Adam and Steves 1986 Bronco II

We picked this up last september for $700
Its going to be strickly a Silver Lake Sand Dune vehicle.

If anybody has never been to Silver Lake, and feel like a good camping/off roading weekend this is definately the place. You will see more amazing off road vehicles than you could ever dream of. I like to think that silver lake is accountable for the hole in the Ozone Layer lol.
Its also alot differant than going mudding or off roading. The sand is a completely different ball game to drive on. Make sure you check it out some time and make sure to let some air out of those tires lol.


When we got it it had brand new:

Tires
Gas Tank
Fuel Pump
Front Lockers

Since we have gotten it we have put in new:
Rear brakes
Rear axle bearings and seals
Oil pump
Oil pan gasket
Water pump
Clutch/Pressure plate
Rebuilt CV joints on rear axle
New U-Joints in front end.

Mods we have put in:
Pioneer Deck with Eclipse speakers ($800 speaker system in the $700 truck lol, but steve already had these from his old truck)
Stainless Steel Washable Cone Intake
Removed the Catalytic Converter
And also we are painting the entire thing with Herculiner Bedliner. It looks awesome.

Hoping to put in after the summer (if we don't destroy it too bad):
A 2-4" suspension lift
Some bigger (mostly wider) tires with nice wheels.
If the 2.9L dies on us, or it doesnt have enough power, drop in a 302, or the 4.0 from an explorer whichever is cheaper/easier to put in.

But thats what we have so far. Its not anything near what everybody else on here has but its a start. Im basically trying to get the thing working well before spending money on making it look cool lol.

As of today we have Spent $1500 on it including the price of buying it, so not bad for a nice little dune truck.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=59028&stc=1&d=1272310689

This pic was taken the day we bought it (steves on the left, Im on the right)

nice!!

the 4.0L is MUCH easier then the V8

Yikes on that windshield visor semi tractor light thingy jobber!!

A few simle upgrades that are cheap:

ditch the urethane style transmission crossmemeber, get a Ranger/91-94 explorer trans x member, it will bolt in
If you have the double cardigan style rear driveshaft, find a 91-94 explorer rear driveshaft and have it shortened/rebuilt will save alot of headaches later

Speakers!!

We started By putting in the speaker system, because come on, you gotta have music while your working lol.

She sounds awesome now with the new speakers.

The next thing we noticed was that the rear end was low on fluid, and after filling it up and takin it for a spin we saw gear oil splattered all over the inside of the passenger tire.
So we figured its time to get some new bearings and seals.

(Note that we are not car guru's, basically everything we are doing is for the first time, and our only help has been this web site, and my chiltons manual) lol

So we started by taking off the drums and rear brakes, which were junk and needed replacing anyway.

Getting the axles out:
This process is alot easier than it looks. It really only takes 2 sockets and a pair of tweezers.
After taking the cover off the rear end you will see all kinds off gears.
After reading a bunch of reviews and reading our manual a bunch we noticed that it was quite simple.
First their is a small bolt holding in a pin that goes through the middle of the dif. Remove the bolt and the pin will slide up. ( I here that in most trucks the pin will come out completely, but Ford decided to make it harder lol)

Once the pin is slid up an inch their is room to push in on the axle about an inch, which allows you to remove a single C clip. I used tweezers and it worked great. Do this on both sides and the axles will slide right out.

Once the axles are out you can get to the bearings.
I had a makeshift slide hammer, but a real one would have been better.
A pair of channel locks was the other tool needed.

Just pry around with the channel locks and hitting it with the slide hammer and after a while they will come out.

After that put in the new bearings and seals and do it in reverse.

410Fortune said:

nice!!

the 4.0L is MUCH easier then the V8

Yikes on that windshield visor semi tractor light thingy jobber!!

A few simle upgrades that are cheap:

ditch the urethane style transmission crossmemeber, get a Ranger/91-94 explorer trans x member, it will bolt in
If you have the double cardigan style rear driveshaft, find a 91-94 explorer rear driveshaft and have it shortened/rebuilt will save alot of headaches later

Click to expand...

Haha so you dont like the Viser? lol
Im hoping it will look better painted and with some off road lights on it.
Im planning on painting it this thursday with the herculiner, it should look really nice.

Im kinda posting this the wrong way lol, its basically done for what we have planned this summer, i just havnt posted anything on it yet lol. So i have to scrounge up all these pics and remember what order we did everything in lol.

