bats 88 Bronco II Build Up aka Project Second Chance

[bats]

Saw that coming. Need to resize all my pictures. Here are a few:

That is the real mileage. I have the paperwork to prove it. I want to get the proper spedo gear so this will be a more honest.

The Radius arm bolts are huge!

Used the J-Hook from a Skyjacker 5.5" lift.

Stay tuned for more...

 

[janderson4010]

bolts are probably what a 3/4"? I have all grade 8 5/8" on my 3 link, im pretty sure its overkill but then there are only 2 on your radius setup.

 

[bats]

Not sure exactly but better safe than sorry.

I swapped in the Explorer radiator and fan shroud. Direct swap. I drove it around for an hour up and down the highway and everything seemed in place until I got home. Antifreeze spewed all over the engine compartment.

The Explorer radiator put the upper hose right on the fan belt and in turn wore a hole in it. No other damage. I cut an inch off the replacement hose and it clears it just fine.

Here's a shot I grabbed on lunch today:

 

[janderson4010]

I swapped in an explorer rad when I put the 4.0 in, but it was exactly the same as my bdos radiator, I think that it had been replaced at some point and the thinner one was cheaper. good thing it happened in your driveway and not somewhere else.

 

[bats]

I picked him up today. Big shout out to Marty at Long Island Driveshaft (Supershaft)! Works fast and does great work.

Marty originally setup the gears/locker when the 8.8 was under Eleanor (after the first guy gave up on it). I had him shorten Eleanors' rear drive shaft to replace the crappy stock on as well as shorten the existing front shaft.

After that, my friend and I went and tested it out. I couldn't be more pleased! It was mostly sand and some steepish hills. I didn't even engage the 4wd. Little bugger climbed right up everything! I put in 4wd to blow out the cobwebs and to make my friend feel better after his Sami made it about 2 feet up a hill before he gave up and locked the hubs.

Cannot wait to do some real wheeling when I head out for Carlisle! Long Island is pretty flat.

 

[rookieshooter]

Nice, it's been a long time comming.

 

[janderson4010]

you gotta take pics when you are beating up on sami's man, then again its kind of like beating up your little brother, maybe you don't want evidence of that haha. That's cool man, nothing like running your rig for the first time after a big mod.

 

[bats]

In the past week I put about 300 miles on him. I ran out east but I've yet to make it all the way to Montauk. (Summer is still young.) Put it on cruise and ran a steady 60 mph at 2,500 rpm for about an hour straight. All systems go minus a small, very slow coolant leak somewhere. Still remained cool all the way.

Based on my phone and a GPS I confirmed that I needed the orange speedo gear. Afterwards, both my phone and GPS read exactly what the speedo reads. Woohoo!

Still getting used to all the road noise. It's a bit of a bouncy buggy, even with the front sway bar still connected. Also, think I need to replace my exhaust donut. After Carlisle I want to install a crapload of sound dampening stuff.

 

[bats]

So Carlisle came and went and the Bronco II did good...for the most part. I'll pillage the facebooks later and post some action pics. We didn't get to do as much wheeling as I would have liked but it's probably for the better.

After spending Saturday at the showfield we headed over to Spas and Skunks place which is about an hour or so driver up some ridiculous mountains. About 3/4 the way there, the tranny started freaking out. It would rapidly shift in and out of overdrive and smelled heavily of burning ATF by the time I arrived.

I took it easy on the trails and made it home. After a 150ish mile trip home it was now was now doing that rapid back and forth shift in 2nd as well as OD. The problem continued the next day while driving to work.

I did some thinking and decided it was time to start the 4.0 swap. Yes, you read that right, 4.0 swap.

What's my reasoning? The cost of labor for trans service would kill me. When I had the black 95 Sport with a similar problem, a few places said the service costs more than the truck was worth. Those James Duff radius arms, nice as they are, are a bear to get in and out. The xmember comes out fine but to reattach it you have to loosen ALL the hardware and THEN reinstall it. Then whatever other services/parts so I figured around a grand+tax. That's just about what I bought the truck for.

Now why a 4.0 and not a *****in' V8? Donor trucks aren't as plentiful around here as they are elsewhere. Every one thinks they have gold even though they have more rust than an early 90's full size Bronco.

The biggest factor is that I have a perfectly good running 4.0 drive train in the Explorer. Engine has just a tad over 100,00 on it and ran and shifted strong when I last drove it. (It needed a front end rebuild as well as various clunks and clangs tracked down.)

 

[bats]

The goal here is to transplant the drivetrain/wiring as complete as possible. I'm swapping out the dash first. As much as I love the roundy round Bronco gauges, I can't stand the red color and thus find the Ex dash more pleasing to look at. Eventually it'll get a full interior swap but one step at a time.

