Well I've had this Bronco long enough now I think I should go ahead and start a build thread for it. I'll give a little back story on it and then over time get you all up to date with the build.
I was approached by its former owner back in march of last year. Jerry as I came to know him that day stopped by the house when I was out in the yard working on My pick up. Jerry said he had been wanting to stop and talk to me because of the Broncos in the yard ( I have three of them in the yard). We struck up a conversation about all the projects he had and that he was a bit overwhelmed with them. He's 74 and doesn't get around like he used to as I recall him saying. Jerry said he had a deal for me. I of course was like yeah, I've heard this before. He goes on to say he has a '78 he picked up years ago that has a built 351 in it that's now a 408. It doesn't have a lot of rust just the floor boards up front. The 9" spun a bearing when he was driving it home so he had it towed the rest of the way. The motor has a knock he thought may be a rod. The front end looked a bit rusty inside when he popped the dif cover. Jerry thought the jack wagon he bought it from let water get in it and thats why it was rusty. He continues on and on about it and I'm thinking what does he want for it? He tells me to come look at it and see if I like it.
A couple of days later I call him and go look at it.
I'm looking at it and it looks to be in pretty good shape. I'm not worried about any rodent nests on this thing cause he has more soap in a dish and moth balls all over the place than my grandmothers house ever did. Jerry tells me he has a spare tailgate, 9", d44, two doors he will throw in with it. I"m ok how much do you want for it. Jerry tells me you look like you will take it and do something with it so how does $700 sound? I'm like ok as I"m like that's a deal right there. Even if I scrap this thing I have way more than that in parts.
Two weeks later I go get it with a trailer to get it home. Jerry has his own trailer loaded up also. It has the 9", d44, the spare tailgate and two doors. Along with a radiator, two seats he got out of an import, two fenders, a grille and a back seat.
Stay tuned for more to come. I gotta get back to the work that pays the bills and for all these Broncos :doh0715:.
Great foundation. Looks to be in about the same shape as mine when I first got it. Do you have plans for it yet?? Street queen, mud truck, rockcrawler?? opc1:
Great foundation. Looks to be in about the same shape as mine when I first got it. Do you have plans for it yet?? Street queen, mud truck, rockcrawler?? opc1:
I figured I'd inspect that spun bearing claim first. We pushed it into the in-laws shop and then the claim was validated. The rear started walking and became hard to push. Time for a solution to get it up on the lift.
That worked!
glitter guys!
The replacement
I tore it down to use the housing and the axle shafts. The 3rd member I used was from the spun bearing axle.
That's the first time I've broken down an axle and put back together by myself.
While up in the air I got tired of the soured sugar stench coming from this.
And it has about 10-15 gallons of fuel in it still. That's going to be fun!
That looks about a good as it smells.
New tank, one problem! I"m a dumbass and forgot this is a '78 not a '79 so the breather port is on the wrong side.
new sending unit based on the condition of fuel in old tank.
Cleaned and painted!
Swapped out the u-joint on shaft while I was there. You can see how the old one looked. It's nice having this bigass vice for this occassion.
Love me another build thread. Yeah your gas tank with the breather on the wrong side! I'm in the same boat. Thinking if I can move the breather tube to the other side of my filler neck? What's your plan? opc1:opc1:opc1:
This one you could tell needed a new hood as it was rusted through at the front seam.
I stole this junk not too long after acquiring this bronco so I had a use for it.
Off with the old
I dropped a rebuilt 2150 on top, replaced the old rotted fuel lines, hung the belts and gave the key a turn to see what the motor had left in it. :toothless
how about now? Well if you can't, I think Jerry was right on that knock. Sounds like it's coming from the right side and the more I ran it the louder that knock seemed to get. :banghead So now what? Is the question I asked and you asked.
Love me another build thread. Yeah your gas tank with the breather on the wrong side! I'm in the same boat. Thinking if I can move the breather tube to the other side of my filler neck? What's your plan? opc1:opc1:opc1:
I've had this big thing sitting far too long so lets put it on a stand and see if it will turn over by hand.
Nope!, appears they cylinder walls have a little rust built up in them from sitting :doh0715:
Look at that crud build up.
So the search was on for a new powerplant. I was looking for something easy that would drop right in. That left me with a 351/400 or a 460. Seems 460s are easier to find than a running 351/400.
History on it is that it spent 90,000 miles of it's life in a '73 Thunderbird. Owner of the bird salvaged parts from the bird to put on his Edsel he was building.
Time to yank out the knocking 408. I inlisted the help of a few guys from here. You will see @thin blue line, @kennys94 & @83StickShift otherwise know as Mark, Kenny & Evan.
We had a hell of a time getting the old cracked manifolds off the 460. Had to heat up four of the bolts after the heads snapped off.
Dropped the front sump pan.
A new Ford Racing rear pan went on. I got the pan, gasket, dip stick and oil pick up for $160. Thank goodness for Amazon.
The pic is kinda fuzzy but those are the lefteyeblind motor mounts. They were dead on for location. So much so I didn't think they were going to fit. I had to alter the way we dropped the 460 in. We originally tried a bolt at front and diaginal in the rear. That didn't work as the chain was contacting the a/c box. Went to a intake hoist and two 3" studs in the bell housing bolt holes to guide us in and we were gravy.
460 was in and I pulled the old dizzy in lue of the stock 351/400. Dropped right in and the ignition was upgraded.
Moved on to the manifolds from there. I picked these up from @CrazyBRONCOguy. I tried some shorty headers but the passenger side contacted the starter. Maybe another day when I need to go to a new starter I'll try a mini and see if that works.
Glad to see you getting to work on it. I know Jerry has been looking for a good home for it for a while. Wish I could've taken it with me when I got mine, but just didnt have the space for it.
Glad to see you getting to work on it. I know Jerry has been looking for a good home for it for a while. Wish I could've taken it with me when I got mine, but just didnt have the space for it.
Wow, August since I've done any work to this Bronco. Pushed it in the shop this past weekend and tried to set the last few items in place for the cranking. I had a waterpump bolt missing and it sat behind the power steering pump bracket. After spraying copious amounts of brake cleaner in the hole the mud dober nest was removed and the bolt was secured. PS pump was mounted, a new ground cable was secured, loosened up the dizzy to clock it properly, cleaned up the crank pully to locate 0 and set the timing. That was all done and the battery got hooked up and a little gas poured in the carb. I turned the key and was greeted with an awful noise from the flywheel/starter area. Sounded like the starter was grinding. Cranked it a few more times and the noise would come and go. Inspected the flywheel and turned the motor over by hand. We located a few spots on the flywheel that the teeth were a bit warn down and missing a bit of the teeth on the edge. Starter was fine and mounted properly. Whats next you might ask? Well after talking to Mark and Kenny (thin blue line & Kennys94) swapping out the flywheel is our cure for the grinding noise. Hope to have it swapped in before christmas.
A few pic! Couldn't do what I do with these Broncos without these two.
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