Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[grumpin]

Not really a project update, but we did get an "opportunity" to use the Bronco harder than normal. With my pickup in the exhaust shop for a new catalytic converter (story in the "what have you done..." thread) we needed alternate transportation to the cabin for the weekend. We can't get the two of us, our dogs and stuff for a weekend in my wife's Jeep Renegade, and it can't tow my trailer, so the Bronco got the nod. With nice weather we even put the top down for the 80 mile drive.

It's nice having a "toy car" that I've got the confidence in to take a trip like this with about 2 hours notice and no time for any vehicle prep. All I did was check some of the fluids, put the top down and hook up the trailer.

We drove a little slow, but only because it made the drive more pleasant, not because the Bronco can't keep up with 70 mph freeway traffic. And as we got closer we got off on the county roads rather than staying on the highway for the same reason.

I was able to rearrange enough stuff in the garage at the cabin to fit it in there, so I didn't need to put the top up. So we had a nice drive into town for dinner on Saturday. It was a bit cool today, but still sunny, so we left the top down to drive home, but did roll up the front windows.

And speaking of windows, I forgot the side curtains (the "rear windows") at the cabin. We're in enough of a drought that it probably won't be a problem.

Oh, and to finish up (I hope) my health saga of the summer, last Monday they removed the kidney stent that was put in on June 11 (above). Having that in was a pain, literally and figuratively, the entire six+ weeks. But it's out now and hopefully all that's left is to get back in shape after being pretty sedentary the last 2 1/2 months or so. I go back in for a follow-up in about 3 months. Hopefully there won't be anything more needed after that.

Sounds like great news and good fun in the Bronco!

[Nothing Special]

Sounds like great news and good fun in the Bronco!

I posted this as a quiz in the "what have you done..." thread (congratulations Dave aka FuzzFace2!), but I wanted it captured here as well.

I just got the personalized plates I ordered 2 months ago. I couldn't get my first or second choice spellings (apparently this plate is somewhat popular in Minnesota), so what I ended up with was this:

(For those who miss the reference, there's a context clue hanging from the rear view mirror.)

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n102805/E_TCKET.jpg

For those who still miss the reference, back in the day Disneyland and Walt Disney World let you into the parks cheaper, but then you needed tickets to get on the rides. In order to spread people out rather than having everyone in line for the most popular rides, the tickets came in books with a certain number of "A" tickets, some "B" tickets, on up to the "E" tickets. The lower letters were for the less popular / less fun rides while the higher letters were for the better rides with the "E" tickets being for the best rides!

As a kid at Walt Disney World I only wanted to ride the "D" and "E" rides, but of course my parents wouldn't buy me another ticket book to get more "D" and "E" tickets until I used up at least most of the "A", "B" and "C" tickets.

"E" ticket (or "E" ride) even made it into slang for a while. Back when I was in college I read an interview in the school newspaper of a heavy equipment operator who toppled his excavator into the hole he was digging. He said "That was an E ride!"

Now days there aren't a lot of people around that remember that, and "e-ticket" means that you don't need to carry a piece of paper to the airport. But the personalized plates that I like most are the more subtle ones that you feel clever when you figure out. This is sort of there, so I'm kind of excited to get it!

[Gary Lewis]

I posted this as a quiz in the "what have you done..." thread (congratulations Dave aka FuzzFace2!), but I wanted it captured here as well.

I just got the personalized plates I ordered 2 months ago. I couldn't get my first or second choice spellings (apparently this plate is somewhat popular in Minnesota), so what I ended up with was this:

(For those who miss the reference, there's a context clue hanging from the rear view mirror.)

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n102805/E_TCKET.jpg

For those who still miss the reference, back in the day Disneyland and Walt Disney World let you into the parks cheaper, but then you needed tickets to get on the rides. In order to spread people out rather than having everyone in line for the most popular rides, the tickets came in books with a certain number of "A" tickets, some "B" tickets, on up to the "E" tickets. The lower letters were for the less popular / less fun rides while the higher letters were for the better rides with the "E" tickets being for the best rides!

