build thread from the wind tunnel

[Gunnibronco]

It's always something.

The rear main seal that has always dripped a little. That drip turned into a significant leak when it finally restarted in 2021 after my extended Atlas/ZF5 install. The screw in dip stick has the typical drip as well. Since the oil pan is clear of exhaust, starter, front axle, etc I decided to tackle the rear main seal and fix the dip stick leak.

The oil pan is one of the only things I have never removed or replaced. The truck had just received a new short block before I bought it. This is probably the last thing I can blame on the PO.

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Really, who does this?

I can't imagine why the rear main leaked. How does that happen? The 1974 Ford part number kind of makes me worry it's original.

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[Jesus_man]

I can't quite tell what's going on with the oil pickup.

But OE rear main? They don't make them like than anymore!!

[Gunnibronco]

There is a bracket that should hang the pick up from a main cap bolt. The bolt should have a stud on the end, none of mine do. I suspect this was a short block rebuilt motor from a parts house and it came without the correct main cap bolt. Instead of finding the right one, they just torched(?) off the end of the bracket and let the pick up hang from the pump.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ctr-20-950

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/MEL-68-S5

The OE main seal makes me wonder IF the motor has actually been rebuilt. I wouldn't have expected a Ford seal in a rebuilt short block. I'm trying not to think about that. The rear bearing looks pretty good and the motor has always been strong with good oil pressure. So it's going back together as is with a new pick up tube and main cap bolt.

Of course this job is fighting the whole way. In addition to the hacked up pick up tube/main cap issue, I'm struggling to get the new seal to install around the crank. I even loosened up all the main caps but I still can't slide the seal around the last 25%. The new seal is damaged from 2 hours and 3 attempts to push it into place. There isn't a new seal in town at any of the parts stores. Yes our trucks are that old. So now I'm waiting on a new rear main seal, pick up tube, and main cap bolt. Fun times.

[Gunnibronco]

I found a seal in Carson City up the road and got the rear main installed and done. Pushed the new seal in clockwise, instead of counter clockwise and it slid right in, just like on YouTube!

Here is a better picture of the craftmanship that went into my custom oil pick up.

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Front axle is test assembled for the last time. Had a lot of clearancing to get the ball joint deletes and Superjoint grease zircs to play nice.

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[Jesus_man]

What size is that hex key on the knuckles?!?!
Glad the new seal went in well this time!

[Gunnibronco]

What size is that hex key on the knuckles?!?!
Glad the new seal went in well this time!

It's a 3/4" or 19mm hex key. I ghettoed up a tool by welding a several 1/2" nuts to a bolt. It's not pretty but it torqued at 100# for the lowers so I guess it's good enough. I made a similar tool for my oil fill plugs on the diff housing.

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Oil pan, rear main seal, new main cap bolt/stud, and oil pick up tube are all installed. While the pan was out I pulled apart the dip stick fitting, tapped it for bolts and installed a new gasket. The old dip stick tube was pretty beat up so I've built a new one from 3/8" steel fuel line. I'll need to adjust the length to match the correct oil capacity once I can run the motor.

Exhaust is reinstalled, about 90% of it is wrapped behind the headers and I've added an insulation shield to the muffler.

I'm waiting for new bolts so I can install the pinion guards. It shouldn't have been a challenge, but I couldn't find 7/16"-14x2" grade 8 bolts locally so I ebay'd them.

I'm guessing if everything goes well I could have this all together and ready to fire up by the end of this long weekend. Lots of stuff to fill, bleed, check for leaks, etc, as well as adjust the steering and suspension linkage. Fingers crossed.

[Gunnibronco]

Photo dump of progress, I don't know why the previews are upside down. They show right if you click on them. I'm putting everything back together, hopefully for good now.

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Unfortunately, I ran my air lines to my diffs without the exhaust installed and now don't like how close the lines are to the exhaust. The air lines are right above the exhaust pipe just before the muffler.

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I bit the bullet and bought a small Flowmaster HP2 muffler. The compact size (4"x5.5") and insulated case made the sale. I'm a bit worried it will be too loud. I was considering buying a Car Chemistry exhaust insert, but decided to wait till the exhaust is installed to judge the sound levels. But... when I stopped at Summit to pick up the exhaust parts, they were remodeling the showroom and had tons of demo items on sale. I picked up a $60 insert for $20. They also had 2 Powermaster starters. I couldn't help myself and grabbed both, $340 of starters for $120. I'm a sucker.

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Rear axle is in complete. Just needs brake lines bled. Fuel line and air line to rear are complete.

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Front axle is installed with center chunk. Test cycled one more time. Just needs axles installed and spindles/brakes/hubs/brakes/air/oil. I got the bump stops set, shocks and coil springs, and tie rod and drag link installed after the pic.

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I've filled the radiator and motor oil (mostly). But need to bleed the coolant and adjust the new dip stick tube to proper length.

