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Vote for your September 2019 Full Size of the Month !!!!!!!

  • JohnnyBronco86

    Votes: 7 14.3%
  • NickOille

    Votes: 18 36.7%
  • not a jeep

    Votes: 3 6.1%
  • MS88Bronc

    Votes: 21 42.9%
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September Full Size of the Month 2019 Vote Here!!!

11K views 68 replies 13 participants last post by  miesk5 
#1 · (Edited)
Here are your CONTESTANTS for September 2019 FULLSIZE OF THE MONTH !!!

1: @JohnnyBronco86


2: @NickOille



3: @not a jeep



4: @MS88Bronc






Want to chat with one of the CONTESTANTS on an upgrade or anything else ?

Post up here: Chat with the CONTESTANTS

This is going to be a GOOD ONE !!! :chili: ibtl

Let the games begin!!!:duel

 
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#2 ·
Well, here we go, hope you all enjoy the story of my raisin of a fullsize. I ran for FOTM earlier this year, so most of you have probably seen all of this. I'm gonna try to cover the history of this build a little quicker this month, and get to some new stuff for you guys later in the month

The build starts in 2014, after a few years without a wheeling rig I had saved up $1000 to start a budget wheeler project. The local towing company I worked for had picked up an abandoned 84 Bronco, and once the owners never came back for it, and the lein sale paperwork was completed, I picked it up for $300



The first order of business was getting it running. Upon first inspection I found the starter was burned out. Upon closer inspection I realized that the exciter wire on the solenoid was wired to direct battery power, and the ignition switch would not feed power in the start position. So it would appear that the ignition switch broke, the previous owner thought wiring the solenoid to be active all the time would fix it, then when that caused it to crank endlessly until the starter died, they determined the vehicle was unfixable and left it.
A new starter and a toggle switch is all it took to have it up and running. I also threw on some junk 33’s that I had laying around



Total cost so far- $366.39
While gutting the interior that appeared to have had unspeakable, terrible things happen all over the carpet, scored a bonus under the seat





Next was to get it up a little bit higher, so I made some simple spring spacers from aluminum round stock, and swapped the longer front shock into the rearward front shock mount, which allowed me some more droop without buying new shocks. I also threw some 1" lift blocks under the rear



Also extended my radius arms with some junk HREW tubing I had lying around. 1 1/2” .120 wall sleeved with a piece of 1 ¾” .120 wall





On the first trip out I realized that the stock shocks were way to blown out to do anything, except keep the axles from drooping out too far and ripping the brake lines. So I spent some money on new shocks, and on camber/caster bushings to account for the spring spacers throwing the geometry off

Total cost so far- $528.51



 
#3 ·
OK everyone, first of all, I'll send out a thank you to @youngDUMP for the nomination. :thumbup

It has been exactly two years since I ran for FOTM, but with my first rig (the ole '88 - hence my handle). Sadly, I had to let that one go not too long after that. So, a few medical bills got paid off, my job started taking a $&#!, so I ended up moving my whole family northward for a new job. So, here I am now, in SE Michigan, and life is good.



After a few months of being here, I had some money in the bank again, and decided to start looking for a new rig. Of course, I never really stopped looking, but now I was looking with PURPOSE. :rockon So, after some serious looking, I found a rust free 96 XL model from Tennessee with the 5.8/E4OD/BW1356 setup. This rig had lots of upgrades installed on it already, and it was all the stuff I wanted to have on mine, so I went to look at it, test drove it (noticing a few things that I felt wouldn't be any huge problem to address) and pulled the trigger. Here are the pics from the day I bought it:











The seller had sold the softopper he showed in the ad :cry as well as the winch, but oh well, we adjusted the asking price accordingly. It also had 35" Goodyear MT/Rs, 4.56 gears, Detroit locker in front, LS in back, custom fabbed front and rear bumpers, custom fabbed sliders/side steps, off-road lights recessed in the bumpers, swing-out spare carrier, 5.5" Deaver SuperFlex suspension lift with extended radius arms, manual shift transfer case, and Warn premium lockouts. This was a great starting point. I was back in the saddle now after a little over a year of being Bronco-less, and I was doin' good! :chili:
 
#4 ·
I had a buddy with an 8th gen f150 who wanted a 7th gen front clip, and since I didn't really care either way I swapped with him. I also added a 2" body lift and picked up a set of used 37's, and did some fender trimming for clearance









Total cost so far- $753.31
 
#5 ·
First I would like to thank @whitedragon for the nomination, it is an honor!

