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So with the tcase & trans full of fluid, we fired it up to go for a test drive. The second i rolled the window down, the driver window motor gearbox broke:  ...and on our way home the 32 year old motor mounts gave up the ghost and the fan ate the fan shroud  So i rebuilt the window motor gearbox and got new motor mounts installed while i waited for the shroud to show up  So that done i took it for its second test drive..... ....and theres something wrong with the transmission. The shifts are at weird places, and it was making noise going in/out of 2nd. I went over to the trans shop and the tech jumped in with me and he agrees, so im dropping the bronco off wednesday morning so they can look at it. Thankfully it has a warranty, but this still sucks because im betting its coming back out. So while i was messing with the '90, the engine in the '96 started squeaking. So bizarre. Im not going to waste your time with the troubleshooting, but it wasnt the accessory drive.
Long story short, the distributor bearing was bad, and the shaft was rubbing against the housing and squeaking. You can see what looks like iron dust inside the distributor in the above pics. New distributor ordered, and installed:  It got a full tuneup while i was there. This time i bought Blue Streak 9mm wires, which include their own wire retainers, and boot sleeves if you have headers which is kind of cool  They have a ton more insulation on them than Ford Racing 9mm Wires. Beefy!  ...and done!  So that takes care of the '96, lets get back to the '90... So lets see, we were working on the '90 Bronco. The tuesday after we came back from vacation i picked up the E4OD:  transmission is in:   transfer case & driveshafts are in:  original starter is cracked...  ...so i decided to upgrade to the PMGR starter:  wiring for the starter redone:  and the starter is in:  ....which means she's done!!!  So i put together a video going over, in detail, how we installed and wired the Autometer oil pressure and transmission temperature gauges in our '90 one-ton Bronco Project: Here we go again  Got my reman solenoid pack in  ...but of course that didnt solve my issues. So the trans is getting rebuilt. I drove it over to the local trans shop yesterday morning to BS with them. I dont know if its a good thing or a bad thing that he knew all the issues with both the early and late E4ODs, but it certainly made me feel better having a conversation with their mechanic about all the issues as opposed to someone just reading the update manual. Seems like the guy knows his stuff. Long story short, theyre rebuilding it. Skidplate and driveshafts out  OEM starter? Think its the original one from 1990?  I was gonna say "They dont make em like they used to' and put it back in, but the nose is cracked:  tcase is out Trans xmember is out  ...and trans is down  Dropped off at 10am this morning, its in their hands now. In the meantime im going to clean up the skidplate and trans xmember, and rebuild the tcase. Monday June 19th (13 days) we leave for the 25th East Coast Bronco Roundup. Depending on how this all plays out, she might still get to drive this thing there. We'll see how this all plays out. Its home!
Friday afternoon i dropped off the green bronco (due for inspection) and drove this one home. I made it! Motor makes good oil pressure and is nice and quiet. Suspension rode pretty nice but i only got to drive it for about 15 minutes. Transmission (E4OD) shifts weird. She took it for a drive friday night, made it maybe 10 minutes from the house and then called saying the trans wasnt shifting. I went to go find her and drive it home and yup, it dont shift right. Wouldnt go into 2nd until ~3200 rpm, and 3rd & 4th were about the same. The downshifts are weird. Doesnt look like the converter is locking. I had the pan off a couple months back when i changed the filter and didnt find any debris in the pan, so i unplugged the solenoid pack, and the connector is wet:  Got in there with a mirror and sure enough the plug is full of ATF  Looks like the solenoid pack has failed. Hoping thats all that's wrong. Ive got a reman pack on order but i wont have it until Friday. In the meantime ive got the 96 back from inspection, but it needs rear brakes; it would appear the adjuster cable on the one side is frayed, so im rebuilding the rear brakes:  Once the solenoid pack shows up we'll drop the pan on the '90 and see what we find. Since it now runs and even stops, i backed it out so we could work outside in the sun!  Removing the aluminum trim from the fenders:
The fenders are in pretty good shape, altho it annoys me that Ford painted the truck after the trim was installed. I cleaned up the fenders & started installing flares while she worked on removing the glue from the missing trim:  That's when we noticed that Ford sprayed the blue, then put the moulding & trim on, then sprayed the silver, so theres no paint under the moulding either. Flares!  We're getting rid of the awful OEM headlamp housings in favor of something more modern. I have a set of these on the 88, and paired with a set of LED bulbs, they work really well. Link to housings on Amazon  Both in, and grill finally installed!  We went full LED for the exterior lamps as well, so i had to add load resistors  And we opted for smoked taillamp housings to replace the red  and then finally, we put new moulding back on the body:
...which i think really cleans up the look of the truck   Monday the bronco goes in to the shop to get an exhaust system made, and then it gets dropped off to get a proper alignment, and inspection. If all goes well, we'll be driving it home by the end of the week! |
