Pictures of My New Luber - Complete With Crazy Story!

Apologies in advance for the insanely long post. Don't worry, lots of the length is pictures. Nevertheless--and not that I need to say it--but please skip at will. The story of my death-defying journey home with my new Bronco is a little bit below...

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I stumbled onto Early Broncos a couple months ago and got caught up pretty quickly in obsessing over getting my first, which I did this past weekend. I'm so excited and happy to finally be a member of the club! I first came across this Bronco right here in the classifieds. A couple weeks after contacting the owner, she was mine!

My wife and I flew from San Jose to Phoenix on Friday to take a look at her and make a final decision whether to buy (from talking to the PO I was pretty sure it was in the condition I was looking for). The plan was to drive her the ~ 700+ miles home, with the possibility of renting a U-haul if I wasn't confident she could make the trip. Well, I took the risk and drove her home. More on that in a minute...

Here are the stats:

1974 Bronco
- 200 cid inline 6, 3 on the tree

- Manual steering, manual brakes, discs on the front

- D44 and 9" rear, both with 4.11 gears

- Just under 58,000 original miles (!)

- All gauges (including fuel) work; all lights work

- 3.5" suspension lift, 31" tires on F150 wheels

- Arizona truck almost its whole life, little or no rust issues (PO had addressed two small rust issues on body, which was then painted and the bed rhino lined)

- Brand new, custom, reupholstered original seats and matching door panels (with extra fabric for rear panels if I want to make them). These are really slick.

- Considering the new parts, paint job, interior work, the overall shape of the Bronco, and its low original mileage, I think I got an awesome price for it, too, which just makes me that much happier about buying it (like I need that!) ;D

Here are some pics!

















And here is the crazy story:

For the most part, she did great on the trip. Even in the Arizona desert, she never went above 190 degrees, and was only about 180 the rest of the time. She got an incredible 20 miles a gallon. She did up to 70 mph without a hiccup, and even hit 80 briefly; but mostly I stayed in the 60-65 range on major highways so as not to push her too hard.

BUT, for whatever reason, the lug nuts on the rear driver's side wheel apparently were loose, and I hadn't thought to check those before my trip. Stupid. So I'm cruising along at 65 or 70 mph, and all of a sudden I get a nearly uncontrollable wobble, with the Bronco going left to right to left in between two lanes and me trying madly to straighten her out and regain control. Luckily there was no one immediately next to me at the time.

I straightened her out and got control again, eyeing an exit with a gas station one mile away, so I decided I'd try to get there and pull over. But 10 or 20 seconds later, the wobble happened again. It was so bad I thought I was going to roll, I'm actually amazed it didn't, at the speed I was going. I knew I was in trouble. I pumped the brakes to try to reduce speed and move to the shoulder while keeping control of the car, then BAM! my wheel came full off, and I was on my rear drum grinding to a halt.

Luckily, I had made it to the shoulder, and stopped quickly. The wheel rolled about 300 yards into the median. Luckily, it avoided hitting the two cars that were behind me, and avoided going into the opposite lane of traffic.





Needless to say, it very easily could have ended much worse than it did. My wife was with me and it scared the holy hell out of her, so much so that it made the rest of the trip pretty anxiety-ridden.

I had no jack or tire iron or spare lug nuts on me, so we began calling around for some help, which took a while. After walking to the gas station a half mile away, we got in touch with a company that services commercial rigs, and they said they'd come to see if their equipment would work, which it did. I retrieved the wheel and rolled it back, we jacked it up, borrowed some lug nuts from each of the other 3 wheels, and put her back in. 9 miles later there was an exit with a Auto Zone, where I got some more lug nuts and replaced all the missing ones. I also bought a jack and tire iron and, believe me, the rest of the trip I checked those lug nuts every time we stopped.

Weird thing is, each time I checked the lug nuts, the ones I had bought and hand-tightened gave just a little bit of movement if I put all my muscle into it, which is understandable. The ones the guy had tightened with the air gun never moved - again, much stronger than I am with a lousy tire iron. BUT, even the lug nuts that the guy had air gun tightened on that rear driver's side tire, were always a little bit loose each time I checked. So something's making them loosen up as she drives, which is scary. I'm going to have to figure that one out (and welcome any thoughts you might have).

Epilogue

After the lost wheel debacle 150 miles into our 700-mile trip, the rest went without incident. Along the way I stopped in a few places to pick up some parts advertised in the classified here, including stock bumpers (hate the black ones on there now, gonna go back with the stock chrome), windshield wiper assembly, guard and visors, and a tire rack. She was pretty full by the time we got home. Here are a few pics of her finally home and in her new resting area, where she will soon be thoroughly reexamined and endlessly tinkered with, no doubt.

Wow, crazy story. Glad you made it back safe. I can't believe someone sold that Bronco for $7,300. I'd say it is easily worth twice that.....

Heh. I don't know about double that figure - especially with the 200 I6 - but I actually got it for about 10% less than he was asking. ;D

Welcome, & nice rig.

Cool Bronco and you already have history with it and stories. I like those seat covers and door panels.

glad you found a suitable new member for your family

that's a very good deal on it and a great memory to boot

congrats !

