After the axle was centered, I had to set the pinion angle.

First, I removed the old 1310 driveshaft u-joint & installed a conversion u-joint 1310x1330. I thought about swapping the end of the 79 Bronco driveshaft onto the front of my 74 driveshaft (built after my 3.5" lift), but there is noone close that balances driveshafts, so I decided on the conversion u-joint. I then installed the driveshaft back into the truck.

I pushed & pulled on the 9" pinion, till I read 2* difference between my driveshaft slope (18*) and my pinion angle (16*). FYI, I checked my angles before tearing the truck apart & with an uncorrected 3.5" lift, the driveshaft was at 16* & the pinion angle was 12*. The 4* difference was not causing any terrible problems. I just had to replace u-joints every few years. The bearings would go bad & get sloppy.

Once the angles were right, I realized I had a problem to solve. I needed to grind off the "Chassis Saver" paint to weld the perches in place. Obviously, I want a very good weld here & needed to clean off under the spring perches. I didn't want to disassemble, then grind the area clean, and then have to reassemble & reset the angles again. Instead, I used a sharp pick tool to carefully scribe around the sides & ends of the perches. I also added some additional scribes on the sides of the perches to make sure I could realign everything.

Then, I pulled the whole axle out. I removed the spring perches, took a few measurements & carefully ground away paint, leaving important scribe marks. Next, I aligned each perch with my scribe marks & used a magnet to hold it in place. AFTER triple checking all my scribe marks & measurements, I tacked & final welded each perch in place.

and you shouldn't need a conversion joint, just swap the yokes from your early bronco diff to the 79' diff, i took the yoke off my old dana 30 and put it on my high pinion dana 44 it was the same spline and same with the eb dana 44, and the same with the nine inch, just took the eb yoke, then i had to shorten my front shaft and reroute my exhaust

After the perches were stuck in place, I cleaned them up with some laquor thinner & a scotch brite. I then shot them with a little black etch primer & then some chassis black spray paint I had around. I didn't want to break out the spray gear to use the Chassis Saver, so it doesn't quite match. Gloss black on satin black. It'll all be dirty soon enough.

I then built the new hard brake lines for the rear axles. I used our double/bubble flaring kit. Its one of my favorite shop tools (next to the welders, plasma cutter, pull post, etc). No splices, or extra tubing bent up & out of the way. I started with store bought sections of brake line & just cut off one end & reflared the end.

First you cut the tubing to length. Next, ream the inside & outside of the cut tube end. Then assemble the tubing through the appropriate block & lock into the end of the tool. Then install the 1st flaring die, screw down the tool till tight, and then pump the handle to set the die. Next, release the pressure, to loosen the tool, & replace the 1st flare die with the cone shaped die & repeat the flaring process. Sweet!

Oh yeah, I'm procrastinating adding the shock mounts. I'm going to move the shocks to the front, of the rear axle. I have one rear shock upper mount that was never installed from my old lift kit. I had to use one to replace the driver's side upper mount that broke years ago. I tried to cut that one off, to reuse it, but that is not going to happen. I'm going to just install the axle & worry about shock mounts later. Its easy enough to access after. I think I'm going to have to drop the front gas tank to do the extended radius arms tomorrow, anyways.

Chad

Oops, looks like I'm going to have to "move" the lines out of the way of the U-bolts. Doh!

Well today seemed to be an uphill battle all day. I did have a friend help from noon on. That helped, but nothing went easily.

Lesson #1: Build brake lines with u-bolts in mind.

I started the day by rebending the brake lines to fit around the u-bolts. It worked out OK. The short side of the axle was more difficult to make fit than the long side. I forgot my camera at home this morning, so no pics.

After getting the brake lines right, I moved the axle under the truck & bolted it up. It didn't just "fall" into place, a little pushing & pulling, and the rear end was bolted up.

Then I greased the driveshaft and installed it.

