Cheaper Than Therapy: A Build Thread

So. I've told a few people I'd post a build thread here, and I've been slacking. However, today is Jan 1, 2019...so I'm starting this now with the idea that one year from today I'm driving the Bronco again on a regular basis! (Haha...fail!) We'll see if I can pull it off...I have three other vehicle 'projects', so I'm trying hard to not get distracted! I've been working on this for a while, so first I'll try to catch you up. I always love reading other's build threads, so this is my attempt at contributing something back...

The back story:

My involvement in Bronco's goes back quite a few years. I picked up my first one when I was 14, hit college around the time the internet became more mainstream...and the EBML was the place to be. Someone got Durabak on their hootus, and squirrel squeezin's were everywhere. I feel like I have a bunch of Bronco brothers (and sisters!) around the country, most of whom I've never met. I used to be pretty active in various forums, but these days not quite so much...though I've always been lurking...and planning.

The '74 I'm working on now has been with me since 1996 or so, and was my daily driver after a frame off resto (well, a college kid level frame off!). Over the years I changed a lot of things - the first two pics attached are what I started with right before I gutted it. Good from far, but it was a ~20+ year old resto, there was rust leaking from the seams...and I had big dreams. I've been collecting parts and planning what I was wanted to build for years...finally just did a giant cannon ball into the deep end!

The third pic is the only other one I'll attach for now. I've had a set of 14" Fox 2.0 coilovers since...uhh...2004. I was an engineer for Fox in the powersports group from ~2000-2004, and bought these with my employee discount just before I left. They've been on the shelf, patiently waiting. Not my wisest investment considering how long I held onto them, but who knew it'd be 14 years before I finally designed a suspension around them?!?

Where am I going:

I'm not sure I'm really doing anything that hasn't been done before, but here's the plan:

-1974 Bronco
-331 SEFI Engine, R-block based (purchased from BMC69 here, and installed in ~2006...SEFI conversion at the same time)
-363 EFI Engine, FMS Boss block (changed direction in 2022 - 331 went into different project)
-700R4 Transmission (installed in ~2009)
-4R70W Transmission (changed direction in 2022)
-Atlas 3.8 (Installed in ~2002, then a new one in 2009)
- 37" Cooper SST Pro's on Hutchinson beadlocks (37's in ~2016, Hutchinsons in 2014)
-14" Fox 2.0 coilovers
-3 Link Front
-4 Link Rear
-Custom 609's front and rear, Spidertrax housings, Solid Industries D60 wheel end components
-35 spline axles, ARB's at both ends
-Wheel based extended 3" up front, 2" in the rear
- Viewfinder windshield frame (bought in 2016)
-The rest...TBD! I'll likely update this as things take shape...

I'll be the first to say I'm not a particularly hardcore off-road guy. At least not today. The title of this build thread is a bit tongue-in-cheek. It is definitely NOT cheaper than therapy, but like many of you, spending time in the shop is the best therapy I can get. I'm building this because it's something I've always wanted to do, and I love it. Everything is a compromise in vehicle design, and that's even more true in the off road world. I'm trying to build a jack of all trades sort of Bronco - I put a bunch of street miles on this truck when it is drive-able, and that won't change...but it also needs to be capable. I want to be able to drive it down to Moab, wheel with nvrstuk (can I come along Brian?!), and drive it home. We'll see if I succeed...

(Lastly...I am not great at taking photos while I'm working, and lost a bunch I had of previous work. I also don't work fast. Have patience ;D)

looks like you already have a pretty good start, and you already have a good looking rig! Can't wait to see more pix

Thanks txtruk! I'll keep posting over the coming week to try to bring us up to today in a cliff's notes sort of manner...

It's crazy to go back and see how long I've had the various parts that are going into this build. One weekend almost two years back, I started stripping things down...and ended up with what you see in the attached pics - stock suspension cut off, chassis leveled and ride height set, strung up and laid out on the floor, and WMS sorted out. (Then I got side tracked by a full kitchen remodel!)

I'm targeting 6" up travel/8" down at both ends, minimum ride height possible.

Front WMS: 64"
Rear WMS: 63.5"

Height from ground to top of door post should be around 54". No competition for Yeller at 50 5/8, but there is no way to go lower without reducing travel. I'm also running a 2" body lift to clear the Atlas.

