Purchase

From the Craigslist ad

On April 3, 2013 I emailed a gentleman about another truck.  This one appeared to be in much better condition, although a little farther away.  The owner originally wanted to trade the truck for a Mustang, which I have but did not want to get rid of.  After some emails back and forth I gathered some more information:

• 1976
• 4X4
• 360ci motor
• 4 speed manual transmission
• PTO winch included although PTO had been disassembled
• located MUCH farther away (about 2 hours north)
• the owner was willing to sell the truck rather than trade

After some more discussion we arranged for me to come up Thursday, April 11.  My friend Carey Hammett graciously agreed to come along.  It stormed violently that day, so there was some question as to whether we would go or not.  Fortunately, the line of storms passed through the area and continued east.  By the time we left, it was raining but not too hard.

We arrived around 5pm.  The owner had the truck running when we got there.  It idled nicely and appeared to be in excellent condition overall.  Very little rust.  Excellent interior.  Clean motor.  We took it for a drive and discovered a few problems.

• The truck did not run very smoothly at all above idle.  
• The starter would not catch the flywheel about half the time.
• The fuel filter was leaking significantly.

My only hang up was the fact that the truck did not run smoothly.  I questioned our ability to make it the two hours home.  The owner assured me that it would make it; he had driven it about the same distance not long ago.  After some negotiation, we agreed on a price slightly lower than his original.  

I immediately drove the truck to a gas station as the previous owner told me that the gauge did not work and it was almost completely empty.  We found that the gauge did apparently work and that the truck had plenty of gas. From the station we drove immediately to an Autozone a couple of minutes away and replaced the fuel filter.  After that we struck out for home.

In the first 15 minutes or so, I had trouble keeping the truck at highway speed.  It would start to stumble and, for a minute or so, would not rev up.  After idling for a minute, it would be okay.  After a two or three rounds of that situation, we had no problem the rest of the way.  The truck did not run great, but it would easily do 70mph on the interstate.

We arrived at home without any further incident.  New truck!