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Fireball's '76 build thread - "Piece by Piece" - PAINTED, ASSEMBLED & ON THE ROAD!

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Fireball05

Fireball05

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Have I reached my quota for dumb questions yet? If not, here is tonight's...

what is this and what does the lever do? I slid it all the way to the left, hoping a hinge would open and a few hundred dollar bills would drop out, but sadly that wasn't the case.

 

Broncitis

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May 18, 2004
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That is the latch to open the outside fresh air vent door. Turn it and pull on it and you can open the door. When driving down the road you will get fresh air in that way. Most people never use it.
 

blamejane

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Have I reached my quota for dumb questions yet? If not, here is tonight's...

what is this and what does the lever do? I slid it all the way to the left, hoping a hinge would open and a few hundred dollar bills would drop out, but sadly that wasn't the case.


Do all broncos have this door, or all 76'ers? I don't think I've ever noticed one on mine. Now I can't wait to go check it out.

Welcome to CB, and congrats on a beautiful rig!!
 

Unknown

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Jan 21, 2012
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That is the latch to open the outside fresh air vent door. Turn it and pull on it and you can open the door. When driving down the road you will get fresh air in that way. Most people never use it.

Most always full of leaves and mud and has a rubber drain tube on the outside firewall - just to the right of the master cylinder - that will be clogged. Clean it out and lube it up - handy on warm days to get a little air moving in the cab. Reminds me, I need to go close mine up for the year...
 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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Unknown - you were partly right - full of leaves, no mud and the drain wasn't clogged. No hundred dollar bills in there either! Got it all cleaned out and ready to go.




Also, here's another round of my favorite game "what's this do or what's this for" It's a bracket on the rear driver side, just in front of the main gas tank:

 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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Thanks for the reply, it has been removed, lowering my GVW another 82.7 ounces, effectively raising my gas mileage to 12.3mpg! What a deal!

How about all the brake fluid that's leaking onto the rear diff? Is that a factory setup :)
 

Broncitis

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How about all the brake fluid that's leaking onto the rear diff? Is that a factory setup :)


No, Engine oil, and automatic transmission leaks are standard equipment on Broncos, but brake fluid is not and should be looked at. :)

As a side note, if you stop up Monday, there will be a more interesting Bronco in my shop to look at before we go up to look at our restored stockers and the Balloon Chaser Ambulance in Dillsburg. Bill dropped his trail rig for some repairs today, so if you want to see a pretty extreme off road Bronco, it certainly fits that category.
 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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Drew, great to meet you Monday and thanks for the grand tour. Lots of fun and lots of cool stuff to look at!

I had another big day today. Was able to adjust the shift link rods and now can easily find neutral! Got my license plate bulb wired up, installed a new ignition switch and got rid of some old jumbled mess of wires under the dash from the previous owner. Oh, got some new lug nuts. All in all, an excellent day in the garage. Getting this thing sorted out one piece at a time.

Need some quick help: anyone have a photo of the reverse sensor wiring, or know what color wires need to be plugged into the plug on the shift column? There are two male spades on the steering column, can't seem to find anything to plug them into.

This is a photo I took to show the pin locking the shift rods into neutral. The reverse sensor is blocked out at the top right of the photo, but that's where the wires need to go. I need to get a schematic, but in the meantime hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.



Thanks!
 

muskrat

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congrats and welcome to the site and the brotherhood, and sisterhood, sorry ladies. Looks like a real solid start.

My advise, based upon my mistakes, is to get it safe and road worthy first. Whatever that takes, do it. Brakes, steering, cage, seat belts is what I did first.

Then drive it for awhile and figure out what you really want to do with it. I tore my first one down too quick.

Have fun, and don't cut the fenders!!! Lubers rule!!
 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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Muskrat - thanks for the message! Just ordered 3 point belts today, and have gone through all the basic mechanicals so it's running pretty well.

How do you like your Tom's 2.5" kit? I'm researching lifts now, definitely want 2.5, looking at Tom's and WH. Both have a few different options as to how far you can go with them. Would love to hear your experience. If you ever make it over towards Lancaster, maybe I can trade you a 12 pack of some lunch and we can kick some tires.

Thanks!

congrats and welcome to the site and the brotherhood, and sisterhood, sorry ladies. Looks like a real solid start.

My advise, based upon my mistakes, is to get it safe and road worthy first. Whatever that takes, do it. Brakes, steering, cage, seat belts is what I did first.

Then drive it for awhile and figure out what you really want to do with it. I tore my first one down too quick.

Have fun, and don't cut the fenders!!! Lubers rule!!
 

WheelHorse

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Nov 22, 2004
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Don't forget that the ole flat tappet cam will appreciate some 5-40 Rotella with the extra zinc and ph to keep her well protected.

As far as touching up the hood for the mean time, neutralize the rust...word on the street is ospho ( http://www.ospho.com/ ) is the best, then use a little fiberglass from the back side, sand smooth on the front side and find a mobile touch up technician to blend in the paint. A new hood would be best, but given the limited funds, it's a decent band aid. Make sure to throw down some epoxy primer to seal the prepped metal, that is, if the current paint is not lacquer. If lacquer thinner starts to remove the paint, you have a lacquer pj.

You have a great start to being an old Bronco owner.
 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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More fun out in the garage today! Got a new exhaust system installed yesterday. Great experience, was able to use some photos on here to show the shop what I was looking for, and once he got it setup was able to slide a few mufflers on and off. Flowmaster 40, Flowmaster 50, Magnaflow, and some no-name he had on the shelf. Flowmaster 40 and 50 had similar sound, 50 was a bit quieter so that's what I went with.

Whilst out turning wrenches today, came up with another set of questions I'd appreciate some help with:

QUESTION #1: The t-case seemed to be spewing a fair share of its contents about the underside of my Bronco. Checked it out today and it was way overfilled! Or at least I'm hoping it was. Can someone please confirm the bolt is the very center is indeed the fill bolt? I opened that up and drained maybe a quart of oil out.







QUESTION #2. I guess it doesn't really matter since we're filling them anyway, but anyone have any ideas what these holes were in the passenger side floor and firewall area. Maybe an old A/C setup?



Fun patch!



Also, there was a piece of metal covering the passenger side floor area. Couldn't figure out what it was for, here it is looking all innocent:




And here is what it was covering! Anyone guesses what was mounted in the passenger area??

 

Blue Bastard

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May 14, 2012
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i hope that is not tranny fluid in the transfercase looks kinda thin to be gear oil. if the seal is bad between the two if can fill the tranfer case. i would drain to the plag in the middle you are talking about. that is the proper amount. then i would drive for a while and check it again and hope that it is not full again. also check trany fluid.
 
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Fireball05

Fireball05

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We did in fact check tranny fluid today. It was full, proper level. The t-case was drained down to the fill plug (the one in the center of t-case, almost very center of photo).

I'll drive it around a little bit more and check again after putting a few miles on it.
 

broncoitis

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How bout some pictures of that new exhaust you just had installed! You took some pictures, right??? ;D
 
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