grumpin

My 92 Bronco is a 5.8 and E4OD. I had an E4OD behind a 460. Never had them apart, no vibes or shaking. Because it was rebuilt the first thing that popped into my head was a bad lifter, sticky, stuck, collapsed. You would have heard it ticking if it was collapsed. Or a stuck valve. If it wasn’t shaking before the rebuild and is now, I would assume it’s the engine. Harmonic balancer as you mentioned. I may be off base, but what I thought of.

Gary, interesting, I didn’t know the ratios were different. Matt, I’m not having noise problems or rough rides with the BFG’s. Our Suburban is a lead sled and I noticed a big difference with the KO2’s on black ice.

I noticed my Bronco has the privacy glass option on my Marti report. I got one for the truck and Bronco. And that’s in the back side windows only I believe. Taller tires are great for what you’re doing off road. An old mechanic with a 4WD shop here in town was checking out a problem on my truck, the 88 F250, 7.3, ZF5 that I used to own. He wanted me to drive and see what it did. He asked why I was taking off in second, I said I always do, first is a crawler or granny gear. He recommended not doing that, said my clutch would appreciate it! And that he didn’t think the ZF had that tall of a first gear. Started using first gear unless I was pulling out and had to get going, then I would use second. Took some getting used to. I can’t speak for off road on the BFG’s, maybe Bob has used them. My son’s BMW has a 4 or 5 inch pretty dark strip across the top of his front windshield. At first I didn’t like it. Then when I drove at the right time of day, I thought it was nice. I didn’t tell him what I thought and asked if he liked it, and he said the same thing. Didn’t like it at first but really likes it now.

That tinting sounds neat. I would like something on the upper windshield. I run BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO2’s on my Bronco and Suburban. And will put them on my truck when the time comes. I like them in snow and ice, particularly on black ice. I have Cooper Discoverer AT3 on my Xterra because BFG doesn’t make KO2’s in that size. I like them better than the BFG Long Trails that I had on there before. They’ve done well in ice and snow.

Welcome!

Yup!

I was thinking parts truck, but people have done amazing things with a vehicle I would use for parts.

https://bend.craigslist.org/cto/d/la-pine-1986-ford-150/7434167730.html Good price.

I have that floor console in my Bronco, I like it. Those spacers as you call them are handy, and I’ve found some people toss them or lose them, I guard them pretty closely. I don’t use my armrests much. I feel when I get in traffic or more challenging parts of the road that they are in the way. But nice on long straights on longer trips. I do like that my truck has two, the Bronco only has the inside one. The Yeti travel mug doesn’t fit the truck or Bronco console holes too well, so my son got me the Stanley Admiral’s Mug for Christmas. I set it on the console or on the dash, working pretty good so far. https://www.stanley1913.com/products/adventure-tough-to-tip-admirals-mug-20-oz?variant=39681641119803

Dang! I like how that F350 looks!

Welcome!

Yes, on the back side of the 7-pin jack on the bumper. Just to make it easier if I ever have to replace that jack. Well, I bought one of those now! I have one on the way from Amazon but it hadn't arrived yet so I just toughed it out. Minor cramping, it was just the hood. I sure wouldn't want to do the whole truck without one! Just wet-sanded it to 600 grit, not because I care but for practice. Looks OK overall. I may pop over to Harbor Freight and grab a buffer and some compound, shine the hood up a bit. The big puzzle for today since I'm off from work is the door locks. Remember those slide locks I was dead set on using? Well I bit the bullet and cut the hole for them in the passenger side door. That's the side I have a more or less complete unit for. The previous owner had rigged up a clever way to keep the metal spring plate on the back: Just drilled holes in the gussets and small wire ties to hold it on. It looks ghetto but works pretty well actually. Unfortunately when I went to install them I discovered that my pushrod is probably bent. It doesn't sit in the right spot to connect to the slider and still work smoothly. I ordered two totally new units (Dennis Carpenter now has them in stock in red if you don't mind repainting them) and matching push rods but they aren't here yet so I may just try to re-bend it myself. It would be really nice to have at least ONE door "done". Speaking of doors, mine don't close all the way. I've tried both of the basic tricks (replacing the stud on the door jamb and adjusting it inward, and using that "bender" tool LMC sells) and they helped a little but not enough. I have a door hinge pin kit but hadn't tried to install it yet because naturally my hinge pins are swaged over on the ends, no easy to remove clips. Guess I have to drill them out? That seems to be what other Youtubers are doing... If I do my hinge pins again I’m looking into buying the whole hinge. I ended up adjusting the door anyway. Edit to add, IIRC, I cut the pins in half and worked them out. I had the door propped up and stabilized so it wouldn’t move too much.

Nice!

Close too!

Good idea Bob, and I tried it and didn’t have much luck heating them with water. Can’t remember exactly, but I think it cooled as I was trying to get it through. And I didn’t want to get the belt wet or take it back out because it would cool again by the time I got the belt back in. (Definition of insanity type thing!) And that could have just been me. So I tried the heat gun and it worked really well. I had dealt with heating plastic making my old KLR plastic look better.

https://bend.craigslist.org/cto/d/redmond-1970-ford-bronco/7433484484.html Pretty good price for an early Bronco to me.

No salt, but not much rain in this part of Oregon. We’re in a high desert. Much of Oregon east of the Cascades is “drier”. I live in Oregon’s City of Sunshine!

I got sleeves at JBG. Tied string to the belt end and heated the sleeve carefully with a heat gun. And pulled them through. Had to be very careful with the heat gun. Kept it pretty far away, doesn’t take too much heat to make them flexible enough to pass the belt through. https://shop.broncograveyard.com/Factory-Seat-Belts/products/1694/ Edit: They’re black but I didn’t paint them since they’re between the seat and floor console.

