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

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So I didn’t get to looking for the electrical plug by the T-case, but I did check the rear sway bar in the 88 and it looks the same, one side is on the tube and one side is half on the center chunk

 

[Peter Griffin]

...speaking of orifice tubes/valves I'm in the process of arguing for the THIRD time with Rock Auto about why it doesn't fit when they clearly state that it does. It doesn't fit by a few thousandths of an inch, maybe hundredths, but enough not to fit. Side by side picture of the two and a screenshot of the listing and they're refusing my return of a $10...when I've spent almost $1900 with them on this car alone in the last MONTH. I am livid right now and it's not the money; it's the principle...

UGH, sorry for the vent!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

...speaking of orifice tubes/valves I'm in the process of arguing for the THIRD time with Rock Auto about why it doesn't fit when they clearly state that it does. It doesn't fit by a few thousandths of an inch, maybe hundredths, but enough not to fit. Side by side picture of the two and a screenshot of the listing and they're refusing my return of a $10...when I've spent almost $1900 with them on this car alone in the last MONTH. I am livid right now and it's not the money; it's the principle...

UGH, sorry for the vent!

And this is why I stopped buying from RA….

Most of my parts anymore come from the commercial side of Autozone because I have my own business and can. Way less hassle if something isn’t right and they deliver. Wish I would have done it many years ago now.

 

[Peter Griffin]

This show with Rock Auto is arguably worthy of it's own thread!

Regardless, I will never do business with them again, the only question now is whether or not I return the parts I haven't installed yet, which I will do if they refuse my return.

I don't expect everyone there to be some kind of gearhead, mechanic, etc. but this is simple, straightforward, customer service...and they're failing at it, miserably!

I frequent O'Reilly's more than AutoZone (actually worked for them part time when I was in college) but end up there every now and then and I just might go ahead and set up a commercial account with one or both of them, so far I haven't had a problem getting parts from either of them, the most I have to do is wait a couple of days if something needs to be ordered.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

This show with Rock Auto is arguably worthy of it's own thread!

Regardless, I will never do business with them again, the only question now is whether or not I return the parts I haven't installed yet, which I will do if they refuse my return.

I don't expect everyone there to be some kind of gearhead, mechanic, etc. but this is simple, straightforward, customer service...and they're failing at it, miserably!

I frequent O'Reilly's more than AutoZone (actually worked for them part time when I was in college) but end up there every now and then and I just might go ahead and set up a commercial account with one or both of them, so far I haven't had a problem getting parts from either of them, the most I have to do is wait a couple of days if something needs to be ordered.

I don’t know how other places do it, but Autozone does a tiered discount system based on how much you buy and how often. I’m usually able to keep mine one step above the bottom. If I split my business with another parts store I’d probably always be on the bottom tier, so I’ve just done that for now. The commercial manager at my local store is actually a guy I worked with at Autozone back when I worked there, which is kinda nice even though I get treated just like every other customer there. I just used my construction business to get an account, which is even more justified because my F-150 and dump truck are both “company” vehicles and I pretty much always do all of my repairs.

The conveniency of it makes it nice. I’ve been elbow deep in a repair and find I forgot to get something or something else is broken too or even limp something broken home or whatever. Pick up the phone and make a call and go back to working, it’s on the way. No go get cleaned up a little to burn a half hour or more running to the parts store. I even ended up with the store manager bringing me parts right after the store closed for the night. Of course, I was at my buddy’s garage which is literally at the bottom of the hill where AZ is, but I was in a screwed situation, in the middle of a brake job and the caliper pins were f#*$ed, and my buddy wasn’t there, he had to run somewhere else.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Sooooo the Rock Auto saga continues...or doesn't apparently. After asking for a supervisor who insisted that I provide her with (1) my VIN and (2) the Ford/OEM/Motorcraft part number number for the A/C orifice valve, after kindly rand immediately responding and provided her with exactly that information, (since it was given as the reason for refusing to honor my return) my response email gets immediately kicked back to me since the ticket number referred to in the subject line is now "closed" and the parts shows up as "non returnable" in my order history. I resend it with the subject email edited; no response for 24 hours, I resend it again with another new subject title and preface it so whoever reading it has a clue before they start to get into it; no response. I call their main number, which specifically states they will NOT provide customer service, and leave a message anyway which I'm certain went into a black hole and will likewise get no response.

All of this over a $10.60 part which does not fit, because it's out of spec and ever so slightly oversized, but enough to cause a fitment issue. Apparently Rock Auto was more than happy to take my nearly $1900 in business in one month just for this vehicle alone, but can't be bothered to honor a return for a part they list as fitting, that won't.

"Good news" is I have a set of leaf springs and a whole bunch of suspension components (bushings, etc.) that I'll return on Monday if I don't hear back from them by COB tomorrow (I don't expect to, but I'll give them the chance for whatever reason).

Sigh. Really sucks the fun out of it when the time I spent trying to deal with this, which is several hours at this point, could have been spent wrenching...

 

[Peter Griffin]

Speaking of "fun" anyone whose dug into the dash of one of these or a similar Ranger knows that the headlight knob needs to be removed from the stem to pull the dash piece off that section. Once I started to work on mine, the 2 "mystery holes" that were on that piece all started to make sense. I was able to get the internal locking device that couples the knob to the stem pushed in since apparently pushing back on it, as you're supposed to remove it, was getting nowhere. That's when I noticed what looked like dried epoxy on it, which, not coincidentally, is not the only place there's epoxy where it shouldn't be. I quickly determined that the knob was epoxied on the stem and wasn't coming off...

So as you can see "chucklehead" (which is what we'll call the PO that did this) apparently discovered AFTER epoxying the knob to the stem that the knob has to be removed to remove the trim piece and access the leftmost lower dash screw...OR you can drill a hole...or two if the first time doesn't do the trick, so you can fit your screwdriver through the trim piece to access the screw...