Lesson #2: Ford used some f****d up driveshaft ujoints.

Short story, the 1310/1330 conversion u-joint did not work. The retainer u-bolts would not fully tighten up on the caps. I'm going to pull the yoke off of my old 9" & reinstall my old 1310 u joint back into my driveshaft.

Long story, Ford used some 1330 series u-joints that had a larger cap on the pinion yoke. Normal 1330 u-joints have 4x 1.062" caps. The odd ball Ford 1330's pinon side used 1.125" caps & 1.062" caps on the driveshaft side. Since I had left the pinion side caps in the dirt when I pulled the axles, I didn't have them to measure. The 1310/1330 conversion u joint uses the normal 1.062" caps. I don't think there is a conversion u-joint that converts from a 1310 to a 1330 Big Cap.

Read more here: http://www.driveshaftspecialist.com/HTM ... p_U-Joints

This pic is what I ended up with (the set up on the right w/the paper clip): http://www.driveshaftspecialist.com/Ima ... 20copy.jpg

After I realized I needed to figure out what was wrong with the rear u-joint, I moved on to the front end.

The Bloody Knuckle arms come with a decent set of instructions. Of course they don't assume an axle swap.

The first important (not obvious) step is to measure the wheel base. I did this before swapping the rear end. I found a significant difference between the left side (+.75") & right side wheelbase. Funny, I never had any bad tire wear. After replacing the bent/sheared spring pins & installing the new rear axle the difference was less than .5". Still not perfect, oh well.

Then I pulled the front end out. Lots of steps; disconnect brake hose, vent hose, shocks, drag link, track bar, driveshaft, lower front end, unbolt lower coil spring retainers, disconnect radius arms from frame. I had to unbolt the end caps and slide the axle free from the radius arms. I couldn't raise the axle high enough to get the radius arms free from the frame. All that work in one paragraph, makes it seem easy.

The aux gas tank (and my crappy dual exhaust) is in the way of removing the old hangers. So I pulled the tank. There is a bolt used to install the arm hanger at the factory. That hole is a measuring point used in the instructions. I ground the factory weld off the bolt head & used an impact gun to remove the bolt. Then I took the plasma cutter to the bracket. I'll finish grinding the old stuff off when time allows. Right now its about getting the truck drivable again.

I measured back 10-3/4" from the center of the hanger bolt hole & made a mark. From what I could understand, this mark is supposed to be the center line of the large, 1", hole in the new radius arm hanger. Since the hanger covers this mark when it is in place, the mark is useless. Before I installed the new hangers, I made an eyeball measurement from the center of the 1" hole & the front edge of the hanger. Then, I made a new mark to approximate the front hanger edge. Installing the hangers is a tight fit (floor jacks & BFHs). I had to grind a little on a factory frame weld & move a few lines off the frame rails.

That thing looks like it's going to be a monster, set back behind your transfer like that. Not familiar with this upgrade. Is it all about articulation? I assume so, since you are going full width as well. How much more are you expecting over your previous set up?

After the frame brackets were temporarily set, it was time to get the radius arms bolted to the new axle.

FYI, 79 Bronco c-bushing caps are different than 74 Bronco c-bushing caps. This is important because the lower spring cup bolt spacing is different. I have to think through which set I'll use for the long run. Right now I've installed the 79 Bronco caps. Unfortunately, I installed my bushings wrong & will have to remove the caps & flip the bushings. I know they aren't the right caster, but I want to take a real measurement before ordering new bushings.

After the radius arms were bolted up & heim joints threaded into the ends, I rolled the axle under the truck. With surprisingly little effort, the heims slid into the frame brackets & the 1" bolts were installed.

I then took a wheel base measurement & both sides measured the same +/- .25", very, very close to what my right side wheel base measurement was after the new rear axle was installed.

The second pic is of the rear end hanging out past the old flares. Yeah, that is a gap between the door & fender. Its ugly, but the door opens & closes like new! Function before fashion.

