Money Pit - Phase III

Well - I got the Bronco yesterday and it immediately consumed all of my time... at least the woman is very understanding of new toys ;D

Time for the pictures - this will not be a 56k friendly build.

I was actually able to drive this thing home averaging around 65-70mph... It drove surprisingly well.




Check out the last pic - a member spotted the rig and left his card and brochure. I know from the card, the person is in the chamber of commerce for white bear or something like that.

There is some rust - but not what was expected on a MN truck.




It is going to need new floors up front - I could see that wonderful carpet when was under the truck changing the oil.

First thing I did when I got it home was installing some seatbelts... Whoever had this before the person I bought it from removed everything from the inside of the truck and then covered the walls and floors in shag carpet... %) After a few choice words and some investigating - I was able to find the holes and mount the drivers side seatbelt.



Mom even poked her head out and thought it was "cute"

seats

Comfy looking seats!!!

The Bronco may have very nice power steering - but the brakes SUCK. The only tire that is currently stopping the truck is the passenger side rear - it locks up with ease. I wanted to look at the front brakes so I pulled off the front tires to find brand new and painted drums. I couldn't get them off - so I removed the lockouts and spindle nuts and pulled the hub/drum out together. I find new Timken bearings and brand new shoes on both sides. The fronts were way out of adjustment and the wheels cylinders look original. The truck doesn't leak any fluid, so we did some testing with the drum off. Note - when driving the truck around and trying to break, the pedal is very stiff - less then 2" of travel at all. I work the pedal by hand and without the drum on there I gain pedal travel and the wheel cylinder pushes the shoes out - both sides. We tear apart the other side to find the same thing - new shoes and bearings, old cylinder. Everything checked out, I had my Dad adjust both sides so they would be at the same adjustment (so it wouldn't pull during breaking) and I put everything together. I'll have to upload the pictures from that - but I didn't have the truck in my driveway for more then an hour and the front end was torn down to the spindles ;D



We didn't tear apart the rear because it has a leaky seal on the drivers side and the passenger side locks up - so we just adjusted the drivers side rear out a bit to try and even up the bias between the two.

Initial driveway tests (rolling in reverse without the truck running) resulted in perfect braking - it stopped so fast the I found the headrest on the seat... Road test on the gravel deceived us and the passenger side rear still locks up and the truck barley slows down... We adjusted that drum out further and further every time, but the braking didn't change. Any ideas? We are going to clamp off the rubber before both rear brakes and see what the fronts will do. The truck doesn't leak any brake fluid and it has a new master cylinder.

Well it looks like you have a project on your hands. The running gear looks pretty good. The Minnesota winters and salt may have you working hard on that rust. Good luck with it.

2b1ask1 said:

Comfy looking seats!!!

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They are! Think they are out of an old Chevrolet car. I've got some Corbeau style seats from a Mustang guy I'm going to swap in for trail riding.

I ran some engine flush threw it and changed the oil - sitting at operating temp the oil gauge reads ~68psi. I messed around with transfercase shifter to try and test the 4wd - I got it into 4wd after some random movements into the general direction of what the knob showed - when I tried testing it out again for the breaks I couldn't get the truck to move - no matter what I did I could ONLY get the front shaft to spin - nothing out of the rear. Some more choice words and a crowbar got it back into 2wd. Will twin sticking it rid me of this problem? When shifting into what I think is 4wd hi and lo I cannot feel any detents or a feeling of it actually engaging.

Great rig to start with - look forward to seeing your progress on it. I love your build name "Project Money Pit." At least it sounds like you know what you're getting into ;D What are your plans with it?

I love new projects in the drive. Cant wait to see your progress.

SC74 said:

Great rig to start with - look forward to seeing your progress on it. I love your build name "Project Money Pit." At least it sounds like you know what you're getting into ;D What are your plans with it?

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Hehe - How can you look at it every day and NOT spend money on it?

My plans -
I've got a 90' D60 that just needs joints and some seals - had that for months. I've also got some Cage coils, shocks, and weld on arms to complete the D60 front. I'm getting a welded D60 rear from a buddy for out back - the truck will be lifted with a 5" suspension lift and some cutting to clear the set of 37" boggers I've got sitting in the garage. The tires are almost new and the rears are cut ;D



The truck will be getting some new floors up front as well as a new paint job - something to make it look a little more aggressive.


I found out why my brakes suck - if you look closely in the pic I took of the engine bay, the previous owner installed a new master cylinder that is setup for a truck with disk front brakes and drum rears.. Doh!
I'm thinking a twin stick kit will also solve my funk 4wd shifting issues - better then spending the money on rebuilding it.

