I went down to the Ford dealer to find out what the hell was going on with my truck, and they'd found another problem with it--a crack in the transmission housing. They said they could get me a used transmission for $500, plus about $200 in labor to swap them. So I'm looking at around $2,000 to fix everything that's wrong with it. They've already put $200 worth of labor into my truck just trying to find all the problems, but I think I'm just going to pay that and bring the truck home, and let the thing rot until I can get around to fixing it myself.

Some guy across the street from me is selling an early-mid '80s F-350 for $1,500, and I'm thinking about just buying that, if it's in good enough shape. It's been for sale for a long time, so I'm afraid something bad might be wrong with it. The only good thing is that the engine in my '79 will probably fit in it--I know the 351 engine was available in that year of truck, but I'm not sure if it was the Windsor or the Modified (like mine), and I'm not even sure if that matters. I'm going to call later today to get some details about it.