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78 Rock Crawler

24K views 89 replies 37 participants last post by  BikerPepe` 
#1 ·
Guess I'll give this build thread thing a shot.

I started out building an '86 Bronco and while out having some fun, I managed to break the frame behind the steering box. I decided that was the time for a SAS. I started mocking it up and figured out how difficult it was going to be to keep a low COG with that stock TTB crossmember. Long story short, I started looking for a '78-'79 frame to put under the Bronco. I found a '78 for sale for $300 and had it delivered to the shop. After taking a good look at it, I decided I liked this one much better than my '86, so all the parts are going into this one instead.

What I was told was that the rear axle was making noise and the PO removed the shafts and chunk to replace them and never got around to it. Here it is as it was delivered:





Then I bolted my Dana 70 under the rear of it and set it up on jackstands to get that puny little Dana 44 out from underneath the front:



I'm currently tearing down the Dana 44 from the front and plan to use the wedges from it to mount my Dana 60 under this thing. As for drivetrain, I'm still undecided. May throw the EFI drivetrain from my '86 in there or I may just go propane on the 400 that's already in there. Either way, the carb has to go as they don't seem to care much for extreme angles.

As soon as I get the front axle mounted, I plan to do a little cutting to make room for these:



Hopefully I can actually keep this thread updated as I go. If I ever forget, please feel free to remind me!
 
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#2 ·
good!!! im gonna make a similar build, im buying pieces little by little, so its nice to see another broncos whit same purpose!!!! what size are taht tires!!! you gonna put ram assistance??? put your specs!!! saludos!!!
 
#5 ·
what size are taht tires!!! you gonna put ram assistance??? put your specs!!! saludos!!!
The tires are 15/42-17 Interco Super Swamper SX-II's on 17x9.75 Raceline Monster II beadlocks. All those bolts are a pain to get torqued down!

For steering, I plan to go full hydro since this rig will probably never see the street again. I've already got my front Dana 60 stripped down and the tubes cleared of all brackets. Also have all new bearings, brakes, detroit locker, 5.13's, high steer arms, etc. all sitting here ready to go.
 
#6 ·
Some previous owner has swapped the intake and carb for Edelbrock Performer. I really don't know anything about these and how well they do off-road. I know there are some things that can be done, but nothing appears to have been done to these. Anybody have any experience with these carbs and/or have any good links with info?
 
#7 ·
Well, I'm running into some minor difficulties on getting the Dana 60 into this thing. I tore down the Dana 44 front end and was planning on boring out the center of the wedges to fit the dana 60, like these guys did here:

http://www.jantz4x4.com/projects/downs/downs1.html

I don't care to do the wristed setup, but just figured I could bore out the center, cut them in half, and then weld them onto my D60. The machinist guy here at work says he doesn't have the equipment here at work to be able to bore that out like that. I'm starting to think that maybe I need to break down and buy the weld-on wedges from Duff or JBG. Will post whatever I end up deciding to do.
 
#8 ·
Well, I'm running into some minor difficulties on getting the Dana 60 into this thing. I tore down the Dana 44 front end and was planning on boring out the center of the wedges to fit the dana 60, like these guys did here:

http://www.jantz4x4.com/projects/downs/downs1.html

I don't care to do the wristed setup, but just figured I could bore out the center, cut them in half, and then weld them onto my D60. The machinist guy here at work says he doesn't have the equipment here at work to be able to bore that out like that. I'm starting to think that maybe I need to break down and buy the weld-on wedges from Duff or JBG. Will post whatever I end up deciding to do.
 
#10 ·
Good to know. I'll keep that in mind.

For the Dana 60 swap, I was out there looking everything over with the bossman and going over the different options. He's trying to talk me into doing a triangulated 4-link. Guess I'm going to pull the front clip and lift the 60 up into place to look everything over a little better. This could get interesting...
 
#11 ·
those tires look awsome. I probably would have opted for some Stauns internal beadlocks vs the wheels but otherwise this is a great build
what is your weight goal and how do you plan on reducing the weight?
 