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So far no leaks! Hoping to get it started and everything bled this weekend. Then off to my friends shop to see if we can build a driveshaft he likes that doesn't vibrate. If not I'll order from Tom Woods and be done with it. It will be cool to watch my friend try to break all the rules of driveline and pinion angels.

[Gunnibronco]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo close.

My hope is to have everything in order so Saturday morning I can start it and check for leaks, bleed radiator and steering, and de-bug anything that is obviously wrong. Then I'll load it onto a trailer and take it down to my friends shop where he wants to try to build me a single cardan driveshaft with double cardan driveline angles.

Leaf spring perches aren't welded on, we are going to play with the pinion angle while trying to build the "impossible driveshaft".

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2008 Superduty MC & HB, 2x large Astro MC reserviors, mounted on Mustang HB firewall bracket, custom clocking ring, push rod spacer. Really.

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New "parking brake"

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[Gunnibronco]

Waiting for my friend to get back into town so we can try to build a driveshaft.

I made a Facebook Marketplace score a couple months ago. Got it installed yesterday. I had to build a platform to raise the door above the rear roll cage crossmember. It's larger than I expected, but I'm super happy with it. It will store all my tools, parts, fluids, recovery gear, etc easily. I'm going to add some tie down points soon.

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[Kinder]

Nice, is it a Tuffy product?

[Gunnibronco]

Yes, it's this bad boy.

https://tuffyproducts.com/products/mid- ... sku=046-01

I couldn't believe it was still available. The guy had marked it down from $400 (which was a good price) to $200.

I'm not sure it's worth the $950 retail, but I guess everything is more expensive than it should be now-a-days.

[Jesus_man]

I'd love to know more about your e-brake? I haven't had one...well since I bought this bronco. There are times it'd be handy!

I am excited for you!!

[Gunnibronco]

I'd love to know more about your e-brake? I haven't had one...well since I bought this bronco. There are times it'd be handy!

I am excited for you!!

My ebrake is just a high quality 2000psi hydraulic in line valve as a line lock. Pump and hold the brakes, and turn the valve. It works, it held the truck on a slight hill yesterday, and I accidentally left it on for the first part of my test drive and it defiantly was noticeable. There are several guys I know running a similar set up and they do say it bleeds down over time (overnight). I'm just happy I don't have to turn the truck off to jump out to open/close the garage door etc. It will also give me a little peace of mind when parking on trails. I worry about it popping out of gear and rolling off the trail, or worse. Also, in a worst case/catastrophic failure, you can shut off the rear brakes and keep the fronts working.

I drove it yesterday for the first time. My friend cut my 1310 double cardan off my "old" driveshaft and installed a single 1350 ujoint. Pinion pointed at the tcase like a double cardan. Ran smooth up to about 55mph. I'm going to burn in my spring perches and get it out on the highway to confirm I'm good at 65ish. So surprising.

If everything works we'll build 2 new thick wall driveshafts with 1350 at the axle and 1410->drive flange at the tcases. The 1410 joints have a better range of motion than the 1350s so that should (hopefully) prevent any binding. The one we made yesterday will be my trail spare (1310x1350 conversion at the axle, 1350->drive flange at the tcase). It also leaves a 1350 as my driveline fuse. I'm afraid I'm approaching the point that something in my Atlas being the fuse.

Everything is working well. I have had some coolant dripping, I'm hoping that is spillage left over from disconnecting the hoses. I can't find an obvious source for the leak. Otherwise no surprises. Fingers crossed more shakedowns go as smoothly!

[Jesus_man]

That's all great news!!

[Gunnibronco]

More shake down runs and things are looking good!

I took it out Friday after work for some on-road miles. It runs very smooth up to 70mph. It's a little sketchy at 70 but that is to be expected, definitely need to stay focused. There is a very minor weirdness like a vibration at 60+. It might just be an imbalance on the driveshaft or something else.

I found the source of the coolant and it looks like it was ting from the heater line where I have a ball valve located to shut off flow to the heater core off completely. I also got a random seep from the upper hose at the radiator after it sat for 24 hours. I'm not sure what to think about that. I tightened everything and will resort to new hoses soon if I can't stop it.

Saturday a friend and I went into the "sand pits" very near my house for some light off roading. It performed very well and I did get to test the ARB in the rear. I figured out my front bumps aren't charged so I need to find someone who can charge the nitrogen. They bottomed out, but I wouldn't have known it except for the oring indicators showed fully collapsed. I may have my front and rear brake lines swapped at the MC. I never got confirmation on the '08 SuperDuty MC ports. I was going down a steep little hill and the rear end seemed to "wheel hop" on me. I'm guessing the rear brakes might have been locking up before the fronts.

So far so (very!) good. No major worries, mistakes, terrible noises, bad performance. I'm looking forward to building 2 new driveshafts and doing some serious testing.

[Jesus_man]

That is great to hear!!

When I just recently installed a new radiator, I got some seeping from some of the hose connections after the first real run. I tightened those up and it's been fine since.

