension. Works well enough for a truck.

In reply to barefootskater :

Ah, gotcha! 

In reply to Appleseed :

Ha ha ha! You know me well. 

Here's my '93. 297k miles. Parts are cheap, just replaced the clutch master and slave for less than $30 for both. Upgraded the carb, removed the smog, added headers and new magnaflow exhaust last year to improve vroom vroom noises. 

Decent gas mileage and reliable as dirt. I think it's a lot of fun to drive and I agree that the manual has a great feel, very smooth. Had it for about 6 years now and several times a year I am approached by people wanting to know if it's for sale. I would buy another in a heartbeat. Would love to grab some bucket seats out of a max cab version to replace my bench seat, but all the ones I find are burgundy, and I need gray. 

I didn't even know I needed one of these until right now.. Off to CL... Damn enablers...

They're great small trucks.  I think they were quite superior to the Ranger trucks that replaced them in 1994 (or whenever, bleh).  F2T wants to put its distributor through the firewall so it's not really bolt-in.  There's solutions, so I'm told.  

6 bolt hubs which may or may not be an issue.  Same as the GM truck pattern, at least.

Drive it first and see if it has the Mazda shake at highway speeds. Mine developed after a few years and was never able to fix it. I had a 93 withe fuel injection and it made decent power for what it was, was very reliable and capable but It really was a love hate relationship. I absolutely hated the way it drove. 

There's a great 2nd gen Mazda truck in Lexington right now. I really would love to be picking it up. Long bed and everything, with the Mazda 2.0. probably still a 4 speed but should have disk brakes up front at least..

Link

In reply to Suprf1y :

I have found that a 50lb bag of sand at each rear corner of the bed eliminates the "mazda shake" that these are known for. At least it did for me. 

All you need to know is f2t+tii trans. 

Relax the torsion bars in the front and put 3 inch lowering blocks in the rear and they're perfect.

Back in 1991 in the height of the minitruck craze I used to drive a nice lowrider truck and worked as a mechanic in a shop right down the road from the high school. I can't count the number of high schooler kids that had trucks like those and they'd see mine sitting at the shop and stop in to get me to lower them. They'd drop them off on the way to school in the morning and I'd have it lowered and sitting pretty out by the road when they came by after school to pick it up. I did a pile of them, Mazdas, Nissans, Isuzus...

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

Yeah my dad's tire guy has been begging him to sell it to him for at least 12 years. Gangsters in the 90s thought my family rolled hard. 

Yours sounds fun with those upgrades!

I definitely want to buy one again someday. 

What transmission did these get? We arent talking like the m5Od are we?

First car was a 1989 b2200 manual. My dad replaced it with a 1989 auto b2200, and I got the old. The auto was annoyingly slow. No acceleration whatsover. My manual wasn't nearly as bad. When it sold, it had 190k with a oil burning problem. 

In reply to classicJackets :

Thanks for that.  Might be a whole mile from my house, enabler.

My work truck in the late 90’s was a Mazda B2200 in true stripper trim.  Manual steering, no AC, nothing.  It was the last of the actual Mazda built trucks and we had some Rangers from the same era in the fleet.  The Rangers were fuel injected and had power steering but the B2200 shifted and drove so much better I always chose it.  Spent many days on construction sites in that thing!