Front Suspension

progress at last.  I got the frame back from the bodyshop as well as my front/rear axles from the rebuild shop.  At long last I can start putting all the new, refurbished, painted pieces back together and start making this collection of parts look like a Bronco again.

I opted to start with the front axle by painting with POR15 and re-assemblying the disk brake system.  POR15 is a Paint-Over-Rust system that is a cheap alternative to powdercoating.  Why didn't I get the axles powdercoated during my recent frenzy?  I simply didn't have them in my possession.  And now they are reassembled, so painting was really the only option.  Got them painted nice shiny black.

The disk reassembly was fun only in the fact that I didn't remember how I took it apart.  A quick check of the older parts confirmed the order of installation.  For those of you with a 76 Dana44 front end, it is caliper bracket, dust shield, spindle, inner bearing, rotor, outer bearing, spindle nut, washer, spindle nut, hub assembly.
Then the calipers on the outside and done.

The whole assembly is damn heavy and I am thankfull for my current favorite tool, the engine hoist.  Got the front assembly in position under the frame to get the radius arms attached.  That was fun...... not.  Radius arms are heavy and unwieldy.  And both left and right have to be at the same angle or your Bronco will lean.  5 tries and one stripped bolt later, I achieved this.

Next was the shiny new blue coils for the 2.5" suspension lift.  These where only a slight problem finagling the bottom brackets into place.  but some strap clamps helped out.

My Dad was in town for the Thanksgiving Holiday and he was able to lend a hand - so Thanks Dad.

3 day weekend

Got the benefit of a floating holiday on this past Veterans Day and got quite a bit done.

I finished rebuilding the Dana20 Transfer Case.  Meaning that I took it completely apart and replaced the bearings, races, needle bearings, seals and gaskets.  It was interesting and created a couple stories itself - like trying to track down a set screw for a shift fork.  Nobody even knew what I was talking about.  Yes, I stripped out the existing one forcing a hunt for a replacement, but I did eventually find one.  Transfer case is reassembled and painted blue.  And yes all of the tolerances for endplay are in spec.

I was also able to pick up both the front and rear axles that had been out for overhaulin for over a month.  I was starting to get a bit pissed it was taking so long, but in the end, I don't yet need them since the frame is still at the bodyshop.  Anyway, the rear now has a 31 spline true trac diff and 4.10 gears, while the front has all new kingpin ball joints, u-joints on the axles, and 4.09 gears.  Both got steam cleaned and are ready for paint.

I started working on the gas tanks by cleaning out the insides of the gunk - although there really isn't much in there.  Anyway the plan is to seal them, and the instructions say if they are not clean the seal won't stick.

I am still mostly amazed at the overall condition of the body and I have been scratching my head at how the body can be in such good shape while the drivetrain is almost completely replaced.  The motor was not the original but rather a 1968 289.  The transfer case is from 1973.  The front end is 1976, the front axle is 1974.  Both driveshafts are from the 1990's.  I think the rear axle is original and maybe the transmission, but I am replacing the transmission.

We got paint

The day is getting closer that I may actually drive this thing.  4 coats of color and 4 coats of clear, and the body is out of paint - here is a teaser

That is the factory 1969 color called Reef.  Looks alot nicer fresh than the 42 year old faded version I started with

My latest addiction

I am in pure "Parts Gathering" mode since the body, frame, and axles are still out on walkabout.  I have become addicted to powdercoating - the parts leave here a grimy, oily mess, and come back all shiny new looking.

I am also addicted to browsing the vendor websites for all the new shiny parts they sell.  I have to curb myself to a "just-in-time" approach and only order what I need for the next big task.  Here is a portion of what I've had powdercoated as well as purchased

not sure why the picture is upside down - it isn't that way on my computer and yes, I tried rotating and uploading to fool the software but it keeps "right-siding" it.

So the next big task is to get all of the underframe components back on: axles, suspension, brakes, engine, transmission, transfer case, driveshaft - all the things that are easy when the body isn't sitting in the way.

