Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[Nothing Special]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Sorry a lot late on this but on the 4 hi shifter popping out can you use a bungie to hold it in gear?
When I raced Jeeps off road we used bungies to hold the shifter in 4 low.
Dave ----

Sorry, I missed this when it was posted (I was posting at the time and never looked back).  I've heard of people having trouble where a shifter wouldn't stay in gear because something in the trans (or transfer case) was pushing it out.  A bungee is a reasonable band-aid fix for that.  But in my case the shifters and transfer case were fine, it was just that the shifter boot was getting reefed on too hard.  So adjusting the sticks location a bit took the pressure off the boot and solved the problem.

The next domino in the line is that moving the sticks brought them into contact with my leg, so I need to move them somewhere else.  But I should be able to do that without causing the first problem to return.

[Nothing Special]

I dodged a bullet!

After towing the Bronco 3000 miles round trip and driving it about 300 miles in Utah I came home and developed a death wobble

It showed up after I switch the narrower BFG All-Terrains on in place of the wide mud tires.  The BFGs are REALLY worn out, so I wanted to blame the tires, but I know that death wobble is usually caused by something loose in the steering.

Since I had just redone almost everything in the steering I felt like everything should be good.  But on the other hand, it could mean that everything was suspect!

So I had Lesley turn the steering wheel back and forth while I looked for anything moving.  Turned out it wasn't anything I had done recently.  The steering box was loose!

It was a bit of a pain getting at some of the bolt heads.  I had to remove the steering box to get at the bolts that hold the bracket on, but I was eventually able to get everything tightened up.

I haven't test driven it yet, but I'm optimistic that I got it!

[Gary Lewis]

That’s a 45 caliber bullet!  Glad you dodged it as that could have been a major problem.

[Nothing Special]

This next change is going to take some getting used to!  For the entire 19 years I've owned this Bronco it's had 33" tires, mostly narrower BFG ATs as a good compromise for on and off road.  But the plan when I bought the wide mud tires as better off road tires was to also get better on road tires.  That has finally happened!

I bought a set of Hankook Kinergy PT in P235/75R15, extra load.  So far I have all of 2 miles on them, so not much experience, but they definitely have a softer, more refined feel than the BFG ATs (which were much better than the ProComp mud tires!).  Expansion joints and railroad tracks are much more mild than they were.

I am hearing a 1-per-tire-rev noise.  I don't know if that's a tire noise or if the tires are quiet enough that I can now hear a wheel bearing or a brake or something.  I'll have to get to the bottom of that.

But 29" tires do have a much different look than 33s!  I can't say I like it, but I'll get used to it.  And the easier ingress/egress and better/quieter ride has to come at some cost.


The other changes isn't really new, but it's the first time it's been on the Bronco.  I knew I'd need a new spare tire cover for the smaller spare, so when we were at Walt Disney World last November I picked up a new one.  But I couldn't put it on until I got the smaller tires

[Gary Lewis]

That’s quite a big change, Bob. I wouldn’t have expected the different tire size to make that much difference in looks, but it sure does. Hope it drives and sounds that much different, but better, as well.

But the cover looks great!  Good plan.

[FuzzFace2]

That is a big change from 33" to 29"
Why not go to a 10.5 x 30 x 15 tire?
It would fill the openings a little more but not be so large to be a PITA like the 33's.
I dont think I would go 29's unless the openings were not cut open for larger tires but thats me.
Dave ----

[Nothing Special]

I can't say it was overly thought through (I'm not the one with 8 page micro-analyses!).  I ran P235/75R15 street tires and LT235/85R16 (~32") off-road tires on my old CJ5 which was a combo that worked out well on it.  I have P235/75R15s on my trailer (which actually provided the spare for the Bronco).  So I went for it.

I had thought about putting the trailer tires on one side of the Bronco to see what I thought of the look.  But I figured that odds were pretty good I wouldn't love it and then I might back pedal.  So I decided I'd just jump in head first!  Now I'm stuck with them!

But seriously, I think they'll do what I want.  The P-series tires are likely to be quieter and smoother than a truck tire.  Lesley will really appreciate the easier ingress/egress (she hasn't ridden in it yet).  And while I can't say I love the look, I can live with it.


edit to add:  And for what it's worth, the front fenders haven't been cut, they're stock.  And the rears were only really cut enough to match the fronts.  But it has been lifted, which is where the extra room comes from.

[Nothing Special]

I always have this idea that I'll get a bunch done on my vehicle projects over the winter.  But then a Minnesota winter comes, and with a smallish, non-heated garage I somehow never get around to working on stuff 'til spring.  Well, now it's spring!

The first project I needed to do on the Bronco was to slow down the loss of oil.  I think 2 - 3 quarts leaked out of it over the winter!  Most of that seemed to be coming from the oil drain plug.  A while back I had the engine at a shop (I forget why I wasn't doing the work) and they said the threads for the drain plug were buggered up, so they had to modify the pan to take a bigger plug.  It never sealed up very well after that, and got a lot worse recently.

