Or "Adventures with Rusty McBucket"...LOL.

So this thread will be for the rebuild of my 1986 Ford F-250, Rusty, and whatever trouble he and I get into.

So far we're working on a battery issue but it's likely the alternator that will need replacing but we're also going to be replacing the battery cables and the solenoid. I've got pics of the battery system but I'm not sure where the alternator is though my dad does because he did some testing on it. Testing which revealed that the alternator is indeed got one foot in the grave. The questions I've got about it will be in a separate thread under the "1980 - 1986 Ford F150 and F250 Trucks" section.

But for kicks and giggles here's a pic of Rusty the night the battery died and had to be left on 2nd East for two nights. Somehow, I didn't get a ticket for be parked on the street...guess the parking authority was feeling the holiday spirit. You can see in both pics the push bar and the roll bar I put on him (got off a '87 F-250 at the scrap yard)--for some reason, the tailgate I got off of the same '87 F-250 wouldn't fit Rusty...doesn't make sense to me since they're nearly identical models.

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Getting towed back home. Guy to the far right is my dad, lol. #ad

 

Get the latches off the other truck, and that gate will work!
Gates go 80-86
87-91
91-96 1/2
the last 2 will both interchange but the shape is different
the reason the early gates won't work, the handle/latch is more in the middle, and the hold downs are different
All of them will fit on the box tho, as the box shape inside did not change from 1973-1996 1/2

 

Yeah, problem with that is I don't know how much of the '87 donor truck is left at the scrapyard and the tailgate got run over after it slid out of the bed when I was pulling out of the shop. It got run over at least once and we haven't been able to go back and get it from the side of the road due to the weather (bad snowstorm right now, 8"+ so far). (See story under "New Member from UT" thread). Hopefully I can find another '80-'86-87 to get a tailgate off of...there's usually a few on KSL.com.

I'll see if we can retrieve the busted tailgate later today because I want to say the latches were on it....

 

86 and older used a hoop style tailgate latch system. 87 and newer uses a stud style tailgate latch system. it is a lot of work to swap the latch systems to make them work properly.
older style body side:
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newer style body side:
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plus, the tailgates themselves are completely different animals.

older style:
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newer style:
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Charlie, the only reason i know they will not fit without major modification is because i tried to put a 87 gate on my 86 before it blew up and i traded it in on the 88.

 

I put an 86 gate on my 89
I can't remember the details, that gate is long gone, I have a 90 gate on it now
I do remember that there are some dimples in the bed that needed drilling, and a nutcert put in.

Might be better a new mechanic not try that "swap"

 

Rusty.

 

Ok y'all...something I just realized.

The truck they said was an '87 at the scrapyard couldn't have been an '87 because it was the exact same design as Rusty...and '87 was the first year of the 8th generation design. So that tailgate should have fit no problem, right?

 

yup!!