Bodyshop time

I dropped off the frame at the bodyshop so they could finish up the front end portion - they wanted to reattach it to the frame to keep the alignment.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  Anyway, they are documenting the work and gave me the link to where to find pictures.  Byers Custom Restoration

Christmas in October

The frame came back from the blast shop all shiny and clean.

So now I have to bolt/weld the front shock hoop and rear double shock mount (see it on the floor) onto the frame and back it goes for powdercoating.  Plus all those skid plates you see there and the main gas tank in the background.  

I have been going back and forth between powdercoating and using POR-15 paint.  Leaning towards the POR-15 because I could do it myself and since it is paint, I can do touchup.  I even bought a starter kit.  Until along with the frame came these.

Those are front coils, radius arms and dust shield for the disk brakes I had done in Ford Blue just to get a feel for the powdercoat end result.  They turned out awesome and have made a powdercoat convert out of me.  If anyone local to Seattle is following this and needs powdercoating... go here.  Northwest Powder Solutions in Kent.  Jeff was nice enough to pickup and deliver my frame.

Double up

I dropped the front and rear differentials off at the shop for steam cleaning, overhauling, gear change, and a limited slip Detroit Truetrac for the rear.  Also picked up a pair of 31 spline rear axles.

The Bronco will have double shocks at all four corners - so I cut out the front shock towers and rear shock mounts with a sawzall, cutoff wheel, and a fair bit of grinding to remove all traces.  The new mounts will ultimately get welded on, but I chose these because they also can be bolted.

The rear ones have (3) 1/2 inch bolts that go all the way through the frame - Murphy had his way with me.  I measured carefully where to place these mounts, (they are forward facing rather than the stock rear facing) and marked the 3 holes.  Of course one of the hole is right on top of a tab bend in the frame and it would be a bitch to drill - ok, so only 2 bolts and heavy welding.

Start drilling the first hole and get through one side of the frame rail, smaller bits of course.  Working up to bigger drillbits until one of them is long enough to get through both sides of the frame rail and wouldn't you know it, there is an existing 1/4" threaded hole for the exhaust hanger and I am just slightly off of it.  After contemplation, I continued with my offset hole figuring that by the time I get to a full 1/2" hole it will completely obliterate the existing hole - and yes it worked.  I then drilled out the exhaust hanger to also be 1/2" and it is almost like I planned it.

Got both sides done.

A little more body

It is under way!!

Back from the sand blaster and with a fresh coat of primer.  Did the walk through with the bodyshop of what holes get filled, dents pulled, pieces replaced....  It looks great with just a coat of primer.

And the frame is now completely stripped and ready to go to the blaster shop as well.  Drop off the front/rear differential later this week for overhauls and that leaves the Bronco spread out all over town.  And a mostly empty garage.

I will be getting to know the UPS man personally in coming weeks as I expect the parts train to be arriving soon.

Enough with the body

Onwards - I now have the frame to disassemble and prep for paint.  The more I look at it, the more confusing it becomes.  Like any large project, learning to ignore the overwhelming job in front of you and concentrate on the small bits is the hard part.

For now - I am concentrating on removing everything from the frame.  I started with the drive shafts, front and rear.  then the transfer case, then the transmission, then the engine, then the rear axle, then the front axle.  This was my plan of attack.

Since I don't do this for a living - and I don't have a mechanic living next door anymore, I found myself having to research everything.  Like, how to remove a drive shaft?  Ever done it?  The manuals and instructions that I do find make assumptions that I know the names of all the parts and where there are.  "undo the stress bolt and tap the retainer key"... what!? So this makes it ever so much enjoyable as I get stumped with every piece.

I am ever thankfull that I have a hoist, an impact wrench and a BFH.  These are the answer to most things.  When trying to get the front spindles off of the Dana 44 front end - and heat and hammer weren't getting me anywhere, hit it harder.