Marcus good to see your still around, I always wonder where people disappear to I know life often makes us changes passions. good to see your working on it again. Just started working on mine again. yanked the frame out last week to blast and paint and clean up 25 years of various brackets and changes on the frame. good luck with your project and if you need help let us local guys know we are always available to come by drink beer and supervise.

arsenio

Hey Arsenio! Glad to see you are still around too, and still working on your rig! I think Bronco people tend to hang around. I've gone through two moves, a job change, a marriage (and a divorce!) since I last met up with you to swap parts. Lotsa life happening, but always consistently tinkering on the Bronco!

Funny how many people are willing to come supervise and drink beer! Ha! Maybe later when the weather gets nicer I'll throw out an invite to all the locals. It'd be great to meet up with more of the Bronco crowd around here!

Amac70 said:

Marcus good to see your still around, I always wonder where people disappear to I know life often makes us changes passions. good to see your working on it again. Just started working on mine again. yanked the frame out last week to blast and paint and clean up 25 years of various brackets and changes on the frame. good luck with your project and if you need help let us local guys know we are always available to come by drink beer and supervise.

arsenio

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Axle builds...

Most of the parts I've collected over the past several years were for the front and rear axle builds. I started with a pair of Spidertrax center sections with 3" X 3/8" wall tubes. Then added Solid Industries c's, knuckles, spindles and hubs for the front...and Ruffstuff adapters with the same Solid spindles and hubs in the rear.

Half of the pics I attach are just because I know all of you like to look at fancy new parts just as much as I do! I mocked everything up a bunch of times and finally settled on where I wanted the wheels to end up...and then cut down the housings.

The Solid Industries parts are BEEFY...I suppose all D60 parts generally are, but these things just look stout!

I know most have had good luck with Ruffstuff parts, but I ran into a pretty bad issue with their spindle mount plates. The ID bore was smaller than the standard spindle size - literally wouldn't go together! There were also concentricity issues when I went to modify them. Now I know RS stands behind their parts, and they'd have fixed it for me...but I was in build mode so I just fixed it myself and made 'em work. Just a PITA to sort it out!

Just a bunch of random axle component pics attached here...

More axles...

A few more pics of the assembly process for the housings...

Everything was tacked in place once I verified the pinion angles, and set caster at 7° up front. I bought a 1 1/4" solid ground rod from McMaster for alignment, machined pucks for the center section, and thread on centering collars for the outer ends (and even small inner sleeves for the bearing section on the spindles...probably not pictured).

We'll just pretend I had the confidence to go straight from tacked up to welding everything solid...even though there was a good month or two in there of thinking about it while I worked out other geometry 'stuff'. I preheated the ends to 200F, then tig'd the ends on with a hot root pass and a freehand weave pass over the top working in 1/8ths to keep distortion to a minimum. I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out. Clean new metal sure helps!

The last pic is just the front axle mocked up under the front of the truck...because it looks huge and kind of bad a$$! More to follow later...

(Sorry...a couple of pics are upside down, and no matter how I flip 'em, they just stay the same!)

Wow!! . Those are my dream axles. Impressive build

Hey Jeromy - turns out quite a few of us probably have pretty similar dreams! Ha! Between your build and Brian's (nvrstuk), I think you guys covered pretty much everything I'm going to be doing! Thanks for documenting everything you did...I refer back to it often, and loved watching yours come together too!

JSmall said:

Wow!! . Those are my dream axles. Impressive build

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That piece belongs on a wall. Definitely a work of art.

Looks like a darn good start and well on the way to beat that deadline..

Keep up the impressive work

Very nice. I am thinking a new front axle build will be one of the next things on my list after my new stroker.

Welcome back, and great build. I have been slowly collecting parts for the same axles.

bronkenn said:

That piece belongs on a wall. Definitely a work of art.

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sprdv1 said:

Looks like a darn good start and well on the way to beat that deadline..

Keep up the impressive work

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rcmbronc said:

Very nice. I am thinking a new front axle build will be one of the next things on my list after my new stroker.

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Thanks guys! I still have more pics to post to get caught up to current status...I'm probably a year deep into legitimately working on this project off and on, but finally have some serious momentum. I'd imagine I'll eventually run into something else I really don't know how to do...then be back to crawling along!

I love the title of this build!

RCV's...interesting turn of events...

Just thought I'd share a story from this morning...

I ordered a set of RCV's for the front axle back around cyber Monday. I had them quote fronts and rears originally, but the quoted prices I was getting for the rears (which are straight splined shafts!) was astronomical. I got a ship notice yesterday for three boxes...weird. Turns out RCV 'accidentally' made me a set of rears. Now here's where things get interesting...

