Rembrant

Nice Flareside!

LOL Shaun. A tip of the hat for being honest. I am sort of indifferent on the topic, but if I had to pick, I'd probably be with Shaun. I wish I could help Gary, but as it is I have to dig deep into my own willpower to keep civil on Facebook, and, well, I don't even have a Bullnose these days haha. I'm still on a few of the Bullnose pages on FB, but I deleted any of them that were public. I try to avoid public pages...personal pet peeve is all. You almost need to ask for admins ON Facebook Gary...that's where you'll find the highest concentration of people willing to do it.

Oh yes, 100% on the break in, I agree. Maybe I'll do a new gear set someday, but as it was this job was pretty easy the way I did it. By the way, I did do this one on the bench...the whole axle is up there now. Problem is, since I brought each part to the bench individually, the whole thing is now too heavy for me to lift off by myself haha. This is how I roll.

Ya, exactly. Only tool I actually had to buy to do this job was the inch pounds arm style torque wrench for checking the pinion bearing preload. I have a couple inch pound wrenches already, but they're the click style. I have hydraulic presses and bearing puller kits at work, so that's were I did the work on the carrier and pinion shaft. I know you probably don't need any advice lol, but my pro tip(s) would be to always grease the bearing races and the holes you're pressing them into and they'll go in (and on) much better. I also put a very thin coating of gasket maker on the outside (metal part) of the pinion seal and axle seals. They probably don't need it, but I do it anyway, and it makes them a little easier to install. The grease makes bearings go in so much easier than doing them dry. Other than that, lots of patience as you said haha. Keep all the old bearing races for pressing in the new bearing races;).

Hey Jim, I re-used the old gears, and they actually looked to be in really nice condition. The spider gears show a little wear, but the ring and pinion almost looked like they were just unwrapped. I bought this rearend from a Junkyard and had it shipped out east. It was the specific one I needed with the gears I wanted, and it was listed as being a low mileage unit with under 100k on it. I had intended to just throw it under the truck as it arrived. After moving it around a few times, I noticed the pinion was sticky and notchy to turn by hand. It wasn't loose, but it wasn't smooth either. When I pulled the diff cover I found out why. It was full of rust and dirt. Where it came from and how it got so dirty I have no idea. Here's a picture of the inside of the pinion seal as pulled, and the inside of the housing showing all the dirt/rust. Most of it wiped away. The axle tubes were actually pretty clean, with just a small patch of rust closer to the wheel end of one tube. The axle vent was plugged solid, but the tube had only a little 1/16" orifice inside it which I found odd. Anyway, I don't know if the vehicle had been in a flood of dirty water or otherwise submerged, or something else. I've opened up some pretty old diffs before and never found dirt and debris like what was in this one, and this one is only a 2001 so it's not that old, but it was in a junkyard and maybe it has been laying outside for 20 years, who knows. Once I got everything cleaned up, I decided to reassemble it with all of the same shims in the same locations, and that worked out pretty well I must say. The pattern in the paint was not 100% perfect, but then again the gears were not new either. In any case, the pattern was still very good. According to the Ford manual, backlash can be between 0.008" and 0.015" (with 0.012" to 0.015" preferred), and all reassembled it measured at about 0.0135", so I thought it wasn't worth messing with. Pinion bearing preload for new bearings was between 16-29 in/lbs, and I got it set to 25. I was worried that if I tried to push the power bar one more time that I'd go over 29, so I left that alone too. That crush sleeve takes a lot of force, so I wasn't going to be too precise with it haha. Anyway, it all worked for now. Ask me again when I finally get the truck on the road!

Oh it's not so bad once you get into it. I've spent a lot of time working with cup/cone style bearings in with my work, so that part was straight forward for me. We'll see how it does when it's finally on the road haha, that will be the real test!