#12 ·
These wheels were cheap, and I needed some wheels anyway. I can't imagine the Stauns would have been any less trouble to deal with than the beadlock bolts. Also, I kinda like the look of all those shiny gold bolts! :thumbup

As for weight goal, I'll let you know when it's done! :toothless Honestly, I have no idea what these things weigh stock or where this one might end up. I do plan to add a full cage, all the way to the rear. I need to keep it fairly big since I need to keep the back seat for kids. Otherwise I'd chop it off behind the cab. I do plan to remove all unnecessary wiring, heat/ac equipment, etc. Also may eventually have to do something about that gawdawful heavy NP205. We'll see how it all ends up. It will definitely be a work in progress. First step: get that Dana 60 under there and get it on the trail.
 
#13 ·
What kind of D60 haves you??? the wedges im buy a pair of JBG, my plan its normal triangulated, track bar, and long radius arms whit Johny joints!! and for the fuel sistem, im gonna try to go fuel injected!! sorry for my bad english im from mexico!! Saludos!
 
#14 ·
I've got a front Dana 60 from an 87 Ford Dana 60. It's got the really short driver's side tube that makes mounting anything difficult. I should have something decided as to what I'm going to do in the next few days.
 
#15 ·
maybe whit that type of axle, you can look brackets in ballistic or maybe make your own barckets, to put a kind of long arms whit joints in boths ends of the long arms, im thinking in that option, one guy of austrlia has a build whit that type of axle, search in the site, good look!!!
 
#17 ·
Not too much of an update, but figured I'd post something to keep this thread going. The last few days I've spent some quality time tearing this ol' girl apart. Got the interior basically gutted, top removed, front clip removed, etc. The interior was pretty gross. The previous owner left several partial bags of dog food in the back with one of the windows on the top busted out. The dogfood got nice and moldy and I found maggots living under the carpet. Gross. Anyway, I hope to get my Dana 60 up to the shop in the next few days so I can jack it up into place and start figuring out how I'm going to mount it in there. Until then, here's a few pics.

bye-bye front clip and axle:




no more moldy interior:
 
#21 ·
Absolutely not. The front is my favorite part of these broncos! I don't know if it's going back on full-width like it is now or if i'm gonna pinch it a bit before putting it back on. Either way, it's going back on there.
 
#19 ·
Nice work so far, can't wait to see the finished product :thumbup
 
#22 ·
Here's the Dana 60 that's going under the front of the Bronco. In primer and still no guts until i get whatever welding i need to done. then i'll assemble it 'for real'. Ignore the rest of the junk in the picture. My garage is a disaster area.



Love those big 1-ton brake rotors. Also see my nice new PSC high steer arms



Mmmmmm....beef! Gotta love Ruff Stuff Specialties diff covers

 
#29 ·
Dang weather. I hauled the front axle up here to work to roll it under the Bronco to take some measurements, etc. but it's pouring rain with no end in sight. Good thing I put a bag over the carb before leaving work yesterday!
 
#33 ·
Unfortunately, it's looking like it will be some time before I can get any major work done to the old Bronco. Between a death in the family, other unexpected events and the fact that my wife is currently a full time student, my bank account is left pretty much drained. This fall, however, my wife will be working and our income should hopefully double. I can hardly wait!

For the time being, I'm just doing research, sketches, etc. I'm also slowly acquiring parts as I can afford them. I have rounded up almost everything necessary to run the engine on propane. That will solve my carburetor concerns. I will be sure to post updates as I make progress, but don't expect any major work until late this year.
 
#32 ·
I have never been able to find it again, i think it was poorboy offroad or something like that, but this guy took a 79 and narrowed the entire body 14" and called it the rubicon bronco.. that truck was freekin awsome!!! It had rockwells under it and it just made me want to build one that way...even though i dont think i actually cut up a perfectly good bronco to do that.
 
