Nothing Special – ’71 daily driver – trail rig build thread

The winch finally made it to the top of the list, so I now have that receiver mount winch! I started off with a Warn M8000 winch. Looking at internet reviews of the less expensive brands it seemed like almost everybody loved them, except the few people that had them fail to work when they needed them. I don't know if the Warn will really be any better, but it seemed like it was worth spending a little more for the reputation.

I also didn't feel like going with Warn's cheapest line (VR series?) for the same reason, but also didn't want to spend the money for Warn's more expensive lines. So the M8000 seemed like about the right value point for me.

I thought about either buying a ready-made cradle, or going the opposite way and making it all from scratch, but I decided to take the middle route. I bought a mounting plate and made my own from that. I cut down the ends of the standard Warn mounting plate to be just long enough to protect the ends of the winch, but to keep them out of the way of my clevis mounts. I bolted it to a piece of 2" square tubing (using 1/2" grade 8 bolts) and also welded the plate to the tube. Belt and suspenders!

The result ends up tucked up pretty high and tight, better than I expected. I was afraid it would look vulnerable to trail obstacles, but I don't think it'll be a problem much of the time.

It does stick up too high to be able to ride in the rear receiver. I can't swing the spare tire carrier closed when the winch is there. But that seemed better than compromising the mount strength and approach angle by cutting and welding to drop the plate lower than the top of the receiver tube.

I mounted the solenoid box right on the motor and ran the cables as short and tight as I could, with a quick-connect for the main power feed also attached to the mount (so it won't be plugged in while driving). I put a quick connect under the hood, and another in the back, so I can plug in at both ends with a relatively short power cable. And I used an isolator relay so the power lines aren't always hot.

OK, enough talk. Here are pics of it mounted in front (without the power cable connected), the quick-connect in the back (with the power cable connected) and the winch mounted in the rear (with the power cable).

Now I'm looking forward to going 'wheeling a little harder, and still hoping I never have to use it!

what a great write up ,I really like the simple way of working out problems and fixing them but still being able to drive your bronco most of the time ,I am kind of doing the same with mine,it was a mostly rust free 67 that ive made lots of improvments but only being down for a short time .we did flat tow it to Alaska last summer and it made a great around town hauler at all the nightly stops up and back , never pulled the drive shaft and no problems although had to improvise rock shields for the head lights (gorilla tape and cardboard) now trying to plan a trip to moab ,again great write up thanks

Thanks!

I've done big projects that take a vehicle out of service for multiple years (and from about 2004 - 2007 this project was like that). And I'll do more (if I put a 'glass tub on it to address the rust I'll be doing it on this one again!). But I do like being able to use my toys too! So I like being able to do it in smaller chunks. The fact that I park it over the winter does give me the possibility to do bigger projects (like the trans / transfer case) without losing the use of it (more than I would have any way).

On towing with the rear driveshaft in place, I've heard good arguments why it's safe to tow a Model 20 in neutral with the front hubs locked, but I get too much front driveline vibration to feel good about towing it at 70 mph like that. And now that I have an Atlas I feel like I should go with their recommendation, which is to pull the 'shaft (although they do have a new model with an oil pump driven off the rear output shaft, so that's another possible upgrade).

And yes, I know that a lot of people just tow with the transfer case in neutral, front hubs unlocked and rear driveshaft in place and that it works for them. I also know a guy who flat-towed a Jeep to Colorado and got to rent another Jeep to use while he was out there because he smoked his transfer case. It's not worth that risk to me, so until I have locking rear hubs or a transfer case with a pump, I'll keep crawling under.

hate to say it but you have to unlock the front hubs to flat tow it t case in nutral trans in gear .we have towed to the mid west a few times and to Alaska never had an issue anyway no big deal just keep on wheelin

sorry didn't see the part of atlases way to tow

metal1 said:

hate to say it but you have to unlock the front hubs to flat tow it t case in nutral trans in gear .we have towed to the mid west a few times and to Alaska never had an issue anyway no big deal just keep on wheelin

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The concern with flat-towing a Model 20 t.case is that the lube is splashed around by the input gears. With the t.case in neutral only the rear output shaft is turning. That isn't necessarily low enough in the 'case to keep the gear lube moving around, so you can burn stuff up.

Locking the front hubs (t.case still in neutral) makes the front output shaft spin too. It's way down at the bottom of the 'case so gear lube gets splashed around a lot, keeping everything lubed.

