1984 Bronco build thread

Do you have an idle stepup dashpot or solenoid in your Bronco that you use while winching?

If your truck has A/C perhaps you can install a manual override?
Just switched power and a diode so you can activate it without backfeeding the compressor clutch.


Second observation....
I'm coming from a front leaf spring truck and on 250-350's the front frame rails are boxed for the shackles.

If you had plated the frame horns first, none of that telescoping cross piece would be necessary.
A flange on each end would allow it to slip right in and bolt in place.

If you didn't trust tapping just the plate, you could tack them in place, mount, drill clearance, bolt everything together and weld nuts on the inside.
Then unbolt the crossmember/receiver and plate the frame flush to the inside.

This is only my perspective in knowing the frame would be stronger if the lips of the stamping were tied together, and having it removable might be advantageous in the future.

You might have a look at Gary's RSK thread.
He shows how the SKY kit uses standoffs and bolts entirely through the front of the frame.
But I think the receiver is small enough that you would have room for a bolt flange (maybe not entirely square, but more than enough to do what you're doing)

Anyway, that is a great write-up, and it's cool that the Bronco is -quite literally- pulling its own weight!  

Thanks for the updates.

Good to hear about the Red Line MT-90 in the NP435 as I want to do the same as I also have issues at times, when cold mostly, down shifting into 3rd and hope the RL will help.

On the front winch back in the day there was a rear plate assy. that was hinged to get to the gas filler.
My 70 AMC Javelin has one. You could mount it upside down on the front and the plate would protect the opening and hide it then when you needed to mount the winch flip it up and install the winch.
My first work truck, big rig, had a plate bracket you could flip up to give a place to put your foot for opening the flip up hood.
I guess a hinge bracket thing would do the same thing.
Dave ----

The stay up the center of the radiator support probably needs something before the hood release starts having issues.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

The stay up the center of the radiator support probably needs something before the hood release starts having issues.

IIRC it is a little different shape on the later trucks to clear the AC condenser.
On the early truck using a replacement condenser, the only one we can get is the later ones, you need to space that part of the hood latch and the lower condenser out about 1/4" IIRC.

Don't know if that will work for you or not?
Dave ----

Well, he's obviously got it cut clean in half right now....

So I would say it needs fixing (somehow) before it puts a hole in his radiator.

Yes that is dose
Dave ----

Gary,

Thanks!

 

Jim,

I agree that there are some serious benefits to boxing the front of the frame and then mounting the front receiver in the way you described. I wasn’t comfortable welding on the frame at the time because I know very little about what it takes to do that right. Im positive that the frame would be stronger that way as well. In the bright side I can fully remove everything Ive don’t (with some elbow grease and a die grinder) if need be.

 

To the dashpot/solenoid – I don’t have either. Just a curb idle control screw. Im fairly certain that the truck isn’t truly overheating because the water temp gauge in the dash shows the same temp as normal after the bronco dies and most of the temperatures in the engine bay didn’t change before and after dying. It might be that a greater degree of circulation from the fan would clear hot air from the engine bay more effectively though! I don’t have AC either.

 

Dave,

Im really pleased with the redline. I suppose I wouldn’t know good from bad either way though. I haven’t experienced any trouble with shifting when its colder out, but then again temps below about 20F are really unusual down here in central Ga.  Ive thought about some kind of hinging assembly for a vanity plate but since the winch hasn’t come off since I mounted it, that’s near the bottom of the list for Now!

 

Dave and Jim,

As for the support in front of the radiator, it definitely needs to be resecured. My intention has been to bend a bracket, weld it onto the existing bracket where it was cut, then bolt it to the top of the receiver. That would allow it to be taken apart later if need be.

---------
The bronco is my daily driver this week because I left my other vehicle with family to go to a family owned tire shop a few towns over. Wouldn’t you know that this is the week that my broncos electric choke has decided to act up. It’s the factory (and potentially original) electric/hot air choke on a 2150 that I believe is from 1978. The hot air passage is closed off because I didn’t have a hot air supply for it and the choke cap is connected to the alternator stator. It has always worked correctly in the past other than needing to blip the throttle to get it off the high idle step, it wouldn’t come down on its own. Now it will catch on the high idle step when the engine is hot while driving down the road any time you apply throttle. Putting the transmission in neutral and blipping the throttle will get it off of the high idle step again, but that’s not going to work long term. My work around to get to work today was to zip tie the choke in the open position after it warmed up at idle :/ no good at all, but it was my ride to work. I haven’t had any time to trouble shoot it yet, it just cropped up this morning. I do know for sure that it was back on the high idle step.

