TJ's 74 Bronco money pit

[cpldavis37]

Hi all,

Thought I would introduce myself. My name is TJ and I am the proud new owner of a 1974 Bronco. I am towing it to my house
sometime today or tomorrow. The "freeze plug" on the drivers side head rusted through and needs to be replaced. It is also stuck in 4lo, but Ill deal with that after I get it running again. It has very little rust and its overall in good shape. The engine is out of a 1993 ford mustang gt. (Hopefully a cobra so it has GT-40 Heads). It has a C4, 4 1/2 inch lift with a 3 inch body lift which I might take off. I will post more pics when I get her home. Cant wait!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the great forum.

[hockeydad4-22]

Sweet! Another new guy. Welcome to the club. This place and these guys are the best bar none. Hope to meet you at a breakfast, tech day or trail ride soon.

[Entourage]

Congrats on the new purchase. Looks like you found a great Bronco. Sounds like you found a great Bronco and looks really clean. Great color and cool rims. Will be fun to hear how getting it drivable goes - keep us updated. Good luck getting it home and post more pics. A BIG welcome to the Club!

[Viperwolf1]

Welcome aboard. I saw that one for sale and thought it looked like a good deal.

[D&D72]

Welcome! Good luck with getting it going, You got a severe head start on things I wanna do with mine. Sweet!

[Jesus_man]

Nice ride for sure and welcome to the club!! That is too much lift, so I think you're smart with taking out the Body lift. I like 5.5" total lift. Right now mine has 3.5" suspension and 2" body. That allows good suspension articulation (with the right springs) and room for almost any drivetrain mod you may want.

J.D.

[Justin]

Looks like a great ride! x2 on pulling the body lift. The 4.5" lift will give plenty of room for up to 35" tires if you're willing to cut sheetmetal.

[cpldavis37]

Well I had it towed over 40 miles home for next to nothing thanks to my boys at Extreme towing!!! When I got it home I had the freeze plug ready and changed it the next day. I didnt want to pull the head or engine so I cut the rusty firewall and went to it. I found so chunks of stopleak so I did a flush. It is running and holds right at 180. It is idling high so the carb needs some adjustment. The MSD ingition had a loose wire and is now fixed. I still need to look into a couple of leaks around the t-case and transmission, but that will have to wait duty calls.

I did have a question about the elect fuel pump. Its a Holly and it seems really loud. I have had the same set up in my 79 Cobra, but I just didnt remember it being loud. It also take a while to prime. Ill have to figure it out.

[Jesus_man]

Usually when they are loud, they are on their way out. I think mine is approaching that mark too. Is it a red pump?

How long does it take to prime. I think mine is about 3-4 seconds.

J.D.

[airbur]

Welcome! Very nice project you have there!

[cpldavis37]

I did the flush and replaced some hoses that leaked. I still have to put in a new heater core and the cooling system should be good to go. I had it running, but I could not get the idle below 1100rpms. I checked the timing and it was 12 advaced which should be about right. I noticed that the choke was stuck open about a 1/4 inch when the all of the time so I thought that could have been the problem. I adjusted the electric choke and now it wont stay running at all. I tried adjusting the idle speed no change. I thought it could be air/fuel adjusted no change. I think the problem has to do with the jets or rods. I am ordering a rebuild kit, jet/rod kit and an offroad needle setup. When I get it all I will let everyone know how it goes. I have never rebuiilt an elelbrock (1406) so we will see how it goes. I was thinking about an ez-efi from edelbrock down the road.

[cpldavis37]

I will start on brakes next. The pedel goes all the way to the floor before I get anything. I need to check them and bleed them for starters.

[ZOSO]

there is not much to "rebuild" on an edelbrock. Just take it apart and clean it. Blow air or carb cleaner through all ports. Then put it together. A good starting point for rods and jets is 2 stages leaner on cruise and power. Screw in the idle mixture screws then back out 1.5 turns. When you pull it apart post up the numbers on the rods and jets. I'll plug them in this awesome spread sheet booger made to give us some calculations with how much change different combos make. We spent a whole summer figuring this all out with my 79. I installed a wideband o2 sensor to do it too.

[PonyCorral]

Congrats, looks like a good project!