Back in the day manufacturers had different recommendations for flat-towing. Some said never do it without removing the rear driveshaft and unlocking the front hubs (I think Ford was one of these, but I could be wrong). Others said you could tow for shorter distances at slower speeds with the rear driveshaft in, but to pull it if going farther or faster (200 miles at 50 mph comes to mind, but that's an old memory I wouldn't trust much). And others said you could tow if you put the t.case in neutral and locked the front hubs.

So that was what the manufactures officially recommended. Obviously people have had a lot of time since then to try whatever they want, and a lot have done a lot of towing with the t.case in neutral, rear driveshaft in place and front hubs not locked. But some have had problems with that too. As they say, your mileage may vary. For my time and money, I'll pull the rear driveshaft until I get a better option that still meets the manufacturers recommendations.

Receiver-mount winch

Getting the winch finished was to have it ready for another trip to northern MN. We were mostly wanting to try out our new-to-us motorhome before the 30 day warrantee expired, but we were going to get some 'wheeling in as well.

My wife, younger son and I only had a 3 day weekend, and with travel time included we'd only have half days for 'wheeling on the first and third days. It happened to fall in a really rainy time (we've had over 5" of rain in the last week), so the trails were really wet. It rained on us both nights (the motorhome passed that test), but we got lucky and the first two days were dry. Then the third day promised to rain steadily, so we decided to just pack up and head home.

The Bronco sustained a fair amount of damage the first two days as well (which made it easier to call it quits). Both rockers got crunched, and a rock leaned / slid us into a tree which put a pretty big rip in the top (another reason to not go 'wheeling in the rain). Plus the grommet around the vacuum line running into the power brake booster ripped, giving me a pretty bad vacuum leak (which didn't seem to affect the engine 'wheeling anyway) and no power brakes (not much of an issue on the trail with a 71:1 crawl ratio, but a little disconcerting on the highway back to camp). I was able to create a make-shift grommet out of gorilla tape (which was also used to patch the top). So it was still drivable, but no one wanted to be getting out to spot or take pictures in the rain.

OK, enough talk, here are the pictures:

Here is one of the wetter sections of trail:


There were lots of opportunities to test the flex...:






... but early Broncos only flex so well:


Sidehill is never fun:


And we did have one opportunity to use the new winch. I probably could have got over this ledge without the winch (and almost certainly could have with more aggressive tires). But it is steeper than it looks in the picture, and I couldn't back up to reposition without maybe dropping the left rear off the trail. And besides, there was a new winch to try out!:

Two years ago (in post #37 on page 3 of this thread) I noted that the transfer case levers had jammed up, likely due to a trans or engine mount letting it move. I had looked at the mounts at the time and didn't see any issues, and it was driving fine, so I didn't do anything.

Then this May we finally got it out on the trails again (post #47, above). When climbing hills in low range, fairly frequently the shift levers (transfer case and transmission) would move to the right and the gas pedal would move down (without the engine changing speed, I was using the hand throttle to keep it steady). So now I knew what my problem was: a torn left motor mount.

After getting home I looked at it installed in the Bronco and thought maybe there was a little gap. But when I jacked up the engine to pull the mount out I found that it was in two convenient pieces!

Since the left motor mount is in tension to resist the engine torque multiplied by the trans and transfer case reduction I decided not to go with another stock mount. I looked at some aftermarket mounts that put the rubber (or urethane) in compression, but they were pricey, most said they raised the motor, and I didn't want urethane. I have some leftover spring bushings from my F-250, so I decided to make one myself using that.

I stayed with the stock mount on the right side. That one is in compression when you're going forward, so it should hold up a lot better than the left side, and I'm not looking to stiffen things up, just keep it from tearing again. If the 46 year old right side mount does fail I'll get another stock one.

It's been a busy summer, so I ended up only being able to work on it over lunch, or for brief bits in the evening. I'm not very proud of the end appearance as I rushed some of the fabricating and the welding. But no one sees it anyway, and once some oil leaks on it and it gets coated in dirt it'll look just fine!

Not much in the way of pictures on this project, just one of the finished mount (on the left) and the stock "2-piece" mount on the right.

I got another chance to use the Bronco on the trails. We went out to the Black Hills again. My son is getting to be a good enough driver that we can tackle tougher trails. Before I had to drive and spot on the hardest stuff, now he drives and I spot. I just need to get him to be the spotter / rock stacker!

Of course, the result of tackling tougher trails is that you can do more damage! A bent front bumper, crunched hub cap and crushed rocker (that was already rusted out and dented) were the worst of it. Also I got an exhaust leak that kept getting worse to the point that it sounds like the Harleys driving around there!

Now I need to get more serious about what I'm going to do with this Bronco. The body is getting bent up enough that I should do something about it. I'm trying to decide if I should put rock rails on this body, or put a new (fiberglass) body on it and put armor on that.