 

I see 3 options, with pros and cons. Id appreciate any input or words of wisdom.

1) Buy a new motorcraft E-choke cap, install it with no hot air and plug it into the wire from the stator. This would be the easiest, and is fairly likely to work at least as well as before, but may not be capable of getting the choke off of the high idle step. This is how the old one performed. Any ideas on how well the combo hot air/electric chokes can work without hot air?

2)Fit a holley electric choke cap to the carb. As I understand it this is not difficult to do mechanically, but I would need to find a good 12V power source for it. Preferably one that’s only hot while the engine is running, but “key in on position” power would be ok too.

3) Manual choke. It seems to be cheap, fast, reliable and easy. I just hate to give up the utility of a properly working electric choke.
 

Any and all opinions are welcome! If I go the holley or manual choke route I may try to get it done tonight. I suspect that a motorcraft E- choke will have to come through the mail. Thanks for reading!

 

You might check warehouse inventory through your local auto parts....
They might get it in the afternoon.

Amazon Prime would have it to you tomorrow (in my case)
If you could deal with getting to work, and have it dropped there, or at a close locker, you are three screws and a bullet away from swapping it out in the parking lot.

I suggested the AC throttle kicker, because if you had one installed, hot wiring it would cover for the lack of choke until a new one was installed.

A few months ago I might have said avoid the manual choke... But I've got mine working well now(just wasn't set up correctly) and down here in the south we hardly need it much. By the time you've left your driveway your truck is warmed up!

Jim,

Im sorry to say that I don’t understand the part about the ac throttle kicker compensating for the busted choke.

It sounds like your vote is for using a motorcraft choke? It certainly doesn’t get any simpler than putting on a new motorcraft choke. It occurred to me a few minutes ago that I haven’t actually verified that I have 7V at the choke. There could be some kind of internal failure in that wire.

Rigging my choke with zip ties is something I don’t mind doing for a few days if that’s what it takes to get the right parts in. my only reservation about going with another motorcraft choke is that I don’t know how well I should expect it to work without the hot air. One simple answer is – “at least as good as before”.

Thanks for your help!

Rob,
Did you drill a new hole in the firewall for the choke cable, or use the one from the computer wiring harness? Do you recall which kit you used or does it really not matter? Any words of wisdom incase I go that route? Thanks!

I'm a fan of the stator operated choke because it assures the engine is turning for the choke to warm up, while eliminating any relay complexity (and a ground for the 12V cap!)
You might try finding one for a truck without a choke stove -like mine-
I have no idea if they are made with different operating rates or resistance, but the one in my 4180 worked fine, and it never came with hot air.

I suggested a kicker while winching.
I don't know any PTO or electric/hydraulic truck that doesn't have an idle step up.
This is a stock Ford part for any AC equipped truck, so it might be worth a look if you go to junkyards, like I do.

Kicking it up a notch would get the transfer ports flowing.
While that wouldn't eliminate 'lean while cold' it would help keep it from dying.
The best way to warm an engine is to drive it.🙂


So, when you attach the winch you have to go under the bumper to install the receiver pin?
And please don't take my critique of your mount the wrong way.
I'm the first to note that we do what we are comfortable with.

General Update –

Once I got off from work and did some troubleshooting I found that there was an internal failure in the choke wire. I had voltage at the last butt splice, but no voltage at the blade for the choke. I found a pigtail in the pile of wires from my EEC-IV stuff, spliced it in, and everything worked as anticipated for the rest of the evening as well as a proper cold start and warm up this morning on the way to work. However, about half way to work I shifted gears and while the clutch was thrown the engine shot up to 2200 rpm idle speed. I pulled over, zip tied the clutch open again and finished the drive to work.


When I get home Ill figure out if the new wire is shot. If it is, Im not sure what to think. Alternator trouble? It’s a 3g from autozone but I cant remember at the moment if it is a motorcraft core or a “full autozone special”. Either way I know I have  lifetime warranty on it.
 

If the wire isn’t shot, maybe I need to make some adjustments to the choke mechanism/linkages? On a side not, it often gets caught on the second idle step in cooler weather causing the engine to idle around 1100. So adjustment is probably necessary anyways.


If I cant get any of this to work or make sense, Ill be pretty close to putting on a manual choke and being done with it. Yet again, I haven’t had a chance to do my own homework yet because it happened on the way to work..


