Give me your advice...

I am buying a 1994 F150 2wd 4.9L inline six 5 speed 189k miles regular cab long bed for $240...lol My brother in law is selling it to me thats why its so cheap. It is not perfect either... Stuff wrong with it;

- needs front springs (one broke)
- needs slave clutch cylinder (gotta drop the transmission to replace)
- needs new fuel tank switch
- MN truck, good amount of rust (as far as I can tell frame is in OK shape and cab & bed sit straight)

Now my plan is to fix it up and originally I wanted to have it as back up vehicle for hauling trash and heavy loads, since its payload is more than the Taco's...

Now I am playing with a new idea. Currently we have two vehicles; My 2005 Taco and my wife's 2007 Camry. I am thinking of selling the Camry, I believe I can sell it for what i owe. Payment on it is $250/month plus $100/month insurance. I am estimating insurance on the f150 to $50/month since I wont do full coverage. In that scenario my wife would drive my Taco and i would drive the f150. Even if we spend $100 more on gas, we would still save $200/month which could go towards paying off debt.

This would be temporary, I am talking 1-2years. So there are two reasons for this;

- save $200/month and pay off some debt
- get rid of the Camry which is reliable, but boring, in couple of years get my wife something nicer and 4x4

What do you guys think? Is driving an old truck without AC (I live in AZ) and any conveniences worth saving $200/month?

 

Sounds like you made up your mind. If you think you could drive the Ford for 1-2 years without something else going wrong with it and nullifying the ~$200 a month savings I'd go for it.

 

I am just toying with the idea... My mind is not entirely made up...

 

No A/C in PHX? At least it's a dry heat.

If you can do some mechanic work & you don't mind, go for it. You can always buy another car/truck if you're not happy and if you can knock down some debt++++.

 

I do all my own work so there would be no money spent on mechanic. I already dropped transmission on that truck once so i know whats involved. Yes the slave cylinder is located INSIDE transmission.... Great DESIGN ford...

 

My brother had a similar truck. The engine was bulletproof - the tranny wasn't. But, since you already dropped the tranny I'm sure you checked it out.

Rust - that's going to be your biggest headache. He found rust in the support under the radiator. He was shocked the radiator actually didn't fall down since the rust on the support was so bad. Paying so little for the truck is great but the maintenance might add up to more than $200 per month.

 

X2 with all the money you need to spend to fix it, even if you do it yourself, might end up breaking even

 

no. dont sell the camry.

you are going to spend more then 200 a month on maintenence.

Only sell camry after you have ford running for six months with nothing more then an oil change.

 

That's one of my worries...

I did bunch of work on this truck and I know the following maintenance has been done recently;

- new radiator
- new clutch
- new alternator
- new radiator hoses
- rear leaf springs
- oil pan gasket
- rear main seal
- pushrod inspection galley gasket
- brake pads
- new driver side brake caliper
- new transmission fluid when the transmission was out

 

Ya I wouldn't be selling the Camry right away, first step would be to fix up the ford and drive it for a while to see how it does...

 

Also the transmission is 5 speed manual from what I researched the manual is better than the automatic in terms of reliability...

 

Nope.

 

I'm all for picking it up as a beater truck, but I wouldn't want it for my DD, even if it is for only a couple years. That's just me though. Sure getting rid of some debt is good but I don't think it's worth not having 2 reliable vehicles (unless someone was in a serious financial crunch and HAD to do it).

 

I agree.

I'd have a 4cyl. reg cab 5-lugger or a Honda Civic if I had to tighten the belt on vehicle dollars.

 

For what it's worth, I traded in a 99 F-150 on the Tacoma at the end of August, not only was it getting 10-11 MPG but I was putting money in it fixing it monthly.

It was like the truck you are dealing with, rot everywhere, the last straw was my wife took it to the store and the hard brake line had rotted through and the pedal went to the floor on her, she refused to ride in it after that. A week before that I used the truck to tow and had an easy ton on a trailer, if it had gone in traffic it could have been very bad.

My point is the repairs never stop with rot.

 

Keep in mind 1994 payload ratings aren't as rigorous as today's payload ratings. I'd sooner get stiffer rear leafs in the Taco and increase its payload capacity than deal with an 18 year-old F-150.