42 years of rust is a bitch.  Plus, all those hunks of metal that make the Bronco go are damn heavy.  No plastic anywhere.

I am at the end of the deconstruction with the front-end being the final piece to remove.

and Bonus - I sold the 289 on craigslist - one less thing cluttering up the garage.

Wax on, Wax off

I am an expert at Karate  - I know because I have finished 1.5 months of scraping undercoating.  I will need to consult with Mr Miyagi to find out what I can do now.

If asked for the low point of this project, this would be it.  It is a messy, dull, repetitive task that simply needs doing - and I am done.  Yeah!.  

I am told this will make the media blasting task much more efficient with less damage.  I can accept that, it would take some real power to blast through the undercoating just to get to the paint, and that could easily damage the metal.  The body is truly off to the bodyshop on Monday.

Still Scraping

Nothing to report - couple of family vacations and such - and much more scraping of undercoating.  It really sucks.  And it's a mess.  And it's awkward.  And it gets in your hair.  And there are NO shortcuts to get it off.

Separation at last

I did it - the body is separated from the frame.  It really wasn't that hard providing you have a huge engine hoist handy.  Couple of chains to the seat belt holes and some counter weights in back and up and off it goes.

My original plan was to build a cart to place it on, perhaps work on some of my welding skills in the process, then I found some folding metal scaffolding on sale at the rental shop for far less than the materials that I would need to build a metal cart - so I bought two.  I cut the tops off so they would not interfere with the top shelf mount location... this would be about 4 foot high, just perfect to set the Bronco body on so that I can comfortably work underneath to continue scraping undercoating.

Unfortunately - the hoist boom connected with the Bronco body causing it to tilt crazy at the height I needed to get the scaffold underneath.  I tried this for an hour or so with different configurations - foiled!

So back to plan A - build a cart.  However, I was going to use my medium of choice.  Wood.  I already had some wheels and plenty of bolts and lag screws.  Just needed $12 worth of wood.  Colin and I whipped up a cart in about 3 hours and got the Bronco safely attached to it.

So I have to bend over slightly to continue my scraping... sigh!  

Colin (my son) says the frame/engine combo looks like a dune buggy.

Since I have 3 bays and the Bronco is in one and my Shop is in the other..

I built this for the kids.

I had gotten them the slot car set for Christmas with the promise I would make a table in the garage.  It took 6 months of Craigslist scouring to score a ping pong table top for $10.  Just add wood for a frame, a set of folding banquet table legs, and some netting to catch the speedy wayward cars and...  TADA!!

The really hard part

I have spoken to a couple of body shops, and they are all in agreement that the Bronco is in remarkably good shape for being 42 years old.  The best time estimate I've gotten is 6-8 weeks for paint and body.  That leaves chassis and everything else to me - I guess I am going to have to find storage for the body because it will be done long before I am ready.

In the meantime, to save on labor costs I have begun scraping away at the undercoating.  I am told that sandblasting will not remove this stuff, just bounces off.   It scrapes off rather easily, just time consuming.  I have finished both front inner wheel wells and 1 1/2 fenders.  Here is the 1/2 that is left

I also purchased some front suspension hoops so that I can make sure of the fender clearances prior to taking the body off.  This is a perfect fit for an off-the-shelf product.  Not too shabby.  This is the first part of the 2 1/2" suspension lift - still need way too many parts for me to even think about for the lift alone.  The shock in the picture is on the stock mount which will come out.  The hoops will allow for dual shocks.

AND ...  I've been working on my welding skills.  Seems that Broncos are rather week when the doors are removed and are likely to crumple when there is no support, following the advice of many on the various lists out on the Internet, I made these brackets to support the door frame.  I am getting better with welding.

Found it

Seems a simple timing issue is where my missing HP/Torque were hiding.  We ended up with 12deg BTC for initial timing, went 4% leaner on the Carb and got the following results

In case you can't read this, it shows 250hp@4300rpm and 350 lbs torque @3000rpm.