I've got a ways to go, but the heavy lifting is done. I'll keep taking pics.

Chad

Well I didn't expect this to be easy, but I've run into "problem" after "problem". I put "problem" in quotes, because they all have solutions, I just need to wrap my head around all of them. Seems each time I try to put something together, I find another "problem".

First, and most obvious, my crappy dual exhaust (stock manifolds) is interfering with my front driveshaft. Who ever put it in (many years before I bought the truck) took wide margins & it hangs down like a set of long tube headers.

Does the BC Broncos "2 into 1" kit clear HP driveshaft?
Could the "2 into 1", built for manifolds be easily modified to fit headers (BC or WH) in the future? I'm going to call BC Broncos tomorrow to see if they have answers. My neighbor owns the muffler shop in town, but I'd be surprised if he could beat BC's price, even for his neighbor.

Second, my plan for a "temporary" steering/track bar went to s#!t. When I separated the 79 Bronco's draglink from the tierod, a piece of the drag link fell out. It looks like a piece of the socket that holds the draglink end. The draglink end flops around like crazy. I can't install this P.O.S. and trust it, so I'm looking at a DOM/TRO/C***y/TRE's ahead of schedule.

Small problems include:

Interference between the radius arms & front axle brake lines. This will be fixed with a little grinding & bending.

Front shocks will not fit. I'll have to move the upper shock mount to the outside of my James Duff "Super Hoop" shock mount -OR- move the lower shock mounts to the inside of the Bloody Knuckle radius arms. Any opinions, mount the shocks inboard of the radius arms? My gut says, no, move the shocks to the outside of the upper mount & use the BK lower mount.

Also, the exhaust hits the heim joint bolt at the back of the radius arms.

One thing I found curious, with the coil springs installed in the upper bucket, but loose at the bottom, the coils "pointed" right at the new, wider spring perches. Once the lower buckets were installed & things tightened up, the "bow" became evident.

Chad

Yeah, that's part of putting non-stock parts in any rig. Not very many are direct bolt-in's. Sorry to hear about your drag-link falling apart. But you'll be much happier with HD steering anyway.

I am getting ready to mount my shocks on the inside of my new arms, but you should wait for that last. Get everything else where it's going to be and flex your rig out to see if your shocks will interfere before you cut or weld anything on.

J.D.

Good advice, I'm not surprised that things are not fitting. Ordering steering set up now. Will be running without a front driveshaft till I can get a new exhaust installed. I'll put off the shock mounts till later. I'm fussing with the small details, so hopefully when the steering parts arrive, I'm ready to roll.

Add another "problem" to the list. After checking to make sure my c-bushings were installed right (they were - thick, on top of rear 1/2, and thick on bottom of front 1/2), my caster is WAY, WAY off. I checked and both sides are reading 13*. That is 13*, top tipped towards the rear of the truck. I knew that I'd have too much caster, but was expecting 4* too much, not 10*. I've got 6.5* bushings & about 5* built into the radius arms, with a 3.5" lift. I'm going to flip the bushings & see how that measures. What if you put both thick side of the bushings up, or both down? What would that do. Tell me what you guys think.

Chad

What degree if bushings do you have? I would think front thick top, rear thick top would be one step toward getting better caster, then front thick top, rear thin top would be the best you're going to get with those bushings. Depending on what bushings you have, would determine your best bet.

J.D.

My bushings are old J/D 6.5*.

Jim Cole thought I'd end up on 2* bushings. But if I put 2* in, I'd still have 9* of caster. I'm going to send him an email & see what he thinks.

I didn't get a chance to mess with it at work today, but tomorrow I'm going to flip both the front & rear bushings & see what happens.

Chad

I built my own arms and I cut and rotated the "C's" on the end of my axle and ended up with 8* of caster. It will drive nice and straight and doesn't follow ruts with bias ply 37" tires. Stock 78-79 broncos spec is 6*-8* of caster stock.