If a company makes a mistake, how should they handle it? RVC fully admitted that they screwed up. So, they offered to sell me the shafts for cost with the full lifetime warranty...or they would take them back and scrap them. Should they have just said "Merry Christmas, enjoy your free rear shafts"? Now, the cost was low enough (after some negotiation...$350 for the pair) that I said 'ok, I'll just buy them'...but realistically I will likely never break a 35 spline rear (well, not before I break the RD99 ARB!). Can't help but wonder if I had said 'nope, it's your deal'...would they have really paid to have them shipped back?!?

I already have a set of rear shafts on order from Branik, so I sent them a message to see if I could stop the order. It has been almost 5 weeks though, so I doubt that will happen...we'll see! [Edit: the Branik's just came out of heat treat - looks like I'm going to have a set of spares!]

not to be a dick to rcv but if a company ships you something you did not order they can not charge you for it, they can ask you to ship it back but they cant force you to. This is law. i have run into this before also.

for reference

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise

mp said:

Welcome back, and great build. I have been slowly collecting parts for the same axles.

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Thanks! Just a couple of quick comments about the axle builds now that I'm in this deep.

The Spidertrax housings are awesome. Working on clean new housings is awesome. The size of the 9" pumpkin in the front can be a challenge if your goal is low ride height with significant up travel. It looks like Spidertrax has moved to producing only higher end housings in recent years...but if it is in the budget I'd definitely consider them. I bought mine out of their outlet store when they were ending the 3" X 3/8" wall housing production.

The Solid Industries parts are also really nice - no complaints at all there! The one negative I can think of (besides the weight), is that the D60 wheel end components are huge and have some geometry compromises that aren't ideal. It's impossible to get a decent scrub radius without really high offset wheels...or giant tires. Not the end of the world at all, but just a compromise if you want/need the D60 components. The Spidertrax knuckles might be better here, but not sure. Can't say I spent a ton of time worrying about this or designing around it - I already had the wheel/tire combo, and wasn't going to swap! Just some things to think about...and something I'd say probably matters more for street driven vehicles vs. off road.

trailerjack said:

I love the title of this build!

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Ha! Thanks! It probably should have been 'the most expensive therapy', but it is pretty fitting. The shop is my decompression zone!

Amac70 said:

not to be a dick to rcv but if a company ships you something you did not order they can not charge you for it, they can ask you to ship it back but they cant force you to. This is law. i have run into this before also.

for reference

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise

Click to expand...

Yeah, definitely didn't "have" to pay for them...and they weren't asking me to. They'd have taken them back if I said I didn't want them. I don't know what would have happened if I said "no, I don't need them...I'll scrap them for you!". Just figured that for the price it was worth having a set of spares. I suppose I could have also literally said "sorry, I don't know what you are talking about", but I guess that's just not how I roll...

(Maybe I'll build a new rear axle for one of my F100's with 'em!)

Suspension Geometry

Ok, let's throw out one more for today. I should be working, but after 11 days off I'm starting slow!

I literally spent days worth of time trying to finalize the suspension geometry. Not that I think the numbers I decided on are going to be exact, but there just isn't a lot of information out there about what works well for a 'jack of all trades' sort of truck. The "anti's" also aren't the only things that define how a vehicle handles, but...I'm an engineer, so I spend a lot of time contemplating things. Then measuring. Then changing things because it won't fit. Repeat.

Attached are pics of where I landed:

Rear anti-squat adjustable to: 41/54/69% at ride height
Front anti-dive: 30/41/52%

I plan to set it up at 30/54 initially. The front turns out to be quite sensitive to adjustments, meaning a small change in pivot location = a big jump in anti dive (and...pro lift in 4WD)...not sure that is a good thing yet.

You'll find widely varying ideas about what these numbers should be...and I suspect many of them will work just fine. Humans are pretty good at driving around (or adapting to) basic handling characteristics. I have my own philosophy, so we'll see how it handles once it is on the road. Funny enough - nvrstuk sent me the rear numbers for his setup, and at the time we were quite similar!

I did scale the truck and calculate the CoG quite some time back, but these are still guesses to some degree since I've made so many changes. My tentative plan was to get everything mocked up and re-check it before burning everything in...but we'll see if that happens. Still gotta build a LOT of stuff first if I'm going to do that!