1985 Eddie Bauer build

The next step in the build process is complete!

The '85 came with A/C, but the system was dry and empty. I had no idea what was wrong with it, so I had been budgeting and saving up for a complete system replacement. Not only that, but all of the hoses and lengths were for a V8, and were a little stretched with the compressor being further forward on the 300.









First step was to pull everything out, which was a lot easier than expected. I took off the fan, unbolted the radiator, and tipped it forward. I could then pull out the condenser.





The original condenser was a bit banged up from my engine install. I forgot to remove it, and smacked it a couple times. Here it is next to the new one.







However, the new one didn't fit! It was 95% close, but that last 5% kept it from falling into place. The first part that hit was a little bit of pipe that, for no real reason, stuck out an extra inch. It collided with the radiator support.



I set it aside and moved on to the evaporator. The box on these are a little bit of a pain, but not too bad. There are just a few bolts next to the fender that are very difficult to reach.





The blower motor worked, but I figured I might as well replace it while I was in there. All I needed to do was move the fan over. Otherwise, the blower is only held in with a few easy to access bolts.



Switched:



The heater box opens right up with a few screws and the evaporator comes right out. The old evaporator was buggered up and dirty.



New one in place.





Reinstalled in the Bronco with a new evaporator, drier, and blower motor.





Installed the expansion valve and new hose, meanwhile replaceing all of the o-rings.



Back to the condenser. I fought with the new one for a while and finally concluded that it just was not going to go into the Bronco. I looked up other models online, but they all looked all the same (probably all the same manufacturer with different brand names slapped on it). All had low ratings with complaints about fitment issues...
So, I looked into reusing the original. Upon further inspection, the fins are only for cooling. They don't have fluid in them. So, bent fins are only aesthetic and impede airflow. I straightened them all with a flatbladed screwdriver.





Straightened. Not perfect, but not impeding airflow.



I then blasted it out with A/C flush cleaner and compressed air until it blew out dry. It, of course, went back into the Bronco like an old glove.

From there, I installed the remaining hoses and the new compressor (forgot to take pictures). The new compressor had some raised ridges on it that weren't on the original, so I had to grind them down slightly to get them to fit with my bracket. But, it dropped right in after clearing up the clearance issues.

Last step is to charge it! I rented a vacuum pump and a gauge set.

The original system was R12, so all of the hoses came for an R12 system. The compressor was for R134a, and I intended to convert. Turns out, I needed some adapters to convert an R12 system to R134a.














The gauges now hooked right up.









It holds vacuum!





From here, I filled it up with the proper levels of oil and Freon.
It's been frosty cold since!

StemCellResearch said:

put an r12-134a conversion sticker on your core support. I have extras if you need

Click to expand...

I didn't even think of that. Probably a good idea! :thumbup

This is the kit that I got, it looks like it came with stickers. I think they're still on the work bench.

A few little updates, since it's been a while since I've updated this thread.

I was able to track down a fan shroud for my radiator, which has helped a lot with engine temps, particularly while using A/C on hot days.








Then, my alternator died again. This is something that's recurred too many times for my liking.
I'd been paying attention to the voltage while running, since it's displayed on my Sniper handheld unit, and had noted for the last few months that sometimes it'd be at 12v, sometimes at 13v, etc and would dip and climb, dip, climb, but never really get to a full 14 - 14.5v charge.
Then, recently, it dropped to around 11v and was no longer charging.

I did some research and found that I have a 1G alternator setup. I think my alternator makes, at most, about 60amps. With fuel injection, a stereo amp, A/C, high energy ignition, etc. etc. I imagine I'm just overtaxing it and burning it up.

I went to the junk yard and pulled a 130 amp 3G setup out of a '95 Ford Windstar minivan, along with the wiring for $30. Drove it over to O'Reilly and had it tested and it charged great.





Pulled my old alternator out (which I'd swapped out under warranty from O'Reilly probably 3 or 4 times by now).





The 3G dropped in very easily with no modification (I'd read in some writeups there was grinding needed to get it to go into the bracket, but I had no such issues).







Pulled out the old wiring along with the voltage regulator.



The heavy gauge wire from the Windstar was really long. The alternator was on the passenger side by the grill, and the wire ran all the way across the engine bay and then back to right in front of the firewall on the driver's side to the battery. So, it was plenty to work with. (The big orange/black wire)



I'd read where you want to put in a 175amp fuse, but this one has a built in fuse into the wire, so for now I'll leave it at that.



Cut the wire and crimped on a nice connector.







Grabbed the plugs that came with it and wired them in.



Went to fire it up and the whole Bronco was dead. Had to do some diagnostics of the original wiring and realized that with the 1G setup, the interior power is meshed in with the alternator wiring. So, I had to run a new power wire to the plug that goes into the cab (the yellow wire).



After that, it fired right up!

Before (voltage in lower right)



After!



However, then came the next obstacle. The belts squealed badly. The single belt I ran on the alternator was simply not enough to turn the 3G.



Normally, I'd have just run 2 belts on the alternator, but the middle groove is what my power steering runs on. I tried a few different combinations of belts, such as running two super-belts around both the alternator and power steering, but this left way too little grip on the balancer and water pump pulley, so this squealed even worse.

