fleenz

here is my intro post, which is what i believe to be a premise to this topic haven't logged in here in a while. hope everyone's recovering from modern pandemia. certainly drove me nuts starting off in town as a fast food worker. now i am settled in my early 20s with an oil gun and expertise on oil maintenance reminder reset procedures (for a small business with seniority). leaky susan, whom i call now the fleenmobile, is still in my possession and as of now i have clocked in 9k miles since i claimed her two years ago. back in october last year my inexperience with snow/sleet covered roads took the better of my driving capabilities and as a result, slid into the side of a crew cab pickup. everyone involved was ok, and the other party had full coverage while i ride on liability. accidents happen but i can't say that i didn't have a bad taste in my mouth over this for a while. the damage you see is purely cosmetic. i'll live with my inflated insurance rate. my affection for my truck hasn't faltered. in fact, this really pushed my encouragement to restore this truck, mainly in spirit. i don't aim for this to be show quality, but to be respectably solid. per request from my boss, who also has a mechanics shop on the same property as i quickly lube sixer mustangs and fiat rams, i have compiled a list of things to do for my truck to start off and i hope to get on with it this summer, and hopefully be involved in doing work for someone who hasn't had much opportunity to do some decent mechanical and suspension work and not feel intimidated by it. just finished replacing the pads and rotors on this truck yesterday. those hubs were a bit frustrating to figure out on my own, but it was more time consuming for me than it was difficult any advice regarding the bodywork or anything is welcome; i think i'm going to make this an update topic for my truck. anyways, i'll still be around reading through. thank you all for this community.

i am the second owner of my '88 and it is my first vehicle. it has a L4N71B 4 speed auto that leaks fluid and i refill the transmission every couple of weeks. i figure that this is a cheaper solution to this problem than to dismantle the transmission and diagnose it myself (i also lack the equipment to raise the car at home) or take it to a shop and potentially feed me information that i likely don't need knowing. i believe at one point it was driven with low fluid that potentially brought damage to the trans' components since, recently, i discovered that the gear for 4th may be worn down. when it switches from 3rd to 4th, the engine rotates higher by around 300 rotations and slowly drops down, as if it were shifting in slow motion. none of the other gears seem to do this but it does make me wary and i make little money. fortunately, i do not drive this truck often at speeds which require 4th gear. however, i hear no strange, scary sounds or feel any strange motions when it shifts at this speed, or for any other drive gears, so i suppose for now that it's not any more serious than it could be, but i may be wrong. i guess it's also worthy to note that i'm in the colder season where at night it's around 40F at night, which is when i drive it home from work (i know not to press the gas down too much at these temps until i know the engine's warmer; older vehicle!) i've poked around with google searches, came across forums (some with disrespectful exchanges lol) and blog entries alike, things about clutch plates slipping and checking the fluid color. for the sake of mentioning, the fluid color's been ok but then again i do refill it periodically so it's probably not a worthy diagnosis with my application. i could upload a video demonstrating the performance if it will help! however, young person on their phone while driving and all that. no fancy airbags to save me. take for note that i have little mechanical experience and the most i've done with the transmission is removing the oil pan and replacing the gasket and fluid filter, with the aid of my stepfather, who only knows maintenance for '80s and '90s ford F-series pickups while growing up in kansas. this may be one of those posts that could be limited in help given my lack of expertise, so i'm mainly posting this for the sake of opinions as to what could be done or improved, even if it could be costly, or if it's not something to worry about too much (very unlikely with the latter as in my opinion any issue left unchecked could bring disaster over time). any little bit of info helps and i'd love to hear it from those who know these vehicles much more than i do. thanks for your time

ATF, funnel, microfibre rag. the ancient emergency car jack (still seems operable but never actually used it on my truck), the passenger side headlight wiring cover panel, a support beam to compensate for the dead shocks on my rear hatch, and... the sunroof cover. somehow the support clips on my sunroof broke off. noticed that they're interchangeable but god knows where i can come across those specific bits of plastic on the web also if it counts a bluetooth transmitter inside the cigarette lighter. stock radio with inoperable cassette module (a heartbreaker for someone who actually has cassettes)

recently taped up my muffler with some high-temp wrap and also trying to figure out what to do with my soundsystem. just wrapped my head around the whole amplifier deal.