Jim,

I like your idea about an AC kicker, Ill have to look into that. As for the write up – dont worry! That’s not how I took it at all. One of the main reasons I wanted to be involved with this forum over all of the other ford/bronco related forums is that I consistently saw polite, professional, helpful conjecture and suggestions from users on this forum. It works better if everyone puts their best foot forward with ideas on how to fix or improve things. As I see it, that’s exactly what you did! And your ideas/points are extremely valid. Now I have some good ideas to chew on if I ever do another front receiver, especially on a ¾ ton. Nothing you said came across as critical or condescending. Thanks!

Ps- I do have to reach under the bumper to put the pin through the hitch. Its easier to lay down to do it. Its a bit of a pain, but if thats the cost of having it all close to the bumperand tidy, its alright with me.

If the alternator is working you should have power at the stator output, which is what feeds the choke.  So I'd be surprised if it is the alternator when you were just working on the wire.  Perhaps the wire came off?

I'd spend the time to get the choke sorted rather than going manual.  You should be so close to getting it done.

And I'm thrilled that you see this forum as having "polite, professional, helpful conjecture and suggestions".  That's what we are striving for.  

Sorry, I've not got much advice as I only bought a cable for my already manual choke carb. I used one of the grommets on the far driver's side of the firewall. The computer harness grommet would be a good place too though.

It seems that you're close to getting it fixed though, good luck.

After a good bit of looking, reading and thinking here is where Ive come to –

1) Propper calibration instructions for my “application” don’t exist because my application is completely non-stock. I can follow the order of operations for setting my choke but will have to fiddle with the measurements.
2) Steps for calibrating the choke mechanism on a 2150 are harder to find than you would think.
3) I believe that I more – or – less correctly set my choke up last winter after installing the carb
4) I don’t think my electric choke cap is doing it job completely. Yesterday on my drive home from work (30 miles, 78F amb) the choke opened fully, I was off the high idle cam. Upon arriving at home I checked and I do have 7v at the choke cap. This morning the ambient was around 50F. I let the truck idle up to the high idle point before leaving home. It kicked down from the high idle step to the second idle step (about 1100rpm as set) and refused to completely open for the whole 30 miles to work. I now believe that at lower ambient temps my thermostat coil “isn’t up to the task” of opening the choke. Perhaps the springs tension has deteriorated over time, perhaps cold air is getting inside the housing (hence the dependency on ambient temperature). I think the right thing to do here is to buy a new choke cap and a new choke housing (the aluminum pot metal part). I have a busted off ear on the housing that may be allowing cold air to leak in chilling the coil. It would be neat to find a choke housing that was not intended to use hot air, a purely “electric choke” housing.
 

I do have a few questions. In all of my reading, I learned that ford apparently used multiple types of electric choke caps based on if the choke uses hot air or not. Apparently there were single heating element choke caps for combo electric/hot air chokes as well as dual heating element chokes for electric only chokes. In the purely electric chokes, as I understand it, one of the heating elements stayed on whenever the engine was running and the other was turned on and off by various signals intended to indicate that the engine was warm.

 

So, which one do I need? I don’t have any kind of signal to control the second heating element in a dual element choke.  I also haven’t seen anything that visually appears to be a dual heating element choke. With that in mind, I suppose I need a single element choke. Within that category – and recommendations on part numbers? Im probably overthinking this, but my concern is that Im asking a choke cap that is not intended to operate the choke alone to do all of the leg work of opening the choke. The part numbers on my existing choke cap are as follows

 

Motorcraft

4AB5

4B14A

AA

2KT7-4

 

I can figure out how to find that part, or cross reference it to an aftermarket part number. More than anything, Im just looking for input about if Im thinking about this the right way.

 

As always, thanks for reading!

 

If you had hot air, -electric assist- and haven't capped off the inlet that used to go to the choke stove then you have ambient air getting sucked over the choke coil all the time.

So, IDK if any 2150's came without hot air, but it is important to plug/cap that connection if you can't find a housing without it.

I will say that the choke that came on my 4180 was stator current only.
If you look up a choke cap for an '86-'87 460 over 8,500 gvw it will be what you want.

Let me check...

In the documentation here:. http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/holley-4180c.html

I get E5PZ-9J554-A
which is Motorcraft CM-4442

NLA but there are some NOS on eBay for under $20 delivered.

You might try your own search.
I didn't turn over every stone.

Hi everyone!
I know its been a while, the bronco threw me a curve ball and I had to take some time to work through that. Ive known since I bought it that the rear axle pinion seal leaks, and that the pinion seemed loose. I also had a known vibration issue at 55mph. I had been intending to rebuild the rear end or swap in an axle, but all of this got much worse on a trip in mid-April so I decided to park the bronco ad get it squared away.

