bats 88 Bronco II Build Up aka Project Second Chance

[bats]

This afternoon I had some time to kill so I took a ride out to Smith Point and tooled up and down the beach for a little while. Witnessed the best sunset I've seen in a while. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[feared100]

@Bats- how much is the beach permit? JW i need to get itt

 

[janderson4010]

was it the sunset or the rum?

 

[bats]

@feared-Beach pass will run you about $100. You need to be a Green Key holder (like 20$ for Suffolk County residents) and have a letter from the title holder of the vehicle (if not you) saying you can purchase a pass for the vehicle.

 

[feared100]

Thanx Bats!

 

[bats]

Not much progress to show. Installed a light bar but am still fighting with the wiring. Bad ground somewhere methinks.

Started going through my piles of parts to see what I need for the 8.8 swap. I have the locked 4.56 from Eleanor ready to go. I also have some superlift SOA brackets that I think I'll use. I test fitted them over the weekend and it doesn't seem like there's much wiggle room for setting the pinion angle. They sit on top (on bottom?) of the spring perches rather snugly. Also need to get a drive shaft.

At this point I'm checking and double checking my lists but I plan to be up and running for Carlisle.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

saw a b2 for sale today, and you where the first person to came to mind. then i started having flash backs of my old one. lol. and if memory serves me correct, your perches should be on top for a b2.

At this point I'm checking and double checking my lists but I will be running for Carlisle.

there, fixed it for you

 

[bats]

Thanks for the correction Tim! Tis been a while since I've touched the BII due to work. Hoping to get at least the rear axle dropped this weekend. I should learn to weld one of these days..

 

[bats]

I thought I posted this post but I guess it might have been an illusion due to lack of sleep.

A lot's been done on the BII since I last checked in. I dropped it off with a guy by me who does all sorts of car stuff in his spare time. He did the 8.8 swap for me. Looks pretty good. My only concern is the pinion angle looks a little steep. I gave him a set of SOA brackets for an EXPLORER to use as spring perches (with the necesary trimming.) No trimming but it doesn't look that bad. I'll get pics next time I'm out.

Drove it around for a bit and it drives ok so I'm not too concerned. The 4.56's do give it a nice amount of pep.

As for the front end:

It's in progress. The Explorer TTB beams are being cleaned up while I'm installing the JD Extended radius arms.

Not going crazy with the lift. For now, just going with shackles in the rear and I'm looking to find some afforable coils for the front. The clock to Carlisle is ticking so I might just cheat and use coil spacers instead.

 

[janderson4010]

the lower the better imo, I measured mine and im at 2.5" of lift with 35's, low cog and all that. with regards to the pinion angle, if you are using a cv driveshaft then your pinion angle needs to match the angle of the driveshaft, meaning that your pinion needs to point directly at the tcase. If the driveshaft is a regular with one ujoint at either end it needs to have the same angle on the pinion as the tcase, which would only be a few degrees. good luck on the build, post up some pics.

 

[bats]

Snapped a pic of the driveshaft and pinion angle:

What do you guys think?

Here are my plans in terms of lift:
Coil springs and spacers from the Explorer.
Swap in rear leaf packs from a 2000 four door Ex. They came with the disk brake rear I put in the explorer and seem to be broken in, not too stiff, not too saggy. I have a set of shackles if needed to level things out.

As of Sunday night I had the passenger side beam and JD radius arm installed. Just have to tighten up the bolts on the beam side. I really should have wire brushed the threads since they were a ***** to get the bolts in. On the plus side I'm building ridiculous upper body strength.

 

[janderson4010]

looks a little steep imo. but im more concerned about the fact that your muffler is level with your pinion lol.

the spring set up you speak of should give you an inch to an 1 1/2 in of lift, I used the explorer pack with the eyes cut off then added the main leaf from my bII back and I think I got 2" to 2.5". keep it low man.

 

[bats]

Last night I took parts off the Explorer. I put the Ex coil spring in and one of the coil spacers for a test fit. The clearance is just right for 31's. No doubt I'll rub when flexing but I plan on a 2 inch body lift (forward thinking for an engine swap....) eventually. That'll do me for a lift.

Tonight I started looking at the drive shaft. I have a front and rear from another parts explorer. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best way to have a ds made. My thought process was use the front shaft from the explorer like this:

8.8Flange ->Double cv->slip joint using existing cv.

OR

Have the rear explorer drive shaft shortened and just find a t-case side flange that accepts the bigger u-joint. Then I lose the double cv thing.

Been googling like a mad man and my head is spinnin.'

