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The weather was nice yesterday, so we tackled something ive been putting off until it got warmer: The "chrome" trim on her hardtop windows is all shot, cracked, broken, etc  Clearcoat gone, no longer 'chrome', broken.....this is pretty typical of both sides   Bought new striping sometime over the winter  Comes in one long piece, need to cut to fit for each window  i bought the stainless corner pieces too, just in case. Turns out her's were in great shape so i reused them and put these on the shelf  I started on the passenger side...  ...while the little dude worked on the driver side  ..and done!  With the original trim removed i cleaned the dirt out of the track, and then with some soapy water the new ones went right in. Looks way better now, and took less than an hour to do both sides.
We got our packet from Carlisle in the mail the other day  All the Broncos will be up front in the Blue Section. I heard over 300 Broncos registered for the event thus far! We went to the 40th Anniversary event (and brought my big 88), then didnt go again until the 50th, but as spectators. This time we will be there with not one, but two broncos, the wife's 90 and my 88. Gotta represent the bricknose crowd!  Got this back in the garage:  After doing the ML Toys Paragon 775 motor/gearboxes in th ebronco, it is clearly way better in the yard. Not much faster, but the added torque makes it work so much better in the yard. But, it could be faster. So why not? Looking in the rear, there is a decent amount of free room, im pretty sure we can remove that 6v battery, and fit a second 12v battery in there  Looking in the rear left corner, there are these two embossments that dont do anything. So let's use em!  So i made a simple bracket that screws down in place, and has a tab on the right that should keep the battery from sliding around  From there i cut a piece of plywood to set down to serve as a more solid base, and then simply set the battery in place! I used a piece of scrap steel to make a hold-down strap for the battery  ....and all rewired!  The rewiring was simple, i just needed to replace a couple wires because they didnt reach now that the second battery is off in the corner. So, nothing left but to fire it up, and see how it runs!  Little dude zipped it around the yard the other day, and let me tell you, she gets up and goes now! Im going to have to get some video of it and get it posted online. Stay tuned... Gotta deal with this  Just a simple seal swap  i already have redi-sleeves on the axle, and theyre already showing wear so hopefully i dont have to rip this back apart and replace the sleeve. Got that done and had to rotate the tires on the DD bronco  At 8k miles they were overdue to be rotated. Minimal cupping, but there's still some so i really need to start rotating them every 5k miles i suppose  Lets do it!  the offending piece  Splitting it open
return spring  spring retainer
The piston comes out  looking down into the bore, its just a blind hole  same thing with the piston  simulating a pedal press (pushing on the linkage for the brake pedal)  for being 20 years old, the diaphragm is still good, and theres still grease on the seals  the piston is actually two pieces with a rubber seal in the middle  Speculating the extra piece goes here?  Honestly, no idea where that little pushrod goes, maybe there? Either way, of course i swapped the booster out and it fixed my problem. Its neat to see the inside of the booster, altho it wouldve been cool if i could say for absolute certainty where that little piece goes. Booster is in, and that fixed the problem  Couple other minor things ive got to deal with. #1, D70 has a pretty leaky wheel seal that im going to fix either tomorrow or Friday  Also, my junk aftermarket speedo drive gear in the tcase is starting to get wonky already, and the speedometer is getting very erratic as a result of it. Fortunately, i was able to get a good used OEM gear from Transfercase Solutions so when this gear inevitably bites the dust ill swap the OEM gear in. We are registered for the Carlisle All Ford Nationals this June (for the 60th Bronco Anniversary), which starts June 5th, and then the East Coast Bronco Roundup picks up from there and goes on for the whole next week afterwards. So im just going to be doing some minor tinkering this month trying to get the big 88 and her 90 ready for the event. Got all my parts in, so i started replumbing the front brakes. Out with the old:
...and in with the new! All new -3 AN stainless flex lines, and all new steel lines on the axle as well. Everything new!
 Got it all done and bled, and the brakes still suck. So now im digging into the master/booster. This is my 4 month old '96 F350 master, on my 20 y/o '88 F350 booster  Figured i would check pushrod depth to see if i got it wrong when i put the master on, since technically this master would go on a different booster. Nothing seemed really wrong there, so i pulled the booster, and it rattles???  Shook it around a bit, and something fell out of the booster!  So i ordered a new booster, this time a '96 to match to master. Installed it this morning and its defective! I can hear the vacuum leak over the engine idle, and it has no power assist. Cant get another booster until tomorrow, so i guess ill try again over weekend or monday. Remember the days when you could buy a part, and it just worked? I miss those days. I just crossed 15k miles on the 35x12.5R17 Falken AT4Ws on the DD the other day. Its no 8k diesel tow rig, but its still got to be 5k  Closeup of the tread on the front left tire:  15k miles. Rotated once at 8k, havent done it again. Probably should, but theyre really not showing any signs of needing it. Tread depth is just over 16/32, pretty typical of all 4  These things are advertised at 19/32 new. At the current wear rate ill go 55-60k miles to get down to 8/32" Thinking i will rotate them during the week and then go to 5k rotations just to keep em wearing evenly, altho really theyre wearing very well, especially for a TTB equipped vehicle. |
