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Bronco II with some issues I need help fixing.


Cyrus9586

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So I bought this as my first ever car. My uncle has one that is identical in year and model and I drove that a bit and loved it.

I paid 750 for it and she has some body damage but the rest of what the seller told me I'm not believing.

Don't use the glass hatch it doesn't work. Works fine.
However the batch itself you have to hold the bottom driver side and slam it hard and hold it and pray it shut right.

The 4wd switch won't go into high. Works fine never once failed.

The engine was rebuilt and tranny replaced less then 10k miles ago.


Okay here's where it starts to get murky.

The valves click very loudly. I tried sea foam. I tried thicker oil they still click badly.

The transfer case makes a loud clunk when taking off from a dead stop.

It won't pass oregon DEQ even after sea foam and a tune up. When I replaced the distributor there was a good deal of corrosion as well as a massive carbon deposit blocking off the egr(I may have that wrong it's the unburnt fuel recycler system) which i cleaned out though tranny otherwise seems fine.a local exhaust shop said the cat looks fine. Have not replaced o2 sensor. I have gotten the co2 to passing but the mixture is still too lean and the HC are too high.

She's recently developed a sound like a vibrating soda can havnt diagnosed it yet.

Brakes were SHOT. Driver front calipur seized completely on the highway had a smoking rim by the time I got to work. Back and front brakes replaced new tires with slightly smaller tires.

Tachometer stopped reading unless it's over 2k rpm.

Speedometer is reading 4-6 mpg faster than car is going.

A.c. doesn't blow cold. Blows cool but not cold.

Coolant vanishes. No puddles. No leaks I can see. Just have to top it off ever 2-3 weeks.

And last the oil battery and temp gauges are after market and more accurate. Oil pressure was reading 20 cold and 0 hot now reads 50 cold goes to 20 hot and after a bit 0.

I have very little mechanical experience and a tight budget. How bad am I in now?
 


adsm08

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2.9s had oilling issues to the lifter, and the lifter design itself wasn't ideal. They tick on a good day. Loud ticking may be a sign of bad lifters or worn cam bearings.

Are you sure the noise is coming from the transfer case? How are you sure?

You emissions readings don't make any sense. Lean condition is not enough fuel getting into the cylinder (or too much air), either way that doesn't jive with high HC (which is unburnt fuel) in the exhaust. If you are getting incomplete ignition that would cause high O2 and high HC readings. Basically, time for sparky plugs.

Rattle sound, check your exhaust heat shields. The one around the cat probably has broken spot welds.

Tach head is probably on its way out. Don't worry about that one for now as it isn't a functional issue and much as a convenience issue.

Speedometer is probably off because you changed tire size.

AC needs charged. Don't use it until you get it fixed, and don't go buying one of those DIY cans, the stuff in them isn't compatible with your system. Ignore the AC for now too, doing it right will be expensive.

Get a pressure tester and pump the coolant system up cold, then look for leaks and pressure loss. It may be a pinhole from a core plug, it may be a split in the line to the recovery tank.

20 PSI cold is actually low. 40 to 50 cold is pretty good, but once the engine is warm it should only be about 5 PSI plus 1 for every 1000 RPM, so a mechanical gauge will read very close to 0 at idle, but it should come up and sit around 20 while you are actually driving. The thicker oil may account for the changed readings.
 

McWillies

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You never gave us a year, engine, etc. A/C probably needs a recharge but the problem is that it doesn't use the new 134a refrigerant. You'll either have to find some r12 refrigerant (it's expensive and can only be legally sold to someone with a certification). If you do a recharge of r12, you need to make sure there aren't any leaks in the system. I wouldn't bother with the r12, if you have the money you could pay a shop to convert it to 134a, or do it yourself if you're feeling confident. As for the coolant, sounds like a bad head gasket... Which isn't necessarily a good thing at all. If you haven't changed the oil since you got it, go ahead and drain all the old oil out. Check the consistency and color to see if it has coolant mixed in. Does it feel low on power? You'll definitely feel it's low on power if you have a bad gasket. The 88s and under with the 2.9l were know for head gasket failures (possibly other engines too, I can't remember). As for the speedometer, if you have tires larger than stock (check your door jamb sticker to see what stock size is), then the speedometer will read slower than you're actually going (it'll read 65 when you're going 69). If you have tires smaller than stock, it'll read faster than you're actually going (65 when you're going 62 or so).

Just noticed adsm replied here too, take my word with a grain of salt compared to his. He's more of an expert, I'm just a kid with some internet knowledge.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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Cyrus9586

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Sorry was on mobile in original post.

87 Ford Bronco II XLT 2.9l 4wd Automatic.

I used the wrong word its not lean its rich. You can smell the unburnt fuel in the exhaust.

I am mostly sure its the transfer case as thats about where you can feel the clunk when your inside and going on the (though not a good idea) words of a ford mechanic.

Oil has been changed no coolant or other contaminants there. When you pop the radiator cap though there is a small amount of what looks like a grey scum like substance floating on the top. Hard to explain. The 20 PSI cold was before seafoaming the oil system. The oil came out clean but it increased cold pressure after oil change to 50 cold. I can't explain that one as even the mechanic who did the change was confused as to 1 why I wanted the change done and 2 how seafoam improved the pressure but nothing came out with the old oil. There was also a point when I first got it that I had gotten an oil change, before knowing to use foam to try to improve pressure etc, that 2 weeks later I had no oil in the system. Again no leaks or puddles could be found. After putting more oil in it has been a month and oil has remained at the roughly the same level it should be. Thinking cheapo shop I went to may not have actually put oil into my car...