As a kid at Walt Disney World I only wanted to ride the "D" and "E" rides, but of course my parents wouldn't buy me another ticket book to get more "D" and "E" tickets until I used up at least most of the "A", "B" and "C" tickets.

"E" ticket (or "E" ride) even made it into slang for a while. Back when I was in college I read an interview in the school newspaper of a heavy equipment operator who toppled his excavator into the hole he was digging. He said "That was an E ride!"

Now days there aren't a lot of people around that remember that, and "e-ticket" means that you don't need to carry a piece of paper to the airport. But the personalized plates that I like most are the more subtle ones that you feel clever when you figure out. This is sort of there, so I'm kind of excited to get it!

That's cool, Bob. I like it. But I didn't get the reference, so I'm glad you explained it.

[kramttocs]

I posted this as a quiz in the "what have you done..." thread (congratulations Dave aka FuzzFace2!), but I wanted it captured here as well.

I just got the personalized plates I ordered 2 months ago. I couldn't get my first or second choice spellings (apparently this plate is somewhat popular in Minnesota), so what I ended up with was this:

(For those who miss the reference, there's a context clue hanging from the rear view mirror.)

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n102805/E_TCKET.jpg

For those who still miss the reference, back in the day Disneyland and Walt Disney World let you into the parks cheaper, but then you needed tickets to get on the rides. In order to spread people out rather than having everyone in line for the most popular rides, the tickets came in books with a certain number of "A" tickets, some "B" tickets, on up to the "E" tickets. The lower letters were for the less popular / less fun rides while the higher letters were for the better rides with the "E" tickets being for the best rides!

As a kid at Walt Disney World I only wanted to ride the "D" and "E" rides, but of course my parents wouldn't buy me another ticket book to get more "D" and "E" tickets until I used up at least most of the "A", "B" and "C" tickets.

"E" ticket (or "E" ride) even made it into slang for a while. Back when I was in college I read an interview in the school newspaper of a heavy equipment operator who toppled his excavator into the hole he was digging. He said "That was an E ride!"

Now days there aren't a lot of people around that remember that, and "e-ticket" means that you don't need to carry a piece of paper to the airport. But the personalized plates that I like most are the more subtle ones that you feel clever when you figure out. This is sort of there, so I'm kind of excited to get it!

Looks great! I agree - the best are those that you purposely don't go around until you and your passengers figure it out.

[FuzzFace2]

Looks great! I agree - the best are those that you purposely don't go around until you and your passengers figure it out.

Being from the New England area as a kid we never made it out to the "land" till I was 20 with a few buddies but I am not much of a ride person.

So I must be showing my age as I have heard of "E Ticket" rides.

BTW cool plate

Dave ----

[Nothing Special]

Being from the New England area as a kid we never made it out to the "land" till I was 20 with a few buddies but I am not much of a ride person.

So I must be showing my age as I have heard of "E Ticket" rides.

BTW cool plate

Dave ----

The ticket books stayed around until 1982 (no, I didn't know off the top of my head, I had to look it up), so those of us that remember them aren't necessarily THAT old! Although a woman I work with went to Walt Disney World for the first time as an 8 year old in 1978 and doesn't remember the ticket books. So maybe kids had to be a little older than that before being told "no, you have to go on the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse before you can do Space Mountain again" was so memorable.

And for grins I also looked up the list of E ticket rides from when Walt Disney World opened in 1971 (Disneyland was before that of course):

• Jungle Cruise

• Tropical Seranade (rename Enchanted Tiki Birds the next year)

• The Haunted Mansion

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

• The Mickey Mouse Revue

and

• It's a Small World

All things considered, I prefer my Bronco to any of those, particularly "Small World"!

