Ferdinand - '85 Bronco 351W XLT "Phoenix" rebuild project...

[ArdWrknTrk]

Aren't there two Windsor balance flywheel as well?

Iirc, 351 remained the same but 302 changed somewhere along the way?

As I said, I'm not the Windsor authority, but I always want to learn.

[Ferdinand]

Well... the prodigal has returned...
Ferdinand is back in the "Doctor's Office" (Not that I am much of a doctor 😉)



The Bronco sat nearly all year I am sad to report. I work in the Healthcare world and 2020 has tried us at great lengths for sure. There have been more than a few stressors this year gnawing at all of us I am sure. At this point I need some wrench therapy...

I did overhaul the garage this spring so the new work space is really nice. (I feel pretty spoiled to tell you the truth!) Rewired the majority of the garage, new compressed air set-up, new LED lighting (MAN, do I wish I would have done that BEFORE starting the Bronco project!), repaired floor and epoxy coated, built a bunch of cabinetry & storage, plumbed in a wash tub sink, upgraded my tool storage, built a drafting/planning space and bought a TON of storage bins 🙃

Here is a before shot and one about 75% finished:



The wife was so impressed (not that she dare comment about it) that we had my oldest daughter's high school graduation party in there! 🤣

I am now thinking of going the "Overlander" route with Ferdinand. So, my current punch-out list (Dead key (have to jump-start @ the solenoid currently) backfiring issue, new heater core, rebuild factory A/C, steering stabilizer, new battery, and finishing the interior lighting and speaker upgrades)  has turned into a new laundry list of things to do. Those interests include: Dual batteries, 3G alternator upgrade, heater core bypass, Trail Lights, roof basket, Custom center consul, CB, low profile lock box in bed, spare tire carrier (if I can ever find one!!), headliner, visor shelf & sun visors, battery kill switch, Apple CarPlay, front hitch, winch, and new axle gears. -side note, the "donor chart" on the alternator upgrade won't load for me (MacBook Air 2019/Catalina/Safari) not sure why but I'm guessing that's on my end.

I hope to capture it all on the forum should anyone find interest. I know I have benefitted an amazing amount from other people sharing their journeys! I have a lot of catching up to do! Welcome to all the new folks on the site!! -Gary, I don't know how you keep up!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Jamie, you've done an amazing job transforming your shop space!  

Are you confident the Bronco will fit in the garage with a roof basket?

I'm certain this has been an especially challenging year for those in health care.
Record positives the past few days don't inspire confidence as it draws to a close either...

You've got quite a list there now!
Don't let your wife's wishlist feel neglected. 😇

As far as starting Ferdinand, try starting in neutral, or investigate the neutral safety switch on the side of the C6.
You can also jumper that whole leg of the harness, up under the dash, and confirm or deny that the red/blue pink/blue is at issue.
Maybe it's as simple as the plug not being seated???

Edit: I'm constantly in awe of Gary's productivity.
And very grateful for his generosity.  

[Gary Lewis]

Jamie - Wow!  Just WOW!  That is a magical transformation!  I love it!  

And I agree with Jim on the appreciation for all healthcare professionals.  This has been a horrible year and it is only going to get worse.  I thank all of you and pray for you daily.

On the overlanding, that's the direction I'm heading on Big Blue, so in the immortal words of Paul Simon:

“Say, ain’t we walking down the same street together
On the very same day?”
I said, “Hey Senorita that’s astute”
I said, Why don’t we get together
And call ourselves an institute?”

Ok, maybe not an "institute" but maybe a forum?  

On the CB, there appears to be a shift on away from CB to GMRS in the offroad arena.  You can see where Bob/Nothing Special brought that up in Big Blue's Transformation thread here, and the following conversation re that.  To cut to the chase, I bought Midland's bundle of their MXT115 base/mobile unit and two GCT1000 handhelds's for $210 from Amazon.  So you may want to research the communications area before you buy.

[Ferdinand]

Evening Jim.

