Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[Gary Lewis]

Two more tools to report on. The first is the tool I mentioned to hold the pinion seal straight while pressing it in. You can't see but on the "inside" it's counterbored to be able to press on the metal of the seal while clearing the rubber. I couldn't just press it in with the nut because the ring and pinion would just turn. But I could snug the nut up to hold it straight and then tap a bit with a hammer, snug up the nut again and repeat until it went in.

Way back on June 14, 2 pages ago, I posted a picture of the 1' long plate I made to hold the yoke from turning as I used an impact wrench to pull the pinion nut off. That worked fine for that, and it was OK to torque the pinion nut just enough to get the right pinion preload without shims. But there's no way it was going to let me torque the pinion nut to 200 lb-in. And for that matter, there's no way my torque wrench was going to work either.

Luckily we have a 600 lb-ft torque wrench at work that I could borrow. It's about 4' long, so putting 200 lb-ft on with it only meant having to put about 50 lbs on it. But I needed a similar lever for my plate. So I drilled a couple holes to bolt a piece of 1" square tubing to it. That made 200 lb-ft pretty easy (pardon the disaster scene on my work bench).

Well done!!!!

I like the pattern, and I like that you stuck with it until it was "right". And I certainly like the tools.

[grumpin]

Well done!!!!

I like the pattern, and I like that you stuck with it until it was "right". And I certainly like the tools.

Nice work Bob!

[Nothing Special]

Nice work Bob!

Thanks!

This has reinforced my belief that this is one of those jobs that "if you have to ask if you can do it, then you can't." It's not rocket science, new people can definitely learn HOW to do it. But coming into it saying "I know I'll be able to do it. What do I need to learn in order to do it?" is a completely different thing than asking "can I do it?" You need the confidence in your abilities or you won't follow through. At least that was the case for me as I started into this project several times before, and until installing the OX a few years ago I always bailed and had a shop do it.

Also I still see the value in having a shop do this! It ain't cheap, but there's a reason for that! I'm really glad I did it myself and I have a lot of satisfaction in having done it. If I need gears set up again I may well choose to do it myself. But then again, maybe I'll take it in and save myself all of the time and effort. And i certainly won't fault anyone else who chooses not to fight through it themself.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks!

This has reinforced my belief that this is one of those jobs that "if you have to ask if you can do it, then you can't." It's not rocket science, new people can definitely learn HOW to do it. But coming into it saying "I know I'll be able to do it. What do I need to learn in order to do it?" is a completely different thing than asking "can I do it?" You need the confidence in your abilities or you won't follow through. At least that was the case for me as I started into this project several times before, and until installing the OX a few years ago I always bailed and had a shop do it.

Also I still see the value in having a shop do this! It ain't cheap, but there's a reason for that! I'm really glad I did it myself and I have a lot of satisfaction in having done it. If I need gears set up again I may well choose to do it myself. But then again, maybe I'll take it in and save myself all of the time and effort. And i certainly won't fault anyone else who chooses not to fight through it themself.

My thinking on doing it yourself vs hiring it done has changed over time. Early on, when I had all the time in the world, I felt like I am as smart as the people who do it for a living so I should be able to learn how to do it - whatever "it" is. But then I discovered that on some things experience and talent make a big difference. Body work for instance. There's an art to that and since I can't draw stick figures I'm not an artist and I hire it done.

And now, as my time has gotten more precious, the idea of hiring it done for other things has sounded better and better. So in the last few years I've had my engines, transmissions, and differentials built by others - although I did rebuild the t-case for Big Blue.

In other words, it depends.

[Nothing Special]

My thinking on doing it yourself vs hiring it done has changed over time. Early on, when I had all the time in the world, I felt like I am as smart as the people who do it for a living so I should be able to learn how to do it - whatever "it" is. But then I discovered that on some things experience and talent make a big difference. Body work for instance. There's an art to that and since I can't draw stick figures I'm not an artist and I hire it done.

And now, as my time has gotten more precious, the idea of hiring it done for other things has sounded better and better. So in the last few years I've had my engines, transmissions, and differentials built by others - although I did rebuild the t-case for Big Blue.

In other words, it depends.

About a week and a half since my last update. I haven't been able to work on it on weekends, and I'm not making enough progress on any given weeknight to seem worth an update. But after several weeknights it was time.

I was able to get the old ball joints out of the knuckles at home using a big whacky stick (aka hammer), but it didn't seem likely that I'd be able to get the new ones in without damage that way. So I brought the knuckles to work. I still ended up using a hammer, but with a well-fitting piece over the ball joint.

As I was carrying a bucket with both knuckles and all of the ball joints in one hand and the ~1/2" thick OX locker diff cover in the other hand I started rethinking my plan of putting all of that weight on the axle while it was easy to access on top of my work bench. Instead I lifted it down while it was still under 200 lbs.

I decided I'd paint it, install the axle in the Bronco and then put the knuckles on. Painting took a few nights as I had to let paint dry (I also worked a little on the cover for the shifter, but more on that after I have enough worth a report). So tonight I started with this...

... and a couple hours later ended up with this.

The radius arms are attached to the axle and the springs are in. I still need to hook up the track bar and the shocks, but otherwise the suspension is back together for the last time!