My story began 19 years ago after walking out the door to go to work and realized someone wanted my Dodge truck more than I did. I've been wheeling for many years and owned many 4x4's too so the only question was what kind of truck I was I going to buy to replace my missing Dakota. Keeping an open mind as to what kind of truck to get, my only criteria was a V8 and something cool that I could have fun exploring the trails and could accommodate my young kids. I knew someone with a dealers license so off to the dealer auction I went and low and behold there it was, a 1995 Ford Bronco XL. It had 60k miles on it and was perfect! Being my first time at an auction it was quite the sensory overload, things happen so fast, you've got the barker speaking so fast I couldn't keep up with who else was bidding and realized I was bidding against myself, lol. I was determined to take this sweet rig home, probably could have saved myself $500 if I had realized sooner! None-the-less I got the truck for $6k and Todd has been in the family since.

Here is what it looked like back then.

:ford
 

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#7 ·
So, when I hand over the money for the new rig, the PO hands me a cardboard box full of random parts. You know, it's kind of funny - you can often get a good idea of what work you need to do based on what parts are in the box the PO gives you. :scratchhe In this box there are several things - adjustable camber bushings, a spindle socket, timken bearings and a grease seal (hmmmm - wonder where this is going?). There was also a pair of rear seat belts, a coil, oil filters, and other random things. He also gave me the trim pieces for the back cargo area that go on the bedside rails.

The cargo area was filthy, so that was first on the agenda.







Had one of my boys help me run the shop vac!




Then she got a good wash.



It's amazing how much difference a good wash can make! :thumbup
 
#8 ·
After some Craigslist hunting I came across a Belleview 6000 for $200. Using a mix of whatever random 1/8” and ¼” plate I had sitting around, I fabbed up a cheap winch bumper









Added a second battery at the same time too



Total cost so far- $1009.64

At this point my budget was spent, so it stayed like that for a little while, and I used it for mild wheeling on local trails, backroads and canyons. For local stuff like that it did great, but being open diffs front and rear, and only 3.54 axle gears left a lot to be desired





 
#9 ·
So on my way driving this Bronco home (and during the test drive) I notice that the steering wheel isn't lined up correctly - driving straight it was off center to about the 10 o'clock position. It's not really a huge deal....except when you go to hit your left turn signal and it won't click down and stay down! Plus, it disengages at the wrong time when you straighten the wheel slightly - overall, just annoying. So I bring it in for an alignment - they say they can't align it because it has a bad wheel bearing on the front passenger side. Great. That explains some of those parts in the PO's "parts box."



At this time I wasn't very familiar with the inner workings of the Bronco hub and front axle, so I enlisted the help of fellow FSBer @sackman9975, who now only lived about 15 minutes from me. We pull the entire front passenger side apart from the knuckle out. The bearings were toast, the rotor’s tone ring was destroyed from rubbing the ABS sensor which was also ground down, the Warn lockout insides were broken, and the spindle didn't look great either.







Looking through the parts I had, there was a spare Warn lockout (someone knew something :doh0715:), some Timken bearings, and a grease seal - pretty much what I needed to do the wheel bearings here. We get all the old stuff off and pack and replace the bearings. We had a little bit of a hard time getting it back on all the way, so we suspected something was amiss, but finished it up anyway. Then we took it for a 20 minute drive. Upon feeling the hub, it was burning hot - something was wrong. We then went to take it all back off again and it was so tight, we couldn't get the lockout off. So we had to get creative.