That is great news. I was shooting for 3*-4* (from a Chiltons or Haynes manual & I think I read it on CB.com). Is it ok to just flip my old bushings around (they seem in fine condition) till I get a reading I like? Instead of buying a new set of 2* or 0* bushings?

I just ordered some stuff from Ruffstuff, and again they are pretty great to deal with. I told them I needed a misalignment for a 3/4" heim to fit in my frame track bar bracket. It measures 1.7", their misaligments all measure 2", so they are trimming one down to 1.65" (same as the old bushing measured) for a couple extra bucks. I also got a tubing adapter that isn't really listed on their current web site, they'll be upgrading websites in a day or two. It will fit a 1" ID tube, 7/8x18tpi (TRE), and it has a hex head, so you can grab it with a wrench to make adjustments, instead of using a pipe wrench on the tubing. It'll take a couple days to ship since they are adjusting the misalignment.

Chad

Why is Carquest having trouble finding me a price on a yoke?

I thought I could just ask for a Ford 9"/1310 yoke. They asked, so I brought them the old 1330BC yoke. They said they had to take some measurements to get the right one. Now, they can't find one.

Are all 9" yokes the same (assume same material/spline count/u-joint). I did a quick search & only see one version of each.

Chad

Carquest could only find 1 available yoke, and the price was steep. I'm going to make some calls Monday & see what I can find. I'd like to sell my old 9" with the yoke attached.

I tried flipping only the front bushing & got almost 3* caster adjustment. Almost down to 10*. I'm going to try swapping both bushings next & see what caster measurement I get.

I plugged away at small projects today. I started by removing the c-bushing caps. I then removed the front shock mount from the left side cap with a plasma cutter. Then I cleaned up caps and primed & painted them. I used the 79 Bronco caps, they are a bit beefier & I had already prepped & painted the lower coil cups that match the 79 caps.

bb cap vs eb cap.JPG
bb vs eb 2.JPG
bb cap marked.JPG
cab cut.JPG

Next I moved on to get ready for my TRO. I've ordered the DOM, tubing ends, and a heim joint for the track bar.

I picked up the C***y TREs & draglink ends from Carquest today. Carquest switched from Moog to Raybestos recently, so I got Raybestos premium ends I used the reamer I bought from BC Broncos & a bunch of oil to ream out the knuckles for a tierod over swap.

Below are a couple pics of the TREs in the knuckles. I reamed till the TRE set almost to the "shoulder" on the tapered post. There is about 1/16" between the knuckle surface & "shoulder".
reamed knuckle.JPG
tre.JPG
tre bottom.JPG

I also spent some time grinding/cutting the rest of the old radius arm hangers from the frame. Lots of work, just to clean up the frame. There is still some hanger left on the inside of the frame. When the exhaust comes out, the last of the hanger will be removed.
mount gone.JPG

Next, I had to do something with my drop track bar bracket to deal with my unexpected TRO swap. I looked at JD's (jesusman) track bar frame bracket, very cool. I thought about cutting mine off & copying his with some 2x4x.25" I had. But, I was already tired of grinding, so I just pulled out the plasma cutter, and removed the "drop" part of the bracket. I'm going to finish the steering & see if I have any bump steer before more mods. I know JD's design will add a couple inches to the track bar, but I'm already adding a bit, going to full width axles. So I'll wait & see.
trackbar mount.JPG

Here is a pic of the painted c-caps & new TREs.
stuff & junk.JPG

I also wanted to post a pic of the T-bird caliper. I had to grind off part of the caliper to clear the brake hose. The T-bird calipers were for rear brakes, so they attached with hard lines. You can see the area ground to clear the hose. Its ground down flush to the surface where the inlet line screws in. I marked it with some yellow lines to make it clearer. (About 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock).
caliper clearance.JPG

Tomorrow, I'll reinstall the radius arms w/flipped bushings & hope the caster is better. I'll take some final measurements, then permanently attach the radius arm brackets to the frame.

