[SRWillis]

No, all you need is a torch, hammer and drill. Get the round stock hot, hammer it flat to mount on the shifter stub then bend the stick to fit.

But the ZF5 shifter is milled to match the stub. It's not just a flat surface.

 

[BigBlue 94]

But the ZF5 shifter is milled to match the stub. It's not just a flat surface.

Yes it is, but it's really not necessary with two bolts holding the shifter handle to the stub, imho.

Or you could lay two strips of metal down under the part to be flattened to forge that proud middle surface so it would interface with the milled stub.

 

[BigBlue 94]

ZF5 Shifter body pulled off

Boot pulled down. The rubber cylinder is bonded to the shifter stub, so itll have to be cut off if you choose to go this route.

End of shifter stub, and a sharpie for size comparison

Shifter body is hollow most of the way up.

 

[sharpshooter109]

Hey AB, did you ever get the factory tach hooked up to your DUI dizzy? If so how did you do it?

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Hi Sharpshooter,
Yes I did. It was really straightforward. There's a wire that originally goes to the stock coil from the tach. Should attach to the coil (-).
This wire now just needs to be run to the Tach side of the plug on the DUI.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

ZF5 Shifter body pulled off

Boot pulled down. The rubber cylinder is bonded to the shifter stub, so itll have to be cut off if you choose to go this route.

End of shifter stub, and a sharpie for size comparison

Shifter body is hollow most of the way up.

Hey BigBlue, thanks for this! I don't think I ever got a notification that you posted this, so I never saw it. That's just about perfect.
With that sleeve off, there's plenty of ways to attach the original NP-435 shifter to it. That'd be pretty cool.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

So, some updates on the Bronco...

Recently I've been noticing some issues with it running rough, not having the power it did, etc. I knew it had an exhaust leak, so thought maybe it was throwing off the Sniper system. Right where my Walker Y pipe came together, it was forming some pretty bad cracks. I'd been hearing some rattle noises when I stepped on it, and attributed it to the cracks.

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Instead of trying to repair it, I had the whole section cut out and replaced with a new custom collector pipe (which I really like!)

Not super easy to see, but doesn't have that harsh angle where the rear pipe goes into the main pipe that the Walker did.

Well.... despite running nicer, the issues still persisted. Not only did the issues persist, but the rattle noise was still there.

I did a compression test, and was very disheartened. Nearly every cylinder had dropped around 40 - 60 psi. After I had it fully broken in, all 6 cylinders were right around 175. They're all now around 115 - 130.

Stuck a bore scope down in the cylinders, and noticed that my pistons are a bit buggered up.

I decided to do a leak down test to be sure, but didn't have a tester. Turns out it's pretty easy to make one:

(I did a write up if anyone is interested).

All of the cylinders had about 90% loss, and I could hear air coming out of the valve cover. If I put my hand over the breather hole I could feel pressure building. Just blowing right past the rings...

It was obviously detonation from too much timing, but why? I checked my timing at idle, and it was right where it was supposed to be, at 12° advance.

I dug in further and realized that the weights in my DUI distributor were binding and sticking. The pegs for the weights had deep grooves cut in them! @BigBlue 94 Might be something you check for.

Check out the far left and right pegs!

I'm guessing the weights were sticking and giving it too much advance as the engine RPMs decreased.

At this point, I already know that I am going to have to partially rebuild the engine... But, I want to prevent this from ever happening again. I decided to go with computer controlled timing, which is a great feature offered by the Sniper EFI.

The first thing I needed to do was lock out the timing. This keeps the distributor from getting any mechanical or vacuum advance, and is basically 100% static. MSD sold a nice lockout kit for the mechanical. Basically, a bar that clips down and keeps anything from moving.

Next, I removed the vacuum advance canister:

A company online sells this really nice add on that makes it so that you can adjust the timing using a dial. It goes in place of the advance module. Turning the dial moves the advance arm back and forth. This was extremely useful for phasing the rotor, which is something that needs to be done when going computer controlled timing.

Next, drilled a hole through the housing so that I could run the Ignition Module delete wires (also sold my MSD).

The delete wires clip right into the Sniper EFI harness so that now the Sniper takes the place of the ignition module.
Then, there's the Holley Coil Driver that needs to be attached (fortunately, one came with my Sniper, since they're about $100). Otherwise, you can use something like the MSD 6A (which I might still in the future).

The wire from the coil driver then goes up into the distributor and into the Coil (-) plug where the module used to go.

There were a few settings and measurements I had to figure out, and then it fired right up. From there, I had to mess with the inductance delay in the Sniper settings until the timing mark didn't rev with the engine.

