1971 Bronco Crawler Build - Texas

[.94 OR]

Any reason not to put an access panel in the side of your new tunnel cover to get to the 4WD shifter linkage?

 

[tribaltalon]

Well the whole thing is so easy to remove that we didn't really see the point in having multiple access panels. The Atlas II really could not be clocked any higher with as low as the bronco is. If i would have clocked the Atlas up flat, the frame would have been in the way of the driveshaft at ride height. Even as it is, i'm going to have to limit uptravel on the driver side to keep the driveshaft off the frame. We definitely thought about that, and tried to get the atlas up as high as we could while still being able to fit a driveshaft in. Part of the struggle of having 05+ high pinion d60.

 

[tribaltalon]

Evan got the NP435 shifter bent to work around the Atlas shifters and the dash. I also needed it to not go too far back since ive got a bench seat in the front and i want to be able to have one of my little kids up front with us. looking pretty good i think.

If it ends up not working out I'll probably end up doing a homebrew modified version of the gearbanger.

 

[tribaltalon]

Got a little work done on the cage. got the door bars added in, and did a mild dovetail in the back. the fender is basically just ziptied to the bar on the cage for now. I need to do some triangulation and then I'll be ready to put on some shock mounts for the rear. I bought 4 furniture dollies to see if i could use them to roll the bronco around, and it worked awesome... for about 2 seconds. then 2 of the dollies broke. lol.

 

[tribaltalon]

Not long after I bought the Mega, I started having some transmission issues with the Corvette. Spent some time tracking down a small but persistent clutch fluid leak (ended up being the POS Tick remote slave bleeder), and then a month later, the output shaft grenaded itself in our neighborhood while i was going 20 mph.



Took me a couple months to track down a replacement transmission and ended up actually upgrading to Z06 T-56, differential and axles.



Should be able to handle the 700 rwhp better then the stock base C6 components anyway. So that all put a decent dent in my toy fund for the Bronco, but I've been doing little things here and there as I had time. In the last month, I finally got the track bar mount repositioned to where I've got a decent 4.5" of clearance. I'm probably still going to brace it some more, but it's close to 1/2" steel plate so it's pretty beefy as is. I've also almost completed the seat mount to the cage for the front bench seat. Driveshafts are FINALLY getting ordered in 2 weeks (for real this time). I just need brake lines from axles to master cylinder, new hydraulic hoses for the full hydro setup, and these driveshafts and I'll be able to drive it for the first time in 2 years. Once it's running and driving, I'll be able to flex it out, finalize the bumps and shock placement and finetune the trackbar. I also need to build a skidplate for that expensive ass Atlas underneath.
After Christmas I plan to do the fuel (either FI or Propane, whichever ends up being cheaper) At that point... I think we just might be ready to go wheeling. We'll see.



What the track bar looked before. Barely 1.5" clearance to frame. I could push the front down and hit the track bar on the frame.



Cutting all that off with a sawzall sucked.



New position. It's welded to the axle tube as well as the hydro mount. I thought about adding another support underneath, but I don't know. Seems pretty beefy as is.



Ridiculous attempt to flex out suspension to make sure track bar position works. My motorcycle jack did not appreciate this and decided to end itself. Good news is the track bar clears everything easily.



Also took the Mega to Hidden Falls camping with the fiance last weekend. Now that they've bulldozed all of the ranch roads and fenceline, the truck easily could get around the perimeter of the whole park.

 

[tribaltalon]

So this was my idea for mounting my front bench seat. Remember, this thing came out of the back of a extended cab Canyon, so the mounting brackets really made no sense at all. luckily, the bottom of the seat is a tube frame, so I welded some 1.30" OD pipe to the tube frame, and then used some 1" OD (thick wall) pipe with a bolt in the back and some extra 1.75" tube notched 1" in the center to mount it all. The seat now slides forward and back roughly 4 inches, enough to cater to both myself and my fiance. I'm just going to cross drill at the 2 positions and use cotter pins or something on each side.



Tube welded to cage is just tacked in while i made sure the whole thing was still removeable. its a little tricky, but it is completely removeable.



you can see how the rear mounts with the bolt in the back.





And here's my last real issue with this seat. that Torx bolt on the top of the side bracket of the seat is where the back pivots, there's nothing to stop it from going forward or back. I've been brainstorming how to lock it in place (tried tightening down torx but it didn't do shit. One buddy said to tack weld the bolt to the bracket, which would work but would make it a total PITA to get the seat out of the truck with it not being able to fold. Any ideas for making it lock in a position while still being easily reversible in case i need to fold the seat down to get it out?

 

[tribaltalon]

So instead of working on brake lines and full hydro lines like i told myself i would, i just tore up the fiberglass and thin tin sheets covering the floors to see what was underneath. bad idea.







I'm probably just going to order some replacement floor pans, but the floor supports are also completely rotted out. part of my dilemma here is that we cut the whole center of the floor supports out to put in the removeable trans tunnel. so i'm still debating how/what to do.

Also put the youngest boy in the front seat this morning to see how it'd all look in the various gear and Tcase positions. no problems anywhere. my son is about 3 inches taller and would still have plenty of leg room. the older girls, not so much.



this is 4th gear and low gear in 4x4. i doubt i'll be in this gear scenario often.



Granny low and high 4x4. no problems.



love these 1,500lb wheel dollies from Harbor freight for turning the truck around in the garage. works like a charm.

 

[tribaltalon]

Driveshafts came in and do they look good. Measurements look right on. Had to go ahead and get them bolted up.







I also went to Harbor Freight and spent more money. I bought a Earthquake XT 3/8" Impact and holy shit does it work well. We'll see how the longevity is but I got the 3 year warranty so I'll just replace it every time it breaks. :grinpimp: This thing knocked loose some super rusted studs I didn't think it had a chance with. Really happy and impressed. Only thing that sucks is that hogring makes it a bitch to get sockets on and off.



I worked on the bronco on and off all weekend. I got all but one of the hydro lines sorted out, i've got one line left to build (low pressure pump to reservoir), but i've got to go get a new full hydro reservoir cylinder. the one i've got is stripped on the bottom and won't work. got all new radiator hoses, filled the radiator with water (just to check for leaks for now) and ran some temporary wires to get it fired up. sounds pretty dirty but it's also just open manifolds right now. i've got to find some exhaust flanges so i can start making some exhaust for it.

[youtube]FN0NTMetlYs[/youtube]

Bought a bunch of 3/16" hard brakeline so i'm going to work on that as well, hopefully get a bunch of that knocked out this week.

 

[tribaltalon]

This gets me caught up to where I currently am on this thing. I've got one hydro line left to build, the reservoir to pump line, and I still do need to do the brake lines. I'm purchasing my propane setup off my old 75 bronco I sold a few years back this weekend.

I also pulled out all of the old wiring harness, and I'm going to start over with new HEI distributor, voltage regulator, starter relay, etc. Still debating on the Alternator. I'm not going to run a ton of stuff, but I will have a 9k winch on the front of it. Do you think the 55 amp alternator on it will be alright? I'll probably have a single lightbar and the 2 7" led round headlights and some simple tailights on it. No ac or any of that stuff. I'm going to get a 12 port Fusebox inside of a waterproof box and put it inside of the glovebox compartment area and run all of the wires all nicely and ziptied orderly (which would be a first for me).