2 Big Broncos Rocky Mountain Site
The origins of the Obsession
The story started in late 1997 when I purchased the truck. I got a pretty good price on it and could afford to make quite a few repairs without having to worry about getting my money back if it didn't work out. The first real surprise was to find the slip joint in the right front axle completely stripped due to lack of lubrication.
My wife. Ain't she cute? 
Yep,
that's me!
Step one: Gut the front end and replace or rebuild everything.
The front drive assembly actually wasn't too bad. The differential was in serviceable shape, but all the axle bearings and seals were gone. Since new gears and a new differential were very high on the list, the pumpkin was cleaned and inspected and reinstalled with a new axle bearing on the right side and new axle seals on both sides. The inner and outer axle shafts on the right side were replaced with heavy duty units. All bearings outside of the pumpkin were replace along with all the seals. New Warn Premium manual hubs were installed and the front end was called done until new gears went in.
Step two: Bumper to bumper, fix as you go.
After getting the front end fixed, it was time to see what the rest of the truck looked like. The pre-purchase inspection had revealed that a complete tune-up was in order but the compression was very good. The clutch was grabby but serviceable. The tires were in bad shape as well as the brakes. In went a new set of spark plugs and a thorough inspection of the ignition system. All settings were made (Why won't the idle come down?) The engine seemed pretty good. The bushings in the clutch linkage were shot, new ones in. The front brakes were good, but the rears were trashed. Everything but the backing plates needed to be replaced as well as the left emergency brake cable. The axle seals were starting to leak, but would last for now. The wheel cylinders were shot, new ones were cheap, so in they went. The brake booster was leaking like an old steam boiler and the brake pedal went to the floor. One new booster and a new master cylinder later and all was well with the brakes, after replacing the missing e-brake cable, of course. After installing a new set of Super Swamper tires and a set of Rancho RS5000's it was time for our first trip!
The
Bypass on Kelly Flats (Hi Sweetie! She's having fun, really.)
Step 3: Installing the rear locker.
The first outing was a major success. The truck performed better than I could have hoped. The combination of a smooth, stable idle, 6.7:1 granny gears and a 2.7:1 low range in the tcase allowed easy conquering of the rocks and mud of Kelly Flats and Sevenmile roads in Northern Colorado. Well, almost. I did spend an hour in the Bypass on Kelly waiting for a strap, but hey, that was the only real problem with open diffs! I still had some room in the value of the truck, so in went a Lock Right locker.
Bad surprise #1: Guess what, your rear-end is hosed...
This one hurt. I didn't fix it for another year, but I did worry a lot during that time and took it pretty easy on the truck. It turns out that some hammer mechanic had been into the rear some time in the past and had caused a lot of damage. The holes in the adjusters were all hogged out and nicked from someone using a punch to turn them. The adjuster locks were all bent and almost broke. The bolt holes in the carrier weren't aligned so someone simply drilled new holes to get it back together. The spiders and cross shaft were burned and pitted to almost uselessness. I new that I would be putting in a Detroit Locker sometime in the near future, so I started salvaging what I could of the rearend. The Lock Right replaced the spider gears, so I went ahead and installed it with the old cross-shaft. I spent a couple hours with files removing all the nicks and burrs that I could on the carrier and adjusters. The crush sleeve on the pinion had been over-compressed, but I couldn't do anything about that until I rebuilt the rear properly. So, locker in place, everything cleaned up, all adjustments re-made, the rearend went back in the truck. The driveshaft was pretty worn out as well, but everything would have to wait for more permanent repairs.
The locker was a mixed blessing. The rear drivetrain was so worn that the engine would turn a couple revolutions before the slop was taken up on initial acceleration. The locker popped and cracked and really carried on. It got scary at times! The problems with the clutch really came out with the locker. Backing up was a lesson in why you should see your chiropractor, boy did it jerk! Torque induced steering took on a whole new meaning. The suspension is so loose in this truck that you can't drive it without full attention to begin with. Now, with the locker, every time you hit the gas it heads to the left side of the road, when you back off it heads to the right. With no sway bar, it behaves like a big boat on rough seas all the time. But off road, heaven! I spent a year with the Lock Right in place relearning how to drive the truck. Icy and snow covered roads became more difficult to handle, but if you paid attention, it was fine. Mud and rocks became challenging instead of frightening. Loose rock hills became possible. I was starting to learn the fine art of Rock Crawling and man was I digging it!
Rolled the right-front tire off the rim on
this one! (Sevenmile)
Crystal Mountain, Northern Colorado
Step #4: On-board air.