So, since I still had to get to work the next day, and had not forseen this issue before starting, I disconnected my power steering and just put two belts on the alternator. I figured I could drive it without power steering for a few days until I figured things out.


I did some research and found that A/C trucks put the power steering on the middle groove, and non-A/C on the front groove, so I went to the junk yard and found a truck with a front groove pulley. $6!



NEXT obstacle! The stock pump (or the C2 pump) uses an 11/16" bore (0.6875") but the Saginaw uses a 19mm bore (0.748"). So, even though the pulley was ideal, it wouldn't fit on my Saginaw pump.

I went through a few different ideas of things to do, and researched other pulleys, but the options are few and far between, and the pulleys that do work are very expensive (as in $70 - $90).

So, I decided to have it machined out. Took it to the machine shop I frequent and had it bored out to the needed 0.748".

The next day, and $25 later, I had a working pulley. Here it is next to the pulley I've been running (you can see the offset difference with how the snout is in relation to the grooves).



Now with the same internal bore:





Pressed it on:



And, although it's hard to see in the pic, now the alternator has 2 belts, the A/C uses the front groove of the water pump pulley and the power steering uses the front groove of the harmonic balancer!



I've already put some hard miles on it, and it works fantastic.

SRWillis said:

Good to know a couple differences on the alternators. Mine came off a Taurus and I had to do some clearance grinding on the bracket and the wiring wasn't that long, so those are both pluses. I don't think it had a fuse either, at least I didn't notice one.

That's a great solution on the belts. I hadn't caught it in the other thread that you set it up so that the AC and the PS were using different pulleys. Glad it worked out for you, that 3G should serve you well.

One thing I didn't see you mention, was whether you disconnected your stock ammeter. I've read where the 3G puts out to much amperage for them and could cause problems. You don't need your stock one anyway.

Good work and write-up. Thanks for sharing:twotu:

Click to expand...

From what I've read, some had a big fuse, while others had a fuseable link. This is the fuseable link type. Basically, a bit 6 gauge wire that's connected by two 12ga wires at the end. Or, some size around there. The 6 gauge wire would be able to take an over amperage, but the two smaller wires wouldn't, so they'll burn up first. If you look closely at the picture of the starter relay, you can see the two wires right before it bolts on.

Here's a closeup. You can see the "FUSELINK 150A" on the side.



Yeah, having the belt routing the way it is has worked perfectly. I've had the A/C running, going through tight corners, low RPMs, etc. and haven't had a single chirp or squeal, so it's been fantastic.

Oh, and yes, I read that about the ammeter. Eventually, I'd like to set up a voltmeter in the stock gauge, just to keep it all working, but for now the one on the Sniper display works great (and is probably the most accurate I can get).

But yes, there are two wires in the original harness that are used for the ammeter. I just left them clipped. I thought about wrapping them, but they're not hot since you run power to them, not from them. So, for now, they're just harmlessly sitting. I probably should put something around them though.

You can see them here. They're the small red and yellow wires.

So, my last off-roading outting dictated what my next project should be. Or, at least, something I need to address sooner or later.

I know I've mentioned that my transfer case shifter and my ZF5 shifter hit when I'm in 4-LOW and try to shift into 2nd.




I figured I could ignore it, and just deal with it, but this last weekend dictated otherwise.



When the road is steep enough that you're leaning on the steering wheel, crawling over rocks, and you need to do something like downshift from 3rd to 2nd to slow down your decent, and you're finagling a brake, clutch, steering, and shifter and then have the shifter knobs hit each other and have to fight to get them around each other, it gets a little hairy.



So, I need to figure out how to cut, bend, rework, etc. my shifters so that they don't occupy the same space.

There's a few options, and as usual I want to do it so it looks nice, and not "hacky".

I could just heat the transfer case handle and bend it to the side, but that puts it more into my foot space. That'd also burn off paint, etc. and would need to be repainted.

I thought about cutting the TC shifter shorter, but that'd require welding, and I don't have quick access to a welder. Doable, though.

Lastly, as nice as the ZF5 shifter is, and I've already put money into it, like the dust boot, hold down clamps, etc. that are really nice, it's rather out of place in the '85. It's look just doesn't fit the era of Bronco. Another option would be to make a custom shifter for the transmission that looks more era specific, but that'd require a bit of work. I'd have to take a shifter and cut and weld it to the arm that bolts to the ZF5. I'd also have to find a dust boot that fits, since the dust boot hole for the ZF5 shifter is a much bigger opening for the fat shifter of the ZF5.



Any ideas on this? No approach seems particularly simple.

Oh, I thought you meant the transfer case shift lever is hollow. I wouldn't try bending the ZF5 shifter. It's way too large in diameter.

But yeah, it'd be cool to get a T18 or NP-435 shifter arm and graft it to the ZF5 attachment, and then get an accompanying boot.
Maybe I could use the ZF5 boot by making a 1" diameter ring around the NP-435 shifter lever. The boot is fine, but the opening is a bit wider so it can clip onto the base of the ZF5 shifter.



@SRWillis that's a pretty cool kit, but I think then the boot wouldn't fit. It looks like it's cloth, and would be pretty different than the transfer case boot.
But, I like the idea.