Landsharks 69er Build and Tune

Hello all, as some of you may have seen my 76 Ranger build the last year or so you know I will never take that one off-road. I recently purchased a great 1969 Bronco from a member here on cb.com that was being finished up after a frame off.

I have lots of ideas on how to make this great Bronco even better but before I do I have a few things on my short list that need attention that the previous owner didn't have time to get to before I barged in this last weekend

There is a vibration thats almost a jack hammer in the seat of the pants type that gets pretty bad at about 55mph. I think it might be the rear driveshaft so will have that rebuilt and balanced then check all the angles.. might be some pinon angles to play with - we will see.

Leak around the windshield hinge, not sure if this is the weatherstripping or if its leaking through the actual spot welds. I will test and see what we have going on...

Passenger door fitment and fender fitment. The PO replaced the door posts both front and rear as well as the rear quarter panels, so no rust! However there are a few fitment issues that I have been playing with on the passenger door. I think I might use a bottle jack or something similar to try and spread the door opening at the top... thinking this might not only allow the door to close correctly but it might also correct the fender fitment and allow the windshield hinge to seal better. I figure i will have to take the front passenger fender off and maybe even losen some of the body mounts to get it to move.. doesn't need much.. less than 1/4" is this a bad idea? anyone tried this before?

With the big block come big body lift. I would love to remove 1" of the 3" body lift.. probably need to go through and see what the options are may not be many as things are close with that 400 in there

Wiring cleanup and tuning.. both need to be done, PO got it running pretty nice but WOT and cold start are not tuned yet.. will have to work on both of these here soon.

Anyway enough yapping, here are some pics!

















Lots to do but love working on the Bronco and can't wait to dive in!

Looks like you have a good one to start with. I know what you mean by not wanting to wheel your 76 Ranger I am the same way about my 74 thats the reason I got my 76. I use it to hunt, fish, haul the dog in, go to the Mtns when it snows and just enjoy it and not worry about scratching the paint.

surfer-b said:

Looks like you have a good one to start with. I know what you mean by not wanting to wheel your 76 Ranger I am the same way about my 74 thats the reason I got my 76. I use it to hunt, fish, haul the dog in, go to the Mtns when it snows and just enjoy it and not worry about scratching the paint.

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Yup.. right now iam trying to find a place to stash my 76.. out of room and it can't sit outside.. sad i know

Took the rear driveshaft into my driveline place and they spun it and found it was bent and out of balance.. put it back in and the vibration is pretty much gone.

Driving with the NP435 reminds of driving our old farm truck.. i think it was a 1971 or 72 Ford F350 PTO stake bed truck... its like a bag of hammers

I think I will be laying down sound/thermal deadening sooner rather than later, instead of carpet I'm going to use Vinyl/rubber covering over the thermal stuff.. that should quiet things down, as I do drive the Highways more often than not.


However I will have to put things aside for a few days and stuff the 94 into the garage to get it ready to sell.

Driving with the NP435 reminds of driving our old farm truck..

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Yeah I had one in a 76 I bought years ago, never gave any probs but I didnt really care for it, however it was better than the factory 3 speed

This weekend the Colorado Bronco clubs came together and had a parts swap meet and breakfast and I picked up a few vent pieces to add to project red. I also took the Bronco down to a Ford Dyno/tuner and had him take a ride to go over the current setup and get an idea of what needed to be done to finish up tuning. All in all the PO did an excellent job of tuning the 406 setup and the tuner suggested just a few tweaks here and there. I will play with the tuning software over the summer and get it dialed in.

Weather is starting to get nice and I needed to do some interior work and front windshield sealing so took the top off for easy access.




I added a thick piece of rubber windshield weatherstripping so the hinge should be sealed, however because of the added thickness the hinge bulges on the top and bottom and will need to be injected with some seam sealer to keep the interior dry, the rig will be seeing some weather this summer/winter.

As for the interior I'm going to tidy up the centech wiring, run the wiring for the console stereo and rear speakers, then lay down thermal/sound deadening with a Vinyl flooring to finish off the floor.

I'm also entertaining the thought of switching to a Hydraulic clutch with slave setup instead of the mechanical linkage, doing a bit of research but might go with a wildwood setup. It would probably be a good idea to do this before I put the floor in so might happen rather quickly...

Anyway lots of plans, one thing at a time!

EDIT:

Oh i forgot, i got the passenger door squared away for the most part. I played with the body mounts and a few other things but because of the cage, sliders and a few other things I decided to go ahead and use a highlift jack to spread the upper door post forward. Worked pretty well, probably opened up the top about 1/4" maybe slightly less.. was of course springy so had to "massage" it a bit but with a little shimming of the door hinges I got the door to close pretty well.