Enough talk... pictures!


A tight squeeze, with no way to get a straight approach. We bent the driver's end of the front bumper, and did the final line-up by tipping the back end off the jack to move it over.






Crunched one of my hub caps. This is actually the damage that bothers me the most. I should have taken the 'caps off before going 'wheeling.




Oops, not paying close enough attention! The rock the right rear is sitting on took a bite out of the already dented and rusted out rocker.




And just for fun, here are pictures of our camps in the Badlands (when we never unhooked the Bronco) and the Black Hills (Mystery Mountain Resort, south of Rapid City, I highly recommend it!)

looks like fun to me, get some rock skis and be good to go

Good times.. cut it, make mo room, bigger tires, wheel the hell out of it

Rock skis required for Sure...

Like that camper 31 or 34 foot?

Skiddy said:

looks like fun to me, get some rock skis and be good to go

Click to expand...

sprdv1 said:

Good times.. cut it, make mo room, bigger tires, wheel the hell out of it

Rock skis required for Sure...

Like that camper 31 or 34 foot?

Click to expand...

Thanks! It'll definitely get rock rails of some sort. It's a question of when. The original body is really pretty rusty, especially in the rockers, and there's not much to attach anything to. So I'm thinking of cutting the rockers off and slapping some 2"x6" tubing in there. With my non-existent body work skills that will either look terrible or be expensive. My wife doesn't want it to look terrible and neither of us want it to be expensive since a fiberglass body is probably in the works anyway (with rock skis to start with). But I'm not sure I want to go that route on this quite yet. Hence the dilemma.

I might go a little bigger on tire diameter, but I don't really want to go wider (currently 33/10.50-15). I haven't done a lot of looking yet, but I haven't found a size I like yet. And I don't think I'l cut it any more. I think it already has room for 35s, and I don't want it sitting any higher (or looking stupid with 33s) for my general daily driver use.

The camper is officially a 28', but actually measures 30' bumper-to-bumper. It's the smallest one we could find with a sofa and a dinette (any smaller and it was one or the other).

More repair work (and no pictures). Driving about 8 blocks from home I was letting out the clutch in 2nd after turning a corner. There was a sharp "crack" and the clutch pedal dropped to the floor. Turned out that the clutch rod, from the pedal down to the bell-crank, had snapped. There wasn't much clean metal in the break, mostly rusty, so it'd been cracked most of the way through for a long time.

By the way, driving the NV3550 without a clutch was almost impossible. I've shifted quite a few manuals without using the clutch, but the synchros in this one fought me too much. I ended up having to stop, shut the engine off and start it in 1st gear because I couldn't get it into 3rd or back into 2nd. I was able to fight it into 2nd and then just drove the rest of the way home in 2nd.

So I ordered a new clutch rod and decided to replace the right side motor mount while I was at it. Turned out it was tearing quite a bit (but not in two pieces like the left had been). So along with the clutch rod I ordered a pair of motor mounts.

The first disappointment came because one of the mounting holes in the new motor mounts was in the wrong place. It was about 1.25" away from the inside edge of the mount compared to 1" for the stock one. I couldn't get the bolt through it and into the block. I had to quit for the night and bring it in to work to mill the offending hole into a slot. That problem solved.

Then I found out that the clutch rod was a little over an inch too short. After sending a slightly frustrated e-mail to the retailer I realized that one was my fault. I forgot that my Bronco has a body lift and that a stock clutch rod wouldn't be long enough. So back to work where I cut it and welded in a chunk of steel rod. And looking at the old rod I realized that it had been cut and welded as well (but probably not welded very well since it broke).

So now it's back together and back on the road after 2 weeks of putzing around.

Time for another upgrade project! For years, even before I bought this Bronco and was driving a CJ5 with a rear Detroit and open front, I've been wanting / planning to put a selectable locker in the front. Well now I'm gonna do it! I decided on an OX locker. I chose it over an ARB or an e-Locker because of not having to drill holes in the case to pass an air line or wires, and the ability to work it manually if the main shifting mechanism gets damaged (OX calls it a "drive-away lock"). I've also heard only good things about the OX durability and reliability. ARB and the e-Locker both seem to be pretty well thought of, but the OX, as a strictly mechanical device, is just inherently simpler, and I like that.

However I did decide to go with the air actuator for it rather than a lever and cable. I already have on-board air, so it doesn't add any more cost or complexity. And it seemed like it would be easier to mount the air switch and run air lines than it would be to mount a lever and run a cable that can't be kinked.

I ordered the locker and diff kit last week. It hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully this week.