Congratulations and enjoy that LUBER, is going to stay UNCUT, right? .

My wife would have been so pissed if that happened to us. She probably would have walked to the gas station and called a taxi to get her to the airport.

Congrats on the new ride. The adventure is what they are all about.

Wow, wild ride... Too bad about the folded rear quarter there, but at least it will be an easy fix. If that was all the body work my bronco needed I'd be a happy camper!

Anyway, don't sweat the loosening lug bolts too much just yet. If they're only turning 1/8 of a turn or so, that's pretty normal. Things tend to settle in a bit after you've driven a few miles. Here's an easy test to see if the bolts really are loosening up though.

1) torque the wheel lugs to stock specifications using a torque wrench (many people over-torque their lugs w/o even knowing).

2) color code the ends of the lugs with some paint, markers, crayon, etc... You want to be able to tell which is which.

3) after 100 miles use the torque wrench to check one lug bolt on each wheel. Record your results. Repeat on a new lug bolt every 100 miles after that (if you're worried, you can reduce the mileage to start with).

If they're loosening up over time, you'll find out really quick that way.

Good luck!

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Yes, it will remain uncut. I'm a big fan of the LUBER look, and don't plan to do a lot of hard wheeling.

Yes, the rear fender bit it a little. Not bad considering, but it needs some reshaping. The fender also scraped the ground and chipped the paint which, if I don't fix it, will lead to more and more paint being chipped off, so that's a high-priority fix.

Thanks for the advice on the lug nuts. They are new wheels (PO put them on and he drove the Bronco only 100 miles), so maybe that explains it. And I would say the looseness is less than 1/8" turn, but after what happened, any give is a little scary.

I really like your new rig. I agree with you 100% about the black bumpers. I also hate to say it, but If it were mine, I'd either paint or trade the roof to get a nice white one, but that is just me. So the moral of the story seems to be to pull off the road as soon as you think you are having a problem. Great truck, glad everything worked out for you. Now when are you going to get yourself a trail rig as your second Bronco? Someone want to set the Over/Under on this?

Very nice Bronco. That is quite the story but I am glad to hear you made it home safely and that the damage was kept to a minimum. Sounds like you got a great deal on that Bronco and I think you'll enjoy driving it for years to come.

Glad you're okay, good story too. When i bought mine i had the intention of driving it home also. About 70 miles as opposed to 700. About 15 miles into it, the truck was falling on it's face. I figure gas maybe? dunno if the gauge works....ended up towing it (thanks AAA!) The po had new dual exhaust put on, gas line inches away and was vapor locking it. Was a while before wife wanted to go anywhere near it. Good oluck and keep up updated!

I would be concerned about the wheels. I had an old Cherokee in high school and the driver’s side rear wheel came off. It then fell off a number of times, once in a tunnel at 70 mph. Turned out the lug holes were not exactly round and caused the nuts to loosen up. Eventually the wheel fell off while my dad was driving, and the drum fell off and the internals exploded out. We had to buy a new wheel.

bosshoff said:

I really like your new rig. I agree with you 100% about the black bumpers. I also hate to say it, but If it were mine, I'd either paint or trade the roof to get a nice white one, but that is just me. So the moral of the story seems to be to pull off the road as soon as you think you are having a problem. Great truck, glad everything worked out for you. Now when are you going to get yourself a trail rig as your second Bronco? Someone want to set the Over/Under on this?

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You know, its funny. I told PO the same thing - not enough contrast with the black against the dark gray. The spray painted door handles, emblems, bumpers, and top look crappy. I'd switch the top to white, but its coming off anyway, gonna add a roll bar and bikini top and keep it like that 99% of the time at least. I might even sell the hard top. We'll see.
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Thanks for the kind comments and wishes, everyone. I'll definitely look into what I can do to keep that wheel safe, maybe replace the wheel studs, at least one seems to be stripped anyway, so...

After a new set of aluminum wheels, I too had a similar problem. Wheel went rollin' right off! I was told that you need to tighten the wheel nuts 60 miles after first install. something to do with heat/aluminum......

Mono~

Nice rig and good story to go with it. Glad everyone made it home safely. I flew out to pick up one a few years back and drove her about 1200 miles home. I purposely did not bring the Mrs. along for fear of the unknown and more so for fear of having to hear about it the rest of the way home:-X Keep the pics coming!

Glad to hear that the rest of your trip went well. That's quite a story, I didn't realize the severity of it when you told me what happened. But reading this thread and seeing the pics, really puts it into perspective. You two are very lucky. Have fun with your new project, and post some update pics soon.
Mark

Hey Mark - thanks for the tire carrier! (picked it up from Mark on my way home, and got a chance to see his really slick-looking forest green bronco!). Will do...

Enjoy your new ride! Looks nice.
My experience is that aluminum wheels "allow" the lug nuts to loosen. I had put a set on one of my Broncos and was constantly tightening them. I now torque them to 80 -100 ft/lbs. I got tired of worrying about them. I still check them but I don't appear to have the problem any more.