And how do i put more pictures on here? everytime i go to upload one it says my thing is full. I know you can only have 4 per post, but its only letting me do 4 overall.

the visor is cool! I dont like it for my truck, it seems these were puton alot of BII;s along with the aluminum full size running boards.. not my taste but I bet it helps keep the dun out of your eyes at times!!

also 97+ explorer visors will bolt in pretty much and are a HUGE upgrade to the POS stock BII visors.....I have lighted mirrors and 4 visors in my 88 BII

FYI gear lube STINKS!!!!!!!!!

410Fortune said:

the visor is cool! I dont like it for my truck, it seems these were puton alot of BII;s along with the aluminum full size running boards.. not my taste but I bet it helps keep the dun out of your eyes at times!!

also 97+ explorer visors will bolt in pretty much and are a HUGE upgrade to the POS stock BII visors.....I have lighted mirrors and 4 visors in my 88 BII

FYI gear lube STINKS!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Haha i will look into that.
ANd yes it is quite smelly lol, But as i found out the other day, Mercon ATF for the t case is the most horrid liquid i have ever smelled lol.

The next task after the rear bearings was new brakes.
Not too bad, but they are definatley more complicated than any other drum setups i have seen. It is very nice to have some spring tools and some help from a friend when putting the new ones on.

get a photobucket...

and upload your photos there and then link here

Bondo

Next came the bondo.
ALOT OF BONDO haha

the passenger front fender wasnt too bad, but the driver side had a monster hole in it.

So what i did was grind it down to good metal and snagged some tin snips from work and fabbed up a piece to fit in.

Their was also a big rust out in one of the corners so i made another piece. I riveted them in and then poured the bondo to her lol.





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since its going to be a dune truck anyhow... why not just trim out the front fenders to fit larger tires for flex and the front part for better approach?

You guys have a nice project. I like how you are rebuilding it, the simple way and use what you got. You do not need all the fancy, high dollar equipment stuff that the next door neighbor has ha ha. You are using your creativity. It looks good so far..!!!!

dude wow im 16 lookin to buy an explorer and im like holy **** that looks liek fun im preety creative and like projects so that looks like fun
how muhc money have you put into it'
my dads friend wanted to sell me one of them cuz i told him i wanted a 4x4

where did u get the new adjustment springs for the rear drums? or did u buy a kit? when my rear seals blew, my spring snapped off in my hand and i had to go to junkyard to get a new set...

FutureX said:

where did u get the new adjustment springs for the rear drums? or did u buy a kit? when my rear seals blew, my spring snapped off in my hand and i had to go to junkyard to get a new set...

Click to expand...

I got the spring kit at auto zone, dont quote me but i think its under $20 per side with all the springs and the adjustment piece. Luckily my dad had some spring tools, the removal one, and one to put them back on, but a flat head screwdriver would work almost as well.

jessiejames2012 said:

dude wow im 16 lookin to buy an explorer and im like holy **** that looks liek fun im preety creative and like projects so that looks like fun
how muhc money have you put into it'
my dads friend wanted to sell me one of them cuz i told him i wanted a 4x4

Click to expand...

Haha yah its a blast and we bought it for $700 and put about $800 into it over the last 6 months or so.

Its alot of fun but make sure you have a nice place to work on it, luckily my friends grandma had an old chicken coup that hasn't been used for years, so we got to clean it out and work in their. Its nothing pretty but at least it has walls and a roof lol.

SPORT4.0 said:

You guys have a nice project. I like how you are rebuilding it, the simple way and use what you got. You do not need all the fancy, high dollar equipment stuff that the next door neighbor has ha ha. You are using your creativity. It looks good so far..!!!!

Click to expand...

Yah exactly, the only really expensive thing i plan on puttin in would be a small lift and bigger tires, but that wouldn't be untill this winter when i have both time and money.

Plus what is even better is since two of us own the truck we split the price on everything so even though we have spent $1500 overall, its really only $750 a piece. lol

But thanks for the comments!

FutureX said:

since its going to be a dune truck anyhow... why not just trim out the front fenders to fit larger tires for flex and the front part for better approach?

Click to expand...

Well i thought about trimming the fenders alot, but my buddy did it on his dodge raider and i just didnt like the looks of it. Ive always liked the looks of the fenders on the Bronco II's so i thought i would put a little work into them and make them look nice. (Plus the Herculiner should hold in all the bondo and not let it bubble out and chip etc....)

I want to have a cool off road truck, but try to keep the body looking as good as possible.

