That looks pretty good. It cleaned up well.

 

Well I finally pulled the rear differential cover off of the PO swapped in Dana 60 to check everything out and the gears look great. The only problem is the ratio is a 3.07. I realize that means I could get away with driving it and not changing both gear sets as the front is a 3.00 and as long as I am off the hard roads ( lacking traction) it wouldn't cause any problems. My problem is that I am building the Bronco to run 40's with an upgrade to 44's eventually so those ratio's are just not going to work for me. I will add new front and rear gears to the to do list. I might drive it like it is to see how low I need to go to have any performance. The online calculator said 4.11's would be good but I am thinking 4.88's or 5.13's, I guess it will wait.
I got in it to work a little today and stepped on the clutch just to celebrate my work. Bad idea as it bent the rod going into the clutch master cylinder. I guess everything is not sorted out there yet...
I decided I am going to back away from the mechanicals of the Bronco for a bit and I am going to work on some interior repairs and upgrades. I figure I will do that until my head is cleared of the frustrations I have filled it with right now. I do have some custom touches in mind that I hope turn out well...

 

3 steps forward 2 steps back eh? Well good luck with that clutch rod and the diff gears. So the bigger the tires the higher number you want for gearing? Why in the H E double hockey sticks, did the PO of TGM put 2.73's in the rear end...

 

Fuel mileage was probably killing him. Or he blown the rear and replaced it with a junkyard one without inspecting it.

 

great thread,, I will be following it as I need a new brake system on my 78 as well !

 

So it has been a long time since I updated anything on here so I shall see what I can remember.
I managed to tear down the rest of the donor Dana 44HD in my garage and get all of the passenger side spindle and brake parts cleaned up and painted. I am just waiting for the brake pads and hardware kits to arrive and I can get the passenger side assembled. I look forward to the day I can bolt rims back onto the front axle and have a roller again, even if I can't drive it yet.
I also tore down the second donor Dana 44HD in my brothers garage for all of the brake parts for the rear disc brake conversion. I like the idea of having matching dual piston disc brakes front and rear. I figure with a good adjustable proportioning valve I can dial the rears in, and you can almost never have too big of brakes on the front.
The next up is to go back and tackle the clutch master cylinder and figure out why it bent the pushrod on the third time I depressed the clutch.
Updated pics if the Geek Squad can salvage anything from my old computer, apparently coffee and a laptop just don't get along.

 

Great, I know it's a lot of work but what pleasure it brings to see it happening :- TR

 

I finally got the passenger side axleshaft U joint pressed into place. I had to use the stock inner shaft and the donor Dana 44HD outer shaft in my 8 bolt upgrade. I took both sets of shafts apart and when I tried to put the U joint into the parts I needed I could only get 3 of the 4 C clips to go in place. I got out the caliper and found that somehow I had bent the ears of the inner shaft together just enough to prevent the C clip from getting into the groove on the U joint cap. I took the whole thing apart and used 2 large bolts and nuts assembled through the ears to put pressure on it and get it back in shape. I forgot to take pics of the setup but I'll rig it up on the spare shaft later to show how I did it if anyone wants. I let it sit that way overnight then reassembled everything the next day and it fit lik a glove.

 

I do have a question, how did you manage to bend those ears??

 

I was using my 20 ton hydraulic press to press the U joints in and out because I can do it that way slowly and not mess anything up. Or so I thought. It is all about lining everything up before you put force to it.
Live and learn, lol.

 

Ah, yeah that would make sense... I used an old spark plug socket and a BFG (big effin hammer) to pound my drive shaft joints out... I doubt it would work in this application though...

 

I can remove any u-joint and replace any u-joint with a small hammer, no matter how frozen. Learned it from my boss. When I first saw the technique I thought it was *** backwards. But the cool thing is, you're only removing one cap at a time this way.

 

nice build, lookin good!

 

I did a quick mock up to show how I straightened the ears on the axles haft. The bolts are touching in the middle and then I slowly tightened the nuts to push the ears back out. It worked great so I figured I would share it in case anyone else needs to adjust the ears when mounting new U joints.

 

That's a pretty neat little trick. I just hope I never have to use it :P