Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[Nothing Special]

If it attaches to the outside of the frame and has turn-ups front and rear then the bolts to the frame might be enough.

So this weekend I took the trans crossmember out so I could try lifting the transfer case higher. I was able to get another inch! So that's a total of about 1.75" additional clearance under the transfer case and about 4" under the radius arm mounts!

With the front axle in and sitting at ride height I again pointed the pinion up at the drive shaft. I ended up with the pinion pointing up 11*, the driveshaft angle also at 11* and the transfer case pointing up 4*, giving me a 15* total angle in the double Cardan, a lot better than the 26* I had last week with the transfer case 1" lower. That's so much better that it seems unbelievable. So maybe I had something wrong in my measurements last week, but I'm pretty confident in today's.

Of course lifting the transfer case also changes the rear U-joint angles. Back there the transfer case is pointed down 4*, the driveshaft is at 17* and the rear pinion is pointing up 21*. The 13* in the double Cardan doesn't worry me at all, but the 4* in the single Cardan at the diff is far from ideal.

However, raising the transfer case would have increased the driveshaft angle and not affected the pinion angle. So that means even though 4* seems like a lot, it's got to be less than I had before. If I do experience vibration I might change something, but I'm not going to worry about it now.

Thinking about how I could have got to this point, I set the pinion angle with a different transmission and transfer case. The AOD was longer, so the driveshaft was shorter, with a steeper angle. When I went back to a manual trans I never corrected it. And I never noticed any vibration so I never second-guessed myself.

Well, it is what it is. And like I said, I'm going to run it and see what happens.

And Gary was asking for pictures. Here's one from before with the transfer case and radius arm mounts where they were at the start of this process.

https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n117459/DSC_3595.jpg

Now here's one from today with the transfer case 1.75" higher and the radius arm 4" higher.

And just for fun, here's a pic of the front axle with the come-along "track bars"

Next step is to make a new crossmember so I can take out the jack that's holding the trans up.

[Gary Lewis]

So this weekend I took the trans crossmember out so I could try lifting the transfer case higher. I was able to get another inch! So that's a total of about 1.75" additional clearance under the transfer case and about 4" under the radius arm mounts!

With the front axle in and sitting at ride height I again pointed the pinion up at the drive shaft. I ended up with the pinion pointing up 11*, the driveshaft angle also at 11* and the transfer case pointing up 4*, giving me a 15* total angle in the double Cardan, a lot better than the 26* I had last week with the transfer case 1" lower. That's so much better that it seems unbelievable. So maybe I had something wrong in my measurements last week, but I'm pretty confident in today's.

Of course lifting the transfer case also changes the rear U-joint angles. Back there the transfer case is pointed down 4*, the driveshaft is at 17* and the rear pinion is pointing up 21*. The 13* in the double Cardan doesn't worry me at all, but the 4* in the single Cardan at the diff is far from ideal.

However, raising the transfer case would have increased the driveshaft angle and not affected the pinion angle. So that means even though 4* seems like a lot, it's got to be less than I had before. If I do experience vibration I might change something, but I'm not going to worry about it now.

Thinking about how I could have got to this point, I set the pinion angle with a different transmission and transfer case. The AOD was longer, so the driveshaft was shorter, with a steeper angle. When I went back to a manual trans I never corrected it. And I never noticed any vibration so I never second-guessed myself.

Well, it is what it is. And like I said, I'm going to run it and see what happens.

And Gary was asking for pictures. Here's one from before with the transfer case and radius arm mounts where they were at the start of this process.

https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n117459/DSC_3595.jpg

Now here's one from today with the transfer case 1.75" higher and the radius arm 4" higher.

And just for fun, here's a pic of the front axle with the come-along "track bars"

Next step is to make a new crossmember so I can take out the jack that's holding the trans up.

That is a HUGE difference! And the angles look good, at least the front ones do. But if you have problems with the rear shaft can you change the pinion angle fairly easily?

[Nothing Special]

That is a HUGE difference! And the angles look good, at least the front ones do. But if you have problems with the rear shaft can you change the pinion angle fairly easily?

It'd sure be easy compared to everything else I'm doing! It'd mean cutting off the spring perches and welding them back on.

[Gary Lewis]

It'd sure be easy compared to everything else I'm doing! It'd mean cutting off the spring perches and welding them back on.

That’s what I thought. So IF you have a problem you have a fairly simple solution. 👍

[Nothing Special]

That’s what I thought. So IF you have a problem you have a fairly simple solution. 👍

It's been a long time since an update. Life has gotten in the way of a couple of weekends, so I've had to make do with the evenings I could work in. Combining that with making a couple of mistakes made things go pretty slowly. But now it seemed like time for an update.

I started off making a new transmission crossmember that wasn't in the way of the new transfer case and front driveshaft location. Here's what I ended up with.

Installed (viewed from the rear)

And viewed from the front

This third view shows the problem (although poorly). I angled the front tube up as it went out toward the frame, and I shouldn't have done that on the driver's side . The driveshaft hits it, even at ride height.

The smaller problem sort of shows up in the second picture above. While I angled the front tubes up for more clearance I left the rear tube straight. While that wasn't as bad an error as the front tube on the driver's side, it did give up some ground clearance on the passenger's side.

So I did a little surgery on my new crossmember. The front tube is now straight on the driver's side and the rear tube angles up on the passenger's side. Now I have all the clearance I can get under the crossmember and I've got plenty of clearance for the front driveshaft.