I did notice, and as mentioned by the PO the hinges are still not tight. Rebuilding hinges myself I know how hard they are to do. I will be replacing them with some stainless lift off hinges here int he next few weeks and then make some steel wedges for the door spacers to really get things lined up for good.

So since I have decided to join the fun at Bronco Safari in Moab this year so I have tasked myself with a short list of things to do before hitting the road.

Pulled the fenders off to get better access and decided to seal up all the front seams, welds, hinge and other places to make it more water tight up front.

As most things lead to another and since I had the fenders off decided to re-locate the air tank (OBA) and move a few things around under hood, tidy up the wiring, etc.

Iam adding in a charcoal canister to eliminate the gas smell and run a sealed gas cap so moving the air tank wil make this much easier.

I will also be running a few extra wires for aftermarket gauges, stereo and more.

more to come!

Well I made substantial progress this weekend getting ready for Moab. I worked on sealing up the front cowl, windshield and seams with seam sealer to make the truck more water tight (if there is such a thing).

Went junkyard diving on saturday morning and picked up some nifty windshield sprayers, collant and wiper container, jeep cherokee wipers, 2 sweet power steering coolers and a charcoal canister with a ton of tubing and softlines...

Rewired the engine bay adding new circuits and wiring for accessories, radio, amp and lights... re-loomed and re-ran allot of the wiring under the hood in order to consolidate and clean things up to make it easier to work on and more ascetically pleasing

Moved the ARB lines and re-ran all the wiring for the compressor and tank. I'm going to move the tank beneath the truck to make more room under the hood.

All in all just allot of re-wiring and clean up, looks pretty good so far finishing up the inside wiring this week and then I move onto the underbody to make sure everything is ready for the trail!

Well moab was fun and tested the rig pretty well. Broke some stuff wont know the full extent until i get unloaded and the bronco on jack stands to start an inspection but hopefully nothing too major.

Engine ran like a raped ape - sounds like a older nascar.. really wrung it out a few times and ran perfectly.. very fun in the sand at 3500 RPM in 2nd and equally nice to let it crawl in granny gear ;D

As far as the damage is concerned its mostly suspension parts...

So far I know I will need new ubolts, leaf spring plates and retaining pins for the rear leafs/axle.

at least one new brake line for the right rear axle tube brake line.

new seals for right rear 9 inch.

Possibility new shocks for the rear.. and I have decided on picking up a set of these shock mounts...



they are the Shock Jock Rear Shock Mounts which should allow me to move my shock mounts up enough to allow longer travel in the back without bottoming out my shocks. Just hope at least one of my shocks is still good back there!

I also have several other items to attend to, i have some noise coming from the front suspension hoping its just lose coil retainers..

Also will be doing a TRO up front.. and testing my TRE's as i think one is shot...

Awesome Bronco. Do you have an efi carb on the motor?

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Is your hard top rino lined? If it is how do you like it?
DOUG86401AZ

SSDDBRONCO said:

Awesome Bronco. Do you have an efi carb on the motor?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

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Holley mpfi using commander 950 computer

doug86401AZ said:

Is your hard top rino lined? If it is how do you like it?
DOUG86401AZ

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It is. I guess it's ok haven't had much time with the top on yet

landshark99 said:

Holley mpfi using commander 950 computer

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Wow!! That kit is expensive! How do you like it?

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all I know is that the motor sounds really awesome when stretching it's legs !

Awesome photo above, but given the carnage listed, there's gotta be a slew of other photos you're hiding from us! C'mon, let's see them!

It's really not that bad - center pin sheared off the drivers side axle leaf pack which allowed the axle to move and stripped some of the ubolts holding the retaining plate. If it wasn't for the wrap trap the axle would have walked out and I would have lost my driveline unjoints. I drove another 8 miles or so before I realized what happened and that was through some obstacles and sand dunes ripping it up! Not sure why the axle is leaking but wasn't kind to it after the mishap so not surprised.

I will take some pics this week when I start to tear into it.

SSDDBRONCO said:

Wow!! That kit is expensive! How do you like it?

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Its been good so far, I'm still tuning it as it takes some time to understand and get used to the software but overall its been great. Hoping to lean out the fuel map to get more MPG's as right now I'm probably in the single digits...

started tearing into the rear suspension and axle to fix a few tweaks that happened in Moab.

Removed all the Ubolts and plates.. going to replace them with beefier versions.. also will need a new centering pin.

Removed the axle shaft as well as i developed a leak on the passenger side. Found part of the seal torn and missing so will add a new seal, collar and bearing to the order as well!

Adding some flair to my ride...



Also found out I customized my oil pan in Moab