'84 Bronco II reanimation thread

[Bryce]

13 years ago, I purchased my poor little Bronco II from a guy that picked it up in a heavy equipment auction. He wanted the equipment, but had no use for the little BII. It wasn't running well.. turned out to be that the plug wires were not in the correct firing order. It was also missing the air cleaner and the catalytic convertor that I replaced. Got it running well and fixed it up some. It went through a few iterations of off-road duty. 2 inch lift and 31s on black steelies then 3 inch body lift and 33s on aluminum wheels. after a few years, I lost interest in off-roading and picked up a few motorcycles and now I do a good bit off back country, dual sport adventure motorcycle trips. the poor Bronco II sits lonely in the back yard.

today, it looks like this...

my daughter is 15 and soon to be 16 and has convinced me that it'll be a good idea to fix up the old BII for her to drive. so the purpose of this thread will be to document the reanimation of the Bronco II and making it something my Daughter will be proud to drive. She's offered to get greasy and help.
the plan is to return it to a more "streetable" version of it's former glory, but still be able to hit the mild trails.

Initial plans (to get it back on the road):
- empty the old gas out of the tank and replace with fresh, get a charged battery in it and make sure it'll fire up and run.
- go over the brakes - it needs new rubber lines (already ordered) and then whatever else it needs to make sure it stops.
- front wheel bearings - replace/repack TBD when we do the brakes.
- replace all fluids (oil, atf, coolant, break fluid, and both diffs)
- replace all belts, hoses, filters
- a good scrubbin' inside and out

Longer term goals
- Duraspark swap (but the current system was actually working fine the last time I drove it)
- replace the F/R sway bars (kicking myself for throwing them out)
- fix up the interior (new/recover seats, new carpet, new dash cover)
- upgrade the stereo (it's got a cassette player)
- Replace the tires with an aggressive AT instead of a MT (I suspect the current set, while not worn out, are beyond their useable life)

Real long term goals (may never happen)
- Repaint
- D35/8.8 Explorer Axle Swap
- replace the 2.8 with a 302

Let the fun begin...

and a picture where I think it looked the best... our goal is to top this.

 

[Bryce]

April 2, 2013
Tonight i started to look things over. Somthing took up residency under the hood for the winter, probably a squirrel since it was laded with acorns... Luckily, it looks like it ddn't chew antyhing up.

The winter was a litte rough on it and it's got a layer of scum we'll need to pressure wash off.

So the battery is in the garage charging and I siphoned about 15 gallons out of it... Or as I was calling it as it came out of the tank, $50 worth of garbage.

With some vacation planned (backpacking trip) for the upcoming weekend, I may be a week or 2 before I put some gas in it and see if the battery is holding a charge.

 

[wildbill23c]

Sadly it looks pretty good for sitting for that long. Doesn't look like there's any serious rust issues on it so that's a huge plus. My 84 B2 I think went through a lets see how rusty we can get it stage then neglected forever, and then the previous owner's son couldn't stay out from under the hood and interior so its in pretty sad shape, however I'm slowly getting it running right, then I'll dig into the cost of the body work, interior work I'm going to do myself as I'm not really sure what I want to do to it yet.

 

[Bryce]

Sadly it looks pretty good for sitting for that long. Doesn't look like there's any serious rust issues on it so that's a huge plus. My 84 B2 I think went through a lets see how rusty we can get it stage then neglected forever, and then the previous owner's son couldn't stay out from under the hood and interior so its in pretty sad shape, however I'm slowly getting it running right, then I'll dig into the cost of the body work, interior work I'm going to do myself as I'm not really sure what I want to do to it yet.

There's a bit of surface rust on the roof (crappy paint laking off), and a spot on the back side of one of the rear windows. The benefit of beinga Georga vehicle. No salt on the roads and in the Atlanta area, we're far enough from the cast to not have to worry about sea air. There's a few dings, but no major bdy work needed. It actually cleans up pretty well for a 30yo vehicle with original paint.

 

[wildbill23c]

There's a bit of surface rust on the roof (crappy paint laking off), and a spot on the back side of one of the rear windows. The benefit of beinga Georga vehicle. No salt on the roads and in the Atlanta area, we're far enough from the cast to not have to worry about sea air. There's a few dings, but no major bdy work needed. It actually cleans up pretty well for a 30yo vehicle with original paint.

Sounds like you have a pretty good B2. I leave mine dirty, one I'm afraid if I wash it the rest of it will fall apart, and two, it covers up some of the bad spots LOL.

 

[jhammel85]

It's got a nice stance. You only have a body lift on it with 33's? I'm guessing they're 10.5" wide?

Either way, It looks very solid. It's going to look really, really good. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your build.

