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New owner from Germany

sprdv1

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Mar 8, 2007
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Hey Paul, I'm already sporting the WH 1" body lift mounts!
When installing them, I took Johnny Cash's advice and replaced them one piece at a time... So I'm fairly confident I didn't mix up the existing shims. And the door gaps are ok-ish.
I'll start by loosening the rear bolt on the driver side, and jack the body up to see what is needed there!

doing a good job bud....
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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Sealed up the drip rail today. Will let it cure until tomorrow, then paint it.

Also played around with the body mounts. Started by jacking up the rear left corner:
IMG_4402.jpeg


placed a shim there, much better now:
IMG_4403.jpeg


But still it's off a little. In height - at the passenger rear wheel well and the passenger rear light I measure about half an inch difference compared to the driver side.
Also it's off side to side. The rear cab corners are shifted about 3/8" to the driver side, when measuring from the outer side of the frame to each side.

I then tweaked the passenger side door. Replacement door, replacement fender, badly welded in rear quarter. Removed shims from the mounting point behind the seat, also put washers behind the lower door hinge. It sits fairly ok now, but still way too far forward. The rear gap is pretty even, but too wide in general. But the rear of the door is not sticking out anymore, and the striker does not lift up the door when closing:
IMG_4405.jpeg


All in all, it sits quite ok. Maybe tilted a little to the driver side... I noticed there are still large packs of washers on mounting points B & C on both sides. Maybe I'll pull these on the passenger side, just to see what happens:
IMG_4404.jpeg


I also have to fab some shims for the hood, that needs to be tweaked a little, too.
More to come!
 
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DirtDonk

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Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,355
When you're messing about with the body height you might loosen the hard top bolts to let it float around a bit more easily. Then once it's shimmed you can tighten everything up together again.

Not sure that would make a difference, but it might.

Paul
 

sprdv1

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When you're messing about with the body height you might loosen the hard top bolts to let it float around a bit more easily. Then once it's shimmed you can tighten everything up together again.

Not sure that would make a difference, but it might.

sounds like the right approach to me...
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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I sort of got it right today.

Shimmed both hinges on the passenger door. Sits square, and I believe it's not getting better as this:
IMG_4406.jpeg


It was sticking out in the back before, and the striker had the ground down base of another striker as a shim underneath. Now it's fitting just with the factory shim, and the door is sitting flush.

The back is also kind of square:
IMG_4407.jpeg


There's still a height difference of roughly half an inch from left to right, but I also measure a slight difference at the frame as well. So I'll leave it at that.

Made some shims for the hood. That is sitting kind of ok, too.
Driver side gap is good, but the hood is sticking a little more out than the fender:
IMG_4410.jpeg


Passenger side is ok-ish, too, but the fender is sticking out more than the fender on this side:
IMG_4411.jpeg


Here you can see how much I had to shim the hood out:
IMG_4412.jpeg


The drip rail is painted (with a brush) twice, that'll do:
IMG_4413.jpeg

IMG_4414.jpeg
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
Messages
207
Tried to sort out the alignment today.
After swapping in the 7° C-bushings, the Bronco was pulling to the right. Especially when braking, the pulling is noticeable.
Didn't take a picture of the measurements before, it actually had the toe pointing out? Can it change that much, just by changing the C-bushings?
Anyway, here's what it looks like right now:
IMG_4446.jpeg

Runs a bit straighter now, but still, the pull when braking is there. Will try to bleed the brakes again next weekend!
 

DirtDonk

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I still have a hard time with degrees of toe-in vs just measuring in inches/millimeters. But your Caster numbers look great.
The camber seems a bit high, but it's what was called for originally, so seems to be within specification. We just like to see a little less to improve tire wear.

But no, C-bushing changes do not normally create any sort of condition for pulling to one side. However, it seems to me that they could theoretically do so either by making the caster number variation (cross-caster) a wider spread. Your cross-caster does seem a bit wider than most. Usually less than half a degree in most cases if I am remembering correctly.
Not sure if that could cause pulling or not though.

The other thing C-bushings can do is load more torque into the frame on one side than the other. This usually results in a lean to one side or the other, but don't remember ever hearing that it caused it to pull to one side or the other before.

Maybe one of our alignment gurus can shed some light on the subject.

Paul
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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Not much done on the Bronco lately, my Comet is currently undergoing quite extensive maintenance - Borgeson swap, hydraulic clutch, new exhaust routing.

What I did discover on the Bronco was a fairly large transmission oil leak.
Traced it down to the NV3550 B&M shifter, and found the instructions - they recommend putting it in without a gasket, but with RTV instead. The factory gasket was torn in several places, so RTV it is.

With the shifter out, I heated it up and bent the handle. It's now a lot easier to reach...

Also, I'm still toying around with the alignment numbers from above.
The passenger side spindle was bent hard, so I replaced that. I need to measure the driver side spindle, to see if that is bent, too. Could explain my camber number on that side.
Will let you know what I find.
 

sprdv1

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Good luck was wondering the other day if you'd been busy on it
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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Here's how the shifter sits now, much better than before:
IMG_4527.jpeg


Also, transmission is now leak free.
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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I made myself a neat little puzzle today:
IMG_4620.jpeg


After putting in new seals and tightening down the yokes with the proper torque the last time, I couldn't get the front to shift in either direction. It also wouldn't go a full turn when the yoke was turned by hand.
So there must have been something seriously wrong.
When tearing it down, I found that it had a lot of slop in both front and rear output shafts. The bearings looked new-ish, so I assume it had not been rebuilt properly.

I had gotten a full rebuilt kit from WH in the past, I'll install that tomorrow.

The housing is already cleaned and painted:
IMG_4621.jpeg


I used a cold bluing kit for all the fasteners.
Let's see how the assembly goes!
 

sprdv1

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I bet it'll be alright, you seem to know your way around...

hopefully no issues w/the assembly
 
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tody

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Mar 22, 2017
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It went pretty smooth today.
I have no idea what the previous rebuilder did wrong.

On the rear output shaft, I only took out one shim to get it close.
On the front, I reused all the existing shims. Still on the tight side of the spec.
Both turning freely now.

One thing I found is that the intermediate shaft was *really* tight with new thrust washers. Needed a little persuasion to get in, and was really tough to turn by hand.
Nothing noticeable under engine power, though. I'll probably change the oil after the first 100km or so.

The whole unit is back in. While I was at it, I put in new shift rails from JBFab during rebuild. The detents still need to be adjusted.
That'll have to wait, though - burnt my arm pretty bad on the exhaust pipe while trying to get up there...
 

mp

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Dec 22, 2001
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Loc.
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I still have a buddy down at the military base Garmisch if we need to utilize USPS fixed rate shipping to him, and then local in country shipping to you. It doesn't bypass customs, but it is way easier, quicker, and cheaper. Was hoping to get back in country this year, but they cancelled Oktoberfest again...... Next year, I hope!

Truck is looking good!
 

74BroncoCO

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Nov 3, 2004
Messages
2,374
I still have a buddy down at the military base Garmisch if we need to utilize USPS fixed rate shipping to him, and then local in country shipping to you. It doesn't bypass customs, but it is way easier, quicker, and cheaper. Was hoping to get back in country this year, but they cancelled Oktoberfest again...... Next year, I hope!

Truck is looking good!

We have some friends at Ramstein, but not being gearheads, I don't think they would appreciate what we were trying to do.

I am SO thankful we were in Germany prior to Covid!!!!
 
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