The next limiting factor became traction and a rough ride. I knew that I needed to air down the tires, but how to air them up. I feel real uncomfortable driving the Bronco through the canyons with 20 pounds of air, much less with the 15 or so I needed. I experimented with a small 12-volt compressor for a while, but waiting an hour to air up tires really sucked. There had been a couple times I could have used an air blower as well. So, I started researching air systems.
The Bronco already had an AC compressor and brackets. The AC was dead, so out came all the weird stuff and the transformation started. I built a manifold out of 1/4 inch brass pipe and fittings to hold all the connectors and accessories. In addition to getting air out of the compressor, to the hose and to the storage tanks, I also included a small filter, shut off valve with pressure relief, and a gauge. I used some 4-inch schedule 40 PVC pipe for a storage tank. The whole works mounts under the hood for now and is controlled by a switch under the dash.
Epiphany number two! Being able to air the tires down to 14-15 psi tamed the trails to the point that 'wheeling became a TRUE joy. I could now feel every rock and branch as I rolled over them instead of the jarring I had before. I could now feel when a line was right. Tire slippage started disappearing as I learned how the Swampers really worked. Trails that had in the past been trials became very relaxing drives in the woods. I thought I liked doing this stuff before, now I knew that I had never even scratched the surface of the relaxation and thrill that came with tackling tough obstacles and being out in the backcountry.
Hung on the
rockers, all four off the ground (Scott asks "Are we having fun
yet?")
A problem: Why is thing such a dog?
Ever since I brought the truck home, I knew that the power was down, even for a 302. From time to time the truck would sound like a machine-gun convention when coasting down steep road sections. It ran good, but it wasn't right. The first step was to rebuild the carb. The same hammer mechanic that did the rearend must have done the carb as well. With the new kit and float and some fine tuning (Did I mention I've been doing race cars off and on for about 20-years now?), the backfire was gone, the idle finally worked right, and throttle response was crisp. Starting while the truck was staring at the sky became more difficult, but I could get much more severe angles side-to-side as well as front-to-rear now. Acceleration was still off though, and mileage should be a little better. Step two was to tear down the distributor. Just what I figured, the advance mechanism was frozen and the vacuum advance was blown. An hour later, all was well again. The truck runs great now, even barks the tires once in a while. You may be wondering why I waited about a year to do this work. This truck was bought for one purpose: 'Wheelin'! It only goes out once or twice a month and many other things get priority. I don't like it, but that's life.
Step #5: A real locker for the rearend.
Spring 1999. Time to drop some more money on the Bronco. I had been waiting in intense anticipation for this day. I called up Randy's Ring and Pinion service and ordered a Detroit Locker and rebuild kit. I called Currie Enterprises and had them send a set of heavy duty 31-spline axles (stock configuration, gotta love it!) The third member went to Slattens Automotive in Ft. Collins, CO for a total overhaul. I didn't have gears yet, so I'll have to have the labor repeated, but that's for another day. Northern Colorado Drivetrain in Greeley CO built a new heavy duty rear driveshaft for me. I threw it all in over a weekend and hit the trails again. Now that both axles and the shafts had heavy duty parts in them, I started really pushing the truck. I gotta tell you, this thing is amazing. When I first purchased the Bronco, I didn't know what to expect from an '80's vehicle. My experience said that real trucks disappeared about 1977 or '78. Boy was I wrong. I think the real advantage in this vehicle for the driving I do has to be the TTB front end. It makes a dramatic difference in how smooth the truck rides on or off pavement. It's obvious that I don't have 1-ton drivetrain parts, but for the way I drive, all my research indicates that I shouldn't have many problems with the drivetrain. The 302 isn't torquey enough to trash the driveline on a regular basis and I've learned what situations to avoid.
Gotta
get rid of the stock suspension! (Green Ridge trail, northern Colorado)
Green Ridge was very, very bad to me...
As the picture above shows, the water and mud on Green Ridge can be deep. Unfortunately, I got to spend a lot of time hanging around this mud hole trying to get the Bronc pulled out. During my stay, my marginal clutch finally gave out, my starter packed full of mud, my oil pressure gauge gave up, and another nasty secret was lurking around the corner. After limping the truck back home, I got the mud cleaned out of all the nooks and crannies underneath. The gas tank is now about 2 1/2 inches shorter than it used to be, the brakes are packed with mud, a couple new scratches here and there. I got the clutch out after several hours fighting with bent parts. It appears the truck took a major hit along the driver side suspension at one point. There are several new parts as well as a slightly tweaked frame rail.