Dyno day is done - engine is going to now sit in the garage for quite some time.  I have begun scraping the 42 year old undercoating off the body - this will take some time.

Dyno - Mite

Engine Dyno's are apparently a difficult thing to find these days. There are alot of dyno shops for when your engine is already in the car - but not many for freestanding engine. As luck would have it, the only shop I could find in the entire state of WA is 1/2 mile from my house.

Larry & Bob are retired 60's hotrodders that still dabble a bit since they have a full shop. We finally hooked up schedules and got the engine mounted and wired to fire it up and break in the cam. Here is a sound bite.

I didn't know at the time - but the first two starts they are merely priming the system. Then the room fan kicks on and they fire it up for real the first time. At the end of the sound bite - the engine ran for 30 minutes at 1750 RPM to break in the cam. It felt pretty damn good to hear it run, it was a deep sound that resonated in your chest. Way cool!

Then we replaced the oil and filter and started the dyno pulls and tuning portion of the program. At this time, it is producing 280ft/lbs of torque. I have no idea what that means, but Larry & Bob are not happy. Apparently there should be about 50 more ft/lbs in there somewhere. So we will be changing the jets and such on the carb. For those that care - the cranking pressure on the cylinder is 165lbs which is pretty close to normal for a stock 351W.

We will regroup on Tuesday evening to keep playing, and I will of course provide the final output of the test.

Where has the time gone?

Ok - so this isn't being updated as frequently as I had originally planned.  I may convert this from a blog to a simple build thread for a while.  Everyone is asking "what have you done lately to the Bronco?".  So let me bring you up to speed.

Engine headers came in... still not dyno'd.  Have appointment for next weekend to fire it up and dial it in.  I wonder if I can post a video w/sound of that here?

Pretty cool huh?

The Bronco itself has been completely stripped and is awaiting delivery to the body shop.  I came to the conclusion that bodywork/paint is not something I have even the slightest interest in doing myself.  This will speed up the overall restoration by at least 2 years.  :-)

Removed front fenders, doors, tailgate, hood, complete dash assembly.... you name it is removed.  The body is just sitting on the frame now, so I will construct some door braces and lift it off onto a trailer for delivery.  Then it will be framework.  Scrape, sandblast, powdercoat.  Then the fun reassembly process can begin.

I already sent the instrument gauge cluster out for refurbishment.  Had the gauges changed to white, replaced the ammeter with a voltmeter, switched to LED lighting and the outer bezel chromed.  I will have the black area painted the same color as the body when it is time for paint.

Before

After

What have you learned, Dorothy?

The engine build process is all but complete.  Waiting on some backordered headers, then I am taking it down to the Engine Dyno for break-in and tuning and such.

I learned that there is a difference between learning and knowing:

• I learned not to overtighten a bolt that is bottoming out - I know how much a new timing cover costs.
• I learned that there alot of online parts locations - I know not to order things until you know how they relate to each other in regards to clearances and such
• I know it takes 10 calendar days for UPS to ship from the tip of Florida to Washington - I know to look for where a business is located before ordering
• I learned that building an engine is a messy affair - I know that all those magazines/books on the subject must have staged photo shoots.  And cardboard is your garage floors' friend.
• I learned that there as many parts in a carburetor as in the engine - I know I didn't lose any of them while rebuilding it.
• I learned that anyone with basic skills and patience can do this - I know you cannot rush through the process.

Here is a before and after shot, yes it is the same engine...  mostly

For those that have never tackled a carburetor, get yourself a rebuild kit and some elbow grease and part organizer - there are a gazillion tiny parts

Can you hear the pistons ringing?

And I thought I was through with clearances and tolerances…  Seems that it is a good idea to check the ring gap before installing the rings onto the pistons.  The rings go on the pistons and provide compression and such… each piston has 5 rings * 8 pistons equals 40 rings.  Luckily I only need to check the gap on the top 2 of each piston.. so only 16.  This process involves inserting the bare ring into its piston bore, squaring it up about an inch down and measuring how much gap.