So far I've been working on disassembly. Getting the axle shafts out went pretty well. The biggest problem I had was getting the spindle nut locking rings off. Both had "walked" a little so the tab on the locking ring wasn't in the slot in the spindle anymore. The driver's side was very close so once I was able to yank it out a little (with some baling wire through one of the holes that lined up with a slot in the inner nut) it popped back into the slot and came off fine. The passenger side had moved a lot farther though. I was able to yank it out enough to clear the pin on the inner nut, then I used a screwdriver as a punch and tapped it to "unscrew" it off the spindle until the tab came back to the slot.

Both spindles came off by hand! I've fought those so hard on every vehicle I've ever worked on that I was dreading it here. But when I put them on the Bronco last time (the first time I had pulled them off) I cleaned everything up good and slathered on anti-seize. It worked!

I did have trouble getting the axle shafts to slide out through the knuckles. Even after taking the grease fittings off the U-joints I couldn't get them to slide through. I kept turning the knuckles slightly, and twisting the axles to different positions and all of a sudden one just came out easily! That was when I remembered that I had put higher strength axle shafts and U-joints in it when I was building it (getting ready for a locker) and had found that I couldn't fit the new shafts in, so I had to file the knuckles a little to make notches to let the axles go in. I just had to get the axles lined up with those notches again to get them out.

Along with the dent in the diff cover that appeared last summer in the Black Hills, I also saw a shiny spot on the diff cover from where the tie rod was making contact. That shouldn't happen so I looked closer at the tie rod and saw it was bent (actually it's the left rod end that's bent, but since that goes almost all the way across the Bronco, and the actual tie rod is only about 6" long, it kind of seems like it's the tie rod).

So I got the tie rod off (to be straightened, and to get it out of the way of the diff change) and got the diff cover off. That's where it sits now. I'm planning to do the diff swap myself. I've never set up gears before, and I've heard that Dana axles are some of the worst to work on. But I'm reusing the old gears and not touching the pinion, so it seemed like a good time to try it. If worst comes to worst I'll put the spindles back on and drive it to a shop to bail me out!

Here's a pic of the diff cover with the dent (low on the part that sticks out to clear the ring gear) and the mark from the tie rod hitting it (about even with the cover bolt that was already removed). The tie rod was already removed in this pic.


And here's a pic of the tie rod.

Since I'm going to be reusing my old gears I figured I'd check the current setup before I pulled the carrier out. Being I'm new at this I welcome suggestions from others.

The backlash is .006", which seems very good (I've heard .005" - .008" is the spec).

I'm less thrilled with the pattern, but I think it's OK. The pattern seems a lot closer to the toe than the heel, but what I'm seeing on most "expert" sites is that that doesn't matter so much. The main things seem to be that the pattern is centered between the flank and the face (and the pinion depth needs to be changed to adjust that) and that the backlash is correct (moving the carrier to adjust that). I think my pattern seems good that way (flank - face), so I think the pinion depth must be correct (which is great, because I wasn't planning on touching that). So It should just be getting the backlash and the carrier bearing preload right by getting the right carrier shims in the right places.

Again, I welcome feedback!

Drive side (I think I might have got cleaner patterns if I had been able to put more load on the ring gear while I was turning the pinion. I think I'll try to get some help when I put it back in so I can do that better)


Coast side:

Wow, that was a job! As I said, I've never done differential gears before. Now I understand why it's a "if you have to ask if you can then you probably can't" job. It's not rocket science by any means. But it's picky, slow and frustrating. It would be very easy to give up in the middle (I almost did a couple of times).

I checked the backlash and pattern with the old gears as described above (.006" backlash, acceptable pattern). I also checked the torque-to-turn: about 15 lb-in with the carrier before I pulled the old diff out, and 5 lb-in with just the pinion, so pretty low on both counts, but it's a 47 year old front diff with gears that still look good, so I wasn't sweating that.

I was able to carefully pry the old carrier out without using a spreader, so I was happy to avoid that purchase.

I tried using a brake cylinder hone to open the ID of a new set of carrier bearings to make myself some setup bearings. After about 15 minutes I saw absolutely no change in diameter (measured with a caliper), and I needed to take out .002". I decided I'd probably die of old age before I got it that way, so I brought them to work and figured out how to hold them in a 4-jaw chuck where I could indicate them in and bore them out. It was still tough to get then in the chuck straight (very little of the inner race is available to grab), so I'm sure they aren't perfectly centered, but it was the best I was going to be able to do.

I set the old carrier on a surface plate and used a height gage and indicator to measure the position from one outer race to the ring gear mounting face and to the other outer race. Then I played with shims and the setup bearings on the OX until I got the same measurements. Should be a good starting point, right?