When we took it all back apart again and the grease seal was destroyed. This is where we learned that the 96 grease seal is a two piece seal and the one-piece I had was for a 95 (and others). So sackman found a 95 spindle and 95 rotor in his garage (that still had a good seal on it) and we replaced mine with these. After this, all was good in the world again.



We also checked the ignition timing and it was sitting at 4° ATDC! No wonder it was sluggish! We set it to 10° BTDC and it was like a new truck. :gears:
 
#10 ·
Found out the stock springs weren’t too happy about being stuffed to full compression with spacers under them



And the stock steering linkage was a bit weak for 37's



Also my radius arms extended with junk tubing were a bit weak



After watching some youtube videos about Bronco Safari, and realizing it had been wayyy too long since I have taken a single day off work, it was decided I was gonna throw a bit more money at the turd to get it ready to go to Moab

Steering linkage straightened and sleeved with whatever tubing was laying around



And radius arm straightened and re-enforced with C channel





And some Superlift 4" Early Bronco coil springs. They don't make those springs anymore, but they were about the stiffest Early Bronco springs you could get, which worked out to be nice and flexy with a TTB fullsize



Then I picked up a set of the cheapest 5.14’s I could find on ebay, NASCAR used take outs, and 5.13’s for the d44. Also picked up the cheapest 3.92 and up carrier for the 44 I could find, which happened to be an Auburn gear clutch style posi, and welded the diff on the 9”. She was Moab ready:ford

Total cost so far-$1639.33
 
#11 ·
After some time spent with this rig, I realized the ole' girl needed a name. The history behind this Bronco lies in the mountains of Tennessee as a fleet vehicle with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency - there was no console in this truck, but you could see some bolt holes in the space between the seats, holes under the dash for a radio, and an A-pillar police-style spot light. The state put around 160K on the clock and the guy I bought it from was the second owner who put around 6K on it. So, the name just kinda came to me...."The Tennessee Warden." I pondered other names, but I ended up sticking with this one. :thumbup

So, like many Broncos, there was some play in the steering and some wandering when driving straight. The radius arm bushings were new with the install of the extended radius arms, so logically, the axle pivot bushings were next.

*deep breath* Here we go...

Ordered OEM-style Moog bushings:



They looked a little ratty:



Dropped the starboard beam lift bracket:



Tore it apart to get it out:



New one in:



Pulled the other one out:





And got it in:







Lift bracket reinstalled and all buttoned up:



So after all this, she drove better - not perfect, but better. Hey, every little bit helps. :toothless
 
#12 ·
Bronco Safari 2015!!!
So last minute I had a buddy get a hold of me, he wanted to go with us to Moab but had no time or money to put together his own rig, so I offered up my fullsize as a loaner for him to use, and took my wife’s B2 along for us to use.









Later in the week we decided to hit the more extreme stuff, so we left the wife's B2 at camp and I kicked my buddy out of my fullsize so I could have a little fun







Only issue I had was a fuel pump that crapped out, but I had a spare universal electric one with me





I'm gonna be absent from the FOTM competition for a few days, heading out for another adventure. If I find cell service I'll try to upload a few teaser pics, if not I should be back before the weekend is up
 
#13 ·
As we all know, one of the first things you do with a new-to-you Bronco is change (or check) the fluids - the life blood of your truck. So, the transmission fluid was checked - nice and red and smelled good - no issues there. The oil was dark, and I had no idea how old it was or how many miles it had on it, so oil and filter was changed. Diff oil in front and rear was fine - no problems there. The coolant, however, was disgusting and dirty - flush time.

I picked up a couple gallons of Prestone concentrate, some Blue Devil flush additive, and a few gallons of distilled water. Then I grabbed a tote from the garage and drained everything out.



It was pretty bad. After about 30 minutes of flushing with the engine running, the water draining out was clear and I dumped in about a gallon of distilled water to flush out the tap water and then closed the petcock. I mixed up the concentrate with distilled water in a 5-gal bucket and started filling the radiator. Ran it, burped it, refilled it .....ad nauseum until the level stayed constant.