[cpldavis37]

Completed the rebuild of the carb. I took it apart and let it soak in parts cleaner for a couple of days while I waited on parts. Once I had everything I rebuilt it. I didnt run into any major problems. The parts cleaner was a little sticky when it dried. Nothing that carb cleaner didnt take off. I replaced everything put in offroad needle and seats, new gaskets, and jets/rods. I contacted edelbrock to see what they thought. I put in .095 pri, .092 sec, and 1456 rods (073 x 047 I think). I did not know what springs to use though. I went with the silver ones, but have no idea if that is right. I have not had time to tune it yet. When I re-installed it she fired right up with no issues. I am sure I will have trouble with tunning it seems to be a common thread on just about every site about edelbrock carbs. Any advise on tuning would be welcome.

[Justin]

If you have the money, a wideband AFR meter can be a good investment. It allows you to see the AFR in realtime across a variety of real-world load conditions and can be really handy in tuning. I picked one up a while back and will be rebuilding my carb after I get the time to install it.

[cpldavis37]

Well I did some adjusment and it runs ok, but It is very hard to start when cold. I dont think the choke is working. It seems sticky and it does not fast idle. When I get it started it idles around 800rpms and stays at 800. I am going to try and mess with the choke. It could be simple maybe just adjust the fast idle screw. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Booger]

Yea it sounds like no choke. With the engine cold look at the carb and open the throttle by hand to see if the choke butterfly snaps closed. If it doesn't snap closed then you may have:
1. Choke just set too lean. Try loosening the choke housing screws and turning it in the rich direction. If it closes the choke butterfly then your in business. If not then:
2. The choke has a bimetal spring inside and it may not be installed in the tab for the butterfly correctly.
3. Broken bimetal spring.
The electric connection is used as a means to heat the bimetal spring to open the choke. Since you may not have a choke stove (tube or other means to route warm air to the choke housing to heat the spring up for choke pull off) it will need power to warm up the spring. Power should be switched so only when the key is on.

Hope this helps.

[cpldavis37]

I couldn't get the Bronco to run right. I know I had the wrong intake, it was a victor jr. Why it had that on is anyone's guess. I ordered a performer intake and a thunder series 500cfm carb with .083 jets for the primariy as per edelbrock. I also ordered a new off road needle and seat. I just rebuilt the old carb, but could not figure it out. It was a 1406 so more carb then I needed anyways. Hopefully I will have everything by Monday so I can get this thing running. Now I just need to sell the victor jr and carb.

[cpldavis37]

Just a new pic

[cpldavis37]

Viper came over and helped me pull the trans/tcase. He is rebuilding both for me and I am adding a twin stick. I think I am going to por15 the underside while the trans is out. Viper you are the man I could not have done it without you.

[airbur]

Viper is making the rounds lately!! Nice work:)

[cpldavis37]

Ordered new torque converter nuts, twin stick, and tcase bushings. I must love sleeping on the couch. My wife just loves when I spend money on the Bronco. I should book a room at a hotel now so when I do the gears, lockers and 35 spline I will have somewhere to stay.

[Viperwolf1]

TJ,

Here is the damaged pump gear I talked to you about.

Bronco 019.jpg

Bronco 020.jpg

The crack goes all the way around but luckily the gear hadn't come apart yet. I can see marks where the converter was forced into the gear flats. This one was caught just in time. If it had come apart it would have been ugly.

[Booger]

TJ,

Here is the damaged pump gear I talked to you about.

Bronco 019.jpg

Bronco 020.jpg

The crack goes all the way around but luckily the gear hadn't come apart yet. I can see marks where the converter was forced into the gear flats. This one was caught just in time. If it had come apart it would have been ugly.

I bet that's whats wrong with the C4 in my shed only the gear probably did come apart.

[Viperwolf1]

C4 done. D20 goes together tomorrow.

Bronco 042s.jpg

Bronco 043s.jpg

[cpldavis37]

Those look new you are the man.

[HorseMan]

great starter truck! I always like the roadster inserts. And you cant go wrong with that viper built c4.

[cpldavis37]

Viper came over today to reinstall the c4 and tcase. The bronco is now twin sticked with Viper built trans and tcase. Viper also helped me put in new ujoints. Thanks for all the help couldn't have done it without you brother.

[cpldavis37]

Por15 on the trans tunnel.