[grumpin]

It's been a long time since an update. Life has gotten in the way of a couple of weekends, so I've had to make do with the evenings I could work in. Combining that with making a couple of mistakes made things go pretty slowly. But now it seemed like time for an update.

I started off making a new transmission crossmember that wasn't in the way of the new transfer case and front driveshaft location. Here's what I ended up with.

Installed (viewed from the rear)

And viewed from the front

This third view shows the problem (although poorly). I angled the front tube up as it went out toward the frame, and I shouldn't have done that on the driver's side . The driveshaft hits it, even at ride height.

The smaller problem sort of shows up in the second picture above. While I angled the front tubes up for more clearance I left the rear tube straight. While that wasn't as bad an error as the front tube on the driver's side, it did give up some ground clearance on the passenger's side.

So I did a little surgery on my new crossmember. The front tube is now straight on the driver's side and the rear tube angles up on the passenger's side. Now I have all the clearance I can get under the crossmember and I've got plenty of clearance for the front driveshaft.

Nice job!

[Gary Lewis]

Nice job!

Looks good, Bob.

I'll bet it feels really good to be making progress,

[Nothing Special]

Looks good, Bob.

I'll bet it feels really good to be making progress,

Thanks!

Busy summers are why I always think I'm going to do big projects like this in the winter and spring. But Minnesota winters are why I always end up doing them in the spring and busy summer! I am looking forward to wrapping this one up, but I've still got a ways to go. Hopefully I'll make some more obvious progress this weekend.

[Nothing Special]

Thanks!

Busy summers are why I always think I'm going to do big projects like this in the winter and spring. But Minnesota winters are why I always end up doing them in the spring and busy summer! I am looking forward to wrapping this one up, but I've still got a ways to go. Hopefully I'll make some more obvious progress this weekend.

Pretty good progress this weekend. Not quite as far as I'd hoped, but not bad.

With the transfer case in its forever home I could finalize the position of the front axle. It was a lot like the accordion in the song by the Who, with the axle going in and out and in and out. But I didn't have to play all night, and the music was all right... Oh well, I've ridden that a lot farther than it was worth.

Anyway, with lots of repetitions I got the axle centered in the frame at ride height and tacked the track bar bracket in place.

Then I got the diff pointed at the transfer case, for a 12* up angle on the pinion and a 12* angle on the driveshaft.

With the wedges tacked in place I took the springs back out and cycled the suspension. Full droop was fine, but when checking full stuff I added to my bouquet by picking another couple of whoopsie daisies. I had checked where I wanted the bump stops to be and had built standoffs to put stock bump stops at the right height. But I didn't take into account how much the bump stops would deflect, and I hadn't checked it with the driveshaft in place. The front U-joint hits the exhaust crossover. Oh well, not a big deal. I can buy some aftermarket bump stops that are 2" taller than stock. That should work well.

Finally I put the inner Cs on, rotated them to 7* caster and tacked them in place.

But I had hoped that that wouldn't be "finally" for this weekend. I pulled the axle out and started to weld everything up, but didn't get far. My welder, plugged into 120V, just doesn't get hot enough for metal this thick. I knew it would be marginal at best, but it's not even that. It's just too cold. So I loaded the axle into my truck and I'll try welding it up at work tomorrow.

So pictures! Here is a side view showing very little of the radius arm mounts or transfer case! You can also see the driveshaft coming straight off the pinion and tucked up nicely, as well as the C on the driver's end of the axle.

And here's a front view

Still a lot more to do, but this feels like a big step!

[Gary Lewis]

Pretty good progress this weekend. Not quite as far as I'd hoped, but not bad.

With the transfer case in its forever home I could finalize the position of the front axle. It was a lot like the accordion in the song by the Who, with the axle going in and out and in and out. But I didn't have to play all night, and the music was all right... Oh well, I've ridden that a lot farther than it was worth.

Anyway, with lots of repetitions I got the axle centered in the frame at ride height and tacked the track bar bracket in place.

Then I got the diff pointed at the transfer case, for a 12* up angle on the pinion and a 12* angle on the driveshaft.

With the wedges tacked in place I took the springs back out and cycled the suspension. Full droop was fine, but when checking full stuff I added to my bouquet by picking another couple of whoopsie daisies. I had checked where I wanted the bump stops to be and had built standoffs to put stock bump stops at the right height. But I didn't take into account how much the bump stops would deflect, and I hadn't checked it with the driveshaft in place. The front U-joint hits the exhaust crossover. Oh well, not a big deal. I can buy some aftermarket bump stops that are 2" taller than stock. That should work well.

Finally I put the inner Cs on, rotated them to 7* caster and tacked them in place.

But I had hoped that that wouldn't be "finally" for this weekend. I pulled the axle out and started to weld everything up, but didn't get far. My welder, plugged into 120V, just doesn't get hot enough for metal this thick. I knew it would be marginal at best, but it's not even that. It's just too cold. So I loaded the axle into my truck and I'll try welding it up at work tomorrow.

So pictures! Here is a side view showing very little of the radius arm mounts or transfer case! You can also see the driveshaft coming straight off the pinion and tucked up nicely, as well as the C on the driver's end of the axle.

And here's a front view

Still a lot more to do, but this feels like a big step!

That is excellent progress, Bob! That's a really BIG step.

And it is all tucked up under there very nicely. Good angles, good protection, and lots of clearance.