So now my coolant was a nice pretty green and not a muddy mess. :thumbup

On another topic, my dash wasn't very pretty. It looked, well, a little cracked, a little stained, and faded.



So I ordered a CoverKing dash mat and it fit perfectly and made it look a little cleaner. These pics are from the moment I installed it - it has since been velcro'd down to stay in place and it has settled.





Now, remember earlier, when I cleaned up the cargo area and there were no bedside panels on the sides? Well, the PO did not have them - he just had the trim pieces. So I started looking for some. I didn't want the stock XL trim level panels - I was thinking about finding some from an XLT or EB Bronco.

I changed my mind.

I will MAKE some. Stay tuned. :toothless
 
#15 ·
OK - bedside panels.....

I've seen some folks make them from wood and diamondplate, but I didn't want that. I wanted to reduce interior noise. So the first step was to make a template for the panels.

Empty bedsides:





Made up a cardboard template:



Based on the measurements of the template, I drafted up a figure for dimensions:



I went up to the local JoAnn fabric store and picked up some beige and dark green leather-grained vinyl - borrowed the wife's sewing machine:



Did some fancy cuttin' and sewin':







Checked it against the template:



Repeated this in the mirror image. Then I went to the Home Depot and picked up some 1/8" hardboard (basically pegboard with no holes), brought it home and started tracing and cutting;







Test fit the "mirror image" panel:



Applied 1/4" upholstery foam to the panels:



Pulled and wrapped, glued, and stapled it:



Looks pretty good!



Come back for the next post to see how they turned out! :haha
 
#16 ·
Alright FSBers, today is game day! Therefore, today's post comes now - I just put ribs on and I have several other items to prep for today's football watchin'! Go Tigers!

OK - wrapping up the homemade bedside panels.....

While I was at Home Depot getting the hardboard, I picked up some carpet padding and inexpensive indoor/outdoor carpet and laid it down in the cargo area as a temporary solution until I get some sound deadener and molded Bronco carpet.



Panels installed.





So next I painted the trim pieces with some Krylon Fusion after a Scotch-Brite scuffing:





Installed the trim pieces, but I'm still missing something:



The rear belts were in the parts box from the PO, as he recently had the softopper on it (that he sold seperately! dammit). The left rear belt was fine but the right rear one appeared to have been cut near the floor bracket, so I sent it "My Safety Belts" for a webbing replacement. Here's the link to them in case any of you guys need new webbing - they did a great job. https://www.mysafetybelts.com/services/Seat-Belt-Webbing-Replacement-p102264021

New belt arrived:


Installed:



Also picked up some generic 6x9 speaker grilles and "Christmas tree" push pins from Amazon:



Installed:





OK, that's it for today...stay tuned for more! :popc1:
 
#17 ·
Quick teaser pic from this weekend's adventures. I'll get all the pictures rounded up and uploaded as soon as I can



But back to the build history for now

First thing once I was home from Moab was to do something about the departure angle. The trailer hitch did an excellent job of protecting the fuel tank, but it also drug over absolutely everything.



With my 2” body lift, I had 2” I could move the fuel tank up. So I sectioned 2” out of the factory fuel tank skid plate, which also holds up the tank, then made some hillbilly 2” extensions for the top straps





Then I took an old junk workbench and cut it up to make a fuel tank skid plate




Doing some wheeling in a local canyon I managed to break a front axle U-joint, which wiped out both the inner and outer shafts when it went, so I picked up some junkyard shafts and a Dana 50 stub to swap in while I was there



Little clearance for the D50 inner



When the shaft had broken it blew the dust cap off my old inner and sent the spring flying never to be seen again, so I decided to go back together with a spring on the outside of the shaft so it couldn't get lost

Craftsman riding mower seat spring, part number 124181X



Coiled end cut off



Then assembled, with a small weld on the intermediate shaft to hold the spring from sliding up the shaft



Total cost so far-$1777.83

Once I got it back together,some celebratory hooning around in a certain speed parts house parking lot… Sorry for the old cell phone video quality

 
#18 ·
So some of the things I have done to the Bronco are fun and exciting upgrades and customizations - others are just simple fixes that need to be done for operational and/or legal purposes. Here are a couple of those:

When I bought the rig, there was a cracked windshield on the passenger side and one crack had creeped all the way across to the drivers side right in my line of sight. So I called the insurance company and told them I needed a new windshield.



