Hi all,

First time on here, used to frequent the '48-52 truck side.

My wife found an 89 Bronco she wanted as a project. Had been sitting outside previous owner's house for ~10 years with minimal runtime from my understanding. Was parked on the street facing downhill, started occasionally and maybe driven around the block annually.

When we bought it the truck seemed like the E brake was stuck on, needed plenty of gas to get moving. Managed to drive it the quarter mile home with plenty of smoke and reversed it down the driveway to park next to my project. Been slowly getting around to working on it but I could use some input with people more familiar with this generation.

It has the 5.0 and automatic. Biggest problem right now is trying to make it drivable to get it over to inspection. First noticed it kept running hot when I'd let it idle. Found a nice hole in the radiator. Swapped out the radiator to a new all aluminum 3 core unit and had to redo the line to the trans cooler since the rad that was installed previously was not for this truck, lines were in totally different places just plumbed copper into flexible hose with some iron pipe in the middle. Got that all sorted, coolant flush, swapped in a new battery, changed the oil, swapped oil filter. Starts up well now and idles nicely.

When I drop it into drive it just sits there. Loads up like something is seized. If I give it gas it tries to move but nothing. It's on a little gravel right now so if I give it enough gas it will spin the rears but still no vehicle motion.

1. Pulled off the front wheels thinking maybe the discs had seized but no, I can spin them both by hand.
2. Pulled off the rear wheels thinking maybe the E brake had seized inside the drums, but no in neutral I can rotate both by hand but only backwards.
3. Jacked each rear wheel off the ground independently and put it in D and R. Reverse they both spin, D neither do. I just let it idle for this test, didn't give it gas. I know the tires will turn with enough gas from the earlier tests though.
4. Dropped it back on the ground and tried to put it in reverse to at least see if I could move it. It tried for a second or so and now I can't seem to find reverse. Revs just like it's in neutral. Moving shifter from N to R to P offers no change in engine note or vehicle movement.

Where would you go from here? Pull the drums and look through the e-brake anyways? The handle does nothing and the E brake light is on the dash so I know there's still some issue with it somewhere. E brake stuck enough to stop the truck from moving until plenty of gas is applied? Not sure why the whole truck doesn't move when the rears spin though since the fronts spin fine.
Trans flush and refill? Probably hasn't been checked in a decade.

Other issues are the passenger door doesn't open from the outside, rear window won't go up or down, and rear hatch won't open but all those are basic. P.O. has the horn wired to a residential doorbell button so I'll need to rip that out as well. All part of a full restomod project.

Thanks

 

It sure sounds like you need a new transmission.

 

You didn’t actually remove the drums to see if the parking brake lever is being held forward by the cables? If the brake is on, you should be able to take a screwdriver to release the parking brake at the drum. You replaced the radiator which has an internal trans cooler. You also stated that the cooler lines are hacked up but you don’t mention anything about checking the transmission dipstick. Is there enough fluid in the transmission?

 

Only rotating one direction is weird. I haven't heard of brakes acting like a one-way clutch, but you know the brakes are messed up, and brakes are cheaper than anything else it could be. If you strip the brakes, and it's still only going one way, I would check the fluid in the rear end too. If you're not sure if it's the rear end or the transmission, you could drop the driveshaft (or put the transfer in neutral, front hubs unlocked, if it's 4x4) and see if the rear wheels still won't turn one way.

And yeah, check trans fluid level/condition. I don't know Ford autos, but generally you want to check with the engine running and the fluid warm. The fluid level will rise a surprising amount as it warms up.

 

Thanks all, will start working through this list. Typically only a vintage manual trans guy so I'm learning my way through late 80's automatics.

 

Fired it up and let it run for a few minutes, already 105F here today so I figured it didn't need too much warming! Wiped off the trans dipstick and pulled it out again...bone dry. So off to NAPA I go.

 

Make sure you get the correct fluid. MERCON V