Voila. Computer controlled timing!

Now I can just go into the settings to change my curve and reupload it. It's beautiful.
Some other nice features include retarding the timing during start (I have mine set at 8° for easy starting) and changing the timing based on temperature, such as lowering timing on hot days to reduce ping.

I've slowly been massaging the table over the last few weeks as there have been places where it was pinging, but now I have it running really nicely, and healthy.

So, now for some new pistons...

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Hi all,
Been a while since I've posted any updates. 2020 has been rough so far.
For those that don't know, my wife had been battling cancer and passed away in March, two days after the quarantine was put in place. So... I've been stuck at home for about 4 months now.

Things are getting better, so I'm looking for projects to work on and things to keep me busy.
The engine's currently pulled out as I get the rings and pistons issue sorted out. The shop looked everything over and said it took quite a hit from the detonation. It's now bored out to 40 over. New pistons, rings, bearings, etc. and also new valve guides as the detonation knocked all of those out of round. It was leaking past the rings and valve seats, so I'm excited to see how it'll perform once it's all solid and tight again.

You can see all the pitting around the edges of the pistons:

Probably the worst piston. Check out the ring gap on the left from being hammered. Fortunately, none of the rings broke, so damage was pretty minimal:

Not sure how easy it is to see, but there's a smooth, shiny patch on the side of each cylinder where the piston was slapping:

All the bearings were beaten down to shiny:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

While the engine is out, the Bronco is going to be down, so I decided it's a fine time to start in on a fun project.

For a while now, I've been wanting to some traction control. Since my Bronco is a daily driver, I want something with good street manners as well as helping with snow and ice, and not just off-road. As such, I decided against lockers and am going with Detroit Eaton TrueTracs front and rear!

I also decided to pull the trigger and go with 4.11s instead of my current 3.55s.
With 32" tires, the 3.55s are... "okay" ... but not exceptional. I thought about 3.73s but it wasn't enough of a boost to warrant the effort (it's only 5% more gearing). I wish there was something in the 3.8 to 3.9 range, but there isn't, so 4.11s it is!

Next, I've had a Ford 9" out of a Bronco in my garage for a while now, just collecting dust. After some deliberation, I decided to go with the 9" instead of the 8.8".

Someone over on ford-trucks.com mentioned that there's a performance axle company called Dutchman Axles only 5 miles from my house. I had no idea! I looked on their site and they have a "garage sale" section where they sell overstock, and they just happened to have a Ford 9" 4.11 gear set for $100.

I've never disassembled a 9" before, but it was pretty straight forward.
Fortunately, I bought a slide hammer last year for my spindles, so I was ready to go.

The attachment for the axles was super close, but needed some grinding. It's like they purposefully made it barely too small for a Ford 5 x 5.5" bolt pattern. I had to grind off about 1/16" in each direction:

A couple taps and bam:

The 9" has been sitting for a while, so it's a tad rusty. I'll clean it up with a wire drill attachment:

 

[BigBlue 94]

While the engine is out, the Bronco is going to be down, so I decided it's a fine time to start in on a fun project.

For a while now, I've been wanting to some traction control. Since my Bronco is a daily driver, I want something with good street manners as well as helping with snow and ice, and not just off-road. As such, I decided against lockers and am going with Detroit Eaton TrueTracs front and rear!

I also decided to pull the trigger and go with 4.11s instead of my current 3.55s.
With 32" tires, the 3.55s are... "okay" ... but not exceptional. I thought about 3.73s but it wasn't enough of a boost to warrant the effort (it's only 5% more gearing). I wish there was something in the 3.8 to 3.9 range, but there isn't, so 4.11s it is!

Next, I've had a Ford 9" out of a Bronco in my garage for a while now, just collecting dust. After some deliberation, I decided to go with the 9" instead of the 8.8".

Someone over on ford-trucks.com mentioned that there's a performance axle company called Dutchman Axles only 5 miles from my house. I had no idea! I looked on their site and they have a "garage sale" section where they sell overstock, and they just happened to have a Ford 9" 4.11 gear set for $100.

I've never disassembled a 9" before, but it was pretty straight forward.
Fortunately, I bought a slide hammer last year for my spindles, so I was ready to go.

The attachment for the axles was super close, but needed some grinding. It's like they purposefully made it barely too small for a Ford 5 x 5.5" bolt pattern. I had to grind off about 1/16" in each direction:

A couple taps and bam:

The 9" has been sitting for a while, so it's a tad rusty. I'll clean it up with a wire drill attachment:

I've not dug into any 9" axles, but that appears to not have any sort of spider gears... is that a factory LS? My 78 has the LS in the 9".

