Money Pit - Phase III

I went to AVF a few weeks ago and took my other Bronco with as this was the first time I got to take my son out to an event. I did some prep work on my 96' FSB and had a blast out on the trail - A/C cranked the entire time. My son even fell asleep on the hardcore night run we went on - was the most fun I had wheeling in some time. Maybe going from 43" tires down to 32" tires played a role in that


We are planning a huge event up in Gilbert, MN over labor day weekend as it is going to be my golden 30th birthday I'm not going to bring my un-lifted FSB to this event, so I need to make room for my son.

Out comes the giant fuel cell-


In goes the factory seat and new fuel cell. The trans cooler will fit under the seat and I'm going to vent it through the floor - I've got ammo cans on order for storage between the cell and the tailgate.


We have a forward facing car seat that will perfectly fit and completely clear the roll cage - this is actually going to work. I scored the cell on eBay for less than half price - never would have thought to look there instead of just buying new from wherever.

I did a quick check and found that the hiems on the track bar were shot - easy RuffStuff purchase and I'll be set.

ha, love the shots in the mud... Glad U got ahold of the photo man Good stuff brother

Ammo cans came in - should fit nicely.



I hit the tops and bottoms with some rust encapsulator and epoxy paint to cover up the shipping damage/storage rust.


Drilled a hole in my $300+ fuel cell - had to have my wife get her skinny arm through the hole to help me assemble. Thanks hon!


I also swapped out the stupid small filler neck with the style I had on my old tank - those deformed plastic washers were a PITA to remove. Tank leak tested totally full -


Tomorrow morning a friend and myself are picking up a dead 1 ton pickup and needed a way to get it on the trailer. I've got a few 12k winches laying around and one with fresh cable. Well - I found a small piece of plate to bolt it to and plasma cut a hole in the rear for a clevis to go though. I figure as long as we have something to chain it to we can use it anywhere

Very nice. Love the updates and the video.

Well picking up the truck went good - the winch worked perfectly as expected. In fact, it worked so good I used it to rip some bushes out of the front yard the next weekend



The Gilbert trip went real good - the new fuel system and seating arrangement went great.



My boy LOVES trucks, truck is his favorite word and he loves to sit in the Bronco.


Getting him in the back is a real pain right now, but I didn't exactly build this cage in mind of my son ever riding in there. I'll make some design changes in the future to accommodate a passenger, for now this works just fine.


We wheeled the Mesabi Mountain trail - it took over 8 hours to complete and the boy fell asleep on me. It was bumpy as hell and the new motor snorts, kid will sleep through anything.


We had some carnage - my t-case wanted to come apart which prompted me taking it apart on the trailer and tightening some bolts, which only came lose on the next trail ride anyway.

Trent went "Full Trent" and solidified his 1 ton upgrade early.


We wheeled with BSF Recovery and they totally detonated the rear end out of the truck on the Mesabi and had to leave the truck out there overnight.



They trashed the Jeep on the way out of the trail too- both ridg were down for the count.

Now to the transfer case issue-

The bearing retainer bolts came lose and allowed the case to rotate and move in and out on the trail. Spooky to watch it move like that - ended up ratchet strapping it together on the trail to help keep the movement down.


I cleaned up everything best I could without taking the case apart and used red hi-temp locktite on the bolts and torqued them to spec.


I guess I'm not too old yet - I was able to toss the case in by hand by myself ;D


The red locktite alone should prevent this from happening again, but I'm taking the extra step and supporting the rear of the case with this trick TMR Customs support mount.


It doesn't quite reach due to my mount being lower than the frame though-


Thank goodness I work for a sheet metal shop and I can ask a favor or two



Tonight everything gets welded up and a quick fluid check and I'm off to go riding. I love having this thing built to where it is now -

KyleQ said:

We wheeled with BSF Recovery and they totally detonated the rear end out of the truck on the Mesabi and had to leave the truck out there overnight.

Click to expand...

Another lift block succumbs to heavy duty wheeling...

McLeod said:

Another lift block succumbs to heavy duty wheeling...

Click to expand...

Yeah - he had them in there for 8 years before they were an issue.

Awesome thread, just read the whole thing

Bitch'nBronco said:

Awesome thread, just read the whole thing

Click to expand...

Thanks! It is quite a journey-

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted - a lot has happened in six months (wow!) and it's time to catch up.

I got to go to SEMA this (last) year! It was insane, over the top and I'd love to go back.