15 completed within tolerance and I begin the last ring – why is it always the last one?  This ring was the one I had installed onto a piston to use during squaring the rings.  Installed onto the second ring as a stop and pushed the rings into the bore.  I thought I was sunk as I had to keep using increasingly larger feeler gauges…  but it topped out .018, still within tolerance of .010-.020.  All of the others came in at .012.

Onwards – installing pistons.  Put on the oil ring and position the seam, install the top oil scraper and place the gap at 2 oclock… readjust the oil ring because it just overlapped… install the bottom oil scraper and place the gap at 4 oclock… now go back and readjust the top oil scraper.  Install the second compressor ring and place the gap at 10 oclock, then the top compressor ring and place the gap at 7 oclock… repeat 7 more times.  Did I mention that this is mind numbing, but don’t lose focus because you don’t want to scratch the piston or have a ring shoot off the expander tool across the room (only happened once, the shooting part).  Point is that the ring gap positioning should not be on top of each other.  I've read that when folks tear engines apart - the ring gaps positioning is nowhere near where they started - just sayin...

Get your handy dandy compressor tool and crank it onto the piston compressing the rings tight against the piston that I just dipped in oil, that’s right, this is a slippery, messy process.  I was a bit anxious with the first piston as I banged it into place, but it went right in just like the online videos and books said it would.  Quickly followed by #2, 3, and 4.

Now #5 started just like the others and when I got to the banging part it started on down like it’s supposed to but just before slipping all the way in, the top ring popped out and hung on the bore.  CRAP.  Flip the engine over and bang it back out.  Put the compressor back on and start banging again.. again it popped out, then again a third time.  What is going on?  When releasing the compressor from the piston after the third attempt I watched in slow motion as a little screw popped off the tool and dropped down a water jacket hole. NOOOOOOO!!!  Seem this screw was part of the tensioning mechanism of the compressor tool and wasn’t properly providing compression on the bottom band of the tool and was the culprit for the ring popping out.  Took me 20 anxious minutes to locate my “magnet-on-a-stick” tool and fish out the screw.  This is when my friends words of wisdom popped in my head – “Don’t work on the engine when frustrated”  go to bed.

The conclusion of this is that the tool was a crappy loaner from the local auto store.  I ended up buying a proper quality tool and finished up the piston installation the following day

look what i've done - nice paint.  Pistons installed, timing set installed.

Do you have a tolerance for clearance?

I finished the pre-build of the engine over the past weekend, and didn't take any pictures.  That's ok because I took it all apart again.

It is called a pre-build because this is when you double check the tolerances, clearances, and fit of the rotating assembly... the cam, crank, pistons.....

Goes like this - wash the block, crank, and cam with soap/water and pressure wash the whole thing, then quick get your compressor on it to dry it out.  This was the first time I had the pressure washer out since moving here, although the neighbors have made good use of it, and I got sidetracked cleaning a section of the driveway... now I have another project to add to my list because I have one clean section and 5 dirty ones.

First put some oil on cam bearings and carefully insert the heavy cubersome bastard making sure not to nick the bearings... spin it to see if spins freely - now take it out making sure not to nick the bearings and inspect for shiny wear spots.  Didn't have any, good, now put it back in again making sure not to nick the bearings.  by the way, this is done from the front of the engine into a blind hole the entire length of the block - and the rear hole had already been sealed so the last bearing was a bitch.

Then wipe out the main bearing saddles, check the main bearings - fit them in and align with the oil holes, light coat of oil on the bottom portion, lift in the HEAVY crankshaft, and fit the top main bearings and caps.  There is a little tolerance gauge called plastigage that is a piece of green thread.  You can see it below (this is the piston rod for those that can tell) and torque down the bolts to spec.  105ft/lbs for a 351W.

loosen it all back up and measure the gauge to see how squished it got.

