I bought an old '81 F-150 Ranger last month with only 36,000 miles on it. I checked with CarFax to verify the mileage before buying it. It has a 351 Windsor and a Motorcraft 2100 carb. Well, the cruise control was the only thing that did not work. After taking off the air cleaner, I noticed what looks like a bathtub chain attached to the carb linkage. It was hanging loose, so I reattached it to the carb. Well, the cruise control works again. I love it when I fix something, and I don't even know what I am doing.

 

How about some pics of the truck?

 

x2!

 

OK, here are a few pics of it. I don't really like the red wheels, so may be painting them next week. How about white?

 

I had one of those back in 99 or so. Mine had the Mazda 5 speed tranny. Leaked oil like a seive when I got it. the rear u-joint mysteriously came undone on the freeway in wyoming doing 75 miles an hour. That sucked bad. January middle of a snow storm. Took the Wyoming highway patrol 5 hours to get me a wrecker. Not a bad truck otherwise.

 

Nice rides in the garage too! Gotta love an all FORD Garage (and driveway!)

I really like those early 80's trucks, style wise.. First big change in styling the truck line got in about 10 years at that time!

Yeah, that's cool when you fix something on your own! Saved a few $$ in the process too!

Mitch

Oh, IMO, I'd paint the wheels a 'silver/grey' color.. Is it called "argent" or something?? White might not be too bad either, since that's the second color on the truck already...

 

Argent is the color of the grill on my 65 Mustang, so I know the color. Never thought about it. Thanks. The downside of this old truck is the gas mileage. I get 8-10 if I drive it like it is stolen, or 12 if I baby it. Oh well, trucks weren't supposed to get good mileage anyway. I have a serious tow bar on the back, so this old truck was used for some serious towing at one time. My suspicion is that it was used to tow a recreational trailer, and only rarely since the mileage is so low. There is also evidence that there was a cap on the bed.

 

If it was set up for towing, it prolly has something like 4.10 gears and a C6. Not much you can do to get any kind of gas mileage out of that.

That is one clean truck for something that's over 25 years old!

 

Yeah, it appears it was kept in a garage. The interior looks almost brand new. I think you may be right about it having 4.10 gears in the butt, because it pulls really hard but has a difficult time going over 70 MPH.