[Nothing Special]

The ticket books stayed around until 1982 (no, I didn't know off the top of my head, I had to look it up), so those of us that remember them aren't necessarily THAT old! Although a woman I work with went to Walt Disney World for the first time as an 8 year old in 1978 and doesn't remember the ticket books. So maybe kids had to be a little older than that before being told "no, you have to go on the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse before you can do Space Mountain again" was so memorable.

And for grins I also looked up the list of E ticket rides from when Walt Disney World opened in 1971 (Disneyland was before that of course):

• Jungle Cruise

• Tropical Seranade (rename Enchanted Tiki Birds the next year)

• The Haunted Mansion

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

• The Mickey Mouse Revue

and

• It's a Small World

All things considered, I prefer my Bronco to any of those, particularly "Small World"!

In my Home Movies thread Gary asked:

....

So, when do you head to Moab? What changes are you making before then? Not that this is the thread for that, but...

That may not be the thread for this, but this thread is, so...

The plan this winter / spring is a pretty major redo of the front suspension (among other things). The goal that started all of this is getting my radius arm mounts up higher. I lowered them a long time ago to fix my caster problems, but they are now a limiting factor. I high-center on them pretty frequently. But raising the radius arm mounts isn't something I can just do. I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of a snowball in projects like these??? So the way it goes is...

Raise the radius arm mounts to gain clearance.

But that makes the transfer case the lowest point (with no skid plate). I can clock the transfer case higher, but it will hit the frame rail. So...

I need to notch out the frame (and then reinforce it obviously) to make room for the transfer case.

Also my front driveshaft U-joint angle is currently maxed out, so moving the transfer case front output higher means I need to move the other end of the driveshaft higher too. I plan to do that in two ways.

I'm not sure what lift I currently have. I think it's about 3.5", but possibly a bit more. That gives me room for at least 35" tires, maybe 37". But Lesley tells me that I'm not going bigger than 33" tires if I want her to keep coming with me. So I'm planning on putting a shorter lift on it, maybe 1.5" - 2.5". That will hurt my breakover angle a little, but I'll gain closer to 4" - 6" from the radius arm mount change, so it's still a big net gain.

But that won't get my U-joint angle low enough, so the other change planned is to rotate the differential forward to raise the pinion. In addition to improving the U-joint angle in the double Cardan joint at the transfer case that will also let me get the angle in the single Cardan U-joint at the diff closer to zero, which will help with the driveline vibration I now have in 4WD.

However rotating the axle forward will mess up my caster even more than just raising the radius arm mounts will. And remember, I did that to fix a caster problem originally. So the plan now is to cut the inner "C"s off the axle ends and turn them back to fix the camber.

By the way, doing all of that to the front axle begs the question "why not switch to a high pinion diff?" I've thought about that, and while it would be good for U-joint angles, driveshaft clearance and gear strength, "they say" that you need at least a 4" - 6" lift to get a high pinion diff to clear the oil pan. Lesley doesn't want the Bronco to be any higher so that much lift isn't an option, so I'm sticking with the low pinion.

Oh, and putting a skid plate under the transfer case seems like a good idea now too.

(I'm sure you have no experience with scope creep like that!)

[Gary Lewis]

In my Home Movies thread Gary asked:

....

So, when do you head to Moab? What changes are you making before then? Not that this is the thread for that, but...

That may not be the thread for this, but this thread is, so...

The plan this winter / spring is a pretty major redo of the front suspension (among other things). The goal that started all of this is getting my radius arm mounts up higher. I lowered them a long time ago to fix my caster problems, but they are now a limiting factor. I high-center on them pretty frequently. But raising the radius arm mounts isn't something I can just do. I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of a snowball in projects like these??? So the way it goes is...

Raise the radius arm mounts to gain clearance.

But that makes the transfer case the lowest point (with no skid plate). I can clock the transfer case higher, but it will hit the frame rail. So...

I need to notch out the frame (and then reinforce it obviously) to make room for the transfer case.