 

[janderson4010]

the explorer drive shaft will fit your 13-50 tcase, before I got crazy with dual cases I ran a shortened explorer shaft on the 13-54, it has the same rear output as the 13-50. you can also put a front 13-54 cv spicer1310 flange on it and run a shortened front explorer shaft.
wow that was a lot to take in, basically you can make a front or rear explorer shaft work, the easiest will be the explorer rear shaft. the 8.8 has a flange that is 3" from hole to hole, the tcase end on the bw1354 or 1350 will have 2.5" between holes.

 

[janderson4010]

do the ex rear bk then your driveshaft angle will be correct, added bonus, no cutting and turning to use a double cardon shaft.

 

[bats]

Thanks for the input! I have a guy who I know does good work who's going to properly setup all the rear end drive train stuff once it's rolling.

Pretty smooth sailing this weekend. Front suspension work is 95% done. My shocks were supposed to come Friday but Fedex says delivery was refused. I'll take care of them tomorrow. Coil springs and spacers swapped from the Ex. James Duff radius arms bolted up. (Those are some HUGE bolts!)

Then I ran into some bumps. The included xmember with the James Duff kit is about 2 inches to wide. Fine print on the kit says the kit is only up to an 87' BII. Nothing a little grinding and welding won't fix.

Front pumpkin mounted painlessly, drivers side is done and ready for brake stuff. The passenger side c-clip eliminator gave me some grief. Couldn't get the splines lined up, spring wouldn't go into the boot without a terrible fight. Once I got it in and started putting the spindle on I noticed the shaft was binding up. Like I had to use pliers to turn the dang thing. From what I've read this is likely a bad cv joint. Luckily I have a fresh shaft at hand.

 

[bats]

Tonight I reached a milestone: Buddy is officially drivable...ish. It needs an alignment something fierce but otherwise everything seems in place.

James Duff support got back to me rather quickly. They said that removing the crossmember causes the frame to sag just enough for to make the new JD one not fit. Their solution was to loosen the brackets (for a third time!!) and then tighten everything up in a criss-cross pattern. Low and behold it worked.

My binding issue turned out to be too much droop. Once I mounted up the shock I tested it again and it turned much easier.

I'm glad I went with the Explorer springs because they really tightened up the ride. I also chose to keep the front sway bar since I remembered how sloppy the red Ex was without it. I have plans to make some quick discos out of the front bolts.

The shackle bolts gave me some grief otherwise I would have been driving sooner.

Currently I'm running 4 mismatched tires with varying amounts of tread. Ordered some general grabber at2's yesterday and got em' by noon today. They seem to be a pretty good all around tire with decent offroadability.

All that's left is some fine tuning. He gets an alignment and new shoes tomorrow followed by some custom drive shaft work. When I had the xmember out I noticed the tranny leaking a steady drip drip so I'm keeping an eye on that.

 

[bats]

I did a brake job on the front end, new rotors and pads. I was hoping to use the master cylinder from the Explorer but the fittings are different sizes.I tested out the brakes on my ride tonight and they seemed consistent and efficient. Eventually it will get rear disc brakes.

Didn't quite get up to high way speeds, only about 50 mph or so, since it wanted to run itself off the road. I noticed a occasional vibration when I step on the gas above 30 mph which I'm attributing to the rear for now.

I think that's all for now. This is more of a mental checklist than anything.

In summary:Bronco drives, minor bugs, getting fixed.

 

[bats]

Had an alignment done yesterday. I'm eventually going to get 2 inch drop brackets to allow better alignment.

The major work is done and now it's a lot of little things. The tires were mounted and I drove around for a while yesterday. A little more road noise than the previous set but not too bad. The biggest annoyance is my light bar makes a howling noise at highway speeds.

After seeing how it sits with the new tires, I'm undoubtedly going to rub with the sway bars removed. I figured how's a good time to do the body lift since I really don't want fender flairs. Fcked up the radiator when removing the fan shroud. Leaked everywhere. Crap. Instead of waiting for my parts guy to order one I got the brilliant idea of using the radiator from the Explorer.

Fast forward to the end of the afternoon. The Explorer radiator bolts right in. However, the fan shroud is a little thicker which pushes on some of the copper cooling lines. No biggie. I drove it around all day and when I got home I noticed it leaving MULTIPLE spots of antifreeze in the driveway. Turned out the upper left hose was resting on the fan belt which ate a hole in it. An easy fix *sigh of relief*

 

[janderson4010]

Pics or it didnt happen, lol.