Another problem that was related is that after putting the Atlas transfer case in I'd had to re-route the exhaust.  There wasn't room to run the driver's side exhaust past the transfer case to cross over behind the 'case, so it went across between the oil pan sump and the front of  the bellhousing.  That put it right behind the oil drain plug, and after the work I did raising the transfer case last summer the crossover was actually touching the drain plug.  So I would have to cut out the exhaust to drain my oil.

A solution to both problems (I hope!) was a new oil pan with the drain plug in the bottom of the sump rather than the back.  The new pan is also a little shallower, which might give a little more useful clearance  between the new high pinion front axle and the pan and crossover (the U-joint had to make some clearance in the crossover pipe last summer in Utah!).

So I cut out the crossover pipe, removed the old oil pan, removed the oil pump to get it cleaned up for a new pickup, reinstalled the pump with the new pickup and installed the new pan.

That's where the first hiccup came.  The stock pan has the dip stick coming up the passenger's side while the replacement has it on the driver's side.  Snaking it past the exhaust, the brake lines and the steering shaft was a treat, but I was eventually successful.

Then I had to weld the exhaust back in, fill it with oil and I could start it!  It gave me a bit of a scare with the oil pressure taking longer than I thought it should to build.  But I guess the oil pump lost its prime.  After giving up and shutting it down once I decided to try it once more.  The oil pressure gauge wiggled immediately on the restart, and slowly built up pressure.  Now it's running right where it normally ran, so I think I'm OK there.

I didn't take a picture from the start of this project, so here's one from back when the exhaust was first redone to run behind the sump.  You can sort of see how tight it was.



Now here's a bad picture after the new pan is in.  This is looking in from the side, just behind the driver's front tire.  You can see that the drain plug is in the bottom of the pan, and it's a little higher than the bottom of the bellhousing (they used to be about level).  You can also see the place (circled in red) where the crossover pipe tried to share space with the front driveshaft.  Fortunately the driveshaft won!



That's where it sits now.  Eventually I hope to get the exhaust re-routed a little higher.  But that can wait.  It'll do for now.

[Gary Lewis]

Well done, Bob!!!

That looks good all the way around, meaning the new pan with a new drain plug & new location, and the exhaust with both clearance and welds that don’t appear to leak.

And I don’t blame you for not wanting to work I’m a frigid garage. This stuff is supposed to be fun, and when you can’t feel your fingers it isn’t. (Hmmm.  Several times on this trip I couldn’t feel my fingers. )

[Nothing Special]

Gary Lewis wrote

....  the exhaust with both clearance and welds that don’t appear to leak....

Thanks!  I was originally planning on just tacking the exhaust together well enough to bring it to an exhaust shop to build a new exhaust.  But I haven't been thrilled with what they've come up with in the past, and I have the idea that I could do better (if I had the time).  So I decided to try to weld it back together well enough to use it until I get around to redoing the exhaust myself.  Of course realistically that will never happen and I'll just keep what I have until something happens that forces me to take it back to the exhaust shop again!  But for now that's fine.  I don't have the sound of any exhaust leaks, so I'm happy with it for now.

[Nothing Special]

My Bronco now has a name:  Pluto

In my pickup's thread I explained why it needed a name and how that name came to be "Oswald."  In that post I mentioned that my Bronco had come to have the name "Pluto".  That wasn't official until today, but here I'll give the LONG backstory on the name.  Please feel free to skip this!

In one of my trip threads I teased that I have a couple of trail rigs that I'm "building" in my head.  I'm still not going to tell you anything about them unless/until they ever see the light of day.  But in my head they both got names so I could keep track of them.  Both names happened to be names of dogs from cartoons and children's books, so it seemed like my one real trail rig should also have a name in that genre.

OK, more back story.  About 9 years ago Lesley and I booked our first cruise.  It was on Disney Cruise Line, and Lesley, as she typically does, dove into researching Disney cruises.  She found out that there's an informal gift exchange program that happens on Disney cruises, so she signed up.  When she signed up she need to give a bunch of information about us to help others decide what gifts we might like.  Favorite Disney character was one of the things they wanted to know.  I didn't have a favorite Disney character, but I had to give one, so I picked Pluto, not really having any good reason in my head for it.

But the funny thing is, when you pick a favorite Disney character and start getting inundated with him, he actually starts being your favorite Disney character!  If the other two trail rigs I'm thinking about ever come to be, it will not mean I'll get rid of the Bronco.  In fact, it will be my favorite of the three.  So if I needed a name for my favorite trail rig, and the name had to be of a cartoon dog, it couldn't be anything but "Pluto."

I still didn't formally give him the name until today.  Just calling him "the Bronco" always worked.  But now that "Oswald" officially has a name it seemed like the Bronco should too.  So now he's Pluto!

[Gary Lewis]

You did good.  As Dane and I said, Oswald probably has his feelings hurt sitting there in the woods all by himself.  But he has a name, so the Bronco would have been upset if he'd not gotten one.

