My trail runner (89 Jeep Wrangler S) died to day after rock ledge gave and it dropped 12ft into 4ft deep mud-hole an caught fire from chunk of rock cracking open gas tank an electrics shorting out in water, now i know how it fells to watch $20,000 burn.

Ok moving on, i found a nice black 90 Bronco II Eddie Bauer 2.9L V6 Auto 4wd for $2000 that i'm thinking of get an setting up for off-roading but before i do any of that, i'd like to know what problems i should expect to have with Bronco II?

 

well i can tell u with a 90 ur gona get about the best that u are going to get i.e. a dana 35 front and an 8.8 rear. We could prolly help you further if we knew exactly what u wanted to do with the truck and what kind of mods u want to make. (offroading may me one thing to me and another 2 u.)
Oh yeah and figure on replacing that a4od or doing a manual swap at some point especialy if u plan on wheeling the truck. As well as the auto hubs if it has them can be a weak point.

 

Don't feel too cocky, if you drop a bronco II off of a 12' legdge, it will crash and burn as well. It's something about the 12 foot drop that gets ya ha ha. I hear you dude, I have an 87 YJ, a 52 CJ3A and thinking about doing a 86 bronco II next. That way if I drop one off of a ledge I still have 2 more hee hee.

 

lol I was more referring to the best of the bII world. In all honesty the jeep he had was a better suited wheeling vehichle even though i hate to admit it lol.

 

Deleted, deleted

 

Full size broncos and early broncos had d44's (whether that be solid or ttb) and either 9"'s or 8.8's out back
BII's had d28's or in 90 d35's up front as well as i believe it was the 7.5 rear until 88 then the 8.8 in 89 and 90

 

The little bronco II's make great wheelers, light, small and nimble. The wranglers have a crappy rear diff as well, the good old D-35. It breaks trying to crawl over a toad. The only advantage the jeep has is the I-6 and a straight front axle. I had to swap in an 8.8 rear diff from an explorer into my wrangler to keep from having to walk so much hee hee. The 258 makes torque down low. I wheel with quite a few II's, there great on the trails, I'm impressed enough to get one my self, however, I will still keep my jeeps, you can never have too many 4x4x's, especially when there's 12' foot ledges around ha ha.

 

Here's basically what i want to do.

1. Swap out auto hubs for Warn Premium Hubs
2. Lift 4" an stuff 31's under it
3. Front & Rear Lockers (either selectable or lunch box)
4. Cover with mud till can't even see it.

If i get it in the future i'd like to swap in 302/5.0L, 5-speed manual trans, manual floor shift t-case, front - dana44, rear - ford 8.8", all i got for now.

Mike

 

Sounds like a great plan, you don't want a crazy amount of lift and tire. As with a CJ there short and top heavy. 4" lift and 31's or 32's sounds about right, get some gear in it like 4:10's if it doesn't have them. You will be able to climb a tree if you can reach the first branch.

 

You should already have an 8.8 in the rear of that year. Sounds like a really nice basic build. I would definitely look at the skyjacker class II lift when you get too looking as they have the nicest extended radius arms. I would look at something like a detroit or an aussie in the rear and a selectable up front. Depending on how big u want to go in the future that D35 that you should have up front will prolly do everything u need it to up to a 33 - 35" tire depending on how hard you are on your stuff. I kniow that there are a lot of parts that will fit a d35 ttb from a D44 ttb to make it a lil beefier I just can not remember them off the top of my head and don't want to mislead you as to what they are. The next time I see the guy that did some mods to his d35 along those lines I will ask him and post up. You will never get the articulation out of ttb that you are used to out of ur jeep solid axle but it is better than people give it credit for. Out of curiosity have you thought about swapping the solid front end from ur wrecked jeep into the BII? Good luck with it man look forward to hearing about ur build as u progress.

 

I was thinking that Ford never put a D-35 or 8.8 in a Bronco II. I know some sites list it but I've never seen one or know of anybody that has had one. I think they were scheduled to be put in but Ford dropped the BII in order to go with the Explorers before that happened. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

i have an 8.8 in my 89 as far as the d35 im not sure that i have ever seen one that was not swapped in

 

My YJ's already been sold to friend who been wanting to build a custom off-road only jeep from ground up and he stripped an sold pretty much everything, i think he hasn't been taking his sleeping pills again.

I found a 92 Explorer XL 4.0L 5-Spd 4wd for $850 that i'm going to get since the bronco II i was looking at is 1hr drive from my apartment an explorer only 5 minute drive from me, so closer + cheaper = better deal (to me anyways).

Thanks for the info guys, Mike

 

> I found a 92 Explorer XL 4.0L 5-Spd 4wd for $850

Good deal, I would buy that.

> i'd like to know what problems i should expect to have with Bronco II?

automatic transmission failure

> i.e. a dana 35 front and an 8.8 rear.

The 1990 I have been parting out has a stock 7.5" rear end and Dana 35 front.

 

I've been wheeling my 86 BII steady for 4yrs now..stock dana 28's 4:10gears running 35 inch tires. All rock crawling..worst i've done is breake a rear flange on the drive shaft. If you are easy on the gas these things will do good. If not then yes you will break stuff all day long.