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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! Ive been running around trying to get the '90 done, and havent posted any updates. So here's where we're at: I couldnt get the brakes to bleed, ended up having to replace the RABS module because it was seized  I had a code for EVP below minimum voltage   Which turned out to be a defective EGR- the nipple for the EVP to seat against wasnt in the EGR  New one installed, problem solved!  I redid the battery cables, so i could add an anderson plug for the remote-mount winch:   and then i finished off the interior, by adding a pair of Autometer gauges; oil pressure and trans temp   Built a standalone harness for the gauges that has one plug for power/illumination, and a second plug that goes to both sensors   Back when i was putting the accessory drive together i installed the Autometer oil pressure sensor on a Tee with the OEM sensor in the factory port  I thought i had a pic of the trans temp sensor, but apparently not. Its in the test port for the E4OD. Pic of it installed on the 96:  While i was in the interior, i pulled the cluster out so we could go full led:  ..and done!  This was the scene earlier in the week  ...when i started to wire up these!  KC's Cyclone V2 rock lights! I have wanted to put a set of rock lights in for years and never got around to it. Im glad i waited as long as i did though, because this kit is awesome. It comes packed with 6 lights:  Up close, theyre nice pieces:
It comes with a pretty nice install kit too: Amongst some of the hardware are these M8 button heads to hold the lights in place. I elected to use rivnuts instead of the lock nuts, to make the install easier:
Up front, im just outside the core support body mount:  In the middle, Im on this body support just outside the frame. Im not thrilled with the way its mounted, but it puts the light where i need it  And then for the rear, im in the rearmost body structure, just behind and outboard of the shackle hangar:  As for the wiring, i only used part of their kit. The wiring itself is nice, but a bit short for a fullsize rig. Would work fine for a short wheelbase rig like a jeep or zuk. Anyways, i was able to use their harnesses for 5 of the 6 lights, and then i ran my own wires for the 6th since it was too far away. I did use their fuse holder though. I kind of liked the idea of having a separate fuse for each of them just in case i damage one, and it simplified the wiring under the hood:  They want you to power this directly from a switch in the dash, but i had a spare relay in the aux fuse box i added under the hood, so i used that to power everything  Conveniently, i also already had a spare set of wires run to the dash to trigger said relay, so it was just a matter of adding another switch to the dash, and connecting the existing wires   That stuff is boring though, lets see how they look!    Im diggin it! Its kinda funny how the taper of the rear bumper causes it to cast that hourglass shape out back, but theres nothing i can do about that. I think this is gonna work out great, i guess we'll find out next time we're on the trail after dark! |