Yes, you are very observant. The roof rack will put me over my height to get into the garage unfortunately. Am still thinking of a detachable mount set up for it. I have some left over Unistrut I have been eyeing. We will see. I am still impressed that it fits though. It has a 4" lift and 35's and makes it under the opener door bracket by about an inch and a half. 😬

Thanks for the ideas on the starting problem. I am going to check those wires and the plug! Back in the day I had someone steal my '82 F150 and they destroyed the column, so I vaguely remember how that all went. (Same set up; auto trans, tilt wheel, w/speed control) What is odd this time around is that it just up and stopped working. Usually when that actuator goes bad you feel it snap. (Although, I am sure that is not always the case.) The ignition problem and the backfiring really kept me from putting into more daily use this year. I am hoping to remedy that soon.

[Ferdinand]

Good evening Gary. Thanks to the both of you for the appreciation and well wishes. It is certainly appreciated. We will get through this, I have no doubt. (For we walk by faith and not by sight.) I am sure the 4 B's will help a lot (Bible, Bronco, Bullets, & Bikes) A man has to have a balance in this life. 😉

I am SUPER excited to hear you are going for an Overlander with Big Blue!! I read through that thread a good while ago. That is one I need to catch up on!

I have 2 old CB radios I was going to dig out of the shed, but now I am thinking your suggestion may be a vast improvement over what I was thinking. Still need to run down a few more rabbit holes on that.

Did you get a chance to check that donor alternator list? Is it just my mac and browser you think?

I only ask, because out of all the new items I hope to tackle, I was thinking of doing the dual batteries first (after the backfire and ignition issues) because they will take up a lot of space. I have found several ideas online to set them up. Do you have any favorites? Have you ever done it on a Bullnose?

[ArdWrknTrk]

I've been quite happy with the 130A LRC alternator I purchased from DB Electrical.
It's really hard to go wrong at that price, and has a one year no Ferdinand poop warranty.
You only need to run a 3/8-16 tap through the adjuster ear.

If you go hunting in the junkyard for a ~'92 Taurus with the 3.8l V-6 you're probably going to want to buy a load response control regulator.
One I know works is F5RU-10316-BA

I don't have dual batteries, but have recently had some discussion about wiring a manual override to the Cole-Hersee automatic isolators.
Gary's got a LOT of amp hours under the hood of Big Blue.

[Gary Lewis]

Jamie - The alternator table works for me, although it doesn't come up at the top left of the spreadsheet.  But you can scroll to it.

On the CB vs GMRS, one of the attractive features to me is the size of the antennas.  The one that comes with the package I bought is ~6" tall.  Yes, 6 inches!  And that includes the magnetic base.  Compare that to any CB antenna.  So you can slap it on the roof of the truck and not worry about knocking it off in most cases.

And that translates into small but very powerful handhelds.  The antennas on them are maybe 5" long and they are said to have a normal range back to the mobile unit of 10 - 15 miles, and in worst-case conditions of 5 - 10 miles.

As Jim said, I have a LOT of amp-hours under the hood of Big Blue.  And a 130A 3G alternator with a 2.5 second LRC regulator in it.  And I have a factory auxiliary battery tray plus a Cole Hersee 48530 Smart Battery Isolator w/a 200A rating connecting the two.  The isolator doesn't connect the two batteries until one of them is up to 13.2V, and will disconnect them if one gets down to 12.7V.

[ArdWrknTrk]

To clarify, 12.7 is just above the normal "resting" voltage of a fully charged 6-cell lead acid battery.

So, the isolator will open only while the alternator is charging.

The above mentioned regulator has a set point of 14.35 V

[Gary Lewis]

I think you meant "close" only while the alternator is charging.  But yes, the isolator does a good job of keeping both batteries fully charged.

[ArdWrknTrk]

You're absolutely right.

In my autistic mind, it is 'open' to electron flow....

[Ferdinand]

I hate to admit it, but I am now having second thoughts on the manual valve set up for the heater core. I guess I am just not in love with the overall size of the plumbing...