My father and I went snow wheeling in his recently horse traded Jeep. I got to drive most of the day,which was great as I know how to use the skinny pedal a lot better than Dad

Here is a link to the video I shot of the day - the Jeep rocks. It's linked front and rear with full hydro, RCV axles, 37" beadlock'd Irocs, a custom narrowed D60 rear axle, disk brakes, Detroit lockers front and rear and 5.13 gears. It straight up gets it.


Video from the day:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpb9RL9vjjT0HzR79rMoGU65YMqAie3Y


That run was great and we had another run in a few weeks to make it to as well. I had planned on going with my father again but we had a death in the family and my Dad couldn't go. Last minute I decided I was going to go with the Bronco so I checked fluids, tightened down the exhaust and loaded up - all after the funeral that day.

AVF was a BLAST! They had a TON of snow and boy was I glad I brought the big Bronco. I drove up to a friends place to stay the night through heavy ice fog that occasionally had me driving with zero visibility and only trusting lines on the road.

First thing we do is get me wedged between two loader tires and my buddy tips over his Samurai - zero damage.


The snow is REALLY deep in the fields and I nearly made it all the way up this long slope - minutes of 6K+ RPM got me a bit hot and I had to shut it down. I paved the path for about 50+ other vehicles to make it up the hill.



The day went great and everybody made it out with zero damage - we woke up to even MORE snow the next morning


Here is the collection of video I took at the run-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpb9RL9vjjTLOVZRBOHIa4LuvaC82HyA

The last event I attended was the local snow run in Dresser, WI. I decided to change it up a bit and tossed on my alternate tires, 39.5x18R15 Boggers.


When I popped the drivers wheel off I found out why I would occasionally lose my brakes the previous weekend, the H block fell out and basically had the caliper floating around inside the wheel.


We had another great group to play with-


I didn't take many pictures but we had a ton of fun as the only way to get moving in the melting snow was the smash through the gears and let the engine sing near red line. I went through 14 gallons of gas in a little over three trail rides

Here is the video I took that day-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpb9RL9vjjQmSnmmOwnrtivz-O3kq4Ld

I've had a few things to address since the switch over to the new motor and transmission: Catching fire, Motor Mounts & Exhaust leaks.

My major thing to address is catching on fire, which I've done three or four times now. Most of my troubles were caused by a melted vent line. There is so much heat under the floor that the plastic line melted even though it is a full foot away from the exhaust. I'm fixing that by switching out to a brake line setup that will mimic a factory routing of up the bell housing, back down and then ejecting on the driver side of the case near where the drive shaft sits. If, for some reason, the trans continues to push fluid I'll create a catch can and monitor the level. Fluid also pushes out of the dipstick for some reason, I've got a fix for that as well.

I tried and tried to get the Extreme motor mounts to work but my engine physically won't fit due to my sagging body mounts - the valve cover would be INSIDE the foot compartment and wouldn't be serviceable, so last minute the original mounts went back in. My current setup are about 4 years old and they consist of a parts store mount with the rivet ground out and a carriage bolt bolting the two pieces together. This worked excellent with the NP435 and the old motor but I believe they just need to be replaced with fresh materials. My plan is to use a new mount and instead of a carriage bolt I'm going to crank down a grade 8 bolt and weld the nut on it. In addition I'm going to use another tactic I had back in the early days of my Bronco and run a turnbuckle off the engine to the frame. I'm either going to utilize the Explorer A/C mounting bracket off the serpentine or have a plate cut and use countersunk hardware off the back of the cylinder head. Either way I'll go will utilize a turnbuckle to the frame to reduce engine movement. I'm going to test without it (as I really don't want to have to run it) but this new motor doesn't want to stay put.

My exhaust leaks can be attributed to the engine moving around, which also degrades the performance of the engine due to faulty O2 readings. I'll add flex joints to the system if the issue persists after the engine mount upgrades.


On to upgrades - as nothing is ever done.

First upgrade will be brakes - I've got to run two janky stacked .30"spacers on each front wheel to get the 15's to clear the large one ton brakes even with the special beadlock wheels. I went through Lugnut4x4 and got the same setup everyone uses for the rear, only for the front.


This kit is complete and contains K20 rotors, calipers, pads, wheel seals and I opted for the stainless lines as well.

My next purchase was a locking dipstick tube - this should assist in keeping fluid where it belongs, but the next item may also help address that as well. The trans is heavily built with LOTS of line pressure and I think that is contributing to the fluid pushing up the stick.

Standard TCI part, had no idea it existed as I was only looking at Lokar for a solution.


The last part I've had for awhile and I'm really looking forward to installing - a reverse manual valve body. Currently my transmission is full manual, which means every time I start I'm shifting from P all the way through R, N, 3 and 2 before I can get into 1st and the reverse every time I stop. It's a LOT of shifting.


