1971 Bronco Sport budget build

[ShortBus]

Cut my new wires today.

I taught myself how to make custom length spark plug wires today. Major pain in the A$$. I would suggest that anyone who goes to get new wires, buy wires that are already cut to length for truck.;D

 

[ShortBus]

Fix for the steering shaft mis-alignment

The distibuter is one of those HEI (wapp). It is huge compared to the stock one. The manifold is taller also. So is the carb. To fix the clearance problem, I put on a 2" body lift kit. The hood closes now! The steering shaft and brake lines from the master cylinder to the distribution block now need to be altered. I like the lift alot. I am thinking of going with stock hieght, long travel leaf springs in the back now, instead of lifting the suspension. ;D

See the fix for the steering problem here!;D

 

[WheelHorse]

I couldn't imagine not having to do rust repair on a Bronco.

What's that like, just having to do the mechanicals?

 

[ShortBus]

I am finding little bits of surface rust that I will hopefully get rid of when I paint. Thankfully , nothing major yet.

 

[ShortBus]

OK! So I was working on the Bronco all Saturday, torquing all the various things and wiring the Alternator, carburetor, water temp sensor, and distributor. I put in the hoses for the coolinator and adjusted the transmission gear selector. Sunday, I pulled the distributor and charged the system with oil using a 1/4in socket and a air ratchet, then replaced the distributor. Then my troubles began. When filling the new radiator with fluid, it began to leak. I checked my hoses and all of the other normal spots but found that the leak was coming from the core somewhere. This had a serious effect on my mood regarding the build. I have several people coming over during the Thanksgiving break to help me get this thing running right. I just needed to get it running before they arrived. I could see my “December drive” plan going out the window. I called Tom’s Bronco this morning and they are rushing another radiator out to me today, so that I can have it ready for the weekend. Thanks, to those guys! We will see if I can get it going this weekend.

 

[ShortBus]

Tom's was great, and got me a radiator next day with no problems. I, of course, had to fiddle and ended up tearing down the timing cover and oil pan one more time to fix some leaks and rubbing. Got it back together last weekend and fired the motor for the fist time. After 2 days of "fire but no run", I discovered that I had left the vacume hole behind and under the carb wide open. Ran like mad after that. Wedensday afternoon I dollied it down to my local tranny shop to hook up the cooling lines and give a final approval on my install, and today I will give it to the muffler guys so I can tune it without destroying what hearing I have left. Thanks for all of your guys input. The build has gone pretty smooth because of it!

 

[ShortBus]

I will try and add some video of the thing soon. It sounds like a damn race car. Hopefully the muffler shop will quiet it up a bunch.

 

[ShortBus]

Runs now! I got it inspected yesterday and I am now legal on the street!! Oh Yeah! Magnaflow mufflers and a couple $50 exhaust Manifold gaskets and it runs great!

 

[Bitch'nBronco]

Are you runnin manual steering?

 

[ShortBus]

Are you runnin manual steering?

Yep. I plan on upgrading very soon to power steering, power brakes and some new suspension pieces. I need to save up some more scratch for that. Eventually it will get a/c also.

 

[ShortBus]

I hope that by the end of '08 I will be able to paint the beast.

 

[ShortBus]

It runs and everything has basically worked. It was running hot so I bought the fan shroud from Tom’s to cool it down. I was told that I should expect it to run hot during the break in. I have been driving it to work for the last couple of weeks. I have some carb or timing problems that I need to fine tune. I will start a new thread for that.

 

[ShortBus]

It has been a while since I added to this, because I really haven't made much more progress. I have been trying to work through some overheating issues. I have decided that my gauge is giving me false readings. I installed a new sending unit when I put the new manifold on, and I think that it is just not working with my stock guage. I have used a laser temp guage on several freeze plugs, the new temp sending unit, the hoses, just about everywhere; and after getting a top reading of about 180, I have guessed that I am just getting a bad reading. New pictures of the tire carrier.

 

[ShortBus]

The reason that I have got this thread going again is; Thanks to the Lonestar Early Bronco Club (North Texas group) monthly meeting in Feb, Painless is going to redesign their EB wireing harness using my Bronco! I can't freakin believe it! Long story short- Come on out to these great meetings! They are fun and you'll meet some great people and you could hear about some great opportunities!
Thanks again Matt and Jerry!

 

[ShortBus]

Painless has my rig now and they are tearing down the system! See it here

 

[ShortBus]

I got the Bronco back from Painless yesterday! The wiring looks great, and everthing works. I am going to try and clean it up and run it some to get the cob-webs out. Eric from painless is pictured with the Bronco. Great guy- I hope that all his hard work pays off on this harness.

 

[ShortBus]

I updated all of the photos at the beginning of this thread so they can be seen. I had the link to another website previously so you couldn't see the well.

 

[ShortBus]

Painless wire install

These are some photos of the Painless Performance wiring install.

 

[ShortBus]

More install pics

More install pics- the rest.