Plus ive already spent countless hours and multiple cans of bondo fixing all the rust outs on it lol. (Gotta love that Michigan Rust)

Oil Pan Gasket

:thumbdwn:

We noticed we had a pretty decent oil leak coming out from around the top of the oil pan. This was a complete PITA to fix but if you dont have the resources to pull an engine, or if you just dont want to pull the engine, it can still be done lol.

After taking the bolts out of the pan (starter has to be taken out first) We noticed that the pan would not drop low enough to slide out, or enough to get the new gasket in.

I got on the forum and read up on how to get the pan out. Everybody said you have to pull the engine out and it was the only way. Well that just looked like a nightmare with all the lines that would have to be hooked back up. So after looking at it alot i thought why not just take the tranny out and slide the pan back wards? So thats what we did lol.

Luckily my Boss has a sweet shop right down the road from us with tons of tools and a pit.

So we trailered it down and got started.
First we took off the drive shafts
Then we removed any lines that connect to the tranny and transfer case.
Next we removed the 5 bolts holding the t-case on and "carefully" lowered it. The t-case is pretty heavy so make sure to use some floor jacks, or some muscle lol.
After the t-case was out we removed the 6 bolts that hold the tranny on the engine.
Once these are removed we took it out the same as the t-case. Just roll a floor jack under and lightly press up on the tranny. Have one guy pushing the truck forward, and the other prying the tranny up over the exhaust pipe and anything else the bellhousing hits on.

Be very carefull that you keep the tranny level a straight while removing it so you dont mess up spline coming out of the tranny.

Once this is out the Clutch and Pressure plate needs to be removed. Their are 6 bolts holding the pressure plate on, remove these, and slide the plate out and the clutch will come with it.

Next their are 6 bolts on Flywheel that must be removed. The flywheel will spin when you try turning the bolts, so i took a pair of vise grips and grabbed the wheel and turned it untill the vise grips hit something.

Once this is out you can see the oil pan!!!! Woohooo!!! lol
Now its time for a chew break or watever else you like haha.

After your well deserved break it is time to get the pan out
It will not just slide out however, you must move it around untill you can see the oil pump. Take a small star bit and put it in a pair of vise grips. Remove the 2 bolts that hold the pump in and drop the pump in the pan. Now you can remove the slide the pan out with ease lol.

I bought a new oil pump along with the gasket because i have heard the bronco II oil pumps are junk. I just took the oil pickup off the old one and bolted it to the new one. Then i picked out any smally peices of junk in the pick up.

Basically the hardest part is getting the pump back in while sliding the pan in with it and bolting it up. Their isnt much space but after a little while it can be done. I would highly recomend two people for this part. One to hold the pump and get it into position and the other guy to put the bolts it (without dropping them in the pan). Note that while positioning the pump you must also have the small spline that spins it in the correct location. With some patience you will get it. Make sure you have the gasket positioned correctly and begin placing the bolts back in an just snugging them up.

Once they are snug for extra precaution you can put some gasket maker along all the edges of the gaskeg, just to make sure nothing leaks.

Wait for the gasket maker to cure and begin putting everything back together.

I bought a new clutch and pressure plate to put it while it was off. The whole kit with the new pilot bearing for the flywheel and the allignment tool was $100 bucks at Auto Zone. Lifetime warranty.

I believe the flywheel bolts were 50 ft lbs and the pressure plate was around 30 ft lbs. Make sure you tighten the bolts in the correct sequence.

We then put the tranny in, put some gasket maker on the back where the t-case goes in, and then bolted the t-case in. Then we put the crossmember back on, followed by the drive shafts. I put new u-joints in the front drive shaft (greasables) and rebuilt the CV joints on the rear drive shaft.

Put them on, filled her all up with fluid, and connected everything back up.

The last thing to do is bleed the hydralic clutch line. Their is a small bleeder screw on top of the tanny right next to where the line goes in. Remove it and pump the clutch untill it squirts out.(MAKE SURE TO CHECK THAT THE BLEEDER WILL OPEN BEORE PUTTING THE TRANNY BACK IN!!!!) Funny story aobut it at the far end of the thread. Put it back on and fill the resevour up with dot brake fluid to the correct level. Next pump the clutch until bubbles stop going into the resevour and you will feel the clutch tighten up nicely.

We Also through in a new water pump while we had the pit.

Started her up, checked for any leaks and took it for a spin. Ran great.

Now its time to get back to the chicken coup and get her all painted up and put all the body panels back on.

Sorry i dont have the best pics, kinda forgot to take any when we were taking it apart lol.















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