If you watched any of the winter wheeling videos you may have noticed I'm typically only shifting once from 1st to 2nd. The reason for that is because the transmission flares shifting into 3rd gear because the shift accumulator is unable to bleed off the pressure fast enough to release 2nd and allow 3rd to take over. The FRMVB has me heavily modify that servo for flow, which should solve that issue.

The last thing I have to do is repair the Atlas - I was careless when I was installing it last time and when I was tightening the cross member down I caught one of the shift rails on the lip of the cross member and it snapped off the rear shift rail.

I haven't done anything with it as I was still able to front dig and I rarely use high range. Well, I got the parts from AA and I need to pull the transmission to do the modifications necessary for the valve body, so now is the time to fix it.

All of this to do and a basement to finish - yikes, going to be a busy spring, if it would EVER get started!

This weekend I was able to get started on the brake swap - ended up having to make a run to Northern Drivetrain to get new spindle studs and nuts, but at least I've got that option. Saturday I test fit and painted everything before a birthday party and Sunday I was able to assemble and make new brake lines.



They clear my 15's (just barely) and I saved a ton of weight with the swap. I used a pressure bleeder to get it bled by myself but I still think I'll have to bleed it again after I put some miles on it. On the plus side, I can nearly change the pads with the wheel bolted on - there is that much room!

Earlier this week I replaced all of the serpentine components including all pulleys and installed a new fan clutch. I pulled the motor mount out and found that not only was it trashed, but it was really loosely attached to the block and frame.

This grade 5 bolt was stretched about 3/8"


The rubber obviously let go too-


I happened to have a spare motor mount that I had already modified in the same way, but this time I tossed the grade 5 junk and spapped in a grade 8 bolt and welded it for good measure.



It was kinda fun to install, but upon that I discovered that everything was loose and I was even missing one bolt on the pass side. Everything went back together with blue loc-tite this time. I'll have to add motor mounts to my pre-trip checklist as well.

Next I yanked the Atlas out and got to draining it.


The fluid has always looked good and I recently changed it, so I'm going to save it. Popped the cover and everything looks GREAT for nearly ten years of abuse.


I'm replacing a broken shift rail so to get to the shifting mechanism I've got to pull the middle shaft and slide the gears out, one retaining bolt and out it came. A few more bolts, some tricky fasteners and I was able to tap the shift mech out.




Of course nothing is ever the same and neither was the new part- there were extra holes and roll pins in the new unit.


I did some looking and it seems that I could just yank the roll pins and the extra hole went from the case up into the top of the shift tower, which looked like a vent to me. One of the shift rail retainer fasteners would fit the bill, so I pressed forward.



All there was left to do was clean mating surfaces, fasteners, flush the case and apply either RTV or red loc-tite and give everything a few ugga duggas.



With that out of the way and no being able to shift through all of the gears on the case, today the C4 comes out for the FMRVB. Hopefully it goes as easy as this went, but I'm not holding my breath. AUtomatics are a bit of black magic to get perfect, but I think I can handle some grinding, drilling and tapping.

I did some checking and this TCI locking dipstick kinda fits. I need to increase the radius of the lower bend and possibly bend it up top to clear the cylinder head. It annoyingly comes out at the outside rear corner of the cylinder head instead of behind the intake.

Today has been great, my dad came over and helped me get the trans out safely. We ended up airing down the tires to get my floor jack to work, we ratchet strapped it to the jack and it went real smooth.



We grabbed an engine stand, mounted it up and drug it outside where I washed it down and scrubbed it with a brush to get it a bit cleaner. Popped the pan off and got the first glimpse of the guts.


I pulled the VB out and tipped it over to drain -


I've got to make some modifications to the 2nd gear servo and I'm a bit lost on the directions. It says remove the outer o-ring and grind but then says not to modify aftermarket servos, which I have... I've got to check with my builder and TCI to see what I should do. The only thing I need to get is a 1/8 NPT tap so I can plug a fluid passage.

Ordered up some hiem joints to fix my steering up, bushing for the anti-wrap bar and a Fumoto drain valve for clean and easy oil changes.

Got the folks RV out of storage, ground was a bit soft so we had to implore the Excursion to pull it. Worked like a charm- off to grill and party in front of it to kick off the season.

Back at it again and after talking to TCI, I didn't have to make any modifications to my servo, those mods are for increasing line pressure, and that I don't need.

The hole I had to tap was already sized correct for the tap, so bonus. Tapping went easy-


A little RTV and I sent the plug home until it was below the mounting surface of the servo cover.


Getting the piston lined up, the gasket straight and everything pushed down square was fun.