Looks like you are off to a great start! Have fun with your build! It looks like it is going to go quickly with all the goodies you already have! Keep us updated!

Can anyone with drum/drum master cylinder verify that my MC looks like it is for a disk/drum?

Excellent brother... Congrats....

Well - I tore into it more this weekend. It didn't choke at all so my Dad and I adjusted the carb and I now have high idle and a choke. Damn motor is still spraying oil out of the dipstick under higher RPM's... what a mess.

That carpet in the back was getting on my nerves so I started cutting. Well the side panels had to go as well - but the rollcage had them pinned in pretty good. Whoever put that rollcage in decided it would be an exelent idea to use the most random collection of old bolts laying around....
Not a single nut & bolt combo was the same and I had to cut two of them out... I found some old speakers that looked to be in very good shape - they had phone cable for speaker wire... :-X

On to the pictures - I was very pleased to find this under the carpet.


The entire floor was solid - some surface rust in the corners, but still very solid.


Cleaned up


I took a peek under the carpet in the drivers side front - I knew there was some flindstonage going on, but it isn't as bad as I thought. There is plenty of surface rust but I am pleasantly surprised on how sturdy the floor is all the way to where that hole is.


This is the spare windshield I got with the truck - very little rust and it even has part of the fold down kit on it. All I need is the footman loop for the hood.

Check out the history on this thing! I can read things as far back as 89'

Made some more progress today! After swapping out the master cylinder and still having no brakees I knwe the problem was elsewhere. A local club member needed some help wrench'n and he had some left over brake parts from his disk swap - something I needed. I ended up leaving with a set of rebuilt and loaded backing plates as well as a front cage kit.

I swapped in the loaded backing plates - plumbed them in and then bled the brakes. I immediatly noticed that my brake pedal was not rock hard and it actually moved. Road test confirmed that all 4 tires now lock up on tar

I didn't take any pictures because I was just trying to get this done and out of the 90* heat and 80% humidity today... ugh.

The rig is now road worthy - hehehe... I want to throw in a cheap 2.5" lift so I can clear a set of 32's with chains on them for the winter - so I'm on the lookout for front lift springs.

Roadworthy = HAPPY Owner..

sprdv1 said:

Roadworthy = HAPPY Owner..

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Happy owner indeed ;D

Oh yeah - last weekend I removed the carpet covering the transmission tunnel to start prepping for my Tom's Twin Stick install. Looking through the original hole - I really need to clean the transfer case before I start shooting sparks around it, yuck :-X

I'm not sure if I am going to make an access panel - I think it is a good idea in case/when I need to remove the transfer case. I've read through the "how big is your hole" twin stick thread and have some good ideas on what I am going to do.

Of course - many pictures are to come

Well - I got a lot done today - my Bronco is officially Twin Sticked!! ;D

I started this afternoon with hosing everything down with degreaser through the stock hole in the floor - I can tell it did some work, but not much.

This is the hole I ended up cutting - nice size access panel that I'm going to cover with fresh sheet metal tomorrow.



Here are my shifters installed - I didn't want to trim so I fought for them for much longer then I should have...



One problem though - I'm kind of a big guy and the shifts hit my knee when the front is in high range. Can I bend the shifter a little so it will clear my leg? It isn't even close to being comfortable right now - this is a Tom's twin stick kit...

It is very nice to be able to get the Bronco into and out of 2WD and 4WD reliably - tomorrow is testing day

Have fun testing. Coming along rather nicely. You never know what you will find under all those 80's shag installations, but someone must have been making a fortune on all that carpet!

Alright - I've dune a burnout in every gear configuration now. Testing complete ;D

Here is a nice daytime picture - it was pretty dark when I took the pictures last night.



So after getting the twin stick all done and tested (and shoveling in the holes I dug in the street) I wanted to see if I could get my bigger BFG's to fit. Well - they fit all right....


The Bronco is stock height and the tires are 32X11.5X15 and the wheels are off my 95' F150. I rolled the fenders in the back and they fit alot better - they will still rub if you bounce up and down on the back, but because I rolled the fenders smooth I'm not worried about hurting the tire. I'm picking up a set of 2.5" lift springs from a local member and the person I bought it from has a set of 3" rear blocks for the back - so that will level the truck off perfectly and give me room to run chains on these tires in the winter.

Poser flex shot - jack wouldn't go any further with the chunk of wood I had on the foot. The front coils are for a big Bronco - so they didn't even compress at all... very very stiff.

Now this is some uncut stuffage! I could have gone further if I could lift the front corner more...