- Joined
- Aug 26, 2008
- Messages
- 1,094
- Reaction score
- 13
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1994, 2001
- Make / Model
- 1994 Ford Bronc
- Engine Size
- 5.8v8
- Transmission
- Automatic
- My credo
- Failing is easy. Everyone can do it.
Ok, We put plates on our '89 bronco II finally.
We went on the 'first trip' out, and it was blowing smoke (blue) for a while. Probably due to the fact I soaked the cylinder walls with oil while we had the heads off for a couple of weeks. LOL. Anyhoo, just about filled it with 93 octane, let it mix with the double dose of injector cleaner and old gas, and at least the stinky exhaust went away, along with much of the blue smoke LOL.
Here's what we've noted:
First gear? (al4d) feels like crap. It shifts into all gears (thankfully) very harsh/hard. According to the braintrust we purchased it from? He dropped the transmission and swapped it for one from a mustang. He also 'rebuilt' it (thinking he did a basic soft-rebuild with just seals). I've got an idea the mustang transmission had a shift kit installed, and would account for the hard/sharp shifts. He did wind up changing out the rear housing for the fake transfer case. So all in all? It's running down the road so-so. I checked overdrive, and it's fully functional..and I punched it on the highway and it does have decent power.
So that's the first one...
Second problem? Gauges. Voltmeter seems to be a bit jumpy into the "low" area. Could be a dirty connection, who knows? (I'll drop an actually multimeter across the battery to see how it's running)
As for the oil pressure? Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yep...it's got I figure one of those darn 'fake gauges'. Drove it around for a while, and the pressure stayed right in the middle...even after at temp, and low speeds/stop. The fun part? Coming to a dead stop for a light or other? Total loss of all pressure according to the gauge. Dropped to 'zippola'.. Then it would spike up and down from zero to middle....back to zero...then back to normal?!? Engine seems to be ok, it did sound a touch 'noisy' when the gauge flatlined...but I can't be sure of it? (was to busy hitting the panic button for being on a main street with zero oil pressure LOL)
So in a couple of days (thanksgiving actually) I'll be changing out the oil, and inspecting it for metal crud...new filter.. One qt. of Lucas, and 4 qts of 10w40 high mileage.
Plus as an added bonus? Picked up a triple gauge pack. Going to tie into the oil pressure 'port' and chain off a mechanical gauge, temp gauge, and ampmeter.
I figure what could be happening? Other then a bad set of contacts? It might have enough oil pressure to fool the gauge as it's warming up, and driving down the road. But come to a dead stop? It could be low enough to trigger the fake gauge into tripping. As the pressure starts to raise up? It might be right on the edge and the gauge is spiking.
I'll know for sure once I replace the gauges with the aftermarket ones. Just looking for ideas and such. It's possible the connection or sender might be going bad? But the way it acted? Was more like it was extremely low on oil, and sloshing forward away from the pickup when coming to a 'hard' stop. (it's full and pretty clean, so I figured it's cheap to change it out and drop in the lucas/filter at the same time)
Ideas welcome
S-
We went on the 'first trip' out, and it was blowing smoke (blue) for a while. Probably due to the fact I soaked the cylinder walls with oil while we had the heads off for a couple of weeks. LOL. Anyhoo, just about filled it with 93 octane, let it mix with the double dose of injector cleaner and old gas, and at least the stinky exhaust went away, along with much of the blue smoke LOL.
Here's what we've noted:
First gear? (al4d) feels like crap. It shifts into all gears (thankfully) very harsh/hard. According to the braintrust we purchased it from? He dropped the transmission and swapped it for one from a mustang. He also 'rebuilt' it (thinking he did a basic soft-rebuild with just seals). I've got an idea the mustang transmission had a shift kit installed, and would account for the hard/sharp shifts. He did wind up changing out the rear housing for the fake transfer case. So all in all? It's running down the road so-so. I checked overdrive, and it's fully functional..and I punched it on the highway and it does have decent power.
So that's the first one...
Second problem? Gauges. Voltmeter seems to be a bit jumpy into the "low" area. Could be a dirty connection, who knows? (I'll drop an actually multimeter across the battery to see how it's running)
As for the oil pressure? Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yep...it's got I figure one of those darn 'fake gauges'. Drove it around for a while, and the pressure stayed right in the middle...even after at temp, and low speeds/stop. The fun part? Coming to a dead stop for a light or other? Total loss of all pressure according to the gauge. Dropped to 'zippola'.. Then it would spike up and down from zero to middle....back to zero...then back to normal?!? Engine seems to be ok, it did sound a touch 'noisy' when the gauge flatlined...but I can't be sure of it? (was to busy hitting the panic button for being on a main street with zero oil pressure LOL)
So in a couple of days (thanksgiving actually) I'll be changing out the oil, and inspecting it for metal crud...new filter.. One qt. of Lucas, and 4 qts of 10w40 high mileage.
Plus as an added bonus? Picked up a triple gauge pack. Going to tie into the oil pressure 'port' and chain off a mechanical gauge, temp gauge, and ampmeter.
I figure what could be happening? Other then a bad set of contacts? It might have enough oil pressure to fool the gauge as it's warming up, and driving down the road. But come to a dead stop? It could be low enough to trigger the fake gauge into tripping. As the pressure starts to raise up? It might be right on the edge and the gauge is spiking.
I'll know for sure once I replace the gauges with the aftermarket ones. Just looking for ideas and such. It's possible the connection or sender might be going bad? But the way it acted? Was more like it was extremely low on oil, and sloshing forward away from the pickup when coming to a 'hard' stop. (it's full and pretty clean, so I figured it's cheap to change it out and drop in the lucas/filter at the same time)
Ideas welcome
S-