 

Do this for each of the 4 main journals, and each of the 8 piston rods - Oh and you can't move/turn anything while you do this or you mess up the reading.  All of the tolerances checked out against the shop manual I got for this motor.  You know - the book with the greasy fingerprints and bad black/white photos circa 1969.

At the end of this process, you have the cam, crank and all 8 pistons installed and turning making sure that nothing touches.. then whack on the timing set onto the crank and cam and now check for endplay on both the cam and crank.  These are good too.

Did I mention the oil pump and checking to see if the crank counterweight misses the shaft?  The pickup screen and how much clearance there is to the bottom of the oil pan?  How much clearance there is when the piston is at the top of the cylinder?..... blah blah blah.  This took 4 days.

This weekend will begin the painting of the block and prepping for the real assembly.  I've got lot's of shiny parts to go on this thing and I can't wait to see how it looks.

The engine is back...

And now I have plastic wrapped cast iron parts and two cardboard boxes full of shiny new parts.  "Good Luck", were the parting words at the machine shop.

Got my hands on two good books, a decent video and phone numbers for friends that have done it before.  That should be enough to get the job done.

Pictures to follow once assembly is underway

Murphy and his Damn Law

 It is inevitable that any time something needs to be removed and is held down by 3 or more bolts - one of them will not cooperate.  There must be a law describing this phenomena.  

While anxiously awating the engine's return from the machine shop - I decided to begin stripping the interior of the Bronco.  Seats, rollbar, carpet...  It would seem that 42 years of rust can be quite troublesome, take for example the T50 seatbelt bolt below - I promptly sheared this thing while wrenching with a breaker bar (I was on my second T50 socket having already broken one)

I sprayed the hell out of it with every kind of lubricant I could get my hands on break it free - even put a torch to it to heat it - all kinds of tricks.  Drilled a hole to use an EZ out before I found out that they are way old school and you can't even find them in a store. 

I glanced over in the shop and spotted my welder - now or never.  I got a grade 8 bolt that fit into the hole I had drilled and did my very first weld - not bad

Then I sheared it off - at least the weld held 

so I ground to mess flat and welded a big nut to the top - that held too - however I sheared off the T50 flush with the body - crap!

In the end - used a dremel to fully center the offcenter hole I had started, then increased bit size till I hit the threads and then picked out the remaining bits of metal.  

Here is what it looks like stripped down

What's going on?

The engine is still at the machine shop - might get it back this coming week.  In the meantime - I have been struggling with a sheared seatbelt bolt, but more on that later

The Missus, noting the down time, has decided to enlist me in the remodel of our walk-in closet this past weekend.  After careful measurements and many design iterations courtesy of easyclosets.com we settled on this design.

The company is aptly named, from the design process, accessories, ordering, delivery (very fast) and setup, it was all easy.  The product is well made and highly recommended by me for anyone considering a California Closet or something $imilarly priced.  Unless you have a need for real wood or have no handyman skills, choose easyclosets.

The components arrived in 20 boxes via UPS... yeah, 20 boxes.  The packing was phenomenal and nothing was lost damaged in shipment across the country.  Kudos to easyclosets, but what a mess of cardboard I have to dispose of.

Ripped out the contracter wire shelving, patched the massive holes, painted the closet walls a light olive green shade and started the installation process.  The hardest part is cutting the metal brackets to size that all of the other components hang off of.  If you measured correctly when you placed the order, everything fits like a glove.  

Here is the finished closet

Tear Down Complete

The 351 is now in multiple oily pieces in various boxes, bags, and big chunks of metal.  A little final gasket scraping and it's off to the machine shop to see what is what. 

Had some milkshake looking stuff in cylinder 7 & 8.  This engine sat for 6 years after being pulled from a wrecked Cougar... that is all I was told when I bought it.

Bits and pieces of stuff in the oil pickup screen

Learned alot more about what is what inside the engine and how it all fits and works together.  Looking forward to re-assembly.  Near as I can tell, this engine has never been rebuilt, bored over...., all of the castings are withing 3 weeks of each other from 1969.  Keeping my fingers crossed.