I toyed with the idea of finding and building a 9” but decided to keep my 8.8. from what I can tell, the 9” is much more buildable with much more aftermarket support and you can build a 9” into basically whatever you want. However, in stock or near stock form I wasn’t convinced that there was a large strength benefit to be had by going to the 9”. The 9” is a little heavier. Good enough aftermarket exists for building an 8.8 into a very tough and capable axle for a light truck (limited slips, lockers, c-clip eliminators, tons of ring and pinion sets, aftermarket 31,33, and 35 spline axles and diffs, disk brakes, and oodles of axles lying around in the JY). So with my motto of “let half tons be half tons” I decided to keep my 8.8. I don’t regret that now.

I elected to replace my stock open carrier with a Detroit truetrac Limited slip. I wanted to stay away from clutch packs and anything that cost more than a grand. I also considered the EATON Elocker but it has a very poor reputation for durability in this axles. The truetrac took a little bit of doing because EATON doesn’t specify a truetrac for the 83-86 8.8. the 83-86 8.8 has a ¾” cross pin while later versions of the axle have a 7/8” cross pin. To make a long story short – the carrier fits as intended into the 83-86 axle but you will need a fairly special custom axles spacer to make it work. To make a long story long, Please see the write up in the axle section of this forum.

I have about 300 miles on the new gears now and its been uneventful which is great. The axle never developed excessive heat during the first few break in steps and hasn’t done anything “funny” or concerning since. I did feel the limited slip kick in for the first time yesterday when pulling out of a loose gravel lot onto a paved highway. One wheel thought about throwing some loose gravel but the diff caught. It was neat. While its not a full locker by any means Ive seen these work in mud (which is most of the reason for wanting a non-open rear diff down here) and its impressive. I did still have some shake at 55mph. A friend recommended I inspect my double cardan on the rear shaft. It was completely loose and had no stiffness at all. I finished up the rebuild on that last night and the shake at 55 seems to be gone. Once I get to 500 miles on the new gears Ill change the fluid and move on to the next thing.

As for the problems I was having before – I haven’t experienced the problem where the Bronco dies during long periods of winching. Then again, I haven’t done any winching. This is still a top priority for me. On the choke, Im a little embarrassed to admit that I put on a manual choke. I looked at it and decided that it didn’t require me to butcher or damage anything and that it would get me a functioning choke for $10 and one hour. I very well may dive back into getting the electric choke working properly when more time and cash frees up.

My next priorities on the bronco that Id like to address some time this summer are to get new door and window seals (including the rear glass) installed to seal the bronco in from rain, and then to strip everything out of the interior so I can buff down and repaint the tub. I know I have some rust in the bed area, and I haven’t seen what is under the front floorboards yet. What Ive seen so far is still solid enough to be reparable but I don’t want to put this off until I cant fix it any more. I will be likely to put in a new vinyl floor kit for the front half when I do this job as my factory flooring is showing is age.

Does anyone have ideas or recommendations on paint for the tub and floorboards? In the front of the vehicle it will be under vinyl so abrasion resistance and color don’t matter. In the bed, I probably wont roll in new vinyl because I fear it will hold water. Ill continue to use my black rubber bed mat. In that area, the paint will be visible in some places and being tough is a little more important.  I want to stay away from anything textured like bed liner so it can be washed. I have some research to do on the paint for sure!

As always, Thanks for reading and any suggestions. – John.

I'm with ya on trying to make the electric choke work.  I have all the parts, just waiting for the spirit to move me.   Gotta have time and my mind right.  

John - Glad the Truetrac is working so well.  The one in Big Blue kicks in at just the right time in many cases.  For instance, on the recent ~250 miles of awful washboard gravel roads with mud and running water over the road I'm sure it got us through many places w/o issue.  However, watch out for corners on wet pavement as sometimes it'll kick in and send you sideways.

Obviously your rebuild and the modifications worked out well.  Congrats!  

As for stalling while you are winching, have you considered a 2nd battery?  Ford made an aux battery holder and that's what I have in Big Blue.  I winch off that battery, and have a Cole Hersee Smart Isolator that ties the two together when they are above 13.4 volts, so if I pull the aux battery down the truck doesn't stall.

On the paint, I've used POR15 on the floors to kill the rust and seal them.  It works well for that, but won't work for where you have exposed areas as it isn't UV stable.  However, you can coat it with other paint while the POR15 is tacky, so you could paint the rear with it and then spray in a matching color.