 

[janderson4010]

dude I can roast both 35 krawlers in my bII with the 4.0, it motivates the bronco waaaaay better than it ever motivated the explorer. good call man, I think the v8 swap is kind of overrated to be honest, not that Ricks BII isn't nice, just that I like your decision.

 

[bats]

Agreed. In my research I've found very many people happy with the 4.0.

Took me all weekend but I successfully removed both dashes. The wiring on the Ex dash seemed much more tame than the Bronco's. The harness terminates at a nice cylindrical plug where as the Bronco had wires everywhere like a giant squid reaching its tentacles through the firewall.

I suppose the next thing to to is heater box swap since the Ex has the newer vacuum line style. Not sure if I have to swap the part on the other side of the firewall. The steering column bolts are soaking in PB Blaster. Then I suppose it's safe to put the dash back together and start tackling the harness, pulling and labeling. Then the fuel pump/system. I know what I have to do, just not sure of the best order to do it in.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i would never want to do a dash swap......and you know the crap i've done with evil. i bow down to you sir! :notworthy

 

[janderson4010]

I would have swapped the dash also but the donor for my swap had a disgusting interior. Yeah the x wiring is a bit less convuluted. Good work

 

[rookieshooter]

About the nut at the heim end. Make sure when you tighten it down that you do it with vengeance. On mine I even welded on extension to the wrench handles. It's just that important to get it tight.
Reason... They can back off, then the threaded shank will wobble in the threaded end of the link cause naturally there has to be some clearance between the threads. This will bugger up the threads.
And if you ever go to links that have R and L threads at either end then it could even change the length of the link.
On my D70 build I'll do all R handed threads on bottom link which will make it impossible to change length if the nuts do come loose. But on top I'll have R and L so I can easily change the pinion angle without unbolting the heims. But I'll use the extra leverage of the tools to snug down.
Really no reason to change the bottom once the proper length is obtained.

 

[bats]

I'll add them to my list of things to double check. I didn't really do a post Carlisle check out on the new suspension setup since I dove into the swap so soon.

Nothing monumental to report. Gutting the interior of the Explorer to cleanly remove the harness. Tagging everything in sight, about half way through.

The more I go through this, the more I understand about the wiring. It's really not that bad, I just have to focus on one thing at a time. I'm like a puppy jumping around to many different things at once.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

figured i would toss this in for ya

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358410

 

[bats]

MMM 5.0. There's a 5.0 parts truck that's been floating around on the local craigslists...

I'm too deep in the 4.0 swap to change my mind now. This weekend I successfully pulled and tagged the cabin side wiring harness and planning what I need and don't need. Obviously the Bronco II only has 2 doors so all the rear door wiring from the Ex is moot. I guess I'll wire the door plungers so it thinks the rear doors are always closed.

Also started pulling stuff off the 2.9. I'm doing this one first since I've never pulled an engine before. Rather than my usual hack and slash methods I'm making some effort to tag everything just in case some one wants the 2.9. Still runs good, burns a little oil.

Also decided to pull the trans and engine separately. Rather than make a herculian effort to get them out in one shot, I'll do each on it's own. While I have the Ex A4LD out I think I'll replace the TC and do some light maintenance. This trans shifted solid last I drove it.

The final decision I made was a roll cage. I'm going to pull the interior anyway for a clean harness pull and possibly to paint all those god awful red panels. What better time to install a roll cage and learn to weld? 6 point family style should suffice.

 

[janderson4010]

The final decision I made was a roll cage. I'm going to pull the interior anyway for a clean harness pull and possibly to paint all those god awful red panels. What better time to install a roll cage and learn to weld? 6 point family style should suffice.

I like the rollcage idea, but a cage is not the place to "learn" to weld, build a few bumpers first, sliders, that kind of thing. Stuff that doesn't have only one job, saving your life. I've made some booger welds before, but when they were on a cage I ground them back off and re-welded them, or started over with a new piece of tube, this is one thing that is imperative to get right, bk a poorly made cage can kill you.

also with regards to a welder, if you don't have one I would suggest buying one at an actual welding supply store, they will be more money but they will have better parts in them. I bought my Lincoln 140 at Lowes and it has some plastic parts in it that had I bought it from the local welding supply store would be metal. also buy the biggest welder you can afford, my 140 can weld some fairly thick metal, but its harder to weld with, you have to really know what you are doing to weld 1/4" plate with a 140, buy a name brand like miller, hobart or lincoln in the 180v range. nice progress on the swap, I need to go back and fix some of the shiz I hacked together, looks like you are doing it right the first time, good on you.

 

[bats]

Hoped to get the engine pulled this weekend since I've been away the past week or so and need to make up time. The bolts for the exhaust headers will probably take the better part of an afternoon since they're pretty rusted. Attempted one and rounded it off immediately. Engine mount bolts are soaking happily in PB Blaster and the transmission is partly unbolted. Then the skies decided to open up and unleash a t!tty f#cking torrential down pour.