After that, I'm going to work some more on the rear end. I've got to attach the e-brake cables & install the one shock mount I've got.

Hopefully, the vacuum bleeder will be back at the shop so I can bleed the brakes. If not, I'll do it next week.

Chad

Coming along nicely. I should spend a little more time to clean up my frame, but that's something that can always be done in the future.

My axles are not full width, so you may get away without a riser. That would be good.

J.D.

Thanks JD,

Your project is pretty sweet. Those arms are cool, and Boy Howdy, do I wish adjusting caster was just turning a few wrenches. Removing & reinstalling c-bushings is not convenient, and its not easy when you are by yourself. Hopefully I'll get out to a run this summer & meet some of you guys.

I had the time to do some grinding this weekend. It's not fun, but it does make things look a little nicer. I got the passenger hanger mostly off yesterday. It is hard to motivate to do those crappy jobs, when they don't really add up to a more functional install.

I'm trying to "clean up" all the details before my steering stuff arrives.

I re-installed the radius arms after the c-caps were dry. I took some time & chased threads & made sure the bolts did not rub the holes in the caps. Since the caps were machined for the original arms, the caps don't fit the new arms perfectly. I did my best to bolt the caps down with the arms on the ground. I think I was successful, but I'll only know after its more put together.

I flipped my 6.5* bushings (both front & rear) and got about 7* caster, good enough to drive it. That is good news. I also made some "adjustments" with a BFH to the placement of the radius arm brackets. They are both in the same place, relative to the old hanger hole, but I couldn't measure my wheelbase by myself, so I'm waiting to drill & weld them.

I'd say I'm adding 2 or 3 inches to the track bar, with the f/w axles.

Still to go: e-brake, bleed brakes, attach radius arm brackets (may have to move the exhaust temporarily), build steering & track bar, adjust toe-in, reinstall aux gas tank, mount front & rear shocks.

I also read about the camber shims in another thread. My axles had these, but I didn't know they were tapered. I thought it was a shim, so I just put it on, where it first fit. We have an old camber gauge, I'll try to see what I've done. If I can't get a camber reading, I'll take it to our alignment shop & get a real measurement.

It will be interesting to see how this thing drives. I know my old F-150 knuckles had the camber shims too, but again I just set them back in the first way they fit. Also, I can't swear to the c-bushing placement. My bushings are old & not marked w/"TOP" or "BOTTOM", in fact, I don't remember the JD instructions even mentioning the proper orientation, I never did take it to an alignment shop. My alignment couldn't be that bad, my tires didn't wear funny, & it drove OK at highway speeds. It did like to "follow" the ruts in the road.

Chad

Got back to work on this today. I thought I'd have most the odds & ends done by this time, but somehow this week slipped by and I didn't get much done. All I seemed to acomplish this week was to drill out the frame to bolt up the radius arm brackets.

If I don't finish this soon, my dogs may mutiny, as they haven't had a trip to the lake in a few weeks. My other cars are "NO DOG" zones. I really didn't think this would drag out like this, but it is what it is.

First I "aligned" the front end with a tape measure, and placed the new TREs into the knuckles w/the new tubing adapters installed. Then I cut a piece of DOM to fit. I tacked the adapters to the DOM & reinstalled the tie rod back into the knuckles.

Then I made sure, using a plumb bob & tapemeasure, the axle was centered under the truck. I compared how the 74 track bar & the 79 track bar fit from the axle to the frame bracket. Although, too short, the 74 track bar seemed to "point" towards the frame bracket better. Plus the poly bushing in the 74 bar was in much better shape than the old rubber bushing in the 79 bar. I really didn't want to spend more time removing the old rubber bushing from the 79 bar, so it made the decision easy. I cut the frame end off the 74 bar & ground about 2" of the cut end down to 1" diameter.

ground track bar.JPG

Then I carefully measured the overall length needed for the new track bar. After some math, I cut another section of DOM to slide over the track bar. Then I tacked the DOM to the track bar & the new tubing adapter, and installed the new heim joint. That is when I realized Ruffstuff had NOT milled the misalignment to my specs. So I spent some time grinding about .35" off the two halves of the misalignment so it would fit in my frame bracket.