And now, a nice new windshield!



I ended up removing the wiper arms later and cleaned them up and painted them.



Next, the side window's wipes were brittle and cracked, you know, where it scratches your arm when you rest it on the open window sill? Yeah, so I put on new ones - nice and soft. :thumbup



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, when one day I was just looking around under the hood, I noticed that one of the vacuum line repairs that were made in the past did not look good - the hose was collapsed and could not have been working right, so I put in a better repair line.







And the new line:





I just wanted to also say that I am giving you all sort of a chronological progression of the things I have done to this rig during the time I have owned it. Some things are cool, some not so much - but don't worry! Things are about to get more interesting, and there will be some wheeling pics coming soon. As a matter of fact, I just signed up for a charity off-road festival that happens next weekend at a new ORV park that was a former mine site. Proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald house, so even better!


https://detroit4fest.com/

Until next time.... :beer
 
#19 ·
Next trail run was to Niagara Rim, a trail in California near Bridgeport









Managed to put a good tweak in the passenger side radius arm, since I had only re-enforced the driver side one when it bent



And peeled open the roller fairlead and put a big twist in the front bumper



Straightened and re-enforced the bumper and radius arm, and shortened the frame and cut the grille to get the winch and bumper tucked in tighter





My old 37's had well outlived their life expectancy and were leaving rubber chunks and tread blocks everywhere I spun a tire, and I put a good 4" gash in a sidewall at Niagara Rim...
So I had to give them a proper send off



Then I picked up some new centers for some hummer beadlocks I had sitting around, and some used military 37x12.50 BFG Baja T/A's







Total cost so far- $2791.24
 
#20 ·
So at this time, it was approaching winter, and with this 99% rust free Bronco, I didn’t want to expose it to road salt if at all possible. I did, however, need to use it for work purposes for a few days at a former auto plant that had been demolished and was now being used to store thousands of brand new pickup trucks. I was out there to develop some groundwater monitoring wells so that the sampling team could come out the next week and get water samples for a routine monitoring program. The Bronco did great driving around this overgrown area – I just had to watch out for sinkholes!







Driving home on the last day, there was some snow melt on the roads, so she got a little dirty, so a good wash was in order before she went into hibernation.


There was NOT much room in my garage for this behemoth!




Sleeping….


For those of you that remember my old '88 from a while back, I had installed a custom roof rack that I had to sort of cobble together. I wanted to put one on this Bronco also - that's next!

:popc1: :ford
 
#21 ·
Bronco Safari 2016!!!!!
Now this is where I start getting into the carnage that I’m “famous” for
This year we had my fullsize, Tyler’s fullsize, and my buddy Dylan, who borrowed my Bronco last year, had put together his own fullsize.
Our first day we tried to make it to Top of the World. As I was turning off the pavement by Dewy Bridge, there was a loud pop and I noticed my rear tires would spin independently now, but I figured I had just lost my welds on my spider gears, and could probably still make it through the trail. But at the first obstacle, once I put a load on the axle, it started jumping teeth and losing drive to the rear axle



So the rear driveline was pulled and we headed back to camp in front wheel drive. Here is what we found when we got the rear axle apart