#34 ·
I love that build! If I ever have the time and am feeling ambitious, I would love to do the same thing to my Bronco's body. I love the idea of keeping it looking full bodied rather than eventually going to nothing bug a pickup cab for clearance like lots of guys do. Here's a link to the rubicon bronco build:
http://poorboy1.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ford&action=display&thread=4268&page=10

Oh, and for another update, I will be scrapping what's left of my 86 Bronco in a couple of weeks. Then I plan to haul my 78 Bronco home so I can start doing some of the free mods to it to fill the time until I can afford to actually buy parts. It's currently sitting out back of the shop at my work where it's hard to get much time to really work on it. At this point, I'm thinking I need to get rid of the added leafs in the rear and do a shackle flip to help it flex a little better. Also, if the leafs on my 86 Bronco are softer than the ones on the 78, I may just use them instead. Also, there's lots of body mods to do to run basically stock height and clear those 42's. Oh, and I'm thinking all that air conditioning stuff needs to go and be replaced by just a heater. Question now is whether to find the stock heater stuff or just throw in a simple aftermarket or homemade heater.
 
#36 ·
Yes, I do have a heater already. I just don't need/want that giant box that sticks out of the firewall and figure as long as I'm losing weight by stripping parts, I might as well get rid of that huge wart on the firewall. These earlier FSB's had a different firewall based on whether or not it had A/C, with the heater-only versions being flat over there on that side.
 
#39 ·
Just thought I'd throw in another quick update. I did some cutting and grinding on that front Dana 60 to fit some of those weld-on radius arm wedges. Looks like that's gonna be the best way to go to stay within the current budget. Will go with stock radius arms to get this thing going soon and will extend & bend the arms and add a heim joint on down the road. I've got a spare set of arms just for that. Anyway, here's where the driver's side wedges fit in there. It's a tight fit, but I was able to get by with only cutting off about an inch of the diff:


Passenger side:


Front:


The ol' girl's back to sitting on 4 tires again!


If you look back at this pic again:

You can see that I'm definitely going to have to move the track bar bracket. Unfortunately, it's right in the way of my high steer arm, and I'm not willing to give up high steer. And since I'm going with full hydro, geometry on the track bar isn't as limited as it would be if I were running a regular steering box.

Looks like I'm going to pretty much have to stick with the current ride height though instead of going lower, unless I modify the frame a bit as everything's pretty tight as it sits. I need to have some uptravel for when I want to haul ass. I'll get it on a level concrete surface before I tack on the wedges and will also measure frame height to see if I want to try to get lower or not. Currently on the gravel it looks to be measuring around 19" at the bottom of the frame with 33" tires. With 42's that'll end up probably closer to 23.5" under the frame. Not horrible I guess.

I dunno if these are stock springs or if they've got a bit of lift, but they seem about right for what I want to do. Anybody got any idea how I can tell how much lift these springs give? I'd like to go with deavers or something else really flexy, but would like to get some idea how much adjusting I need to make to get back to this same ride height. May just need to experiment a bit.
 
#41 ·
Haha...there's room in there somewhere for a Bronco! All that crap was in there with the last Bronco. Someday I guess I need to start selling parts...

Anyway, I think I want to get the wedges welded to the axle and get one of the driveshafts in before I haul it home. Would be nice to be able to drive it up onto the trailer. 'Course I guess that means I need to get steering figured out. Maybe I'll throw the 42's on there and see how long of a stroke I need for a steering cylinder so I can get the guys in the machine shop started on building one for me.
 
#43 ·
Got the front tires bolted on to check clearance with the body. Looks like I will be moving the axle forward a little to improve approach angle as well as to get the tires out of the cab mounts. Thing looks like a monster with those tires.
Supermotors is being a PITA right now, so these pics brought to you by photobucket.




Here you can see how close the body mount is behind the tire with the tire pointed straight forward:


Forgot to take this pic with the tire turned, but when it's turned to the side, it makes contact, and that's without even tucking that side of the axle up at all:


And a decent pic showing a better angle of how tight steering, track bar, etc. is going to be. I think I'll move the track bar back behind the axle and run the steering off of the bottom of the high steer arms. That'll still give me a lot more ground/rock clearance than if I was using the stock steering location.
 
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