 

[AbandonedBronco]

I've not dug into any 9" axles, but that appears to not have any sort of spider gears... is that a factory LS? My 78 has the LS in the 9".

Not that I can tell. There's a small, roughly 3/4" hole on one side of the carrier, and all I can see inside are spider gears. Nothing that looks like clutches or the sort.

 

[BigBlue 94]

Just looks so small to have any strength to the spiders lol!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

It does look small, but looking inside the spider gears are plenty big. They are just really squeezed in there with no room to spare!

Here's a pic of an open diff I found online and it looks just like the one I have.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

So after disassembling the 9" third member and looking it over, I started looking into upgrades, replacement parts, etc.
Turns out, I should have left it all together as I probably could have sold it as a usable piece. I ended up replacing every bit of it.

The local company, Dutchman Axles sells a nodular iron 3rd member housing, as well as a pinion support. They really weren't that expensive, so I picked them up.

The "Daytona" style pinion support has more strength, better oiling, and uses a larger outer pinion bearing:

The housing comes with better bracing on the face and a beefed up pinion bearing support:

The carrier bearing caps are also a bit beefier:

This was fun to show up in the mail!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

My new shop press was immediately handy. I really don't think I could have done this job without them.

Pressing in the pinion bearing:

Lastly, I pressed on the carrier bearings onto the TrueTrac.

This one was tricky, since the bearings are pressed on past the end of the carrier. I had to get creative with the press. But they're on!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Alright, I've done a poor job keeping this updated with my differential project. It's still ongoing!
Seems every step finds some new specialty part that I need to order and wait for it to show up.
Even the darn bolts for the leaf springs can't be sourced locally since NO ONE stocks Grade 8 (or equivalent) metric hardware. So I had to order those too.
But, it's been a great project, I've loved it. Just miss driving the Bronco.

Okay, onward.

I'd pulled apart the front before, but have never taken the differential out. I wanted to time myself to see how quickly I could do it, just for fun. Hit start when I started taking the first cap screw out of the hub, and stopped when I had the diff on the ground. 2 hours, almost on the dot! Not too bad!

Like the 8.8, the Dana 44 uses a C-clip to hold the passenger side axle in. This is only for 83+. On the 80 - 82, it's held in with bolts. I kinda wish I'd held onto my front diff from my '81, as I like that design better.

Fortunately, my main caps were already stamped, so it made them easy to keep in order and aligned:

It took a little prying but I got it to pop out without a case spreader.

I made the mistake of not busting the pinion nut free while it was on the vehicle, so I had to get creative in holding the diff still, so I could pop it off. Don't worry, I thought of a better solution later:

The small one kept the carrier from spinning and the large one kept the housing from rolling:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Next was popping all of the seals and bearings out of the old case. It was pretty straight forward:

I used a slide hammer attachment to pop the pinion bearing race out. It worked slick!

Blank canvas:

Meanwhile, my TrueTrac and rebuild kit showed up:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Without the proper puller (which is about $250 - $300), getting the bearings off the carrier is NOT easy.
I was able to by crushing down on them with a bearing separator in my shop press. Kind of using it as a wedge. Not ideal, and it destroyed the shims, but I was able to get them off.

Main reason I wanted to was to create a set of setup bearings, which is imperative in setting up the Dana 44. Pressing the bearings on is a one and done deal, so you don't want to be doing it over and over again. For some reason, setup bearings are about 3x as expensive as regular bearings (no idea why considering they're the same thing with just a slightly larger inner diameter), so I made my own.

Just kept sanding until they slid off and on easily. Not too bad overall! Probably about 20 minutes a bearing.

Now they snap on and off by hand.

Getting the ring bolted up and getting the pinion bearing pressed on:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Meanwhile... I decided to upgrade the Dana 44 inner shaft and bought one for a Dana 50. It showed up, so I was checking it out:

Definitely beefier:

The shop press makes for EASY u-joint replacement. Love this thing!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

This is my first time setting up gears, so it was a bit intimidating, but really not too bad overall!

The Dana 44 has a few things that have to go into place in proper order, like the oil seal etc.

Pressed in the outer pinion race, since there's no shims involved here.

Oh, I also made a setup bearing race. Much like the setup bearings, that his has to slide in and out numerous times to get the shims right, so you don't want to be pressing it in until all done. I ground off the outside of my old bearing race until it slid in and out of the case easily: