Ricks Bronco: 1and 1/2

[410Fortune]

I have not been impressed with the Hurst shifters I have seen, nothing but problems!!

You can adjust the pushrod from the brake booster into your master cylinder to adjust the brake biast to the rear. You are running rear discs right? What master cylinder did you use? Its been so many pages back I dont remember.
If you are running rear discs with a BII rear drum master cylinder you should consider a 95 Explorer master cyl.

I ran around with my 88 master cyl and rear discs for almost 3 years, went through 4 sets of rear pads, the rear discs were dragging with the drum master cyl. I swapped out for a no frills 95 Explorer master cyl and the braking was improved BIG TIME, ESPECIALLY on the trail... when crawling down rock faces I am really able to control the tires, stop the truck as each tire drops off a rock, etc way better than before...
\

 

[Turdle]

The big name company's sell you a warranted product, and when you observe the warranty they make you feel like an a$$ because obviously it is your fault for damaging their precious product--

A friend had an issue with a Hurst shifter-the reverse release pull up lever had broken right where the handle joins the rod. This was after about 3 months of use on a new shifter, in a car which was driven 2-3 times per week.
They told him to quit being so rough with it, and wanted $40.00 for a new rod, while at the same time loosing a future customer.
Instead of a solid rolled metal, the rod and handle are cast---

We made him a new one with solid rolled steel for about 3.00

Mind you-these are called "high performance" shifters--

aren't they?

 

[410Fortune]

I'm saving for an Art Carr gate shifter for my BII, until then my factory 96 Mustang shifter will work better then any Hurst or B&M model I have seen...

 

[rookieshooter]

If this does not work out well. Which I think it will once I've installed the proportioning valve. I'm thinking of dicing all this cable stuff and try going with direct heim ends with metal shifting rods.
410, I have drum brakes that are on an 8.8 94 Ex. rear. Will go discs later. Just waiting to see how this 8.8 holds up. Being the truck is about 1000 pounds lighter, my thinking is that it will hold up. I'll run it for a year like it is. If no problem then discs. If not, 9" will go in.

Here is the shifter I may go with.

http://lokar.com/product-descriptions/auto-trans-shifters.htm

 

[410Fortune]

That shifter looks okay but I have heard NOTHING but bad things about Lokar, not sure why... similar picture was posted in my conversion thread! LOL

To me it looks like that metal shifter would be hard to screw up no matter who makes it LOL thats a good thing.
If my floor shifter idea doesnt work out for my 4r70w heck with it I will just swap in a explorer automatic steering column, save myself the headaches and go column shift LOL

 

[Diff Whack Daddy]

I'll have to agree with 410 from experience. When I had the 700R4 put in, that was the shifter that AA chose. It sucked. The bracketry that attatched it to the tranny made a horrible vibrating noise which I never found until I replaed it with a B&M truck shifter. There is also no easy way to intall the gear indicator without selling your first born. Adjustments for the park/neutral safety swith and reverse lights were obviously designed by someone who had hands the size of a two year old with the dexterity of a ballerina.

 

[410Fortune]

582005 when you started this thread 3 year anniversary!!

Awesome to look at the pics on the first page and then on the last few pages

Congrats, very nicely done your truck is officially SICK

 

[rookieshooter]

Thanks for the input guys.
410, I did not realize the 3 year thing. Time flies when your having fun. The really neat thing about the whole build was that it was parked %100 stock. And then the next time it fired up. . . WOW, what a ride.

About the shifting issues. There are none now that I combined the B&M heavy duty cable with the Hurst shifter. Check out the vid of it going through the gears with the Hurst ratchet shifter. Now the C4/C5 tranny also has a B&M shift kit making for really quick shifts. My daughter took the vids. You can hardly notice the engine changing gears, but you can see the camera jerk as it shifts from first to second and then third.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v81/honda2nr4life/swamp spider/?action=view&current=MVI_3075.flv

Here is a vid of it going into and out of some turns. I don't know if you'll be able to hear it. But it chirped the tires in third gear.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v81/honda2nr4life/swamp spider/?action=view&current=MVI_3076.flv

 

[Turdle]

Thanks for the ride!

