Bronco II Leaf spring hangers.. HELP

[Kags101]

All started with rear leaf spring replacement on my 1989 Bronco II XL. The old springs were sagged obviously. the shackles were shot, with no hope of removal. when attempting to remove the bolt for the upper shackle mount, the hangers started to twist. Further inspection found almost 50% of the hanger metal was rusted away and gone. The hangers were still riveted on, so they've never been replaced. i.e theres no way that these are not factory fitment and design. That being said, i cannot anywhere find the hangers for the bronco II. They are NOT the same as the ranger. Everywhere i look says they are, but ive had Ranger hangers in my hand, and held up on my truck, they are not the same as the ones that came off. I've now bought leaf hangers for the Ranger, the E-150, the F-150/full sized bronco and none of them are correct. The ranger ones are the closest, but the mounting holes are not the same, and they do not stick out from the frame as far as the bronco ones. therefore even if i drilled to get the mounting holes the same, the Front leaf hangers would not align wit the rear hangers and shackles. Has anyone come across this before? see picures (measurements were not taken to be precise, so no need to comment on that) the upper holes are farther apart than the lower ones. On the ranger/b series hangers, the holes are the same distance apart.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’ve never worked on a Bronco. So, I have nothing much to offer other than a suggestion. Have you checked with LMC Truck? They have a lot of Bronco II parts.

 

[2 bronco 11s]

You are correct They put the springs in a bind . LMC will not work either . Have a pair hanging on the wall. I lucked out and found a complete rear spring assembly because both front and rear were junk . Don’t know off hand wear any are .

 

[bobbywalter]

shim them with 3/8 or make new ones.....just cut up the ranger units so they become b2 units.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Forgot about that. Think the last time I had to do something with one, I modified a Ranger hanger and shimmed it. Less than ideal but it worked. I’ve kicked around the idea of building my own and that’s probably how I’ll deal with it from now on.

 

[Kags101]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll call off the search, and get on building some spacers and using the ranger hangers!

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

I thought it was closer to 1/2? When I did mine on my 89 B2. I welded and bolted 1/2 plate to the frame and then put what bolts did line up in the plate through the frame. welded the hanger where there wasn't bolts. I just got dorman ranger ones, Ive done it this way on 2 of my B2s. Worked good. They haven't made B2 mounts for while now.

 

[Kags101]

Solved! Went and bought some 7"x4" chunks of 1/2" steel and 1/16". Got the hole locations marked and drilled half inch holes. for both sides. Bottom holes line up, I cut the Ranger hanger upper holes, and fabricated the little braces that link the upper and lower holes, rough cut pictured, then ground them down semi pretty. Installed with Grade 8 bolts and hit with some paint for rust delay. Installed ranger hangers and spacers and the leaves lined up no problem.

 

[Justin38]

This is all very good information. Thank you but has anybody done the front is it done the same way?

 

[2 bronco 11s]

I will get out this weekend and do some rough measurements on a Ranger I picked up for parts . I got lucky and found a BR11 and got the front and rear brackets . Someone made the worst mess for A bracket I’ve seen . Right side set 1 inch further back .

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

This is all very good information. Thank you but has anybody done the front is it done the same way?

Never had to replace a front mount yet on a B2. If they aren’t available anywhere, yeah, you’ll probably have to build or modify something. To complicate matters, if I remember right, there was a couple different front spring hangers for the Ranger over the years, I’d have to do some looking around here.

 

[Justin38]

Yeah I’ll take whatever info I can get as I have to do the front ones as well also if I come across something I will share it here for others