Old VB vs the new - there were a few differences, but nothing that mattered.


I got the filter extension installed and that is where I had to end it. I didn't realize the B&M filter was aftermarket only, so I'll have that saturday.


Over all this was surprisingly easy to install - it helped that this was on a fresh trans that was already built, so I got to skip the band modifications and the kick-down removal, but even those were simple enough. If everything goes as planned I should have the trans installed back in the truck on Saturday. I've got to re-think how I've got to modify my trans x-member and possibly add some gusset material to prevent it from failing again.

Heading to the dealership this afternoon to sign some papers and get my Excursion appraised - I've got so much fun planned for this Summer, but I'm really looking forward to the end of it

Started the weekend off right with some fresh tires for the tow rig and trailer-



Dynapro ATM's for the Excursion and I'm going from load range C 205's to load range E 215's on the trailer. Two of the tires are 10 years old, time to replace them no matter how they look.

Got my silly filter and buttoned up the trans for the last time


I decided I wanted to push on and got the trans installed myself


Then I slung the Atlas up by hand - glad I got it on the transmission without it falling on my face.


Hopefully tonight I can button up the cross member and tackle my dipstick mounting solution. Hoping to have it moving on Wednesday and then I can tackle cleaning up some wiring and getting a winch installed.

Been awhile since an update - things have gotten busy.

Brakes clear the 15's as advertised - not much room, but enough. They work AWESOME, it negatively affected my ability to front dig though.


I only ended up needing a little room to clear the shifter bracket on the x-member, but with all of the cracks I found on the old bracket I needed to reinforce it.



The dipstick fitment was totally different and required a tab to mount it, go figure.


I put all new serp components to combat my belt shredding issue. All new idlers, belt and fan clutch. Made a big difference in cooling - I can hear the fan actuate now.

Got my winch mounted off my front bumper - fits nice and tight and doesn't affect my approach angle.



I hadn't checked the plugs since I put everything together and I was pleasantly surprised to see how nice they are. Fi-Tech is running great!



Many hours later I got the wheels cleaned up, prepped, painted and had the tires mounted up. Big difference in tires - the cleaned up wheels help with the appearance, I'll still want to hit it with some paint before long.

Got everything buttoned up and ready to beat on it for Memorial weekend-



Things went well, hit a few trails and I took my son out to see the monster trucks they had in camp. After the monster trucks I cruised camp with the boy as he just loves trucks. We stopped with some friends and after trying to take off the truck wouldn't move and when I forced it to move it sounded horrible... in camp, at walking speeds. ?:?

Investigation found this- the arm snapped at the joint and push in until it came into contact with my drive shaft flange.


Came in on the hook - nice to have friends


I parked it and went home to get another arm, love having spare parts.

My spare truck was the truck that my father built and soon after rolled and then parked. I drove it up to the garage and had the arm out in no time-


Quickly welded up the broken arm so I could still move the other truck around and back into the barn it went.


Got back to camp and had the replacement arm install in under 15 minutes -


My MIL wanted to go out for a ride and she never complained once, not getting covered in mud, bouncing feet into the air or getting showered with sand ;D


Took the Bronco out on the rocks on Monday and it did well with the boggers, better than I expected.


I wonder how much longer these rear springs will hold on -


Messing around in camp-


That was the wheeling weekend - it was fairly low key being that it was so dang dry and hot.

I pulled the Bronco out of the barn for the first time since Memorial, time to go wheeling next weekend.

I drug my old motor out of the corner and put my old serp setup on it so I can easily get my belt lined up for my next project.





I ordered a -10 feed / -6 pressure p pump from PSC - this current setting setup has been great but it is a little taxed running a 2.5" DE cylinder. I originally ran a p-pump with v-belts and it was awesome, so I'm going back to that. No idea if it is going to fit or if I'll have to modify my lines or if that Explorer reservoir is going to work at all either.

I also found my throttle cable was about to break... and I also discovered this as well. With my pedal on the floor my TPS only read 53%. I thought that was odd as it runs great, I bricked the pedal down and popped the air cleaner.



Whoops - I had the pedal opening the throttle all the way when I set it up, but I never checked it after I moved the cable to another position on the throttle arm. I've only had half throttle this entire time, yikes.

I've got a new stainless cable on order along with fittings and a fuel pressure gauge so I can verify fuel pressure (I like having a gauge as a diagnostic tool, just like a tach). Beyond that everything is ready to go for another relentless beating over the weekend. The scramble is real though, I'm helping a friend get his truggy together before then, it's never moved under it's own power and we got it started for the first time yesterday. Should be interesting-