With the axle now held in position (but much harder to get at than when it was on my workbench) I finished installing the ball joints, putting the knuckles on the axle. No real trouble with that.

Since I'm putting F-150 parts on a Bronco I figured there was some risk of things not going together perfectly where Bronco meets F-150. It turns out that the tie rods are one place where that happens. The tapered studs on the Bronco tie rods are quite a bit smaller than the tapered holes in the F-150 knuckles. There are bushings available that let you put the Bronco tie rod into the F-150 knuckles. But my tie rod ends have been around quite a while, so I decided to go with a new "conversion" tie rod that has the F-150 ends on a Bronco-length tie rod.

I'm going to call and order that tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take too long to get here. If everything else goes well I might be about a week away from driving it!

[Gary Lewis]

About a week and a half since my last update. I haven't been able to work on it on weekends, and I'm not making enough progress on any given weeknight to seem worth an update. But after several weeknights it was time.

I was able to get the old ball joints out of the knuckles at home using a big whacky stick (aka hammer), but it didn't seem likely that I'd be able to get the new ones in without damage that way. So I brought the knuckles to work. I still ended up using a hammer, but with a well-fitting piece over the ball joint.

As I was carrying a bucket with both knuckles and all of the ball joints in one hand and the ~1/2" thick OX locker diff cover in the other hand I started rethinking my plan of putting all of that weight on the axle while it was easy to access on top of my work bench. Instead I lifted it down while it was still under 200 lbs.

I decided I'd paint it, install the axle in the Bronco and then put the knuckles on. Painting took a few nights as I had to let paint dry (I also worked a little on the cover for the shifter, but more on that after I have enough worth a report). So tonight I started with this...

... and a couple hours later ended up with this.

The radius arms are attached to the axle and the springs are in. I still need to hook up the track bar and the shocks, but otherwise the suspension is back together for the last time!

With the axle now held in position (but much harder to get at than when it was on my workbench) I finished installing the ball joints, putting the knuckles on the axle. No real trouble with that.

Since I'm putting F-150 parts on a Bronco I figured there was some risk of things not going together perfectly where Bronco meets F-150. It turns out that the tie rods are one place where that happens. The tapered studs on the Bronco tie rods are quite a bit smaller than the tapered holes in the F-150 knuckles. There are bushings available that let you put the Bronco tie rod into the F-150 knuckles. But my tie rod ends have been around quite a while, so I decided to go with a new "conversion" tie rod that has the F-150 ends on a Bronco-length tie rod.

I'm going to call and order that tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take too long to get here. If everything else goes well I might be about a week away from driving it!

Excellent! That is really good progress!

And I like the paint. That shiny OX cover looked a bit out of place, but it looks great now. And I like the idea of the larger tie rod ends. Or, at least larger stems. So now you can use stock F150 ends, which are quite common.

PROGRESS!!!!

[Nothing Special]

Excellent! That is really good progress!

And I like the paint. That shiny OX cover looked a bit out of place, but it looks great now. And I like the idea of the larger tie rod ends. Or, at least larger stems. So now you can use stock F150 ends, which are quite common.

PROGRESS!!!!

I'm definitely excited about the progress!

As to the OX locker cover appearance, under my Bronco it gets to be a pretty good fit pretty quickly with oil leaking on it and road dust coating it! But the reflective yellow letters were never my taste, so since I was painting the axle I figured I'd do the cover with it.

I hope I'm getting a boost in serviceability with the tie rod, but I'm afraid I might be taking a step backward. On the Bronco the driver's side "tie rod end" goes about 90% of the way across the vehicle. There really is no "tie rod", just an adjusting sleeve and then the passenger's side rod end.

The conversion piece has a tie rod with adjuster sleeves on both ends and shorter toe rod ends outboard of that. I'm hoping those are standard parts, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Nothing Special]

I'm definitely excited about the progress!

As to the OX locker cover appearance, under my Bronco it gets to be a pretty good fit pretty quickly with oil leaking on it and road dust coating it! But the reflective yellow letters were never my taste, so since I was painting the axle I figured I'd do the cover with it.

I hope I'm getting a boost in serviceability with the tie rod, but I'm afraid I might be taking a step backward. On the Bronco the driver's side "tie rod end" goes about 90% of the way across the vehicle. There really is no "tie rod", just an adjusting sleeve and then the passenger's side rod end.

The conversion piece has a tie rod with adjuster sleeves on both ends and shorter toe rod ends outboard of that. I'm hoping those are standard parts, but I don't know for sure.

... and on to plan B. The conversion tie rod is on back order. They hope to have them in a few weeks. I did order one, but in the meantime I'm also getting the bushings so I can throw it together with my old tie rod for now.

[Gary Lewis]

... and on to plan B. The conversion tie rod is on back order. They hope to have them in a few weeks. I did order one, but in the meantime I'm also getting the bushings so I can throw it together with my old tie rod for now.

That may be a better solution anyway.

[Nothing Special]

That may be a better solution anyway.

My old tie rod is worn enough that I want to replace it. That's why I back-ordered the conversion tie rod (it's the same price as ordering a new Bronco tie rod). But it will be more putzing around, and possibly an additional trip to the alignment shop.