I didn't even consider that my odometer gear is off. That's a pretty large culprit already.
Very possible. But easy enough to check and, maybe correct. It's all correctable of course, but some might take more doing since you're into the really big tire size range.
I have a feeling that my steering is off and there might be something funky going on with that, every once in a while I get a bind and the truck feels like its fighting one tire being crooked or something.
Definitely don't want that binding.
Here would be a great excuse to show us some pics of the front end and steering linkage. We might be able to pinpoint a few things right off the bat. Or at least give some directions to look.
Whenever I hear "binding" or "catching" with regard to steering, I immediately go to the lower trackbar bolt catching on the tie-rod adjusting sleeve. This happens when the tie-rod has been switched to what's called "TRO" (or tie-rod over) configuration. It's done fairly often when taller suspension lifts (anything above 3.5" basically) are installed and something is done to help correct steering angles.
Check yours out, but shoot some pics too and let us take a look.
Besides, we love pics! Gotta' see what everyone is running after all.
When I look under, everything looks to be in good shape and not broken, but I have some more tinkering and greasing to do.
Definitely greasing, since most PO's (previous owners) don't seem to think that's important. Or they're so frustrated at some things that they forget the rest.
One area that most forget to do is the centering ball in the double-cardan section of the front and rear driveshafts. Most of the fittings are standard male Zerk fittings, but each CV head has at least one female grease fitting that requires a needle-like adapter to the grease gun.
So they get ignored a lot!
Another area is gear lube. People might change their engine oil religiously (and too often most of the time too) but never change the gear oil in a manual trans, or differential, or transfer case. Not to mention changing brake fluid every few years too.
Most new-ish Bronco owners run into these issues.
I had ran the rear tank down to where I thought was empty, but it only took on 20 gallons and I'm pretty sure it's a 23 gallon tank.
That's actually pretty good. A proper reading fuel gauge typically leaves 5-15 percent left in the bottom as a sort of "unknown reserve" for when you let it go to empty without a station in sight. And Bronco gauges are not often known to be accurate anyway!
So if you had three gallons left when the gauge shows empty, that's perfect in my book.
However, if you mean you ran it to empty and then some, and were in fact almost empty, it's possible that your "23 gallon" tank might not quite be able to load the max in there. I've heard of that being the case more than once, but it doesn't seem to be universal.
What is universal however, is that Broncos can be very inconsistent. Even more so now that they're all at least 42 years old.
I have been doing little run about in town, some hilly portions, and been on the freeway at about 65.. so all recipes for worse mileage in general.
Yep, definitely check it when you have more consistent driving ahead of you. When I was young and had all the time in the world, I used to actually take mine out late at night and head up the highway for a loop of about 50 to 60 miles to check my highway mileage.
Of course, I used to test it on trips as well, but I wasn't patient enough to wait for that after some mod or another, so I made my own trips just to check.
Late at night the traffic was non existent, so I could hold a steady pace on generally level ground. Thought it gave me a pretty good representation of the max I could expect. Not "every day normal" but at least the best I could do.
Can't do that now though. These days there's more traffic at 3 am than there used to be at 10 pm!
For uploading pics, to do it directly from your device you need to be a contributor for 12 bucks a year. To get some basic shots though you can use the "garage" or "gallery" features here as well. Also some members use other image hosting sites and link the images to their discussion. Whatever works best for you.
Good luck. And enjoy the new ride!
Paul
petal to the metal or "pappy" like.....