[Gunnibronco]

That is great to hear!!

When I just recently installed a new radiator, I got some seeping from some of the hose connections after the first real run. I tightened those up and it's been fine since.

Thanks!

[D&D72]

Super cool! Like the pics on FB too. Must be the first time it’s seen daylight since it went in to the “new” shop.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks,

It ran for about 8 months from June 2021-January 2022 before I started my 3 month* axle swap.

After this, I have no plans to take on anything that will shut the truck down for any extended period of time.

*actual length of axle swap may vary by up to 600%

[Gunnibronco]

Some flexy pics on my RTI rock. I'm only running on my "spare" rear driveshaft. We are shortening a couple HD 1410 driveshafts my friend was running on a Jeep he rolled. Hopefully I should have a full set of beefy driveshafts soon.

I need to add some more nitrogen to my front bumps, and limit my rear up travel a little more. I'm easily fully compressing my front bumps @ 225psi. My right rear was still about 1/2" from full bump in these pics.

Super happy all my suspension changes appear to have made it a little more flexible. I was happy with the way it was working before, and very worried I'd make things worse with my changes.

I'm working on some problems with my ball joint deletes, and I need to add a proportioning valve to my brakes. My rears are locking up before my fronts. I swapped brake lines at the MC and that didn't help at all. I'm not sure which port should run the fronts vs rears. One response I got was the MC was 50/50 not proportioned for front brakes. I find that difficult to believe. I think the 3" rear brake pistons are just too much.

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[Justin]

That thing is sweet. You've made so.e interesting changes.

[Gunnibronco]

That thing is sweet. You've made so.e interesting changes.

Thanks. My friends used to call my Bronco "FrankenBronco". I've taken that to the extreme in the last 10 years. It's definitely my own twisted creation. I probably would/should have moved away from radius arms and leaf springs, but it is what it is now. I think I've decided this is the end of the road for big mods. The next steps would be to further stretch the wheel base and go to linked suspension. After hanging with "buggy" guys I realize those trails will only destroy my body and I don't want to do that. It's an overbuilt overlander. If I want more I'll buy a purpose built buggy. From making a few of those runs as a passenger, I'm not sure how much fun I had and I'm not really considering that at this time.

[Justin]

I'm in that same boat. Bought mine to wheel the bejeebers out of it, but current values make it hard to feel good about beating on it. Still shooting to link the rear, and maybe do sliders.

[Gunnibronco]

I'm in that same boat. Bought mine to wheel the bejeebers out of it, but current values make it hard to feel good about beating on it. Still shooting to link the rear, and maybe do sliders.

Sliders, skid plates, hydro assist are all still on the list. But all things considered those are minor mods at this point. LOL.

I'm not going to be shy about wheeling, but don't want to turn my rig into a "raisin" (a term referring to Toyotas and XJs that have been utterly destroyed). Honestly the buggy runs I went on were somewhat grueling. I want to go cool places and see cool things. Not bust my ass for 10 hours on a trail in the bottom of a canyon where you can barely see the sun.

[Jesus_man]

You should be proud of that!! Looks like it flexes quite well!! Looking forward to seeing it in person.

My body is pretty far gone to really do much about now, but I also don't want to just tear it to pieces because it still looks like a bronco!

[Jesus_man]

I didn't realize you had no sliders! It if were me, that would be priorty #1 now. Rockers are one of the first things to go IMO.

[Gunnibronco]

I didn't realize you had no sliders! It if were me, that would be priorty #1 now. Rockers are one of the first things to go IMO.

Thanks, I am proud of the results and pretty excited (understatment) to get out and enjoy it.

Rock sliders are 100% next. I've already hit on what little rocker I left, I really don't want to get into the doors. I also want to protect that Atla$ with a skid plate.

[Gunnibronco]

Quick frustrating update.

I am still trying to get my ball joint deletes sorted. Josh at American Iron Offroad has been super helpful and sent me new updated parts at no cost. Unfortunately, we miscommunicated and I had to wait an additional week for one part I needed. I just received it last night. I installed the passenger side with no complications, but the driver side didn't install just right. I'm hoping I can take it apart tonight and reset the upper bearing and reinstall everything. If the problem isn't resolved then I'll have to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

We did finish up my "new to me" front driveshaft. We are adjusting some driveshafts to fit my rig, they were in my friend's Jeep that rolled. After I get running, we are going to fine tune things and build my "permanent" driveshafts and relegate what I have now to trail spares. The good news is what I have now is adequate to run. My front driveshaft is a thick wall with 1410 driveflange at the tcase and a 1410x1350 conversion joint at the axle. The rear driveshaft is my lighter weight (1/8" wall) Tom Woods shaft that we adjusted to 1350 drive flange at the tcase and a 1350x1310 at the axle.

I installed my old proportioning valve on my rear brake line. Hopefully this will solve my brake bias issue.

I also built some new rear bump stop landing pads to limit my uptravel. The pics above still had about 3/4" more travel available than I can really use.

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