Faults:

Water pump, clutch fan @ 108,000 miles.

General Comments:

One tough 4x4 six banger, take care of it and it will take care of you. 25 years old and still turning heads.

Easy to work on and parts are available everywhere due to so many produced.

Legendary 300-4.9 equal to the small block V-8's torque. Averages 14 mpg.

Faults:

Very few major things have gone wrong with the truck, other than the expected wear and tear of a vehicle this age. seats are starting to wear through, and the armrests had screws jiggle out.

The clutch had to be replaced due too bad linkage in combination with heavy city traffic.

The truck exhibited major rust, and subsequently the floors were patched and a wooden bed was added.

The starter was rebuilt before I received the truck, but it now performs perfectly.

The engine was rebuilt before I got the truck, and now runs loudly due to a leaky exhaust manifold gasket.

The front end had one half-shaft replaced, and the calipers and disks were replaced.

The rear axle was replaced, the ring blew up under hard acceleration on a cold morning.

General Comments:

My father bought this truck new in 1983, and the truck has had constant abuse ever since.

There have been times when the engine went 10,000 miles without an oil change, yet the truck still burns rubber and smokes new "pocket-rockets" from white-line to white-line.

Any of the above problems have all been scattered over the last 20 years, and there has never been a time when the truck wouldn't get me home, even if that meant driving in four-wheel drive since I blew out the rear axle.

I have used and beat the truck on numerous occasions, and the truck has never done much more than simply fry the wiring when the batter jumped into the solenoid after going airborne.

Even under the hard, rough driving of a sixteen year old who like to go mudding, this truck has always got me home.

I'll never drive anything, but a strong, old truck.

Faults:

Pretty much every thing has been replaced on this truck. The original engine blew a 200,000 miles. This was due to fuel being pumped into the oil pan. The truck would still start up and run, but it was knocking very badly. I have since replaced it with a mild built 302. The transmission was replaced with the engine, but the transmission came out a another 300,000 mile truck and was rebuilt with a shift kit 50,000 miles ago. Rear end was rebuilt once it now is a posi unit, this was done before I bought the truck. The usual suspension components like ball joints and tie rod ends. New York salt has been the biggest cause of problems with this truck.

General Comments:

I bought this truck when I was 15 years old as a parts truck for my 1986 f150. My dad gave me the 1986 that he bought new, we were going to build it in to a mild custom for me when I turned 16. Well it did not work that way we were almost out of time so we started putting the 1983 back together for something to drive while we worked on the 1986. Things got out of hand and snowballed. The 1983 now is serving for the past 4 years as my daily transportation through high school and now in college. I am 1800 miles away from home and I need a dependable truck, this one is very dependable. On the trip from New York to Wyoming, I am going to Wyo-tech. It only chewed up a starter. This truck is very sharp blue with white flames, and fat tires. I am addicted to customizing this truck and still have many plans including lowering it in the future. I probably will never sell this truck. It has done it job of transporting me and turning head very well. I will soon start on customizing my 1986 and it will not be as mild.