The 4.0 Swap was chump change compared to this - Look inside...

[janderson4010]

all ready to go in, just waiting on the paint to dry. ill get it in and have the brakes etc hooked up tonight. prob get the driveshaft in as well.

 

[broncobra22]

Wonderful that things are really coming together on your Bronc ...looks fresh and I know it's going to run killer!

 

[rookieshooter]

Wonderful that things are really coming together on your Bronc ...looks fresh and I know it's going to run killer!

I agree, and it's at the really fun part of the build knowing you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. On second thought your about through the tunnel.

 

[janderson4010]

Everything is in and sitting on the ground including brake lines and driveshaft, if i hadn't broken a fuel line on the thing a month ago and had front brake lines i could drive it. but alas I need to order some more parts. also need to get the shock situation figured out. ive got some very long travel shocks that i scored for free that I want to use but they are suuuuuper long. i won't be able to use them in the back im sure but in the front I think ill use 80's f250 shock towers and cut a hole in the inner fender so they can hang out in the engine bay. guess its time to call the wrecking yard and see if they have some shock towers for me

 

[snoranger]

I think ill use 80's f250 shock towers

E5TZ-18183-A

Try your local Ford dealer. They go for less they $20 a piece new.

 

[janderson4010]

Prob just go steal them out of my tow rig, it doesnt need shocks anyway

 

[rookieshooter]

Prob just go steal them out of my tow rig, it doesnt need shocks anyway

Don't forget to grab the D60 while your stealing parts ha ha.

 

[janderson4010]

i watched a kid break an axleshaft on a d60 just like that the other day, i think it was the 30 spline variety of that axle. Not sure whats in mine but im thinking i need a sterling or a d70 instead, lol.

Last weekend was a lot of fun, we wheeled 4 weekends in a row so we finished out the rock crawling season with a bang, snow wheeling will be here before we know it. Jeez it snowed 3 inches here about a month ago, snowed all day long then melted the next day, Idaho is weird

 

[janderson4010]

http://www.planet4x4.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19823&page=2

here is a link to our Sister clubs thread on planet4x4.net to see some pics of the wheeling that happened on saturday if anyone is interested. The red jeep broke a front hub and his rear driveshaft so he limped out with 1 wheel drive and the kid with the white cherokee broke an axle shaft trying to climb out of a huge hole, good times were had by all

 

[janderson4010]

walked into my buddies shop yesterday and he was talking to some dude about jk rubicons and the retarded elocker setup they have in them. long story short he wants a gear job done and he is giving me a wagoneer dana 44 as partial payment on it, dana 44 here i come!!!

 

[rookieshooter]

walked into my buddies shop yesterday and he was talking to some dude about jk rubicons and the retarded elocker setup they have in them. long story short he wants a gear job done and he is giving me a wagoneer dana 44 as partial payment on it, dana 44 here i come!!!

Getting better all the time

 

[janderson4010]

I knew all along that i wasn't going to leave the d30 in for very long. I seriously considered a hp 60 for the front but the cost would be prohibitive and with my wheelbase to be on par with the full size guys i really only need to run 38's tops. so the d44 is going to be a great choice for the bII, and the price is right too.

Im mounting the rear shocks in today and hopefully ill get started on the front this evening. since im so broke right now im thinking im going to build my own shock towers out of some of the 2x2 that i used for my links. its a good day to be in the warm insulated garage bk its snowing outside, about an inch on the ground and no signs of stopping. so the last nice days are gone until probably June now, gotta love living in Idaho.

 

[rookieshooter]

its a good day to be in the warm insulated garage bk its snowing outside, about an inch on the ground and no signs of stopping. so the last nice days are gone until probably June now, gotta love living in Idaho.

Gotta love this global warmin, check out our long range weather Forcast. Think I need to put the tube doors back on


What's your elevation where you live?
Like to see how you do the shock towers.

 

[janderson4010]

we are at 4900 ft or so. got the first shock tower mocked up, the black line on the cardboard represents the frame rail and the imaginary line continuing up from it, it is 12", which with those shocks should give me about 5" of uptravel and 10" of downtravel. im going to gusset them pretty heavily and cap the top of the tube, I think its going to work pretty darn well. btw that shock is one of the crappy ones im using for mockup, i got 2 really good ones and to kinda crappy ones, all 4 actually work just fine though. thinking of painting them to match the coils etc.

had to turn the rig around to go in the garage front first so I thought id take a picture of it and see how level it is, not on really flat ground unfortunatley and i didn't put the fender on. I was going to grab it out of the back but it was about 18 deg outside so I thought better of it.

 

[rookieshooter]

How are you going to do the top shock mount? Side mount, double shear using welded tabs? The main reason I'm asking is in the pic it looks like if you attach the top mount directly to the side of the tower that the shock shaft is very close to the square tubing.
Not that it would rub when both front shocks do an equal compression but when you do an articulated stuff and droop and the axle does some lateral movement.
Plus the shock housing needs to have clearance also.
Maybe cycle one side of the front axle using floor jacks in the cozy garage to see how it does in 3 dimensions.
Maybe I'm just being too concerned plus the fact that I'm jealous not having my rear axle to work on. Need to talk to Joe who has the D70 to make sure he has not changed his mind. Wheeling every day and not fabbing something up is just so wrong.

 

[janderson4010]

oh yeah the eye of the shock is going inside the square tubing, hole drilled through the top where it is sitting now and the side of the tubing cut out to allow movement for the shock, ill take more pictures.
yeah im going to tack it on and cycle the suspension to make sure the shock doesn't contact anywhere during its travel.

 

[janderson4010]

the shock isn't in the right place on the bottom, still got to make the mount for the axle end. but it goes pretty much to the top without contacting the shock body,(although in the pics i realize it appears that its about to crunch it).

copied the dimensions onto another stick of square so the other side should be easier and quicker to build, once i get the replacement fuel line and some brake lines I should be able to drive it in 2wd, I don't have a driveshaft for the front and I don't think ill make one until I get the doubler built.

 

[janderson4010]

Yeah i was right, the passenger side took about 45 minutes to build, thats how it always seems to go. I finished it all up and painted it, while I was at it I sanded and painted 2 of those shocks, they looked beat up so i figured id clean them up a little bit. probably tomorrow afternoon ill go out and cut the lower shock mounts out and build new ones. moving the mounting location of the lower shocks will make them straight and give the shock body more clearance on the upper mount under compression. after that i need some brake lines and that fuel line and I can take it for a test drive. can't wait.

 

[janderson4010]

I just did a couple of simple tabs, even left them square, the most important thing was getting them as far out as possible. with them in this configuration i can go 5" of uptravel, thats as far as my jack will go, and im going to bump stop it around there anyway, that will put a 35 just a tiny bit from hitting my fender. couple pics of the shock mounts on the passenger side,

 

[rookieshooter]

Any other gussets going to be added or do you think it will be fine like it is?
I know it's just tacked for right now, but just a little concerned about the back and forth movement. Or more precisely the part of the shock tower that is welded to the top of the frame where the bend is located which is the strongest part of the frame acting like a fulcrum point and then wanting to pull the middle of the frame out where the bottom of the tower is welded to.
Especially if I remember correctly this is where the old shock tower was and is already weak due to the rust?
I know the pic below is of a coilover and this shock mount really has to be strong due to having the shock and coil combined and this would be an epic fail if in fact it did fail.
So with all this mumbo jumbo that I've said, wondering if a similar plate might add some additional support?
I know on my CO support I had to add an additional support to stop all the in and out movement of the shock.

Enjoying your build, keep it up