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It's a mess under here  driveshaft out:  One set of tires ill never have a use for:  ...and the 8.8 is out!  Surprisingly the wedges werent cracked, so ill probably sand blast em and keep em  Who does this?! Driver side had one bolt holding the front bracket on. Passenger side it was two, both on top. Of course thats hardest to get to with an impact gun  Leaf springs out:  You can tell the truck sat for years, by the condition of the frame:  But, some needle-scaling, wire wheeling and paint, and it looks almost good as new!   Next step is rebuilding the leaf springs and getting brackets on the frame, but its raining, so that'll have to hold off until tomorrow. Found some wires under there im going to have to fix, im sure there's more.  And here's the money shot- with the rear end jacked up to level it out:  Im in love with this ride height, i think its going to be perfect for a set of 35s.  Threw on an old diff cover i had, RuffStuff maybe? Dont remember anymore. Lube locker gasket as i have them on multiple trucks now with no leaks:  Pretty sure thats the cover i used to run on the D70 in the rear of the 88 as the lower edge is ground down pretty good. Got that Carolina Squat yo!  Pretty sure its sitting at 4" of lift. i was surprised at how good the the drag link angle looks considering its stock F350 steering with a stock bronco pitman arm. I might try to get my hands on an F350 arm since theyve got ~1" more drop just to level it out a bit more, but i dont think i need to spring for a proper drop pitman arm. I gotta root around in the garage and see what i have. I have parts to build a tracbar but thats coming later. Tires are a junk set of 305/70R16 on stock Ford wheels, because its what i have for rollers. We have a set of 315/70R17 we bought on CL for cheap in the garage ready to go, just dont have a set of wheels for it yet, that one is up to the wife since its her truck.  I have a set of F350 shock towers in the garage that will go on the front eventually. For now my goal is to get the rear lifted and the 10.25 in so i can pause, clean up, take a trip to the scrap yard, and then roll this thing into the garage for the rest of the rebuild. It hasnt run in years so its gonna need a major tuneup at the very least (it also needs a gas tank, fuel pump & skid plate) and who knows if the transmission even shifts. I want to open up the tcase to inspect the pump, the exhaust is rotted out and falling apart.....the list goes on. Cant leave it like this forever!  Scored a set of leaf springs out of an Excursion pretty cheap a while back, so we're going to use the front set!  the Excursion guys hate these leafs, they think theyre too soft and usually switch to V-codes out of the Superdutys. So hopefully these will be just right for a bronco! These things are a bit rough though. All the anti-friction pads are shot, and the center pins look rough, so its all getting replaced  New anti-friction material from Speedway, and a set of new pads from Dorman:  Wire wheel, paint, new pads, bushings, center pins and done!  We're using the 2wd version of a 2" shackle reversal for a 85-91 F250/F350 from Sky's Offroad Design, along with quite a few other parts from them that you'll see show up as this project moves along  Sky's low clearance shackle hangars
...and the front hangar installed! The 2wd hangar fits right up on the bronco's frame like it was made for it. The 2wd version comes with plates for the inside of the frame horns to box them up a bit so its nice and stiff once its all bolted together.  New shackles  ...and the leafs installed!  Next up: getting that D60 installed! This rusty mess needs to go  ...yup, thats better:   coil buckets removed:
pivot and radius arm brackets are next on the list
And so, with the frame stripped of all the TTB parts, i want to deal with all this rust and scale  needle scaled, wire wheeled.....  ...and painted!   Looks a million times better now! Finally, its time to start bolting parts back on! Absolutely scored on this deal. Back over the winter i found a 97 Ford D60 still in a truck in a junkyard. Got it pulled and dropped right into the back of my truck for $250! Wasnt easy getting it back out of the truck though....  So lets get this thing cleaned up a bit, shall we?  You could tell it came from a plow truck. Everything rusty, but also new seals and clean grease everywhere   My little helper getting in there and scraping grease and grime off it  Cutting off the sway bar bracketry, along with the retainer for the ubolts and the tracbar  Housing needle-scaled and wire wheeled  Pressing balljoints
...and getting a fresh coat of paint!  Diff out, shaft & pinion seals changed  ...and the final reassembly    Some of this was done while sorting out the diesel's electrical issue, but now that that's resolved, its time to get serious on the '90 bronco build. Part one: rebuild the rear axle! We're going to be using a 97 Ford Sterling 10.25 with 4.10s and a trac-lock, partially because its a good rear, and partially because i already had it!  Oil drained:
Housing stripped, cleaned, and painted!
Brake drum backing plates sand blasted and painted, and all new brakes and hardware installed:  Hub going back on, using the SKF Scotseal, as its the best one out there  I wish they made these for every FF rear axle. Its a 2-piece design so the seal lip rides on itself, instead of the spindle. Much better design.
Axle all done, just awaiting brake lines once the axle is under the bronco!  Lots and lots of parts  Talk about a big order! This is basically everything to rebuild both a Dana 60, and a Sterling 10.25. We also have this:  ...which is all sorts of suspension parts from Sky's Offroad Design. Just about everything we need to slap a D60 & 10.25 into the '90 Bronco! I have also acquired a set of leafs for the front, out of a Superduty. I know most people like to use V codes, but in our case we're not building a one-ton truck with a diesel, its a bronco with a 351. So i got a set of T code leafs instead:  From my research the Superdutys came with S,T,U,V,W,X, & Z code leafs. I have the X code (which is the heaviest) in the front of the 96 F250 and it rides ok, but it also has a heavy 7.3 under the hood. Ideally though i think i would prefer the V code. Knowing that, i think the V code would probably be a bit heavy for a small block, so we're going to try these, and see how it goes. We'll keep you posted! I bet you thought we forgot about this thing!  Well.....we havent! The priority was getting the '88 done and ready for the ECBR this summer. With that project basically done (is any project ever done??) it is time to turn our attention to the '90. Dawn got the interior all cleaned up and looking like new:    The arm pads for the doors are shot but it just so happens i have a spare set so theyll go on whenever we tear into the doors. Its also missing the wiper knob, but aside from that, its in very good shape! I on the other hand, turned my attention to the fuel system, or what's left of it:  Rotted out tank and skid plate removed; both are going to need replaced:  The fuel pump is shot as well; the brass float is corroded and full of fuel, and the pump sock has rotted from sitting in old gas for many years:  Ill need to replace the tank and skid, and ill have to see what a new pump & float will cost, or if its more cost effective to just replace the whole assembly. The parts pile grows.   One complete set of leaf springs out of an Excursion! The front leafs are U-Code, and will be perfect for doing a leaf SAS on the '90. The rear leafs will go on the pile for now, as possible replacement springs for the rear of the '96 F250. So weve got this '97 10.25 with 4.10s thats been sitting around in the yard, so were going to use this for the rear axle.  Up front the plan was to do another 3/4 ton TTB using chevy parts, with a junkyard third since the '90 has 3.55 and we want 4.10. So we made a trip up to EZ Pull, and scored:  While we were there we also picked up a newer dome light, and a big trans cooler, both of which will be going in:  The icing on the cake though, is this:  All that work disassembling a 3/4 ton chevy D44, just so we could find a '96 D60 (w/ 4.10s) later! And for a price we couldnt pass up. So now these are sitting in the driveway:  So new plan. Chevy parts go on shelf for spares for the '96, and the '90 is getting a solid axle swap! |
