We just picked up this new to us 96 Eddie Bauer Bronco. Needs some love, but has got a good build foundation. Plans are to keep it simple, and have fun on a budget. It looks like an older Skyjacker kit with rear springs with some old 35s. I was hoping it was already geared, but no such luck. It needed a battery and wouldn't start off a jump, so I just went and bought a battery. It fired right up. We drove it a little to make sure it went into all the gears and loaded it up.

 

Nice find

 

Wont that be as sharpe as a tack, when your done, what engine?

 

We did a good once over on it and the suspension. Turns out the passenger beam mount had lost the nut on the bolt. Looks like it has been that way for minute. The bracket had kinda deformed a little and the hole has swallowed out. Thr hardware store had a simlar bolt. Ill either get another bracket, or weld some washers on the current one. For now, it is trail worthy but does have some wierd noises. Im assuming the very worn out, factory steering is the culprit. Ambulance steering and maybe a TRE will fix that I hope.
By chance does anyone know if I can just move the arms up to the next bolt on the brackets? Essentially make it a 4in kit, but with 6in springs. Camber be thrown way off?


Things on the to do list in the short term:
Deep cleaning. Its gross.
Get the back window down - it was backed into something and the tailgate is a little smashed. I assume it bent some of the tracks and arms. Im going to try and tug on it and pull it out and hopefully relieve some clearance issue and it will just roll down. Or i have to climb in and take the panel and do it the hard way. Or take the top off.
Air filter- the aftermarket cone had the end kinda boogers for the AIT sensor. There wasn't much dirt in the intake thankfully, but there was some.
A/C- either needs to be charged or some vacuum lines fixed. Some are broken or completely dried and destroyed.



I like the OBDII on this year so that I can plug my Bluetooth scanner dongle and watch some pids in real time.

 

Thanks. We looked quite a while for something that wasn't outrageously priced and was complete. The lift was a bonus.
I think it will serve us quite well on the trails. My wife has already put some fresh scratches on it lol. It is a 351. We looked a while for this one. We may not do the bull nose swap because we actually really like this color. Time will tell.

 

I discovered that the steering box is not completely centered. I can turn way sharper towards the passenger side than the driver. The limiting bolts behind the knuckles are not the cause. I did just replace the steering the linkages, but I didn't move anything to make it out of wack that far. Leads me to believe whoever installed the lift messed up when centering the box. It still works off road just fine. We took it out for Mothers Day and the steering angles weren't an issue except MAYBE in one obstacle. I'll get around to dropping the drag link and centering the wheel/box.

Anyway, I have installed new steering linkage. I bought the XRF F250 components after reading good reviews on XRF. They had a good price on eBay from American Undercar. They are an authorized dealer for them, and its cheaper than buying directly from the XRF website.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186331709556

I also replaced the rear shocks with some leftover stock style superlift shocks. They came with the lift kit for my wife's F150, but we upgraded to Fox's. I've had these sitting on the shelf for a few years and they were virtually bolt in. They are 1" longer than the blown Skyjacker shocks that were on there. They aren't permanent because I think they were limiting our flex and upward travel quite a bit...

We also found some good 35's on sale from Walmart. Kanati Mud Hogs for $187/tire and mounted them on some 15x10s from our parts Bronco. My little helper put in some work polishing them back up.

My little dude.

He polished them up pretty nice.

A little bit tippy right here. Pictures don't ever do this stuff justice.