I wondered about the track bar bracket. I don't remember all of my other bronco's dropping that low, and a buddies '76 looked exactly the same. Thanks for clearing that up.
Went along with the changeover to the Y steering from the T steering.
Worked well with it, but when changing over to the earlier (and stronger by the way) T-style, there are some things you need to be aware of.
The PO got rid of the inverted "Y" and converted already.
Just so you know, that creates the first problem. A mismatch between the angle of the draglink and the angle of the trackbar. They should be perfectly parallel to each other when they're the same length like they would be stock.
Lifting the truck's suspension aggravates this existing issue.
It measures just a touch under 8" from top of tube to bottom of frame rail. I just dug through all of the receipts that came with the bronco (I bought it a little over a year ago) and found part of my answer. The "Moog cargo coils" probably gave 1.5" when new and settled to 1". The rear appears to be the stock 5 leafs with and add-a-leaf. There is also a 3/4" block under the spring pack.
That makes sense. The angles look steeper than desirable, but not really that bad, like they would have been with more lift.
I used Cargo Coils at one point and loved the way it worked out with just that slight lift over stock, and a better than stock ride.
I've always gone with 10" wide wheels with 12.5 tires, for air down purpose on the beach which I typically run around 4-5lbs. I've seen a lot of guys run 8" wheels on 12.5 tires, but I don't like how bulged the sidewalls are. Kinda scares me......
It's mostly a perception, so don't be skeered of it. The sidewalls do not actually bulge out. With the narrower wheel the bead is simply pulled in farther, which gives the sidewall a more rounded appearance. But it's actually virtually the same width.
And in fact, the narrower wheels are better at one aspect of airing down. The wider wheels will allow the tire to spread more (very good in the sand, as you probably figured), but the narrower wheels will retain the tire's bead better when aired down that low.
Also to alleviate some more of the stress of a narrower wheel, next time you're near a similar sized tire at a shop or wherever, put a tape measure in the inside bead to bead. I bet you find that the tire's natural shape has the bead at roughly 7" wide. Certainly not likely to overstress a tire by putting it on an 8" wheel then.
I hear you on the sand thing though. If you've already had good experiences with it (and have never peeled a tire off the wheel!) then I'd stick with what you know works. But don't fear airing down a 12.50 on an 8" wheel. We use that criteria in the more rocky terrain to protect the rim edge and to better retain the tires from literally falling off the wheel.
For sticking with 10" wheels then, I would still try to keep them as tucked in as possible, by finding wheels with the most backspacing.
Or better yet, if you have other Bronco or old CJ Jeep buddy's in your area, find one with the tire and wheel combo you like and throw one on the front to see what rubs.
Here's a cool older pic of receipt from Bronco Specialties back in the day. I also have old receipts from Duff for interior seat covers that are now completely rotted away. Kind of cool to see the history from the original owner...
Very cool. Even shows that they did the fender trimming.
Is that '77 or '97 on the receipt? If '77, that's cool too because I didn't even know they'd been in business that long.
Paul
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