MY build thread...'88 Bronco II Desert Rat Patrol Edition: 1/26/24 update!

[JerryC]

I think mine was 50-65 amps, really weak. At idle it was almost nothing

When I was upgrading my alt, the research I did was saying that about 90-100 amps is all that single V-belt could handle. That's why I didn't do a 3G 130A.

 

[Peter Griffin]

WHEW! Another weekend of wrenching away on the Bronco wrapped up. Got a lot done (not really but I'll keep telling myself that until I talk myself into it), learned even more, and screwed the pooch again, which is par for the course at this point!

Decided to tackle the exhaust on Saturday and get rid of the janky azz cat delete and Cherry Bomb muffler which looked, sounded and smelled like HAWT garbage:

Anyone's whose done this knows where the cat goes into the down pipe is the most challenging part of the install, and it was just a matter of contorting and getting the right size tools in there to get the hardware in/out. The 11 o'clock bolt is a lil tough, the 1 o'clock bolt is a pain in the arse...especially when ALL of the hardware (3 bolts on the cat to downpipe flange and 2 bolts to the muffler) were different...! Standard instead of flanged bolts made it even more trying and a total of 3 trips were required to O'Reilly's to get the right size/length bolts. The only other issue was the muffler side of the converter had a 1/4-inch of of pipe sticking out past the flange and it was identical in size (2 1/4) to the inlet of the muffler so it didn't nest inside of it like the downpipe did...so I had to Sawz-all that off and smooth it out with the grinder before I got in position under the truck:

I also decided to put in a new O2 sensor while I was at it, which was pretty easy with everything removed. While I had previously noted the rubber hangers for the front of the tailpipe I did NOT see that the rearmost one was not so another trip to O'Reilly's was in order, fortunately it's both (1) right around the corner from my house and (2) they've given me my own parking spot I've been there so much lately!

So it ended up being a solid half day to get the exhaust knocked out, slowed down by the 3 trips to the parts store and having to cut the proud outlet end of the converter. Not bad and as close to bolt on as I think you're gonna get. The moment of truth was realized immediately after it's first startup after the installation was done. It was DEAD quiet with NO smell and although I didn't have the rearmost hanger on yet, it was rattle free. Still idling nicely right around 850 RPM with little to no surging, etc. The wife (and I'm sure my neighbors!) was very pleased as we both agreed it was mandatory. Best of all I was all in for this for under $400...you can't beat that for an entire exhaust system including a brand new converter!

Today was supposed to be the fuel system and for some Gawd forsaken reason, when I saw this on my frame rail I just HAD to futz with it...

I hadn't seen this discussed anywhere and was rather perplexed quite frankly as to exactly what the hell it was doing on my truck...and there HAD to be a filter in there too of course.

This is aft of the frame rail mounted high pressure pump and I apparently had a Ford diesel flashback and decided to wrench the obvious filter housing off...

*cue long, awkward silence...

HUGE mistake...at least temporarily. It was VERY difficult to get off, which should have been my first clue. My second clue was that when I got it off...there was no filter in it...? WTF?! I end up going down a Google search deep dive, including one related picture and linked thread to the FTE that was titled along the lines of "what's this black plastic filter looking thingy". From what I was able to determine it was used in mid/late 80s and early 90s E/F/Broncos...earlier ones with filters, later ones without and that it was a fuel reservoir. Unless I REALLY missed something (which wouldn't surprise me) I hadn't seen this mentioned in any of the Bronco II fuel related threads I looked at with the exception of a Russian gentleman with an '88 Bronco II like myself who was likewise questioning what the heck he was looking at. Now I was pooping chickens, reading that it should not be serviced/disassembled, it's fragile, breaks, leaks, etc.

I didn't have to check my pulse to know it was getting elevated; first step was to undo what I did and it was almost as difficult to get it back on as off. I snugged it up with a filter wrench and held my breath as I started the motor. It started up but I didn't even have to looked underneath to see that it immediately started leaking. I thought I had tightened it up pretty good and double checked and got another fraction of an inch tighter. Tested it again and it was still leaking.

DEEP breath. I decided to take it off and troubleshoot it. Reading several applicable threads from FTE I noted one gentleman specifically mentioned the O-ring and leaking. Checked the filter/reservoir housing...no O-ring; checked where it screwed into the fitting to see if it was stuck...no O-ring. I knew, or at least hoped I knew it was going to be before I looked...and there it was, sitting on top of drain pan. I place the O-ring into its recess and it was definitely a lil stretched/out of round but some grease there and on the threads (making sure NOT to get any in the actual reservoir/housing) and it goes on quite a bit easier and I could feel it snug down on the O-ring and felt it was good to go before starting it again and checking for leaks...

SUCCESS! Now at this point I'm more than halfway through my day and haven't made any progress outside of installing the last exhaust hanger and getting the system aligned, which is chapping my backside, so I decided to change the frame mounted fuel filter as that would be "easiest"...