Oh ya, I'll check it for sure. I'm just hoping I can leave it alone and not get into redoing all that set up. Even if it was not perfect, we're talking about a truck that will likely only see a 1000-2000 miles per year, so it's not like a daily driver or anything. Took me a little while to get to it, but I rebuilt the 8.8 differential for my truck. It was my first time doing anything more than a gear oil change, or a complete rearend swap out. I bought a complete kit with all new bearings and seals, and it went pretty well. I re-used the original 3.55 gear set, so I took the chance that I could also re-use all the factory shims in their original set up locations, and it worked out well. I got the pinion bearing pre-load almost perfect, and the backlash ended up being almost bang on also at 0.0135". I painted the gears to check the mesh pattern just for kicks, and while it wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad either. It was good enough for this old truck;). Now to get it installed under the rear of the truck, and to get some brake parts on order.

Good day gents, I'm getting ready to rebuild my 8.8 differential with new bearings and seals all over. The pinion and ring gear seem to be in pretty nice condition. There was some slop in the spider gears...and I don't know how to describe it other than the two drive gears can move up and down a little bit on the cross pin. Does that make sense? Is this normal? I don't see any measurement specs in the factory service manual.

I have an unusual obsession with OEM bolts and nuts, or bolts that appear to be OEM. The hardest thing to find in the aftermarket is flanged hex head bolts like the manufacturers use...or to be even more specific, "dished head" flanged hex head bolts, like the Germans use on Volkswagens, etc. I used to really annoy a few of the guys at the local dealers because I was always looking for OEM bolts, and I'd pay $10 for a factory bolt that was free issue in the bolt bin just 10 feet away lol. I only really care if it can be easily seen. A lower shock bolt under the car or truck, I don't care what it is. A personal pet peeve of mine is the water pump bolts on a small block Ford. They're always seized and snap off in the water pump or timing cover (or even worse, in the block) and you just can't find those original looking bolts anywhere. As for finding them...good luck. The parts guys at the dealers seem to have a 10 year limit. They HATE looking up bolts anyway, but anything over 10 years old and you'll usually get an eye roll and a big sigh like you just ruined their whole day by asking them to look it up...lol. I get it though...most people probably won't pay $10 for a bolt, but some will. In my line of work (Industrial) we often quote customers $50, $60, even $70 for a single O-ring haha, and sometimes they lose their minds and freak out, but there's just as many people will pay the price and buy them too.

Nice find.

Hahaha. A good majority of people won't even pay that much for a whole truck!

That would be a 1992-1996, but I can't narrow it down any more than that;). They're the trucks that most people associate with the term Flareside since they actually had the name Flareside right on the fender;).

Interesting. It looks like it has the TOD 4spd w/OD. I thought that was a 2wd only transmission. I don't think I have seen one in a 4x4 Bullnose before. Don't see plain Broncos very often...300/6 with manual trans and rubber floor covering. I know it has AC and all, so it's not a complete bare bones truck, but it's definitely a fairly base model. I'd rock it!

Ha! I was thinking as I typed that...I was pretty sure the 73-79 were also the same, but I couldn't remember if that was 100% true or not, so I stuck with 1980-1996.

I'd say either dirt and debris in the flare, or the flare itself is somehow buggered up. Probably need a new line, but pull it out and inspect, and clean the hole in the steering box with a Q-tip and inspect in there, make sure there's nothing in the way preventing it from sealing. Shouldn't need anything to seal the threads, the fitting is not meant to seal on the threads.

There was a member on here that was offering this very service of upgrading the old factory radios, but he hasn't been active on the forum since September. Here's the original thread below...you could click on his name and send him an email and see if he's still doing this. He may very well be, even though he's not on here. I believe he's in Louisiana. https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Factory-Radio-restoration-and-Modification-by-Nick-td67749.html Otherwise, and this may not be much help, but I did come across a guy (on FB) last year in western Canada that was doing this same service of upgrading old OE radios by adding Bluetooth and Aux out ports, etc. I think this is a link to him here: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/753980135774559/

Yes sir, sure will. I believe the opening is the same from 1980-1996. There were lots of different rear windows both factory and aftermarket. The factory rear sliders are the nicest imho.

