New AZ Member Bronco II

[mocopo]

Hey all. Names Kevin. Just got my 1984 B2 a few weeks ago. It already had some work done to it, like the RC 4" lift. It's on 33s on stock axles, so I feel like I'm on borrowed time. Upgrading to a 35 ttb up front and 8.8 in the rear as soon as it gets cool enough to rip them off an explorer at a Pull-a-Part. Planning on a 4.0 swap as well, maybe during the winter.
A little about me: we off-road. Wife is a club leader for the Tucson Broncos Off Road Club. She drives the yellow Gen6, pic below. I drive the Jeep. Got tired of being the only jeep on the trail with a bunch of broncos, so I decided to get my own, but still wanted to be unique. Hence the B2. Time to turn this thing into a crawler. SAS at some point, but just for fun I want to wheel the TTB for a bit. That said, even tho we're a Bronco club, we let everyone when with us, so if you're in the Tucson area and want to wheel, check out our Facebook page. Fall runs starting soon.

 

[pentode]

Welcome!

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Hi Kevin!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Welcome!

So, RC lifts usually aren’t the best since most were drop plates for everything and usually poked holes in the D-35. Skyjacker is probably the best lift kit and brackets on the market currently.

Extended radius arms I would consider absolutely necessary. They actually let the TTB move like it should.

Also, highly recommend the Rough Country N3 shocks. My 89 Choptop B2 has never rode this good since I made the switch. Before you choke on the price, they are sold as pairs.

Not to rain on your parade, but the 83/84 model years are, depending on your perspective, either the best or worst years to pick for engine swaps. The easiest swap is to another carbureted motor, everything else requires really digging into electrical and the fuel system. Personally if I was in your shoes and wanting to re-power, I’d be taking a hard look at something like an Ecoboost swap. You’re getting into all the systems and wiring, might as well consider a modern power plant that puts out more power than something that’s been out of production for a long time.

 

[mocopo]

Welcome!

So, RC lifts usually aren’t the best since most were drop plates for everything and usually poked holes in the D-35. Skyjacker is probably the best lift kit and brackets on the market currently.

Extended radius arms I would consider absolutely necessary. They actually let the TTB move like it should.

Also, highly recommend the Rough Country N3 shocks. My 89 Choptop B2 has never rode this good since I made the switch. Before you choke on the price, they are sold as pairs.

Not to rain on your parade, but the 83/84 model years are, depending on your perspective, either the best or worst years to pick for engine swaps. The easiest swap is to another carbureted motor, everything else requires really digging into electrical and the fuel system. Personally if I was in your shoes and wanting to re-power, I’d be taking a hard look at something like an Ecoboost swap. You’re getting into all the systems and wiring, might as well consider a modern power plant that puts out more power than something that’s been out of production for a long time.

Thanks, a lot of great stuff to consider. I'm not going to worry too much about the lift currently, or how well it rides. This is a trail rig, and I am looking forward to beating it on some rocks. The suspension will eventually be completely swapped out, but not until I do a SAS. Until then I'll be happy with the extra clearance the RC lift gives me and ability to run 35s that I'll get from a 8.8 and 35 ttb. Junkyard explorers are everywhere around here, and I can do fab work, so it'll be no problem.

As for the engine, I'm not sold on the 4.0, and will definitely take other options into consideration, but power is less concerning to me than making sure I'm geared and torqued right for crawling. The plan is to take the junkyard axles to a shop to have 4:88 gears and lockers installed before I swap em. Who knows, if the 2.8 with 4 speed manual can handle that, maybe I'll wheel it that way for a while just for fun. And if it can't, I'm not opposed to finding that out the hard way and having to get dragged off the trail =)

Edit: good call on the extended radius arms. I hadn't looked into that yet!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks, a lot of great stuff to consider. I'm not going to worry too much about the lift currently, or how well it rides. This is a trail rig, and I am looking forward to beating it on some rocks. The suspension will eventually be completely swapped out, but not until I do a SAS. Until then I'll be happy with the extra clearance the RC lift gives me and ability to run 35s that I'll get from a 8.8 and 35 ttb. Junkyard explorers are everywhere around here, and I can do fab work, so it'll be no problem.

As for the engine, I'm not sold on the 4.0, and will definitely take other options into consideration, but power is less concerning to me than making sure I'm geared and torqued right for crawling. The plan is to take the junkyard axles to a shop to have 4:88 gears and lockers installed before I swap em. Who knows, if the 2.8 with 4 speed manual can handle that, maybe I'll wheel it that way for a while just for fun. And if it can't, I'm not opposed to finding that out the hard way and having to get dragged off the trail =)

Edit: good call on the extended radius arms. I hadn't looked into that yet!

You’re welcome. I’ve messed with this stuff for a long time. The drop plate style lifts are fine for street and mild wheeling with a D-28, but really not good for anything else. If that’s what you have, at minimum I’d be looking to replace the drop plates with real brackets, especially going D-35, unless you like breaking the front differential housing, lol.

I’ve cobbled together a lift over the years for mine, started with a 2” suspension lift on 31” tires, then a 3” lift with drop brackets (not plates), then a 2” body lift (it was cheaper than the new hardware needed to fix my body mounts) and 33” tires, and followed by an increase in suspension lift to 5” and 35” tires with a D-35. Currently still running 4.10 gears and I did do a 4.0 OHV swap. I built my own long arms along the way.

A doubler or deeper gears would be nice for trail crawling, the problem with a 5-6” suspension lift is the rear driveshaft angle ends up rather steep and there’s no room to add a doubler. I have other projects that need my attention but eventually I’d like to see about doing a rear axle stretch and see if I can find room to stuff a doubler in since mine is built for street and trail so I need to retain some resemblance of road manners.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Must be something in the air...

Spent all day yesterday with the pressure washer cleaning up my stalled project.

I have some new found motivation after the clean up and going through my parts stash for it. Also ordered some more tid bits to relocate the TFi when I'm in there doing new Motorcraft injectors. You'd think my wife would have figured out by now that "get what you need"... typically includes things I "want" too.

Anyway... cool Bronco II Kevin.

Welcome to TRS...