1984 Bronco build thread

You are making good progress.  

How are you making your cables?  I found that with the number of cables I needed the best way was to make them myself.  So I bought a small hydraulic crimper and use very high quality terminals and adhesive-lined shrink tubing.  It works out really well as I get the cables just the length I need.

Love your new, high performance air filter!  😍❤️🌠🤯

Thanks Gary! Im making my own cables as well. For the big size 2/4 stuff I am using adhesive lined heat shrink and one of the "hit it with a hammer" type crimper tools. For anything 10 and down Im using a standard hand crimper/stripper combo. I think Ill be able to produce what I need, itll be a matter of figuring out what that is. Im considering a 12+ bus bar. Ive stayed away from that in the past for fear of grounding risk though.

Thanks Jim! I tell curious onlookers that the breather is how you can tell its a racing engine. LOL. Its made from a kn breather assembly, a factory oil cap, and a piece of hardware store rubber hose that happened to match the diameters up.

Looks like Bounty to me?

Maybe I'm not turning my head the right way??? 🤪

Ah yes, doody calls. I thought you meant the breather! I wouldn't want anything getting in there!

Hi guys. Its running! With new manotons (10.260") and a home made 0.250" aluminum spacer. Its also now running with a new pmgr starter, the original battery, and a holley mighty mite fuel pump. Miraculously, the new valve cover spacer doesnt seem to leak.

I was able to start it and get the base timing set to 14 degrees. There will be more tuning for idle and on road driving to follow. The tapping in the top end is gone now.

When I finally got the idle steady I noticed a slight clattering noise, then smoke coming from the bottom of the bell housing near the starter. I shut it off immediately, I suspect the starter didnt disengage. A friend is coming over this evening, we will troubleshoot the starter and examine the ring gear. It seems to be one thing after another here, but I suspect Im getting close to a drivable vehicle again. Ill keep you all posted.

On the spacer - I traced the outside of the valve cover first, and center punched the valve cover holes. Then I used the center punch marks to align a cork gasket on the aluminum. I did as much of the cutting as possible with a jig saw and a metal cutting blade but there were no less than 6-8 hours of work with a die grinder and bir bit to get it all right. My air compressor isnt nearly large enough to feed a die grinder continuously, someone with a much larger air compressor might have a faster go of it. Or a laser table for that matter.

I stacked the valve cover, rtv, cork, rtv, aluminum, rtv, cork on the bench and then bolted it to the head to cure. I made sure that the bottom cork gasket (free floating with no guide from the valve cover lip) was aligned with the gasket in the valve cover all the way around.

. .

Well done!  Bolting it to the head and letting it cure is a good idea. I will assure you that wet RTV will cause a gasket to find a way to slip out, one way or another.

Congratulations!!!

We used to use gorilla snot when we didn't want a gasket to budge..  

But I think all* of the Three Bond case sealants (Yamabond. Kawibond, whatever) is probably better today.

There's a kid up the street with a Mazda B2000 (Ford Courier) and he has a Weber progressive downdraft on it.

I thought of you and asked to take a picture.

Thanks Jim! I think those are really neat. I think they could be a really good fit for a stock or stock ish 300. Maybe even a 302 if not built to rev high.

If you wanted Weber downdrafts on a 302 meant to rev to the moon, you'd probably want an IR setup with IDA's or IDF's.

But this little carb on his 4-banger is easy to tune and makes that thing scoot!  😃

Hi guys! Its the starter. I didnt realize that the engagement Depth/throw is different on the auto vs manual.

Gary definitely has to make a notation.

I didn't think anybody failed to understand that.
I mean, why would they offer models specific to manual or auto?

I didnt realize that they made different models for autos and manuals. Now that I know, its obvious but I missed it.

I hope your ring gear is okay!  
It would be a big deal to have to pull the engine again.  

Hard to imagine they didn't ask you 'standard or automatic?' when you bought the darn thing...

The ring gear looks to be ok, as of now Im not too worried about that