Not only had the welds on the spider gears failed, but one of the carrier bearing caps had broken in half, allowing the carrier and ring gear to deflect away from the pinion. This is where I learned, if you have spare parts, BRING THEM. I had an entire spare 9” third member at home, in Nevada. But it was big and heavy and I didn’t think I would need it.
So I had my dad run to my house to pull bearing caps to overnight to me, and we went around town looking for someone who might have parts to get back up and running today. Eventually was able to find an old timer with a personal junkyard of old Fords, and got a spare 3rd member off him for $100. It was already half broken, but had enough parts to get us back together

The next day we went to try Rusty Nail again, after the fuel pump died on it last year



It went pretty smooth up until where Rusty Nail dumps back into Gold Bar Rim. There is a very deceiving ledge to climb right there. I spun tires trying to walk up it, so I gave it a little bump to try and get the rear tire up, and as soon as the rear tires hit, SNAP. Lost drive to the rear driver side tire, so I backed down to a level spot the change the shaft, of which I had a spare of with me. As soon as I got the shaft out I looked down the tube and could see the splines of the shaft twisted off in the carrier, as well as another blown up carrier bearing cap, of which I didn't have another spare. So for the second day in a row the rear driveshaft came off and we had to try to limp back to camp in front wheel drive.





I had to be pulled on a strap for a few obstacles, which went alright until we got to the waterfall on Gold Bar. There wasn't a good angle to winch me up easily, so I got a bit violent and tried to bounce up and promptly broke a front u-joint and took the inner and outer shafts with it
With some fancy winching, we were able to winch my Bronco up the hill so I could change the front shaft, which I had a spare of, and get back to camp in front wheel drive



Once we got it all back together again then next day at camp, the rest of the week went pretty smooth







Carnage pile for the week

 
#23 ·
Page 2! lol :rockon :brownbag

After winter was over, and we moved from the rental house we were in to a house that we bought, it was spring and time to drive the Bronco again!

Some of you may remember my old white ’88 Bronco that I bought back in 2016 – I ended up selling that one as I had some unexpected things come up and had a few hefty hospital bills. But, not long before I sold it, I had installed a roof rail system and a cargo basket on the top. When I sold it, I removed the basket but left the rails and crossbars on. Fast-forward a while to when I bought this ’96……I wanted to do the same. On my first one, I had bought a set of Chevy Suburban roof rails and trimmed them to fit and it looked pretty good. So one day, I went to the local pick and pull to look for another set – while I was walking around the yard, I spotted a 2001-2005 Chevy Avalanche with roof rails. The thought occurred to me that it might be the right length as it sits and might not need trimming. I measured it and it was the PERFECT length! So I picked it up for $25 and brought it home. Some fresh paint and it looked like new.









So now that they were all pretty and new-looking, I needed to figure out a good mounting method. I wasn’t planning on doing anything like lifting the topper off with the rails, so I didn’t need a ton of reinforcement on the underside of the top, but I did want a secure mount that wouldn’t tear up the fiberglass. I thought that some rubber washers combined with fender washers might be good, and then an “a-ha moment” made me think of those rubber feet that are on the bottom of guitar amps. They are thick rubber and have a washer inside them. Cue Amazon order:



So I set the assembled rails on top to line it up and then mark the hole locations and then drilled them. I then looked underneath and noticed that the holes were near the edge where a small ledge ran lengthwise, so I took a razor blade and re-shaped the rubber on the washer.





Then I liberally applied some marine silicone sealant around each hole in the top and carefully set the rails on and lined up the holes. I squeezed some more sealant in the bolt holes and put the bolts in the hole from the top. The forward-most and aft-most holes were secured with self-tapping screws, as their job is mostly to keep the “feet” straight.





Then I climbed in and installed the rubber washers and nuts – the back ones were easy to tighten with one hand inside and one hand outside. The front ones were a little trickier – good thing I have long arms!





Then the basket got clamped on to the crossbars, and done!





OK, that's it for today, kids! Here's a little teaser for what's coming up next....