Also my front driveshaft U-joint angle is currently maxed out, so moving the transfer case front output higher means I need to move the other end of the driveshaft higher too. I plan to do that in two ways.

I'm not sure what lift I currently have. I think it's about 3.5", but possibly a bit more. That gives me room for at least 35" tires, maybe 37". But Lesley tells me that I'm not going bigger than 33" tires if I want her to keep coming with me. So I'm planning on putting a shorter lift on it, maybe 1.5" - 2.5". That will hurt my breakover angle a little, but I'll gain closer to 4" - 6" from the radius arm mount change, so it's still a big net gain.

But that won't get my U-joint angle low enough, so the other change planned is to rotate the differential forward to raise the pinion. In addition to improving the U-joint angle in the double Cardan joint at the transfer case that will also let me get the angle in the single Cardan U-joint at the diff closer to zero, which will help with the driveline vibration I now have in 4WD.

However rotating the axle forward will mess up my caster even more than just raising the radius arm mounts will. And remember, I did that to fix a caster problem originally. So the plan now is to cut the inner "C"s off the axle ends and turn them back to fix the camber.

By the way, doing all of that to the front axle begs the question "why not switch to a high pinion diff?" I've thought about that, and while it would be good for U-joint angles, driveshaft clearance and gear strength, "they say" that you need at least a 4" - 6" lift to get a high pinion diff to clear the oil pan. Lesley doesn't want the Bronco to be any higher so that much lift isn't an option, so I'm sticking with the low pinion.

Oh, and putting a skid plate under the transfer case seems like a good idea now too.

(I'm sure you have no experience with scope creep like that!)

I have no experience with creeps, scope or otherwise.

But man, that's like a Jeep coming off Black Bear! Rolling, bouncing, and going faster and faster.

And yes, I was thinking "high pinion" as I was reading that. But I had no concept that you'd have a problem with the oil pan. No way to solve that with a different pan? While that might mean removing the engine, that might be easier than all the work on the front axle. But, that work should sort out the pinion angle, the caster angle, and gain quite a bit of clearance.

So it does seem like you've thought it through. And while I'm sure there will be creeps in your way, I'll bet you overcome them.

[Nothing Special]

I have no experience with creeps, scope or otherwise.

But man, that's like a Jeep coming off Black Bear! Rolling, bouncing, and going faster and faster.

And yes, I was thinking "high pinion" as I was reading that. But I had no concept that you'd have a problem with the oil pan. No way to solve that with a different pan? While that might mean removing the engine, that might be easier than all the work on the front axle. But, that work should sort out the pinion angle, the caster angle, and gain quite a bit of clearance.

So it does seem like you've thought it through. And while I'm sure there will be creeps in your way, I'll bet you overcome them.

Even if I was to put a high pinion axle in it, in addition to whatever I'd need to do for the pan clearance there would actually be a little more axle work needed. I'd still need to cut the inner Cs off to shorten the axle from F-150 length to early Bronco length. And since I'd be doing that I might as well cut the radius arm wedges off to rotate the diff to get the right U-joint angles. I'd end up in a better place for the same work, so I'd definitely do it. But in every thread I've seen on this in the early Bronco forum I'm on they've said I'd need to lift it more. And that's a no-go for me.

[Gary Lewis]

Even if I was to put a high pinion axle in it, in addition to whatever I'd need to do for the pan clearance there would actually be a little more axle work needed. I'd still need to cut the inner Cs off to shorten the axle from F-150 length to early Bronco length. And since I'd be doing that I might as well cut the radius arm wedges off to rotate the diff to get the right U-joint angles. I'd end up in a better place for the same work, so I'd definitely do it. But in every thread I've seen on this in the early Bronco forum I'm on they've said I'd need to lift it more. And that's a no-go for me.

I forgot about having to shorten the axle. That makes a big difference, and coupled with the need to lift it makes it a non-starter.

Ok, the plan makes sense. And, it should make a big difference. I'll be along for the virtual "ride".