Wrong. Well, maybe a good starting point, but nowhere near a good ending point. I slipped it into the case, torqued down the bearing caps (yes, they were marked to go back the same as they came out), and checked the backlash. Perfect at .006"! So what was wrong? The carrier isn't supposed to slip into the case. I had no carrier bearing preload and the torque-to-turn was 5 lb-in (it should be at least about 15 lb-in more than the torque to turn just the pinion, which was 5 lb-in too). I ended up adding .017" to the "button" side and .009" to the "flange" side (with about three in-and-outs of the carrier) before getting .007" backlash and 20 lb-in torque-to-turn. And I was able to tap the carrier in with a plastic mallet and pry it back out, so I still avoided needing a case spreader.

Well at that point I felt pretty good about where I was, but not so great on how I got there. Needing to add .026" total shims from my measurements off the old carrier didn't give me a lot of confidence that I'd get it right the first time with the "real" pressed-on bearings. But I measured the height of the setup bearings, found that the "real" bearings were .002" shorter, so I added .002" of shim to both sides. I pressed the real bearings on and slipped it in again. Yep, again I was way too low on the preload.

The OX carrier doesn't give much room to get behind the carrier bearings to pull them off. Looking on-line I didn't find any pullers I was willing to pay for. So I made my own at work. Before I pulled them off I measured the overall width and position of the mounting face (not very close to my original carrier). Then I added shims to both sides to get back to my original measurements. That still slid right into the case.

So off came the bearings again, take a wild guess at how many shims to add to both sides and try again. This time I couldn't rap it in with the plastic mallet, so pull out a little shim and try again. Success! I fully expected to have at least one more in-and-out to get the backlash set once I was close on the preload. But this gave me .007" backlash, 20 lb-in torque-to-turn (so 15 lb-in over the pinion alone) and pretty much the same pattern I started with originally!

And the whole thing only took 5 weeks!

But I'm there! I did have to grind the shifting fork in the OX cover to clear part of the case (OX wanted me to grind the casting, but I wasn't going to pull it out at this point and fill the oily case with grinding dust, so I'm sure I voided the OX warrantee). I straightened out my bent tie rod and put it all back together. No weird noises when driving with the hubs locked, so I'm calling it good!

I do still need to tap into my air system, mount the switch/valve, and run the air lines. And I'm a little disappointed that OX only included 3 of the 4 air line fittings, so I need to get another one somewhere. But I have hooked up the air line to my shop air and have shown that it engages and disengages. So now I just need another round toit!

glad you finally got it, I didn't use a spreader either. it sure is a pain on the d44

Nothing Special said:

Wow, that was a job! As I said, I've never done differential gears before. Now I understand why it's a "if you have to ask if you can then you probably can't" job. It's not rocket science by any means. But it's picky, slow and frustrating. It would be very easy to give up in the middle (I almost did a couple of times).

!

Click to expand...

Most cases it can’t be easy. lol

Looking back at this thread today I realized that it's not up to date, so I thought I'd correct that. After getting the front locker installed last spring we went out to Ouray CO for a week of 'wheeling. We didn't do very much that needed the second locker, but I did get to try it out a little and I like it! It makes getting a front tire to climb a rock a piece of cake. It also makes crawling down a trail smoother as the Bronco doesn't jump ahead when one front tire drops off a rock and unweights enough to spin backward briefly.

I was a little concerned about maneuverability with it locked, but it wasn't really a problem. I only locked it when traction wasn't great, and it didn't cause any trouble then. It did bind and not want to release immediately a few times, but sawing the wheel just a little took care of that each time.

We leaked a LOT of oil, so after getting back I pulled the engine out to have a better shot at getting the oil pan sealed, and also replaced the stock valve covers with cast aluminum ones. Hopefully that will help out because it's left spots in a lot of parking lots.

We also ended up with another bad exhaust leak. It seems that the engine was shifting around too much and tearing the exhaust manifolds away from the Y-pipe. Also the exhaust crossover, which is right behind the oil sump as shown in post #33), had shifted to where I couldn't get the oil drain plug out.
So while the engine was out I made another motor mount from another leftover F-250 spring bushing for the right side (to match the one I made in post #48 for the left side).

Here are some pics of the trip:

Heading out, on Monarch Pass:



A nice scenery shot along Engineer Mountain Road:


Looking down Poughkeepsie Gulch:


A "perspective" shot looking down the switchbacks on Black Bear Road:


Having some fun on Poughkeepsie Gulch:

Great pics and nice looking bronco .