What do you have for a front axle again? HP D44?

1" or 2" of extra clearance is worth a fair amount of effort. Just sayin'. From my experience 1" could be the difference between making it or not. And you don't really want to be resting the bronco on the t-case.

Making some progress...

I have the transmission and transfer case pretty much in the location where it will sit from now on. Friday I picked up a 5 foot section of 1/4 inch plate and 8 feet of 1 1/2" x 120 wall DOM for the cross member - Just waiting on the Ruff Stuff pivot kit to finally fab up the crossmember.

Finally cut off the ZF-5 transfer case pivot points and got the twin sticks installed. I had to cut more of the floor out to fit the sticks, but thats fine I expected it.
4 low just clears the zf-5 2nd gear and just clears the dash in 3rd and 5th.. its close but wont hit :)



I also swapped the rear Dana 20 yoke with a flange for the 1350 driveshaft, will get to the 9 inch yoke this week sometime...



Right now I'm wrestling with the brake/clutch pedal assembly. I had to essentially pull the whole thing out and will be working on that this week to get the hydro clutch setup installed.. hopefully be done with that in a few days. Hoping to finally stop disassembly and start putting stuff back on soon :)

Anyway, crossing my fingers that this swap works will be great to drive it without the vibration or the bag of hammers!

Only had an hour or so tonight. Got the pedals swapped out and started fabbing up the clutch linkage for the clutch plunger. I think this will work but I might try to find a better joint for the brake pedal as there is slight amount of slop.

That looks good, very similar to my setup.

hurry up. i wanna drive it with that zf5

Hydraulic Clutch Reservoir installed and linkage lined up perfectly and clears the hydroboost, still have to run the hard line down the remote slave but getting there..





I have the rest of the pieces from Ruff Stuff to complete my cross member so I will start on that tomorrow :)

Only welded a handful of times so my welds are not the prettiest - still working on my technique :)

Welded the pivot point, ironiclyhy the inner welds are better than the outside ones but seeing as this will be under the Bronco don't think anyone will see it.



Pivot point mocked up on the ZF



Anyway finally got around to fabbing up the crossmember however goofed up the driver side bend to clear the front driveshaft so I will be re-bending to try again as I have several feet of DOM left over so might as well do it right!



I goofed and shorted the distance on the loop... probably could have thrown something together but might as well do it right.



1350 rear driveshaft - waiting to install the rear pinon, need a inch pound torque wrench should be here tomorrow...



A few more little things done as well - hydro clutch is installed and bled, I rotated the transfer case up a bit and had to redo the twin stick linkage and bent the sticks to clear my legs :)

hopefully will have the cross member installed and painted by the weekend.

If you are going to re-do your cross member, can I suggest one thing? Instead of hanging the member below the pivot point, put it behind and gain a couple inches of clearance. It'll be a L-shape instead of straight up and down and since you rely on the bolt for support either way, you don't lose any strength.

Ahh, yes! Good catch Justin! Yep, one set to the cross member, one to the bushing.

You gotta think into the future tho. You probably won't have those arms forever, or the stock t-case...

Nope, I will be going long arm before summer :)

Havent touched mine in over a month but back at it now that some side jobs are done. Resealed the 205 on mine, and made it ready for twin sticking, looks like my J shift JBfabs are gone and I will be buying a set from JB for the 205.
I did however notice that you will no longer be needing your gear banger and I know a guy that might be interested in making it work for his zf5/205 setup, he'll probably haul it off for nothing. Ahem, anyhow let me know if you have a home for ityet or not.

sad tat you started after me and it looks like you might get to the finish first, slow progress here

Time for some paint ;)

Allot was accomplished today -

Thanks to Justin and his big brain we were able to bend up the crossmember so that it was one piece. It was a close but got it to fit pretty well. After my last mistake of a solid mount I decided to mount the pivot joint right to the crossmember and added a couple of gussets to strengthen the pivot weld area.



