1988 Bronco II Virginia Trail Build

[RumPunch]

Well this weekend turned out pretty poor. Loaded up with camping gear bound for Big Levels trail amd St Marys Swimming hole. Made it through Big Levels full trail, 2-3 miles of the Blue Ridge Turnpike ended the early life of an A4LD. Tow bill, no swimming and a shitty camping spot lead to a pretty disappointing trip. It sits on the trailer for now until I build the motivation (and $) to touch it again. Pretty disappointed in this truck all in all.

Fyi this picture was the journey out. Not home.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Sorry to hear it @RumPunch. I feel your pain; push down on one issue and another one pushes up...but it's all part of the learning process I s'pose and everyone here has been SUPER helpful too which is huge...

 

[C4web88]

Doesn't everyone recommend not using the a4ld for offroading? Cool build tho, don't give up man, been loving reading this thread...

 

[Uncle Gump]

Damn!

Did it burn up or did something break?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Man, I feel this… I kept building and breaking my Choptop and when I thought I had it pretty squared away, there were no more trail rides to go to. Finally fixed it up for the TRS 20th ride and blew the front axle apart on the second attempt at the first hill climb and hadn’t even really met up with the TRS crew yet at that point, was still figuring stuff out and was soo upset to break so early, but everyone rallied and I ended up wheeling it on a broke front axle and had a great time anyway. Then I blew up the motor (again) a week or so after the ride. It sat for a few years and now it’s being resurrected again. It was supposed to be faster and cheaper to get on the road than my green Ranger but now I’m well over a grand deep and it still needs a bunch of work. But at least my Ranger can sit there and think about what it did to me for a bit and my F-150 is getting a well-deserved rest and I’m back to enjoying running my Choptop around, pretty much never fails to get positive attention, lol. It’s building my spirits back up this way, lol

 

[RumPunch]

Yeah for now it's going to sit. I have 0 interest with the amount of money spent. When I decide(have enough extra funds) to get back to it we'll see where it's at. I'm going to call the shop then built the transmission see if he's willing to take a look although I'm several years past the "warranty" date it only has a few thousand miles. Fluid smells scorched and truck wouldn't get over 15-20 mph in the hills. No high RPMs so idk what happened but the truck in general right now has shunned itself from my interests..

 

[RumPunch]

After sitting and reading a few responses I went and fired it up. Truck ran and drove through all gears. So a little surprised honestly. I have a lifter tap that developed as well during the tide but seemingly drove fine... Guess I'll pull the pen and filter and see what's up on the transmission.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

After sitting and reading a few responses I went and fired it up. Truck ran and drove through all gears. So a little surprised honestly. I have a lifter tap that developed as well during the tide but seemingly drove fine... Guess I'll pull the pen and filter and see what's up on the transmission.

Maybe try adjusting the bands too. Maybe you got lucky and it got hot but not dead yet? I’d definitely add an extra transmission cooler or something. Hopefully more cooling, band adjustment and new fluid will get you going for awhile yet? Heck, you could even pop the valve body off and put a fresh gasket in while the pan is off just to cover bases…