Rattle noise: I walked around the vehicle while it was running its coming from the back I want to say passenger side as thats where it is the loudest. Sorry 7 AM here and just finished a 14 hour shift I can't do a whole lot atm for diagnostics.

Tune up I performed was new spark plugs and wires and a new full distributor. That started out as just cap and rotor but a broken screw followed by a broken screw hole on the distributor and well yeah its in.
Seafoam was put into gas tank as the car had sat for somewhere between 2-10 years, old owner kept changing story, and smoked for a good while. That got the co2 to passing level right there.
Carfaqs pulls up no accidents etc only last service was several years ago at a ford service center.

I know my timing is still off slightly. I know how to do that mostly its a matter of turning it a bit more here and there just havnt had the time to readjust it with my timing gun.

All in all this car runs great and hauls major backside. I don't know if this means anything but the heater can cook you. Low defrost is all you need.

Will add more info as needed.
 
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adsm08

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Ok, rich makes far more sense. Check the fuel pressure regulator. Pull the red line off it and look for fuel. Then get your timing set, both could cause that problem.

I know the coolant scum you are talking about. I don't really know what it is, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

All my Fords except the Mustang can cook you out on low. Ford engines in general just make good heat. Except the 2.3, that thing is cold blooded.
 

Cyrus9586

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So is there anything here I should be worried about at all? Last thing I need right now is to have this thing die on me.
 

Cyrus9586

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Found the source of the rattle. The muffler split a seam and theres not 3 tabs of metal one of which is vibrating.
 

JerryC

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running rich:
Sensors that affect fuel mixture:
ACT, ECT and MAP. All are pretty cheap. ACT and MAP are easy swaps, ECT is a is going to be some work, but is easy to test.
Too much timing will make it run rich.

Use some throttle body cleaner on the throttle bottle in case it sticks a little.

Rattling lifters and low oil pressure, I'm not buying that it was rebuilt 10K ago or not properly. Seafoam increasing the pressure, only thing that comes to mind is that the oil pickup screen was clogged with goo, gasket debris, etc.... Seafom might have helped clear the oil based produts out.

Like ADSM said, get everything else working first and then we can talk about AC. It's probably going to be costly so do it last. I replaced everything in my BII AC system and all in all it was about $1K in parts and tools with about 12 hours for me to do it.
 

Cyrus9586

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Cool thank you all for info.

So I'm looking at replacing exhaust now. Everything from the catalytic converter to tail pipe. There are lots of options but I don't know the difference. Like the oval aluminum compared to the cylindrical stainless steel etc. I'm looking at everything as I found a lot that's about 300$ for everything which is cheaper then if I buy the muffler and all minus the cat then the cat later.

This thing is not being built for off roading but I want to make this last for as long as the world still uses unleaded gasoline lol.

I will look up sensors etc this next check.
 
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JerryC

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I just had everything replaced from manifolds back. Y-pipe, tail pipe plus aftermarket Cat, resonator and muffler.

Fixing the exhaust leak at the passenger manifold made it run noticeably better. It's upstream of the O2 sensor and it will make it run rich. Also no more gas smell from the tailpipe from the old gutted Cat.

I had wanted to replace the O2 sensor since I bought it but I couldn't get it loose. The exhaust shop swapped it into the new exhaust so I knew I would be able to get it loose this time. I swapped the O2 today and it made another big improvement. The sensor might have been fine, the connector was a little crusty but I had it out and the new one ready to go so the new one went in after I cleaned the connector. You might check that on yours.

I'm kicking myself, I should have done this 4 years ago when I bought it.

Oh, one other thing that seems to be gone is the cold start stumble. But I have a small sample size on that.
 

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The only clunk I could think of in the T-case would be a loose chain.

The fuel pressure regulators are good for failing and letting too much fuel into the system.

The AC will need to be completely evacuated, leak tested, leaks fixed if there are any, a new Accumulator & orifice tube, and a new o-ring kit, may as well replace all the o-rings while you got the system torn apart. Its pretty time consuming and if you don't have the tools to do it and the knowledge its best to pay a technician to do this, it can be very dangerous.
 

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AC, what I did was to replace everything. I figured it was all old and had been broken for years so why take the chance on reusing an old part.

I watched a lot of youtube vids and read a ton about AC. The good news is the BII has a simple AC system. You can unbolt and everything replace everything in a few hours.

I bought the AC gauges and vacuum pump at Harbor Freight with their 20% off coupons. I think you can rent both at Autozone if you don't want to buy them.

The only difficult part is getting the evaporator out, to replace it took me 2-3 hours. It's not hard really there's just some small screws that are hard to get to and they take a while to get out and back in as you have to use a wrench and take small turns.

All told I spent about a grand on parts (~$800) and tools and refrigerant. And about 10-12 hours labor that includes replacing my fan and fan clutch as they were both bad too.

I'd guess I saved ~$1200 by doing it myself, but i really did it because it was one of those things that I wanted to learn how to do it.
 

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The clunk could be a bad u-joint. Block the wheels, put in neutral and get under and hold one side still and try to turn the other side....the u-joint is the middle. There should be absolutely no play in the u-joint. The b-2's may have a cv joint and I don't really know much about those. There will be 2, sometimes 3 u-jopints in the rear drive shaft, and 1 for the front. The drive axles also have u-joints, 1 on the drivers side and 2 on the passengers side. Might as well check those while your under there.
 

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