Begin Between not knowing they shipped out my DOM, and not milling the misalignment, Ruffstuff has disappointed me. Their products & prices are good, but for some reason their customer service has fallen flat. The owner will get an email explaining what has happened. The day before my DOM arrived, I contacted them, asking why my order had not shipped. In fact, it had, but no one at R.S. noted it. They didn't even know they had shipped it & asked me to split the 2 day UPS charges, so it would arrive before the weekend. I really didn't think that I should have to pay to extra ship an order that had sat for 6 days, but I didn't feel like fighting, so I agreed. The next day (Wed), the order was sitting on the porch. I immediately called & told them, so they were able to stop the duplicate shipment. I asked that the $15 be refunded, but it still hasn't. I could have kept quiet & let them ship another set of DOM, but I didn't feel like that was honest. Now I'm out an extra $15, and I had to take an extra 45 minutes to grind off the misalignment they failed to adjust. End

EDIT: I'm not going to remove my , but please read 2 posts below, they fixed the problem, BIG TIME.

After the tack welded track bar was installed, I reamed out the holes in the TRE & pitman arm, where the drag link attaches. I have a drop pitman arm I installed years ago when I installed my P/S. Since my stock pitman arm wouldn't come off the old steering box, and I thought I'd never need it, I sent it back with the core. Now I wish I had it back. The angles aren't perfect, but with the drag link dropping DOWN through the pitman arm, the angles were better.

2nd : I've PM'd a member here repeatedly attempting to purchase a stock pitman arm from him. Even though he has responded, erratically, and I've offered to pay him plus shipping, he has failed to actually finalize the deal. IF YOU ARE GOING TO PUT ITEMS FOR SALE IN THE CLASSIFIEDS, BE PREPARED TO FINISH WHAT YOU START. If he wasn't interested in shipping, he should have just stated that. I would have accepted it & moved on. Instead, he's dragged this out for a couple weeks. End 2nd

Sorry I'm bitching, but between Ruffstuff & the lazy forum member, I'm tired of people not doing what they say they'll do.

So I measured the length of the draglink & cut my final piece of DOM & tacked in the tubing adapters. Then I installed the drag link.
steering link tacked.JPG

After I was sure I was happy with how things fit, I disassembled & finished welding the steering & track bar. I shot it with paint, and left it to dry overnight.

Here is a pic of my finished track bar.
finished track bar.JPG

Tomorrow: weld up frame brackets, install steering & track bar, install new pinion yoke, reinstall 1310 u-joint into driveshaft, install driveshaft & p-brake cables, bleed brakes, & hopefully mount front & rear shocks.

Then walk the dogs, before they kill me.

RUFFSTUFF SPECIALTIES ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sent a PM to Dan (aka Gravelmaker) over on CB.com. I made it clear I was unhappy with my experience, and felt like I didn't receive the kind of service I had expected. In under 1 hour Dan had issued a FULL refund for my DOM order. All I asked for was a refund for the extra shipping & the charge to mill the misalignment. The refund I received was more than 2x what I asked for. He apologized repeatedly for the misunderstanding. He seems truly dedicated to his customer's satisfaction. He just earned a customer for life.

I owned a retail & service business for 10 years and always tried to "over service" my customers. It is nice to deal with a company that works the same way.

BTW, they just updated to a new website & are offering some real good deals.
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showth ... p?t=184287

Chad

I have been very happy being a reseller for RuffStuff. I have always been able to get ahold of Ramsey and get things done the way my customer needs them done.