 

[Bryce]

It's got a nice stance. You only have a body lift on it with 33's? I'm guessing they're 10.5" wide?

Either way, It looks very solid. It's going to look really, really good. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your build.

3" body lift, 2" coils in front and add-a-leaf and '97 Ranger block in the back.

33x12.50 Pro-Comp MTs on 15x10 wheels. Opps.... That should be 15x8 wheels.

 

[B2 Addict]

Nice! I love to see a B2 brought back to life... Keep us updated man.


B2

 

[Lost Bushman]

Very interested to see this come back to life!

 

[Bryce]

I hate Ethanol! New fuel pump to o on tomorrow and a new fuel tank and sender needs to e ordered. The sender was clogged with crud. The tank is rusting out from the inside (no rust on the outside!). The good thing is f you get fuel toit, it fires right up and idles... Then fals flat on its face when you rev it. I'll put the pump in tomorrow and we'll rig it up to make sure fuel is getting to the carb.

It's been emotional today... I had hoed to take it for a spin, but now am unsure if I want to continue or find us another project. I guess it all depends on how tomorrow goes. We'll make a list of things that are must haves, should haves and luxury items. From there we'll need to seewhere it comes in compared to another project (car and fix up items)

One thing that really got a chuckle out of me was the never used 33x12.50 spare that was never on the road. Its now so dry rotted that you could rip a lug right off it. Part of the sticker is still on it. Sucks that I'll need to drop the money for 5 new tires, but any project would probably need that too.

I jut wonder if a newer vintage truck/car might nit be the way to go and wash my ands on this one before we get too deep.

 

[wildbill23c]

Before you go to far in replacing fuel pumps, sending units, etc. If that truck has been sitting with fuel in it you need to take that carburetor off and give it a good cleaning or it will never run right. Ethanol fuel will quickly start causing lots of sludge and corrosion in whatever it is allowed to sit in for more than a few weeks. Ethanol fuel starts degrading within a couple weeks and after a month it is about useless.

After you get it running try to find local gas stations that have non-ethanol fuel.

 

[MastuhWaffles]

I hate when people let vehicles sit D:

 

[Bryce]

Before you go to far in replacing fuel pumps, sending units, etc. If that truck has been sitting with fuel in it you need to take that carburetor off and give it a good cleaning or it will never run right. Ethanol fuel will quickly start causing lots of sludge and corrosion in whatever it is allowed to sit in for more than a few weeks. Ethanol fuel starts degrading within a couple weeks and after a month it is about useless.

After you get it running try to find local gas stations that have non-ethanol fuel.

The tank and sending unit really need to be replaced..... Chunks came out of the tank (I think we got them all) and the $85 for a tank at rock auto is worth it to replace. The strainer was completely packed full of crap and the pick up tube was illed up about 3 inches.... After I cleared the strainer and pickup, I was able to blow through it. I pulled the hose off between on the tank side of the pump and put it in a cup of gas. Pulled the other end off the fuel filter.... It woudn't pull gas out of the cup. The pump was only $25 so, not a huge expense if it was unnecessary (pain in the ass to R&R though). In the moring, I'll see if it'll suck as up.

I may put it all back together with an inline filter after the sending unit just to see if it'll work. The inline filter will keep it from clogging up the upstream stuff until the new tank shows up. The strainer fell apart when I cleaned it.

If the carb is screwy from all this, I really think I'll just say F it and do te duraspark onversion with a regular 2150 carb instead of the computer controlled pos. cleaning out the 2150a woud be a waste IMO and would justify me repacing it.


There is one pace left around that has non ethenol gas... The rest are on the docks at the marinas... No pumps on land.

We'll do the brakes and work n cleaning it up while we wait on the tank.

 

[Shran]

I think for a minimal amount of money, you could have it up and running. Probably much less than a cheap teenager vehicle.

How bad does she want it? The concept of giving it to your daughter is cool and all, but I'm not sure I'd give a lifted Bronco II to a teenager as their first vehicle. Just simply because of the high center of gravity and inexperienced drivers and whatnot.

 

[Bryce]

So, the front brakes and bearings are done...

Then we went to bleed the brakes and the rear wouldn't bleed, so we did the back brakes too.

We cleaned out the old tank as best we colud and put a filter right after the pickup so and missed junk wouldn't flow upstream. Got gas to the cab and cranked it up.
http://youtu.be/lLiOGEqNdAg <<<---video

It ran for a while and we though all was good... Drove it around the back yard some, and then it stalled and would not crank back up. It was getting dark, so we decided to pick up the tools for the night and get a look at it in the morning. It almost acted like no spark and it didn't even fire with a shot of starting fluid, but honestly, there was no further investigation than that.

2 more days off of work and I really want to see it go down the street.