 

[rookieshooter]

OK, finally going to add the last gauge to the custom dash. If you look at the last gauge to the left it looks like it don't belong. That's because it's the only one that is not an AutoMeter gauge. It's an El Cheapo speedo that I installed just to get this truck thru inspection.
I was spending money on other things for this truck and now the money is there for a 5" round electric speedo from AutoMeter. It is also completly programable.
The gauge next to that far left speedo is an Autometer 5" round tach. So the new speedo will match the tach perfectly.

Click on below to view tach. This will be ordered within a day or two. I'll post pics of it when it arrives and installed.

http://www.autometer.com/cat_gaugedetail.aspx?gid=3118&sid=11

Next biggie will be the addition of a full spool in the rear

But I still need to do some more recovery from my open heart surgery 4 weeks ago befor I can do any hard wheeling.

 

[rookieshooter]

I've been wanting to make somekind of mount for my Kayak for a long time. It was a lot simpler then I thought. Once I lifted the Kayak up onto the roof cage. I just centered it for balance, marked some places for some bolts to go through the gunnels of the area that I set down into . These marks were lined up with the roof cage. So now all I have to do is drop some bolts down through the gunnels and the cage material and bolt it. So far all I did was the back. The front I use a tie down strap. The front I mean the front part of the roof cage.
I took it for a test ride and no problems.

I'll be using this little boat to go spring Turkey hunting next week.

 

[mudy explorer]

wow that the bast this i have seen built in a long time it look like all that hard work you did makeing it now you can have some fun

 

[rookieshooter]

Thanks for the compliment muddy.

And also thanks to all the guys that voted on my truck It took first place for March Ride of the Month.
The above pic is of the Tee shirt that they gave me. So far March ride is not on the site yet.

50% of the total score was the on-line voting which it had the most, with the remaining percentages voted on by the Sponsors. These were for modifications, interior and exterior. The Sponsor's were companies like Edelbrock, Bushwhacker, JC Whitney and many more.

 

[410Fortune]

*****in man! well deserved, when you can look at it and literally say "I built that" then you have a rig of the month (century IMO)
What a truck! With that boat up there you coulda chopped the roof! LOL

 

[Turdle]

Wow!
Congratulations Rick! That is a well deserved award. I'll bet you feel pretty big right now eh?

 

[rookieshooter]

Here's the old speedo that I have been using since this truck past it's first inspection back in Aug of 07.

Finally got me new 5" round electric Auto Meter speedo. They are all Ultra light models. This will now give me 9 gauges.
Right now I'm just holding it up in the position that it will be mounted. It's a programable speedo, as expected. I also got the electric sending device also.
Going to be fun cutting in that 4.5" hole in the dash.

Might just get it installed tomorrow. Then test ride to see it that thing even works HA HA. Don't need much of an excuse to ride though

 

[rookieshooter]

Started the install today. Hand cut that hole using tin snips. Managed to cut through only one wire

Here is the electric Hall effect pick-up that I needed to order along with the speedo. You just have to remove the old cable, remove the plastic gear and reinstalle on new sensor.

All done and working sweet. I like the digital trip meter and milage indicator also.

 

[lifeguard379]

that looks killer! great job. how hard was it to make it work? dose it use the same spot spot on the tail shaft, or is it all external now?

 

[rookieshooter]

that looks killer! great job. how hard was it to make it work? dose it use the same spot spot on the tail shaft, or is it all external now?

A little more wiring then I thought I would have to do. But it has very good instructions.
Yes, the electric sensor bolts directly into the same spot on the transfer case as did the old cable. When you pull out the old cable drive you just pull off a little C-clip to remove the gear and then you slip the gear onto the new electric sensor. I guess when the gear turns, it sends a signal to the speedo. To program the speedo to your tires and gears. Basically all you do is to go down a 2 mile measured part of the highway. But you must be stopped first at the beginning and then you push in the trip meter button and then push it again at the end of the 2 mile measured course. It automatically figures in the tire and gear ratios. Really slick.

 

[rookieshooter]

Did some trail riding on the farm that I lease for hunting after some heavy winds due to thunderstorms. Came across this tree that was blocking the road.

Took along the Sthil chain saw and cleared the trail. Not mentioning firewood for next season.

Now here is the main reason I posted these pics. Here is the truck with the back window out and the rear metal bulkhead dropped down. I've been riding like this since the weather really turned nice. Hey, all that visibility is just not a jeep thing. And that breeze is so nice