New owner from Germany

[tody]

Bronco is back from the muffler shop. Exhaust is tucked in neatly...
Trailered it there, drove it back.
NV3550 is shifting fine. I was a little anxious, as it was a used unit.
B&M shifter is indeed a VERY short throw. Will need to bend the handle a little. Doesn't hit the dash, but it is a far reach.

The good: With the transmission tunnel cover out of the way, the seat can be fully moved forward. And my wife can finally reach the pedals and drive the bronco

The bad: Driver side radius arm mount is bent, and the welds on the inner side of the frame is cracked. Did not notice this before. That'll need to be addressed some time...

 

[tody]

Here's the pics from the new exhaust routing:

 

[tody]

And I dug through my pictures. Found one where you can see the mangled radius arm bracket. Welds are broken...

Wildhorses seem to make decent ones close to original. Would be cool to see these listed on eBay so I can get them through the international shipping program.

 

[74BroncoCO]

Looks like there was an attempted fix on that bracket before.

 

[tody]

I ordered some parts at WH, namely the Radius Arm brackets, and 1.5" lift springs for the front. They're stuck with UPS - parcels are already here in Cologne, but don't advance. They get scanned every night but don't move...

So I tackled some side projects:

The front lift springs are accompanied by 1" lift blocks in the rear. Mainly to clear the 31" tires. With the springs settled a little, they were pretty close to the fenders.

Also, I got a new Warn Winch Cable set. 100ft of steel cable with a new hook.
Also a new fairlead, but the current one is not only bolted, but also welded on. Will replace that later. Just put in the new cable today:

On a side note:
The Mustang is running like a champ, better than ever before. The problems with the carb and timing I posted about before turned out to be a super stretched timing chain. Only found out about that by accident, when replacing the front crank seal...

 

[tody]

Damn, my parts from WH are stuck with UPS for nearly a month now.
Weather was pretty cold the last two weeks, but today was sunny.
So off to the garage to get some work done.

Removed the old fairlead:

Cleaned up the bumper, painted the middle section and bolted on the new part:

I also dug into the drip rails. No structural rust, and mainly dirt trapped in there. Will give it a good clean tomorrow, and reseal it:

 

[mhinchliffe]

What did you use to dig out the seam sealant?
Thx

 

[tody]

What did you use to dig out the seam sealant?
Thx

flat screwdriver and a hammer. came out nicely, it was all dried and cracked up.
will tape the roof and further clean it up with a wire wheel.

 

[sprdv1]

Damn, my parts from WH are stuck with UPS for nearly a month now.

I also dug into the drip rails. No structural rust, and mainly dirt trapped in there. Will give it a good clean tomorrow, and reseal it:

that's a big plus..

 

[tody]

well, that escalated quickly!

I 'just' wanted to change the oil in the winch. I'm also familiar that you use the term 'milkshake' for the emulsion of water and oil in the engine. But what I found was more like peanut butter.

20 minutes later it was nearly fully apart:

that stuff in there isn't even soluble with brake clean, so I just scraped most of it out. now that everything is apart, i'll try to find new bearings. the old ones do have part numbers on them, but there is one oil seal i need to measure.
let's see how I can source these parts over here...

 

[DirtDonk]

Yuck. Apparently your Bronco spent some time in a river!
Well, at least it still had some properties of oil and appears to have kept some parts from rusting.

Just what you needed. Something else to kill the time with while waiting for parts.%)

Paul

 

[sprdv1]

Yikes... that ain't much fun to clean up

well, that escalated quickly!

I 'just' wanted to change the oil in the winch. I'm also familiar that you use the term 'milkshake' for the emulsion of water and oil in the engine. But what I found was more like peanut butter.

20 minutes later it was nearly fully apart:

that stuff in there isn't even soluble with brake clean, so I just scraped most of it out. now that everything is apart, i'll try to find new bearings. the old ones do have part numbers on them, but there is one oil seal i need to measure.
let's see how I can source these parts over here...

 

[tody]

This winch side project took a little longer than expected. Managed to find new bearings and the seal. cut the housing gasket from bulk material.

While I had the winch off, I also removed the whole bumper assembly. Only held on by half the fasteners, the ones that held it on were too small. Now everything i back together, painted and fully mounted with 1/2" bolts.

Also, the winch is back on with new hardware:

Next will be either the drip rails or the radius arm brackets...

 

[904Bronco]

Always feels good to mark another project off the list!

 

[tody]

Radius arm brackets were next. And indeed, that surely was the source for my Bronco lean...

Pulled the front axle, that was quite a task with a two post lift. With a pair of jackstands, I was able to move everything around, and now the frame is resting on the arms, right before the brackets.

The radius arm bushings do not seem to be the culprit, both arms are touching the ground equally:

Here's the good mount on the passenger side:

And here the crooked one on the driver side, clearly pointing down:

Managed to free the bolts on that side, and used a grinder to remove the brackets. Frame cleaned up on this side:

Tomorrow i'll grind off the other side, and will try to weld in the new brackets!

 

[tody]

New brackets are in.

Driver side:

Passenger side:

They're fully welded, I forgot to take pictures afterwards.

While I was at it, I replaced the 4° bushings with 7° - more caster would be nice. With 4° I'm in the 2° range So I'm aiming at roughly 5°.

I tried to do my best when tightening down the caps. On a somewhat level surface, they're within 1/8" of each other.

More to come!

 

[landshark99]

Looks great!

1/8” off is great, it’s sometimes tough to get the arms that close.

 

[tody]

Ok, fronst suspension is back in. Now sporting the WH logo in the front!

Lean is gone, at least if you compare the front bumper to the ground:

But there's something going on with the cab, in the rear right corner:

Can be seen from behind, if you compare the rear bumper to the bottom of the tailgate:

Time to experiment with some shims...

Also, I addressed the drip rails. Cleaned them with a wire wheel, and put in some oil based rust inhibitor:

Seam sealer and some paint will be next!

 

[DirtDonk]

If you're still running the original rubber body insulators at each mount, it's very likely that one or more of them are sagging/squishing under the weight of the body after all these years.
They are originally all 8 of them 3/4 of an inch tall, so if any of them are less than that you can add shims. Or just add new insulators and start fresh. If any of them are sagging now, likely as not they will continue to loose height over the next few years. This makes it a better idea to replace than just shim.

If all the mounting parts are newer though, then one of the mounts, or the body itself could be damaged slightly. In that case shims are in order. Even Ford used body shims when building these.

Paul

 

[tody]

If you're still running the original rubber body insulators at each mount, it's very likely that one or more of them are sagging/squishing under the weight of the body after all these years.
They are originally all 8 of them 3/4 of an inch tall, so if any of them are less than that you can add shims. Or just add new insulators and start fresh. If any of them are sagging now, likely as not they will continue to loose height over the next few years. This makes it a better idea to replace than just shim.

If all the mounting parts are newer though, then one of the mounts, or the body itself could be damaged slightly. In that case shims are in order. Even Ford used body shims when building these.

Paul

Hey Paul, I'm already sporting the WH 1" body lift mounts!
When installing them, I took Johnny Cash's advice and replaced them one piece at a time... So I'm fairly confident I didn't mix up the existing shims. And the door gaps are ok-ish.
I'll start by loosening the rear bolt on the driver side, and jack the body up to see what is needed there!