Yes that’s the one.

Just saw a 1982 Bronco on Mecum Auctions. 3500 miles on it. Sold for $80,000.00.

https://redding.craigslist.org/cto/d/redding-1982-ford-f100/7432507373.html Could use some more pictures. Not bad on the price these days.

Good idea for clarity Bruce.

This one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/233614141302 I've been getting a lot of parts on eBay lately. I just use the "Fits your Vehicle" search and buy whatever looks closest to what's on the truck. So far it seems to work OK with some caveats. First, you have to pay close attention to shipping because lots of parts are free but a few are just crazy, stuff like small $5 parts costing $15 to ship. But also I've noticed vendors don't always do a great job listing parts in the right categories. This was the right part number but it's only listed as fitting the Bronco. But it fit fine in mine. The same part is on Amazon for $70 which I thought was crazy, so I just searched for the same part number. It seems to work about 70% of the time. It was warm today and will be cold for the next week so I played a little hooky from work and got a ton of stuff done: 1. Windshield trim (mostly) reinstalled. Had trouble with two clips and couldn't find my trim-removal-tool to bend them the right way so I paused there. But it's close. 2. Antenna reinstalled on cowl. I THINK I screwed something up when removing this, the plug was very difficult to pull out of the bottom of the antenna and it looked like a raw-crimped connection, with shield braid kind of hanging out. But I couldn't find a replacement part for this and don't really listen to the radio that much anyway so I just pushed it back in and it seemed to seat OK. We'll see if it works at all. :) 3. Step bars installed. I went with the Westin kit and they look good, but I do wish the "step" portion extended about 6" further back but hey, better than nothing. The parts kit was super confusing, there were lots of unlabeled bolts with the same length and very close but NOT identical threads. It took some trial and error to figure out what went where. But it was definitely a no-drill installation. Not that that matters that much because... 4. Started installing the Torklift camper tie-downs. The old camper setup was tied right to the body panels via hooks bolted on there. I HATE that idea but also wanted something low-key for those times the camper wasn't in. The Torklift rang my bell here. This unfortunately IS a "drill the frame" type of installation and UPS rolled up with some of the above stuff as I was starting this, so I got distracted and didn't finish. :) 5. Transmission oil arrived. This time I got the right stuff, VP Classic 80W-90 GL-4 "for yellow metals". You can see below the old oil was black as night and there was definitely not 7 pints in there - more like 5. I found this task pretty stressful. I bought one of those "Slippery Pete" quart bottle pumps and definitely recommend any other product you can find. Just as the reviews say, the hose is too short and so is the pump stroke. But anyway I got the transmission refilled and closed up. 6. Painted the armrests. Since the "saddle" color isn't available anywhere, and apparently hasn't been for months, I bought the black ones from LMC. I actually did this a month ago and tried to paint them with the same paint I'd used on the dash - THAT was a mistake. It flaked off immediately. So I scrubbed all that off and this time I tried LMC's "adhesion promoter" and the saddle paint they sell from Coverlay just for this purpose. So far it seems to be adhering better though I haven't really rubbed on it yet (I'm giving it time to cure). 7. Got the radio bezel re-stickered. You may remember I'd done one already but I accidentally had the panel laser-cut not quite identically left-to-right - two slots have about a millimeter of offset. Also when I applied the sticker the first time I had a ton of air bubbles I couldn't get out. Well, it all worked out because I'd ordered five faceplates and ten stickers for experimentation (and to meet minimum order amounts) so I did another today from the correct side and with a spritz of water like they do for window tinting. Personally I think it looks great. Bear in mind this is still the prototype. I realized too late that I should have made the lettering white instead of clear, for example. But it looks so much better than the old cracked and scratched/faded one I had before. Really, the pic doesn't do it justice. 8. I need a new radiator. I had just enough time to replace my petcock but discovered I'd bought the wrong one (bought 1/4 NPT instead of 1/8 NPT as needed). But that's OK anyway because when I cleaned the whole area to prepare for the task I realized the leak is coming from the petcock weldment, not the petcock itself. So I guess I have to add a task to my board to replace that. Advice from the crowd on radiators? I have a lot of confidence in "performing" the task but can't make up my mind which actual radiator to BUY. In another thread (on this forum I believe) the Champion was recommended (https://www.championradiators.com/Ford-F-series-truck-radiator-1980-1984) but it's out of stock. Summit and Jegs both have options, and I could get both OEM and aftermarket options from Advance Auto Parts as well. What's the latest opinion on an "ideal" (but drop-in, no modifications needed) radiator for this early-80's era? On the radiator, I have a Champion 3 row in my truck. Fit well, easy install. So far I really like it. I prefer aluminum, I’ve had enough problems with the plastic and aluminum ones. Leaks at seams, and cracking and breaking. I’m doing less and less work on my vehicles, particularly in the winter. My Bronco is leaking and steaming at a seam. If it’s the original then it made it close to 30 years, so that’s darn good. I scheduled it today and asked the shop what they thought, he said he doesn’t remember any aluminum ones coming back. So I gave him the width and he ordered a 4 row (found out through a Marti report I just got that my Bronco has “Super Cooling”). It’s about $600 for the radiator but comes with a warranty. I think I paid around $300 for the 3 row Champion.

Good and interesting question. I was thinking about that too after I posted here. I assume when it gets warmed up the two mix better.

1. Yes, lubed by the diff oil. I was told to grease them when you replace them or are in there. My understanding is that it gives it lube until the diff oil lubes it. 2. Nothing separates it. It must mix, been working a long time.