 
#24 ·
Next trail was Rubicon











'Con went pretty good, only broke a hub and had a u-joint start to go out, so that was swapped too. Had to leave one of my buddy's rigs and come back the next weekend with parts, and on that rescue mission I broke my lock-rite in the rear. So I picked up a used nascar "g-force" locker off ebay, basically a Detroit, and stuffed that in a Summit Racing aftermarket 3rd member and threw it under the Bronco
My old radius arms were getting pretty hammered, and I was having a little bit of issue always hanging up on the brackets, so we came up with a new design for the radius arms. Twin tube for strength, and with a sweep in the end to transition smoothly off of when sliding on rocks



And went to ram assist steering. Went cheap with a tiny 1" ram, but it worked out just about perfect with just enough power to keep me from cracking the frame again, while not overwhelming my stock pump or stock tie rod ends

 
#25 ·
So, next up, as you saw from my teaser pic, was the Saginaw pump and 4-bolt steering gear upgrade. This was one of the upgrades I really wanted to do. So I started looking around for the parts I needed to do this. Then, one day, member @dash_cam put all of it up for sale – almost everything I needed to do it. Now, the stock pump I had was working fine – no whining and provided easy steering, but my steering gear was sloppy, like 3” of steering wheel play sloppy. Dangerous. So, I received the parts and then started gathering up the rest of the parts I needed:







I also picked up some 3/8” oil line, a magnetic oil filter, and an aux transmission oil cooler (no pics). The parts in the pics are Russell 648060 (PS pump fitting), Russell 648010 (Gear high pressure fitting), Russell 648030 and AC Performance female 6AN to 3/8 barb fitting (Gear low pressure fitting and hose barb) and Fragola FRA-372024 braided brake line for the pressure hose.

And it begins – first I rented a pitman arm puller from Auto Zone, but it looked like this and even a 6-pt box end wrench would slip on it:



So, I looked through my tools and found an old two-jaw puller – maybe it’ll work? I oiled up the joints and gave it a try:



I got it as tight as I could on the pitman arm but the end of the bolt was touching the front diff and was starting to deflect sideways – so then out comes the BFH and it popped off:



I used a manual hand pump to get as much fluid out of the stock pump as I could, and I put a drain pan underneath. I then disconnected the lines from the gear:



I removed the belt, unbolted the A/C compressor and set it on top of the engine, and unbolted and removed the stock power steering pump bracket:





And don’t forget……. :toothless



Then the steering shaft was removed and out comes the old gear:





The new 4-bolt gear goes in and the pitman arm reconnected:





Oil cooler mounted:



New pump and bracket go back in, A/C compressor mounted, MAF duct re-installed, and the pressure line attached:



Low pressure line attached and is plumbed into the cooler and filter:



And this upgrade is in! So, I still had the front end up in the air, so I filled the pump with ATF, took the oil line to the cooler and a funnel and filled the oil cooler until the hose overflowed, pushed the hose onto the low-P port on the gear, clamped it, turned the key on, and cycled the steering wheel from near-lock to near-lock on the other side about 6 times. I check fluid level, fill it some more, and repeat. I did this until the fluid level was stable. I removed the coil wire, and hit the ignition a couple times to try and move some more fluid around. The level appeared stable, so I reattached the coil wire and started the engine. I let it run for about 30 seconds, turned the wheel back and forth a few times, and turned it off. I checked the fluid and it was still at a good level and had no air bubbles in it, and there were no leaks. :thumbup I took it for a test drive and wow, what a difference! The pump was quiet, and the steering had significantly less play in it. It wasn't Indy Car tight, but it felt tons better - well maybe..... 1 ton better? :toothless :brownbag

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, right before I did the Saginaw upgrade, I picked up a “new” air intake duct from @BigBlue 94 and replaced my accordion snorkel duct with this one, that pulls air from the void behind the driver’s side headlight instead of on top of the radiator - a "real" cold air intake:



Installed:



So, what’s next you might ask yourself? Well, it was time to fill this empty space under my grille:

 
#26 ·
Enjoying seeing your builds!

JohnnyBronco and Not a Jeep, we need to hear (see) from you guys!
 
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