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Jake Good's Bronco Rebuild

INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
I've had a build thread on pirate for a while. (It's a really slow rebuild) Alot of people are scared to comment on pirate I thought I'd copy it here to share with you guys. Here goes...

I bought my second bronco in 1997. I was actually looking for a new tub for my 1976 when I came across a 1971 basket case project. It was completely dissambled, but it had an Arizona tub, two set's of axles, 2 engines and three transmissions. Plus all the cool parts sourced for a really nice build. After 6 months of HARD AT IT frame off it was up and running. The first test was a trip to Colorado in the summer of 98 to check out the new fuel injected mustang engine. It was awesome! I could run all the mountian passes with out messing with the carburator!

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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
Around 2000 I had been saving for gears and lockers and finally bit the bullet and ordered 4.56 gears, a detroit for the rear and an EZ Locker for the front. Of course that didn't last long with 33's. After my first trip to Disney Oklahoma I came home and bought 36" SX's. I did the spring hinge plate thing under the rear springs and a 5.5" lift coil for the front. It was scary.... I sawpped in some 5.5 lift leafs in the back and that help quite a bit. I also went from wheels spacers to try to make it stable to full width half ton 9" and Dana 44. Gearing was improved with a 4:1 Klune and a NP 205 transfer case. I traded my AOD for a C4 with the right adapter. I got laid off so I went to work linking the suspension. Front recieved a wristed arm style with a single lower on the passenger and the rear was a wishbone upper 3-link.

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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
I swapped to 38.5" SX's and full hydro steering for a number of years. My driving style was fairly conseravative and the D44 survived quite well for many years. 2005 came with the Ultimate Adventure adn the bronco saw some new sheetmetal and a quick facelift for the trip. This also brought the switch to BFG Krawlers in the 37" size. But as with most things you keep pushing the limits and the spidertrax housings were becoming popular so I built a Junkyard "609". Scott Angell and I did an Exo-Cage on a Toyota pick up in exchange for a dana 60. At that point I swapped to a triangulated lower fourlink and reused my old lower links for upper links.

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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
Also a new cage was built since I was tired of getting hung up on the "C hoop" of the old cage. The bronco has been to the Hammers, Moab, Colorado, Katemcy, Hot Springs, Flat Nasty, SMORR, Tellico, Black hills and many places in between. The rear axle is getting pretty tired, still with 31 spline shafts and the body is due for another round of straighting.

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I just remembered a video that might explain the reason I need some new body panels.

YouTube - LEBC 2009 Jake Good's How To Do Body Work at Katemcy Rocks
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
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Messages
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Well my first order of business is the rear axle because once I move the rear axle back another 2" to 99" of Wheelbase I will move the opening around to make it look "right". I know one thing that after owning two spidertrax housings, one here and one in the comp rig, I want one for the rear. Being tired of tearing out u-bolts straps out of the low pinion 9" I definitely wanted a High Pinion 9. Of course with two kids an unstable job market I just couldn't do a Tru-High 9 like I wanted so I set about finding a more fitting redneck way.... It'll be cheaper right?

I posted up on a the TrailKrawlers4x4 forum local to Fort Riley, KS Military base in search for some H1 portal boxes. Not long after I had a set of 4 boxes, hopefully I won't need spares but I have two if I do! I sought after these because they had a little less lift than a unimog and in turn a little better gear ratio with only a 1.92:1 vs the mogs 2.13. This way I can try to keep it as streetable as possible and cut the body as little as I can.

With some help from D and D Machine in Belton, Mo and Harley0706 we have the adapter plate designed and ready to be milled. I will be switching to 8-lug chevy outers on my 609 front axle in order to match the 8 bolt rear H1 pattern.

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dieselbronco

Full Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Messages
151
Loc.
Tolland CT
So after all the machining and purchasing of the portals was it cheaper than the hi9 option? It would sure be awesome to have portals even if it's not cheaper.;D
 

bigjhoov

nobody
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
3,572
One of the baddest, most capable, full bodied Bronco's ever built, period.
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
So after all the machining and purchasing of the portals was it cheaper than the hi9 option? It would sure be awesome to have portals even if it's not cheaper.;D

It could have been a comparable option price wise IF I would have stuck to my original plan. %) So no I ended up spending more money on it than a Tru Hi-9 with comparable parts. But not by much!


One of the baddest, most capable, full bodied Bronco's ever built, period.

Thanks Jerry! I won't fit in the Full bodied catagory anymore but I hope only the most educated will be able to tell. :p
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
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Here are my adapters that were made by Branik Machine. I screwed up one of the bolt patterns on the first set so Brandon made the correction and whipped up a new set. Even with the Error and making two of these the price was still very reasonable. These things are sweet! They weigh 10lbs a piece. So much for trying to lose weight in the rig but they will be so worth it. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures.. I was excited!

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fdezone

Sr. Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
634
Loc.
Fredericksburg, VA
It could have been a comparable option price wise IF I would have stuck to my original plan. %) So no I ended up spending more money on it than a Tru Hi-9 with comparable parts. But not by much!

Hahaha! Sounds like you're all about taking the road less traveled. That's awesome! :D I'm looking forward to stealling all of your innovative ideas that work. :p

Those adapters turned out NICE! I was just on their website, dreaming about their 40-spline axles.
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
Less Traveled... Hard Headed... Call it what you want!
Critique and steal away! Thats the main reason I moved my thread here is I value all the input anyone wants to share.
Jake
 

NateMob

Full Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Messages
248
Could you give some insight into the Cooper tires you were running in the above video. How would you compare them to other tires you've ran on the Bronco? Thanks Jake!


Nate
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
They are definately an all around tire like the tread would suggest. They run so smooth down the highway and work really good in all the offroad situations I have come across. I used to compare them to the old MTR's and these are tons better than those! I haven't run the new MTR's but I would say they are compareable. Tread compound is very soft for a DOT tire but reportably has great tread life! Cooper also make the Pro-Comp and Mickey Thompson line of tires so they are all going to be similar.

Now compared to sticky tires they definately lack some of that performance... We have run them in the Modified Stock class with the W.E.ROCK national rock crawling series and have several series championships on them. I guarantee if they lacked performance there we would have got rid of them quick!

Hope that helps! Jake
 

NateMob

Full Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Messages
248
Thanks Jake, i really appreciate the detailed response. Looking forward to seeing the next iteration of your Bronco on a future Ultimate Adventure!

Nate
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
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Messages
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No Problem! I would really like to be able to go on that trip again! We wheel hard when we go on vacation but it is nothing like UA. I met a buddy of mine a couple about 4 hours away from the final stop on UA 2005. I was so exhausted that I couldn't hardly get the bronco back on the trailer... Those guys are crazy!
Jake
 
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INPHOBIC

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
1,809
Loc.
Kansas City, KS
The rear frame had already been through a couple of revisions. One of those was ripping the shock hoop off of the frame which resulted in a quick patch to keep running for the rest of the week. So in order to clean it up a bit I removed the rear section of the frame and replaced it with some 3"x4" rectangle tubing.

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It looks clean but didn't turn out like I wanted. I am planning to cut it off and rework the joint so it looks like a smoother transition into the new tubing. What do you guys think? Is it worth redoing just to make it look more factory?

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