I figure every bronco has a backstory - Tragic or terrific. Here's mine: Got the bronco from my dad my 11th year of school for my first vehicle. Over the summer I started sanding down all the paint with a little 4x4 palm sander (that was a chore.) Got it all primed up and that went through the winter.

While showing off like an idiot on a back road (in about 6" of snow) I lost control, went off the road hitting a mail box then a tree.



Amazingly I threw it in 4x4 and pulled out of the ditch. We had to have it towed home and there we cut the bumper off and strapped down the hood. Amazingly there were no leaks, not even the radiator and it still was "driveable."

Since I had auto class I took it up there and the disassembly started.


It had to be taken to a body shop where they had to straighten the frame. 25,000+ lbs of force to bend the frame back in place and the airbag didn't go off in the accident.

Well we got it back into auto shop and my parents bought a new front clip for it $700.


All bolted on.


Gosh I miss that exhaust. First cat to 3" pipe to a single in dual out Flowmaster 10 to 3" pipes shooting out before each rear tire. It sounded nasty!

 

So I've made a few phone calls and found some doors from a guy on craigslist. They look really good for $100 ea. Hopefully I can pick those up tomorrow, but this whole working 5 1/2 days a week then it rains on the 7th day is really killing my project.

 

Today I made a 2hr round trip and picked up doors. After talking to the guy for a while he's going to get me some nice deals on all kinds of parts. He has TONS of 92-97 OBS f150-f350 parts for quite a good deal. I got 2 rust free, dent free, full electrical and windows, doors for $100 ea. Next week I'm hoping to go pick up 2 inner fender wells and 4 brand new FORD spring hangers for $50, maybe even a hood.

He's got a Grizzly tube bumper for $100, and a warn winch ready bumper for $500! It's worth $2,100 brand new.

 

Sounds like some good deals. Pretty cool you've kept your first vehicle even after it got wrecked.

 

I can fully understand this. I work a 40hr/week job then on Tuesday night I stock at a Gas Station. I get one night off a week and normally I don't feel like doing anything. Possibly part of the reason my ol' baby is kind of being neglected.

 

Today I bought a rebuild kit for the Sterling 10.25 and I have. Looking for another D44 for the front, and I found one just waiting on a response.

To finish off the rear axle I'm going to be buying 4.10s, ARB Air locker ARB Air Locker Ford 10.25" / 10.5" 12-Bolt and the heavy duty air compressor from ARB as well. ARB On-Board High Performance 12 Volt TWIN Air Compressor Might not be the this one since it's the most expensive, but I'll be doing some research.

 

No progress lately since I'm trying to save money for the rear axle rebuild.

Emailed a guy about his craigslist ad for a Dana 60 and he said his 78/9 one sold for $2500! He has another from an 80s truck for $1,200. I think he's out of his mind so I'm going to pass on it.

I was considering a Dana 60 incase I wanted to go over 35s in the future especially with a possible diesel swap, but for now a Dana 44 HD will suffice. Talking to the guys on the Michigan chapter they have suggested doing a 4-link suspension since it will cost close to the same as a SAS, plus I will have better for flex so I will do it.

 

Well this weekend I went on the journey of replacing my rear leaf hangers. Picked them up new/used, for $50.

First thing first we lift the truck up, tires off and support the back end of the truck while letting the axle hang. i chose to put my jack stands on 4x6 and set them below my hitch reciever.

This is what they looked like.
Driver side:


Passenger side:


Once it was supported, the first thing I attempted to do was remove the bolt that goes from the shackle to the hanger.

Passenger side the bolt snapped in the middle of the hanger, so I burned the bolt off on the back side. REMEMBER TO BE CAREFUL! THE GAS TANK IS RIGHT THERE!

Driver side, as soon as I applied pressure:


After the shackle is removed from the hanger there are 2 things to do. 1) remove the rivets from the hanger to get it off the truck, 2) remove the bolt from the spring to get the shackle off.

I started by removing the bolt from the spring to the shackle. I lifted up the rear axle until the back of the spring was higher than the frame, undid the bolt and slid it right out with a little "encouragement"

Next, removing the factory rivets from the hanger(s).
You can grind the head off, cut an "X" in the rivets and smash them through with an air hammer or melt the heads off - the route I chose to do.

Driver side after it's off:


Passenger side off:


Shackles off:


Now they are off and you have to head the other direction.
Grade 8 hardware. 7/16 bolts, 1 1/2 long, with nylock nuts.

The very back bolts are reachable, BUT it is easier to if you remove the back bumper. I decided not to do this soon enough so I struggled to get the back 2 bolts on. The front bolts aren't reachable because they are trucked in the frame, on the other side of a cross bar and covered by the gas tank. So i decided to drop the tank, it only has to drop about 6-8", and it's still a tight fit to get your hand in there.

I eventually got all 8 bolts for both hangers in place and tightened down.

The next part is getting the shackle on the leaf spring, which for me was a PITA! The shackle didn't fit around my leaf springs so I had to do some hillbilly tricks.

I got threaded rod from Home Depot and 2 nuts. Don't have the pictures of how I did it, on another mobile device.
Set the rod in the shackle holes with the nuts in between. Turn the nuts so they tighten against the shackle and open it up. I had to open mine up to 3 1/2". Then I heated the shackle and smacked on the mid section to open it all up to 3 1/2", but it actually opened up the leaf spring area to ~4". Afterwords they fit like a glove.

I had new bolts with a 3 1/2" shank on them, antisieze on the shank and a little encouragement and it fit right in. Tighten it down, but loose enough so you can still pivot the shackle.

Fit the shackle into the hanger and get that bolt through, again putting antisieze on the shank. Tighten everything down and your shackles/hangers are all set.


Raise up your gas tank and tighten it back down. 8 bolts along the guard front/back. I replaced these because I stripped quite a few heads getting them off. Put your bumper back on and you are all done!

In the following few weeks I should be finishing off the 10.25, and installing it in the truck. ARB, 4.10s. No Chromoly shafts yet though.

 

cool build..........dam you guys have a lot of rust out there........

 

I'll get pictures later, it's a lot worse on the underside than the other 80% of the truck.

Plus the fiberglass panels will cut back on rust a lot.

 

Ordered the tabs for the disc brake conversion kit for my 10.25 rear. Brake parts for it are supposed to be here by the holiday weekend then all that is left is gears for it.

I think as a temporary thing for the front axle I will swap the D44 HD spindles (8 lug) onto my TTB D44 so that way I can get 8 lug rims all the way around.

 

Update hardly worth mentioning:

The brake line that feeds the rear axle finally rusted through today, the only good news about that is that I hadn't left the driveway so no incidents on the road.

Still trying to scrounge money up to finish the back axle, but found a second truck I'm interested in and the bronco might get pushed to the side for a few.

 

Well yesterday while towning all was well for the first 2 hours then I noticed my pedal was going all the way to the floor. Just what you want to find out when towing a work trailer.

Well I got home safe and started to check for leaks. There doesn't appear to be any, but I haven't taken the drums off yet to see if they fell apart again.

Before checking anything though I believe that my mastery cylinder is going bad or is bad and therefore I am thinking that if I'm going to have to replace them I might as well upgrade. If I upgrade, from what I've read I would get a f350 booster/MC and it should bolt right up.

Any suggestions on either the upgrade or how to test in the MC is bad?

Thanks

 

Well the bronco is... Let's say no longer exists.

Also bought a 95 in its place so, I am parting out what was useful from the 96' such as some interior parts, power pack, 1 ton axles, front clip, doors, top, seats, power pack from the 95, and that's about it. In North Carolina if anyone is interested.

 

What happened?