I went a little on the welding as this was my first fabrication and wanted to make sure the crossmember stayed together but all in all I am pretty happy with how it turned out.



all painted up..



Mounted up...





Hangs down about as far as the radius arms, when I go long arm they should be even...



Also swapped out the rear Yoke for a 1350.



I was going to try something with teh engine shielf but it didn't work out so I used it as an excersize to practice my welding. I cut the metal shielding and fitted it under the oil pan so that If I need to I can remove it and see whats going on with the throwout bearing and starter. Installed the starter as well, went with a 351w Auto mini starter.. hoping it works a quick peak showed i MIGHT have half engagement with the flywheel.. we will find out soon enough...



I will be drilling and bolting up the crossmember tomorrow, then installing the steering cloumn and see if this thing starts!

Looks great!


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Some sexy bends for sure! Nice work!

Got everything together today and even attempted a start however having a starter issue.

Seems the starter is just a bit too far away to engage the flywheel. Tried twice got a grind once so probably took some material off the edge of the starter teeth. I will pull the metal shield and remove the starter and see what I can do to increase engagement.

I expected this to be a problem as it didn't look like it was close enough to the flywheel when I mounted it. Maybe there is another starter that has a longer throw?

If that is the only starter that has the correct distance from the flywheel but not enough throw then maybe the starter case can be cut back.

Pulled the starter and the shield off and everything looks good. I can see where the starter teeth have touched the flywheel it should be plenty to turn it. I sat underneath the bronco and had my wife turn the key a few times, the starter doesn't even touch the flywheel and needs to be moved in a bit. I dont really see any adjustment on the starter or the bellhousing, but honestly its cooooold out there and i called it a night after watching the starter miss the flywheel.

Is there something I am missing or am I going to have to slot the starter and or the bell housing?

well i did some measurements and contemplated even modifying the 351W starter but started comparing the 400 starter with it and i found that not only is the throw slightly longer on the drive gear but it is indeed closer to the flywheel. So after wrestling with the starter wire for 30 min to get it attached to the monster 400 starter first turn of the key it fired right up!

some pics of the starters... hard to tell but there is a slight difference. I wasn't far from engagement, depth of the gear tooth so its hard to see..

400 starter


351W Auto starter


I shifted the gears while the Transfer Case was in neutral, seemed to shift fine and go into gear. I do have a slight sound coming from the clutch which I assume is the pilot bearing ever so slightly touching the clutch diaphragm, at least I think it is. Goes away about a second after I Lift off the clutch. I will probably have to figure out how to add a strong return spring somehow to the fork.. this should be interesting...

The other problem readily apparent is the massive exhaust leak I have. I will have to pull the exhaust off and ground more relief into the bell housing on the passenger side to allow me to tighten the flanges down. I am really relieved the exhaust clears everything including the new cross member!

I am going to pick up a mini starter for the 400/460 (same starter) as this gigantic 400 starter I have now - its very very difficult to work with.

Hope to go for a test drive by Friday, but probably wont be until next week... huzzah!

Congrats!

Perseverance always pays !

Congrats !

Glad we won't be push starting that thing up the rocks in Moab.

A huge milestone! Can't wait to see the smile on your face as you drive off into the sunset!

Nice. I love the 'unconventional' trucks we have in this club.

x2. We've definitely got some folks willing to tackle more advanced, unusual setups. It's a testament to how awesome the club is.

Threw the seat and reinstalled the steering column and took it for a spin. Man it shifts nice no more hulk shifting.

Still not sure the throw out bearing isn't riding a little on the diaphragm. I gonna have to take a look here next week. Next up are new 3 point seat belts and figure out a couple of tunnel covers.

One thing I noticed was how poorly the seats are mounted. Won't get to it before Moab but definitely will be figuring out a way to tie then into the cage before summer.

So guess I will post up some finish photos and a video or two to close out the thread. Will be next week before I can get to that.