As for what name, it all makes sense.  So, are you going to slap a decal on him?

[Nothing Special]

Pluto already has his namesake hanging from the rear view mirror and a magnet with his picture on the ash tray in the dash.  I may or may not add more "dog tags" in the future, but this is good for now!

[Gary Lewis]

[Nothing Special]

Nothing Special wrote

....  It gave me a bit of a scare with the oil pressure taking longer than I thought it should to build.  But I guess the oil pump lost its prime.  After giving up and shutting it down once I decided to try it once more.  The oil pressure gauge wiggled immediately on the restart, and slowly built up pressure.  Now it's running right where it normally ran, so I think I'm OK there....

I haven't kept you up to date on this, so I'll catch up now.  The short story is that I wasn't OK there, but I am now.

Yes the gauge wiggled immediately on that restart, but if the engine was shut off for more than a few minutes it would always take 15 - 20 seconds to start building pressure when restarted.  It would always get up to full pressure, but the engine sounded different on those starts, what I would imagine metal sliding on metal would sound like.  The noise would go away when the pressure came up, so clearly I had a problem.

A lot of head scratching and asking some others for opinions and it all ended up confirming my thought that I had to have a leak on the suction side of the pump.  I didn't see how that could've happened as I had nice, clean surfaces on the pump and pickup tube and tightened it down well on a new gasket.

But today I pulled the pan back off (which meant cutting out the exhaust again ) and took the pickup tube off.  Then I could see how it happened.  I know it's sort of subtle, but does anyone see anything wrong here?


It would appear that whoever put the pickup tube on the pump didn't get the gasket installed quite right

So a new gasket (installed correctly this time!) and about 3 hours of work for the R&R and now the pressure comes up in less than a second on start-up.  Problem found, problem solved!  (I'll choose to look at it that way, it's a lot more satisfying than thinking about the extra work I made for myself or wondering how many thousand miles I took off the engine)

[ArdWrknTrk]

Good save Bob!  

That pickup flange looks a lot bigger than it needs to be.

I'm sure Pluto is very grateful.

[Nothing Special]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

....  That pickup flange looks a lot bigger than it needs to be.

I'm sure Pluto is very grateful.

Good point!  This clearly wasn't my fault!  Whoever designed a flange that would hide a gasket that was installed wrong is t blame!  I ought to sue!

OK, anyone who knows me knows that's not the direction I'm really going here.  But yes, if the flange was roughly the same size as the gasket my mistake would've been obvious.

And yes, Pluto is very glad that I quit hurting him.

[ArdWrknTrk]

When did you stop kicking your dog, sir?  🙄

I'm just noting how different it seems to the lozenge shaped flange on my 460 pickup.

I also understand that it is awkward holding the pickup with one hand and trying to get the screws in (prolly on your back and overhead)

Did you consider a spot of gasket shellac or high tack to hold it in place?
Because this is what bites me in the butt sometimes.
A split second thought like 'I really shouldn't set my cell phone on the back bumper' right before I hop in and drive off.  

My brother stopped by unexpectedly one afternoon as I was changing my oil.
I got about 4 quarts in before I realized the sump bolt was sitting in the drain tray.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you found it!  That’s certainly a significant problem, and needed to be fixed ASAP.

As for distractions, yesterday I was following my SiL, and at a stop sign I expected him to go left, so when Brandon/Bruno2 called I went left. WRONG!  No SiL in sight, but I didn’t realize it very quickly. Cell phones are bad, as they distract, but good as they re-orient.

[Nothing Special]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

When did you stop kicking your dog, sir?  🙄

Well, yesterday

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I'm just noting how different it seems to the lozenge shaped flange on my 460 pickup.

It's a lot different from the "original" oil pickup I had too.  Here's a picture of it.  Notice how well the shape matches the gasket?



And I put "original" in quotes because I don't know exactly where it came from.  This is the third 302 that's been in Pluto, but that was his original oil pan that I just replaced.  I don't recall if the oil pickup moved from engine to engine with the pan or if it came from the shop I bought this rebuild from.  Anyway, original was a 6 qt pan, this aftermarket pan is 5 qt and the pickup tube came with it.  I don't know why they didn't match the original flange, but they didn't.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I also understand that it is awkward holding the pickup with one hand and trying to get the screws in (prolly on your back and overhead)

Did you consider a spot of gasket shellac or high tack to hold it in place?
Because this is what bites me in the butt sometimes.
A split second thought like 'I really shouldn't set my cell phone on the back bumper' right before I hop in and drive off.  

My brother stopped by unexpectedly one afternoon as I was changing my oil.
I got about 4 quarts in before I realized the sump bolt was sitting in the drain tray.

I didn't think about doing anything to hold the gasket in place the first time because, well, I clearly didn't think it was enough of a risk to think about it enough to do it right.  And I didn't think about it the second time because it's really not that hard to do it right if you're paying enough attention.  Anyway, it's done correctly now.