My use of quotes denotes sarcasm of course, and while my new filter had two new fuel line clips, I definitely struggled to get them off my old one, despite having the right tool(s) and watching a couple of YouTube videos of course. My sleeve caught more fuel than my drain pain did but I finally managed to get the clips off and the filter off after what seemed like an hour of fighting with it. Having the benefit of removing the old one now under my belt, the new one went in in literally minutes.

Now for a moment of truth; small as it may be. As I was still cranking the motor which wouldn't turn over I looked over to the passenger foot well and saw that I hadn't plugged the fuel pump inertia switch back in. I laughed at myself, plugged it in and fired it up. It settled into a nice idle quickly and I took entirely too much time to insure there were no leaks in either the "fuel bowl reservoir" (or whatever the hell it is!) and the filter. Good to go, pick/clean up and dinner time!

I'm not particularly proud that I spent approximately 10 hours over the course of the weekend to install a downpipe-back exhaust system and fuel filter, but like I said in my first post...it's warts and all and if I can help someone out the way some of y'all have me, it's worthwhile to me!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Not sure how you haven’t come across any real threads on here about that filter/reservoir because I know I’ve answered a few questions on them. Pretty common on the 83-88 Bronco II, some have a filter and some don’t. I have a couple filters for them somewhere and I have @Uncle Gump ‘s from his Bronco II. Glad to hear you made progress though

 

[Peter Griffin]

I'm a self-admitted Bronco II noob @lil_Blue_Ford and this lil "adventure" today with it shows that I need to read/watch even more before getting ahead of my skis. Having a bit of Ford diesel experience I ASSumed I knew what I was looking but I should have stopped before I even started and there's no way I'm tangling with that again as long as it remains leak free!

 

[Uncle Gump]

The factory Ford fuel system nonsense was the reason I decided to throw it all in the garbage and just do it the way Ford should have done it to begin with.

One high pressure in tank pump and one in line filter. Done.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Something just hit me with the differences in these fuel reservoirs... on whether they have a filter inside or not. I think the first clue is if they have a high pressure in line filter between the high pressure frame rail pump and the fuel rail... there probably isn't a filter in the reservoir. I'm not sure that is always 100% the case.

What I did notice is there appears there are some differences in the reservoir itself. Below is @Peter Griffin photo of his reservoir... it looks deeper then the one I took off my 86 Bronco II... it also has a smooth outer surface around the bottom.

This is the one I took off mine. It appears shorter in depth and also has some finger well holds around the bottom.

@lil_Blue_Ford maybe you can find that part I gave you and do a better picture and maybe you both can measure the well depth. Then perhaps we can do a tech article to better describe the differences.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I'm a self-admitted Bronco II noob @lil_Blue_Ford and this lil "adventure" today with it shows that I need to read/watch even more before getting ahead of my skis. Having a bit of Ford diesel experience I ASSumed I knew what I was looking but I should have stopped before I even started and there's no way I'm tangling with that again as long as it remains leak free!

Although I’d hardly consider myself an expert on B2s, I have owned and wrenched on a number of them since early 2000s and I used to split my online time between TRS and BroncoII.org (which is no longer in existence due to tragic circumstances). So I’ve picked up a few things over the years, lol

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Something just hit me with the differences in these fuel reservoirs... on whether they have a filter inside or not. I think the first clue is if they have a high pressure in line filter between the high pressure frame rail pump and the fuel rail... there probably isn't a filter in the reservoir. I'm not sure that is always 100% the case.

What I did notice is there appears there are some differences in the reservoir itself. Below is @Peter Griffin photo of his reservoir... it looks deeper then the one I took off my 86 Bronco II... it also has a smooth outer surface around the bottom.

View attachment 89383

This is the one I took off mine. It appears shorter in depth and also has some finger well holds around the bottom.

View attachment 89384

@lil_Blue_Ford maybe you can find that part I gave you and do a better picture and maybe you both can measure the well depth. Then perhaps we can do a tech article to better describe the differences.

Interesting, I didn’t catch that. I’ll have to dig out that one I got from you. I know there’s one on my 88, I’ll have to take a closer look at that too, think it might be the deeper style. Might take me a little bit to get to, so someone may have to remind me. Looking like we are going to get 3-4 decent days here before it drops below 40* again so I’m thinking I want to work like crazy on the Ranger and see if I can get it on its wheels and running before the temps drop again, trying not to get into any side quests until the Ranger is done right now. I’m not afraid to take the one in the 88 apart at some point if indeed it is the deeper style. Could even probably shoot some video. Just take me a bit to get to that, maybe a couple weeks and a warm enough day that I don’t have to worry about how cold the plastic is while I wrench on it.

