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Picked up the bronco this morning. Handles really nice with good tires up front. I was really close on the alignment, and now its perfect. Passed insp with flying colors too, so we're good to go! aka "Fixing" the Steering. So ive been chasing alignment issues. Basically, the theory is that the F250 pitman arm doesnt drop enough for the 2.5" lift, and its causing camber in turns. Truck looks good on a rack, but continues to wear the front tires. The obvious solution is a drop pitman arm. But thats too easy! So lets make it more complicated! Steering angles before we started:  So i bought some Ford tie rod sleeves from Sky Manufacturing  Hole drilled out to 7/8", sleeve going in with some red loctite:  tie rod's new home:  Check those angles, and that ground clearance!  Piece of cake, right? WRONG! Now the tie rods hit the sway bar. So, here we go! Cut the end links in half. I extended them about 1.5" using 3/4" steel rod; i thought i had a pic but apparently i dont.  Endlink halves reinstalled, but on the opposite side of the bronco. 8" piece of 1" tubing to extend the link. Its crazy, but the way Ford made the bar, it totally fits just fine like this.  Decided to drill/bolt the 3 pieces together:  ...and just like that, sway bar disconnects!  New poly bushings....  ...and done!  Bronco needs an inspection, so while its there im going to have them double check my driveway alignment, see how far off i got it. Only went around the block and that was before re-adjusting toe, so i cant give a final opinion on if it handles any better/worse yet. I got the diesel done just in time for everyone to be quarantined for COVID-19. Schools & daycares are closed here, along with "non-life-sustaining businesses", altho neither my job nor my wife's fall under that umbrella. So now i hang out with the little guy after work while she is working. Thankfully no one is sick, but for obvious reasons, free time, and my truck budget, are severely limited. No roll cage this year, my new goal is simply to get it back together and running, and we'll go from there. So when we left off, my next move was to put the wiring harness and dashboard back in. The donor body had a blue dash, my original dash is gray, and im going with the charcoal! So ive got 3 dashboards laying next to each other in the garage. Im reusing my original '88 harness, so now my harness has been swapped over to the charcoal dash:  Normally this would be a simple swap, and id have the dash in by now. But, why make it easy, when you can over-complicate it? So im moving the ECM. I need the space in the kick panel, so i went on a quest for a new place to put it. Staring at the blue dash, i got to thinking about this:  Thats the ABS computer, the internal amp for the Premium Sound radio option, and the door chime. I dont use any of them, which leaves some free space in the center of the dash:  So the gray dash is stripped and in rough shape, so lets go look at that one.  It would seem if you bend up one tab, the ECM will fit in the space!   So, this section of the dash frame is held in place with 4 spot welds. So, lets remove em!  So i set my homebrew sheetmetal brake up, and came up with this:    It fits in there pretty snug, but just in case, i made a tab to make sure it cant move:   That gets us caught up to speed. Im gonna bring it into work to blast and then paint, and then i can cut the old bracket off the charcoal dash, and put this one on. Im also going to add some adhesive foam in a couple places to protect the ECM case a bit. Time is limited these days, but im hoping i can still get it done this week, i guess we'll see. Upgrading to the Superduty UVCH + valve cover gaskets:  Removed the engine harness:  ..and rewiring it for the SD valve cover gaskets:  ...and all done!  With that done, all that was left was to install the harness, batteries, fender liner, and throw some fluids in it! So i got all that done today, purged the fuel lines, and got her running! ...Then i went thru the yard, and filled the bed of the truck with downed branches from the winter  So i figure ive got a good weeks worth of work of cleanup to do, but i expect to be working on the big bronco again before the end of the month! Made some progress this morning, before the weather turned sour. Exhaust manifold in, along with up-pipe, which you totally cant see, but its in there!  check these rocker arms!   Valve train installed. Down-pipe is reinstalled too.  All new orings and washers on the injectors:  I got all the injectors reinstalled, but by then it was raining pretty heavily. Hopefully tomorrow its a bit dryer out!  Head!  ...and all the torks!  Supposed to be nice and warm tomorrow too, so hopefully that rain holds out and i can get a bit more done! Went OEM on the head gasket, and the head bolts. Considered studs but theyre major $$$, i dont really need them, and they cut all my OT at work, so..... Figured the head was off, might as well do valve stem seals:  I had one cracked injector cup, so i replaced all 8 just in case 
The 7.3 has a two-stage fuel pump in the valley, and uses a single hard line to supply fuel to the back of both heads:  I wanted to replace mine since it has a kink on the passenger side, and the rubber collars behind the nuts are rotted after 24 years. Well, you cant do it with the turbo installed!. It also uses the biggest banjo bolt youve ever seen!  i had to order a set of metric 1/4" drive swivel sockets to get the turbo out, as nothing else will fit in there to remove it. It is god damned tight in there:  That wasnt the worst either. No way to do it w/o them swivel sockets. Turbo out, new fuel line + pedestal o-rings installed:  ...and finally, turbo reinstalled!  Got all that finished up this morning. Weather permitting, monday morning i should be good to start reinstalling the head!  I broke a glow plug a couple weeks ago when i was trying to replace them. Couldnt get the last piece of it out of the head, so.......  That was yesterday. Hopefully next week ill be able to put the head back on. OEM head gaskets & bolts, OEM exh manifold gasket & bolts. Had a cracked injector cup so theyre all getting changed (bought the kit from Rosewood Diesel to do it). Doing valve stems seals, because she's at 201k & the head is off so why not. Also have the parts to convert the truck over to the Superduty valve cover gaskets + UVCHs (Under Valve Cover Harness for you non-diesel guys). So while rewiring my tailgate, i used a harness from a 90+ bronco so i could upgrade my reverse lights from 1156 to 3156. I also found, completely by accident, that CA Autoparts makes LED taillights for our trucks! Theres 8 versions, i bought one of the smoked variants:  They look pretty good IMO, and the fit & finish is really nice. Definitely seems like a quality part. 
Installed:   And in keeping with my black/gray theme, black fender badges:   out of the tent she comes!  A coworker came by and helped me install the hard top, and then install/align the tailgate. Unfortunately i forgot to get a pic of it with the top on out in the sun, so this will have to suffice:  So she's officially back in the garage for winter, and just in time, too! Yesterday it was 56º and sunny, today its raining and 29º. Its about to get cold and snowy, so i got it back in the garage just in time! Also, i couldnt help myself, so i installed the new headlight/turn signal housings. Shes looking goooood!  |