I cut the hole in the side of the tunnel in my 1980 for the M5OD and the 1356. One, I didn't have the original case and controls, and two, I didn't mind zip-cutting the floor in this truck as it wasn't s how winner anyway lol! One downside to the location of that transfer case shifter being that far left...at least in the north, is that the screw holes filled up with salt from shoes/boots/floor and rusted to pieces...which made them extremely difficult to remove lol.

I have a Dremel kit and a couple of bit kits, and man I love that thing. I don't use it every day or anything, but it sure is nice when you do need it. Just last weekend I pulled it out to grind/clean out the internal snap ring grooves on a driveshaft, slip joke, and diff flange and it worked perfectly. I used a disk to clean the rust out of the grooves, then a wire wheel to finish cleaning, and then used a sanding drum to grind off a couple burrs inside the holes where the joints press into place. By the way, the chuck has been sticking on the Dremel for years, I just loosen it, and give it a little tap with a screwdriver handle and it loosens right up.

Oh ya, I'll check it for sure. I'm just hoping I can leave it alone and not get into redoing all that set up. Even if it was not perfect, we're talking about a truck that will likely only see a 1000-2000 miles per year, so it's not like a daily driver or anything.

Well done Ron!! So does this mean that the Bullnose will be going for sale at some point? You're now sort of without a project...

No, it does not. The engine is offset to the passenger side by 1.625", so the fan will have some more room depending on where I place it. Things have been moving VERY slow with this project, although I now have some of the big jobs taken care of. Today I finally swapped in the Explorer 8.8 disk brake rear diff. I wanted the new spring pads to be bang on as they say, so I made up a little jig and squared it all up on the old spring pads on the 70 year old Dana rear end. I then used this jig to place the new spring pads on the 8.8 diff, and it worked out great. The "new" 8.8 popped right in place. Old 1952 Dana diff making the jig... Lining up the spring pads with the jig on my "new" 8.8... Spring pads tacked in all four corners for test fitment under truck: That part worked out great. With the diff installed under the truck, I can now swing the shocks back into approximate location, and weld new lower shock mounts on to the axle. I'll tack them under the truck and then pull the whole thing back out to properly weld it all later. In any case, the 8.8 fits pretty well. It raised the truck by only 1/8" all together, but it doesn't matter as I do intend to lower it a little bit later on. I also added 1.25" adapter spacers on each side...one to convert from the 4.5 bolt pattern to the truck 5.5 bolt pattern, and to "correct" the overall width. All done and swapped in with the wheel spacers the new 8.8 is only 1/2" wider overall, so only a 1/4" extra on each side which is nothing. I have a factory Explorer swaybar to go with it, so I'll be installing that later on to stiffen things up. Poor old truck is covered in dust and not moving. It wasn't bothering me much (to not be driving it) with gas hovering at $8/gallon here, but I am missing it now. I wish it was on the road. Oh well, I'll get there. That was all the good news... There is bad news...lol. I bought this diff last year from a junkyard 800 miles away. It sat in storage at my work all winter, and I only just unwrapped it this spring. I went to turn the pinion a couple times and it was really sticky and notchy feeling. I pulled the diff cover, and it was full of rust inside....frown!! I don't know if it came out of the axle tubes or if it was sitting in a puddle in the bottom of the pumpkin and got thrown all around with me moving the diff everywhere (or in shipping), but it's in the bearings and gears everywhere. I'll have to pull it all apart and clean it up and swap in new bearings and seals, etc. I was hoping...and you guys can correct me if this is crazy, but I wanted to disassemble and install new bearings and seals, and put it all back together as it is. I shouldn't have to re-shim anything if I don't change the gears, right? I'll install a new crush sleeve for the pinion bearings, etc...but hoping I can kind of leave everything else alone. Thoughts or comments appreciated;). That's it folks. Enjoy the long weekend. Happy Canada Day here...July 1st (Used to be Dominion Day). Happy July 4th to the majority of you. Hope you have a nice long weekend with family and friends. Cheers, Rem

Oh nice, much higher res pic too.

Another picture found on Facebook. May have been posted here previously, I'm not sure. See if you can determine what year this is;).

I like it, or as Mrs. Rembrant would say "Hundred Percent!".