 

[Peter Griffin]

...this is also why I said warts and all! If I F-something up, I'm gonna own it for all to see so hopefully someone learns something from me (aside from a lil more humility for yours truly, which wouldn't hurt of course!)...plus it's keeping the wife entertained!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

...this is also why I said warts and all! If I F-something up, I'm gonna own it for all to see so hopefully someone learns something from me (aside from a lil more humility for yours truly, which wouldn't hurt of course!)...plus it's keeping the wife entertained!

Good on you. I’ll share some of my disasters, but there’s been a few moments that we’re just pure stupidity that nobody saw and I refuse to acknowledge, lol.

Honestly though, I’ve found these trucks to be reasonably easy to work on and learn and are kinda forgiving, which makes them great to learn on in my opinion. Not sure about the new stuff, but it’s easy to do a lot of work with little beyond very basic hand tools. I’ve gone to more power tools and such, but some of the tools also get used for other things like my construction business and some of them I found worthy for reducing the time I need to spend on a project. But early on, I did a lot with not a lot of tools. My choptop was converted to 4x4 and originally built with little more than a Craftsman 180 piece mechanics tool set.

 

[Peter Griffin]

QUESTION!

Speaking of the suspension, I've read/heard of folks going with Exploder rear leaf springs *edit and front coil springs. In the interest of freshening everything I can up, I'd like to do that but would prefer to buy once, cry once as they say. Curious what the specific advantages are of running them and what year/spring count(for the rear leafs)/etc. I'd be looking for to buy new/OEM style ones from Rock Auto, etc. It won't be used for towing and will absolutely be driven off-road (desert environment) in both high(er) speed/open and crawling-ish/technical terrain.

Thanks in advance for the helpful replies...while y'all are doing that I'm doing more research!

*EDITED to include front coil springs...I'm going through the entire lifted BII thread right now and getting some great ideas!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Ahh yes, Explorer springs. One of my favorite topics…

So, basically any 4 door Explorer leaf spring will work, 90-01. Usually the two door models got fiberglass mono leafs and such. They are the correct length but stiffer with more arch. My understanding is that there are two basic OEM options for the 4-door from 90-94, a lighter rated spring and a heavy. Both looked about the same but the heavy had less arch and thicker leafs. Both had the same spring eyes and there are bushing kits available. The 95-01 had (I think) just one spring option for the 4 doors, but there is no specific spring kit for them. You can get bushings though, and I need to get it all together now, but I think I figured out exactly how to go about it. Pretty sure the 4 door Explorer packs are all 3 leaf, main and two leafs.

The big thing with Explorer leafs is that it will lift the rear of a B2 or Ranger by about 2“ AFTER they settle. The other thing is that the centering pin has to be flipped since Explorers run spring under instead of spring over like B2s and Rangers. Not really a big deal, but bear in mind it will take a little bit of driving and working the suspension for the packs to settle in. What you get when it comes down off the jackstands is not what you get, it will settle lower. I about had a panic attack when I did leafs on my first Ranger and the back was sky high when I took it down, but within a couple days to a week of using it, they settled to a reasonable height.

Now, I also have built my own packs. That gets a little more entertaining. The longer the leafs, the softer the ride and more flex, they will carry more, but they sink with weight faster than short leafs. Short leafs are stiff and hard though. I have now built packs for my first Ranger (00 blue 2wd - 4 leaf pack, Ranger main, some other main that I cut the eyes off, two other leafs) happy with how they came out and worked, my choptop (5-leaf packs - Explorer main, Explorer main minus the eyes, 3 other Explorer leafs) which gave me about a solid 3” of lift but are stiffer than I’d like though they might be ok for a non-choptop, my F-150 (5-leaf packs - F-250 main, F-150 main minus the eyes, mostly F-250 leafs below) which rides a little hard but is perfect for how I use the truck, and now my green 00 which I built a 4-leaf Explorer pack (Explorer main, Explorer main minus eyes, two other leafs below, the full main and one leaf are from a 98 and the other two leafs are from a 90-94 heavy pack) and the jury hasn’t even started deliberations on that yet since I just built them.

 

[Peter Griffin]

That's awesome information @lil_Blue_Ford, I very much appreciate you taking the time to write that up!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

That's awesome information @lil_Blue_Ford, I very much appreciate you taking the time to write that up!

No problem, it is a rain day here so I’m just chilling and recovering.

On the subject of Explorer coils, I can’t remember offhand if they are physically longer, but they are stiffer. Roughly 1-2” of lift when they settle in. The only Explorers that used them were the 90-94 and as with the leafs, you want from a 4-door model

Oh, and that’s about the max lift you can do without doing something to axle pivots, radius arms, and pitman arm. But even at that, I highly recommend extended radius arms.

 

[Peter Griffin]

I posted up a question about a round headlight conversion in an ongoing headlight related thread, and was also curious about rear bumper recommendations, I'm likely going to run this one from Bronco Graveyard for the front:

Elite PreRunner Front Bumper-Broncograveyard.com

shop.broncograveyard.com