One benefit I guess with all this is with T-port 3 way valves, it makes it a bit easier to swap the next heater core. (I don't have much faith in this new replacement)

[Gary Lewis]

I knew what you were thinking, but it might be confusing to others.

Jamie - There are at least two styles of battery isolators: relay & diode.  All diodes have a voltage drop across them, and some of them have up to a .7v drop.  And what that means is that your battery never gets to the full voltage of the regulator.

Given that I much prefer the relay style as there is essentially no voltage drop across them.  But some of the relay-style isolators come in when the key is turned to On.  The original ones used on the Bullnose trucks with auxiliary batteries do that.  If your aux battery is dead it gets paralleled with the main battery as soon as you start the engine, causing a big drain on the main battery, which may have itself been discharged quite a bit while starting.

But the CH smart isolator waits until the battery is up to at least 13.7 volts for two minutes before connecting them, so you know your main battery has gotten some charge.

[Ferdinand]

Ok! Well I am going to run down Big Blue's set up and see what I can duplicate. I am very much in favor of the setups that have the ability to "protect" the primary battery when charging and using. That all is a little above my pay grade but I will study closely. I did grab an inline fuse block set up with a 100a & 150a fuses, but it sounds like I may need more...

Jim, thanks for the info donor tips!
I hate that I don't really have any good options around here for boneyards. The one I got the blue donor Bronco from closed down. I will set out on the hunt again and that will make a good field trip with one of the kids. 👍🏻

Gary, I will load Chrome maybe tonight and check out that table. Thanks for the feedback there. I figured it was something on my end.

These new heater cores leave a lot to be desired...

[Gary Lewis]

Yikes!  That thing is big!

My recent experience with shutoff valves on the heater hose is you need heat in the morning but not in the afternoon.  So we stopped two weeks ago today and I popped the hood to close the valve, and some nice guys stopped to see if we needed help.

I'd prefer a valve that I can control from inside the cab.  But I've not decided how I want to do that.

[Ferdinand]

Thanks Gary. I know there are a lot of details to a solid set up and I have fought battery drain on this Bronco ever since I bought it. (The PO had it on a smart tender 100% of the time). I am hoping that I don't need to grab a painless kit and redo the whole thing, but that parasitic draw will have to be chased down eventually. Hence the Battery switch in my list.

I am anxious to see and read about your set up!

[Ferdinand]

Yeah, the size of that was much smaller in my mind 🙃

I went 3/4" to keep volume, but man, I am paying for it in girth!

I'll likely still plumb it in for now. Maybe use a close nipple instead of a 2" and just figure out a different option for the mount.

I have to modify the valve handles either way to fully circulate.

[Ferdinand]

Jim,

"and has a one year no Ferdinand poop warranty"

Priceless!  

[Gary Lewis]

Get a BIG cup of coffee and set aside hours before you start reading BB's transformation thread.  We wander badly and I'm verbose.  

But, the mention of a battery tender reminded me of a quirk of the CH smart isolator.  When the battery tender has gotten the voltage of one of the batteries to 13.2 volts for two minutes the isolator will close.  So now you are charging both batteries, which slows the charging down.  But, the coil of the isolator has a significant current draw, and it may overpower a small tender.  So now the voltage on the batteries goes down to 12.7v and the whole process starts all over.

On our boat, which I keep on battery tenders, plural, I only ground the black wire of the isolator when the key is on.  So during the winter the isolator doesn't come in.  But on Big Blue I haven't bothered as I don't anticipate keeping him on a battery tender.

[Ferdinand]

HOLEEEEE MOLY! 188 Pages Gary!

I am going to need some serious late night devotion to get through all of this! (But I am really looking forward to it!)

And, man! I love Big Blue all the way around. You and I have very similar interests. (I just threw a rope winch in my wishlist on AMZ 3 days ago 😉)

I just lack the know-how on a lot of it. But hey, that's what this site is all about!

Time to go get some work done.

Have a great day gentlemen!