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So for a very long time, now, my remote oil filter has been hanging down underneath the bronco. So its time we get this thing reinstalled!  With my fenders liners being different this time, my original mount/location for it no loner exists. So im doing it a little differently. Bought a derale mount with side ports, and the stubby Motorcraft oil filter  This is where im mounting it. It look super roomy there, but once you add in the intake tubing and the radiator, its actually very tight.  My original hoses ended up needing to be shortened  installed:  closeup w/ intake reinstalled. Theres just enough room to fit it all, and just enough room to drop the filter  So with that done, lets look at the battery tray. This whole section of the harness was disassembled. Ford had very long pigtails going to the head & turn signal lights so i shortened both to clean up the mess of wires. That plug that hangs down near the headlight is 2 grounds for the harness (it goes to the battery ground on the frame). One for the ECM and one for the ABS ECU. Obviously im not using the ABS anymore but i left the ground in the harness. I also added an additional two ground wires into the plug which both ground to the battery ground as well. These wires also ground to the fender, which gives me a good ground location for some future electrical accessories.  Starter relay reinstalled, all the alternator wiring plus my 250a mega fuse for the alt. Basically, the last of the harness is now done except for battery cables!  However, that dead space of the fender is gonna get filled up, once i start adding in everything else i still need:
 Been tinkering with this thing on and off while rebuilding my buddies Caprice Classic, and then in short breaks while fixing the green bronco. Ive been very scattered on what ive been doing, but this portion is now done, so here's an update! I started working on the interior. Got the B-pillar trim and seatbelts installed. Lower belt cover panel, the steel frame work for the rear cargo panels blasted painted & installed, and even the whole harness for the rear cargo light and rear speakers (new speakers installed as well):  I dont have a pic, but i completely rewired the rear right speaker. From the factory, it would run across the floorboard from the left speaker to the right. But i dont like having those wires exposed, so i ran them thru the dash, under the passenger kick plate to the passenger B-pillar and to the speaker from there. So now theres no exposed wires in the interior whatsoever. So, back in the spring i found these in the junkyard:  In good shape, just tan. So it took a while, but i got them cleaned, sanded, primed, and painted!  applying sound deadener:  ...and installed!   In following with my 'no chrome' theme, i disassembled the cargo light, sanded it, and painted it black. Then color matched the button to the panels. I also bead blasted the ash trays, and color matched them as well. I now have a full set of black hard top trim for the interior, which i might install just to finish it all off once i touch up all the pieces. So this was kind of a big deal for me, because it means the back half of the interior is now 100% complete! I have been tinkering under the hood this whole time working on the wiring harness, and trying to come up with a new location for the remote oil filter. There is a lot of stuff im adding (remote winch wiring, elec fan controller, aux lighting, OBA, line lock, ARB control + more) so i still have an absolute ton of wiring to do before its all done, but i dont need all of it done right this second. So im working on the engine under-hood harness currently. If all goes well, i should have all of that sorted by the end of the week. Cross your fingers, cuz if all goes well, im finally gonna fire the engine next week!  It lives again! What a crazy adventure. So we had the storms from the hurricane that dumped almost two feet of rain on us which definitely delayed me! A poorly installed intake gasket that i re-did, new Ford Racing lifters, and the craziest coolant leak youve ever seen that led to swapping out for a different set of stock heads, but finally she's a runner once more! Hopefully there will be no more problems popping up, cuz i am ready to turn some wrenches on the big bronco and finally get her running again! Got the heads off today:  #4 was definitely blown  Luckliy the rest of the motor appears ok, so i guess im get some gaskets and put it back together! Just pulled the #4 plug:  Cylinder was full of coolant. Pretty obvious i blew the head gasket. So i guess im gonna put a parts list together so i can start tearing into it monday.  Ole reliable had to tow her home today. Guessing i blew a head gasket on my way in to work last night. Motor was hydrolocked in the parking lot, guessing it filled up during the shift since it didnt overheat on the way in. Towed it home, its at the garage door now awaiting repairs. Drained a gallon of coolant out of the oil pan! I wont really be able to tear into it next week, but im guessing passenger head gasket. Got all spark plugs out in parking lot at work except #4 as i didnt have a socket that would clear the header. #3 was was sparkly, like it was burning coolant. Guessing #4 will be as well. So, the end result here, is that it runs. So i installed most of the under-hood harness ( i believe all thats left is to do the alternator & starter wiring). I put in my radiator and hoses, and box + intake, and the rad overflow bottle. I also reinstalled my trans & p.steering coolers:  Found a place to mount the remote trans filter too:  Im also in the middle of working on the interior. I cant install the kick panels until all of the wiring is done and i verify it runs. But i can finish the rest of the interior, which is what im working on currently. If all goes well, i actually expect to have most of that done Monday, so there should be another progress update early next week! Man, its been a while! With schools closed due to sars-cov-2, and the decimation of the aerospace industry wreaking havoc on my wallet & budget (honestly, im lucky to still have a job at all), not much has been accomplished on this thing this summer. However, thats not to say i havent made any progress; i actually have but its been slow and scattered. Ive completed a few tasks now, and im hip deep on several other parts of the bronco right now. The point where im at, just about everything im working on has some form of impact on other areas on the truck, so ive elected to wait until now to post progress, since it will make more sense to focus on individual tasks as opposed to scattered updates from all over the vehicle. That said, when we left off, i was working on relocating the ECM. With that done, the next step was the wiring harness. So, heres what i came up with. The bracket i build for the ECM goes where the ABS ecm and internal amp used to be. I finished that, and bolted it to the dash frame:  So now ive got to get the wiring harness to reach it. I really didnt want to cut the wiring harness and extend it though, i wanted to make an extension, this way if this doesnt work out, i cant just remove it and go back to 'stock'. Also, i love doing things the hard way, and building an extension is way harder! So when searching some way to build it, i found DIYautotune, who as it turns out, makes kits to do just that! Really, theyre for building in piggyback support for aftermarket EFI and other stuff the mustang guys do, but itll work for me! It comes as a kit you need to build yourself:  It comes with a PCB, and a connector off of an old ECM  I had to solder the connector to the board, and it has 2 output connections for each pin on the board, so you can splice into every wire w/o having to cut any.  So i got my soldering station set up, so here we go!  connector soldered to board:  Attaching wires:  all done!  Case assembled around the connector/board:   I numbered all the wires before closing everything up, so id know which wire is which. Triple checked everything, and i even found a source for new pins to crimp on the end  So here she is, all done and taped up!  So with that done, all that was left to do, was install the ECM and harness into the dash!  And finally, after all this time, the dash is reinstalled in the bronco!  Couple months later, the bornco is still handling like a champ! Wish i flipped the steering sooner. Tires are wearing so much better now too. So ive hard the hard top off since memorial day, and the XL rear cardboard panels are getting a bit rough:  I cant find XLT rear panels anywhere, so i went to the local scrap yard, and found a huge sheet of 1/4" thick black plastic for $20! So i made my own:  Laying out the second panel. The sheet was just barely big enough to make both:  cheapy sound deadener from Amazon:  First panel installed:  I used the rear speaker grills out of my '88 since the cardboard panels didnt use any. I still need to find another pair because sooner or later these are going to end up back in the '88 again! ...and both done!  Im pretty happy with how they came out, altho if i ever find some XLT panels im still gonna get em.  With the little dude about to turn 3, i figure now's the time to get him his own ride! Let the madness begin! |