The clutch had always been grabby and chattered quite a bit. I knew that some day I would need to get it replaced. The mud run provided a good excuse to get it done. The clutch disk had actually cleaned out quite well during the drive home. There was very little mud in the disk itself, but the housing and linkages were a different story. After cleaning, a close inspection revealed that the flywheel had never been cleaned before reinstallation after an earlier clutch replacement. It was heat cracked and had a lot of gunk burned onto it. Another problem was that the release bearing had never been lubed and was almost welded to the snout of the transmission. After a full cleaning and a little file work on the transmission snout, the new clutch went in well. I know from experience now that one person can install an NP208 t-case and a T-18 tranny by themselves in a dirt yard, but I sure don't recommend it. After cleaning up the starter and getting the drive working again (more water), the truck seems to drive fine. Gotta get to the mountains again.
Another problem raises it's ugly head...
After replacing the clutch, I decided to lube the chassis while the truck was in the air. That's funny, the right-front axle doesn't seem to be all the way into the knuckle. Must have lost the snap ring in the hub. Removing the hub produced about three tablespoons of water and the sickening sight of rust on everything. Luckily, I believe in slightly overlubing the wheel bearings. The next project will be to remove the entire right-front spindle assembly and seeing how bad the damage is. The culprit here seems to be a bad snap ring groove in the stub axle. I'll need to check into that a bit further to find out what's happened.
Got the hub apart and found total disaster. The bearing were siezed and had caused some damage to the spindle. Luckily, nothing froze up tight so the spindle just needs a good cleaning and deburring. Everything is covered in rust. Three hours with crocus cloth and a file got all that cleaned up. A new set of seals and bearings and all will work again. Gotta replace the stub axle, though. The outer snap ring groove is completely worthless, I don't know how it ever worked.
Later...
Finally got a new stub axle installed on the right side. This was much more difficult than I had hoped. First, Ford used two different size stub axles (and spindles and hubs I'm sure) on '81's. And mine is the not-so-popular one. And, of course, no one knew this until I got the new part installed and found out it's wrong. It's only 1/8th of an inch different, you have to know exactly where to look to see it. OK, order another one. I want to make the next club trip, if I get the part by Tuesday, everything will be fine. UPS: Your part isn't here. ME: What do you mean it's in California? Call Randy's again to get one overnighted. Part didn't show up 'til Friday. No problem, out to the shed to put the axle together, still got time. Pink! Broke a roller putting the u-joint together. Back to town, get a new joint, all is well again. Geez, with all the hassle getting this thing back together (clutch, starter, hub, new bearings, low oil pressure, and what was that knocking? Hope it was the throw-out bearing), I hope it isn't a message that I shouldn't be driving it...
Drippy drippy...
Another problem that needs urgent attention is my leaky steering box. It hasn't been too bad until now, but the lower seals on the sector shaft have finally given way. I'll update you on that later on.
It's later on.
Replacing the seals on the box was easy. One snap ring, two bolts and the entire sector shaft fell out. (Of course, this was after removing the steering box from the truck.) Getting the old seals out was tricky, there's not a lot of room to get a driver in there. The new kit isn't the same as the parts I removed, but they fit and everything looks right. The parts are cheap, so if it develops a leak again I'll do it over. So far it's staying dry.
Catastrophe...
Remember that funny knocking sound I mentioned? It's now accompanied by a leaking rear main seal that wasn't there before the Green Ridge trip. And a funny polished spot on the damper. And a definite thudding feel at some rpm ranges. The motor's gone. It still runs well. Compression is good, the motor is smooth, but the main bearings are history. If you watch close, you can see the damper jump when the engine knocks. Now a new quest starts. The truck will be parked until I sell my bike to get some money for an engine. Luckily, the bike has some value so I can get a four-barrel set up and some more performance parts (9.0:1 compression, bigger cam) and the tires and lift kit I want along with the front locker and gears to make it all work right. Keep checking back, things have a way of changing around here...
Remaining problems and the future.
The next step for the Bronco is a biggie: 36" tires, 4:56 gears, and a 4" lift kit. I have gone as far as I can with the stock suspension and ride height. The transfer case and the fuel tank drag way too much and I worry I'll break something. Other mods in the works include: Skid plates for transfer case and fuel tank, relocate the rear lower shock mounts to the top of the axle, more air storage, bead lock wheels, 10.000 pound winch. It won't be long before the interior gets gutted, the top removed and a soft top and roll bar installed. Dream mods include Dana 60s front and rear, double transfer case, a bigger engine and fuel injection. I'll update this page as things change. Happy Wheeling!