UNREAL.

Looking at a parts diagram on LMT is was apparent that the headlight switch/stem/knob were separate pieces so there had to be a way to remove the stem and thank the good Lord that a gentleman posted a quick video on YouTube that there's a spring loaded release/button on the switch housing that does EXACTLY that...so that's what I needed to do to start getting the dash taken apart for the instrument panel overlay/LED and stereo head unit and dash speaker upgrade.

 

[Peter Griffin]

So I then set out to start working on the gauge cluster, intending to upgrade any bulb I could to a LED of the proper color, update the look of the gauge cluster with a white overlay (with blue LED lighting) and paint the needles bright orange as the tach in particular was completely sun faded. That's when this happened...

Initially there was a small hairline crack closest to the center of the needle where I attempted to repair it with superglue...which failed FANTASTICALLY as it literally started to crack into a series of smaller pieces, mind you I was doing this work on my bench and approached it as I would open heart surgery, knowing that at 35 years old that something like exactly this could happen...and did of course. Off to eBay and as of now the most cost effective option was to replace it with the 4-gauge cluster of fuel/coolant temp/oil pressure/DC-volts; replacement gauge clusters with tachometers were cost prohibitive.

Sooooo this is the week I've been having...

 

[Peter Griffin]

At this point I gotta get a win so I decided to start working on the stereo, the dash speakers specifically. My neighbor that I bought it from had replaced them with hot garbage Chinesium junk and bolted it down in exactly ONE spot. Obviously unacceptable...

So using the adapters I read about here and bought off of Etsy, I mounted my Infinity Reference speakers in the adapter, using foam insulation tape on both sides of the speaker. The screw closest to the windshield required a field improvised T-15 driver made out of a bit, micro wrench and hockey tape to keep the bit from slipping (I kept my finger on top of it to keep it place.).

Start to finish for one speaker was nearly 2 hours all said and done; the mounting clips kept getting stuck to the massive magnet and other assorted comedies of error but it's in there securely fastened by all three mounting points in the dash (4 from the speaker to the adapter bracket itself).

I noticed the factory grill had some dry rotted foam insulation, so I cleaned it off and added new stuff. As I screwed the speaker grill down into the dash I felt it snug up against the top of the speaker, so my overkill with the foam tape SHOULD pay off with no rattling!

 

[SenorNoob]

That's gonna work really well.

 

[Peter Griffin]

While waiting on my Quick Jacks to arrive so I can safely continue work on the suspension I decided to tackle the stereo installation. Admittedly I wanted to save this for one of the last things to do as a reward of sorts...but I didn't want let the awesome weather we're having here in extreme SW AZ go to waste, especially since triple-digits will be here before we know it!

In a separate thread I mentioned that I ordered some JBL 6x8s for what Crutchfield calls the "mid panel", specifically the JBL 8621F. I just double checked for argument's sake, and Crutchfield says these speakers fit as long as there's already speakers in there. To me, and having been a customer of Crutchfield for 35+ years, that sounds like plug and play to me...WRONG!

On the left is the speaker out of the box, on the right is what it needs to look like to SMASH it into mid panel where it doesn't really line up with any of the stock speaker mounting hardware:

I immediately knew they didn't fit and weren't going to once I mocked them up. I had to make a decision to modify or send them back, and had a pretty good idea that they were gonna fit one modified, but it'd likely look like homemade soap afterwards; sure it works, it just ain't pretty...

Having said that I would NOT do it again. When cutting/modifying the speaker there's infinite opportunities for the Dremel or cutting/etc. tool of choice to slip and go right into the speaker surround and destroy the speaker. Not only that but you're obviously generating some heat when cutting through the metal which can likewise damage the speakers. I consider myself lucky that didn't happen, but that doesn't mean I'd do it again!

I'll get them mounted today and believe me when I tell you, mounting hardware isn't even necessary...! I had to push the upper part of molding to fit the lip of the speaker underneath it which holds it in place.

Since I did end up buying a powered sub I SHOULD have just gone with some 5x7s that would have fit without the drama and have the sub handle the bass. The Infinity Reference speakers in the dash sound insane, and the mid panel could have just handled the mids (see what I did there!) and adjust the low pass crossover lower than I would if I had 6/6.5/6x9s...

So now I'll have Bluetooth phone/audio with an Alpine H/U that will completely rock, especially once all the soundproofing is done!

 

[Josh B]

While waiting on my Quick Jacks to arrive so I can safely continue work on the suspension I decided to tackle the stereo installation. Admittedly I wanted to save this for one of the last things to do as a reward of sorts...but I didn't want let the awesome weather we're having here in extreme SW AZ go to waste, especially since triple-digits will be here before we know it!

In a separate thread I mentioned that I ordered some JBL 6x8s for what Crutchfield calls the "mid panel", specifically the JBL 8621F. I just double checked for argument's sake, and Crutchfield says these speakers fit as long as there's already speakers in there. To me, and having been a customer of Crutchfield for 35+ years, that sounds like plug and play to me...WRONG!

On the left is the speaker out of the box, on the right is what it needs to look like to SMASH it into mid panel where it doesn't really line up with any of the stock speaker mounting hardware:

View attachment 90511

I immediately knew they didn't fit and weren't going to once I mocked them up. I had to make a decision to modify or send them back, and had a pretty good idea that they were gonna fit one modified, but it'd likely look like homemade soap afterwards; sure it works, it just ain't pretty...

Having said that I would NOT do it again. When cutting/modifying the speaker there's infinite opportunities for the Dremel or cutting/etc. tool of choice to slip and go right into the speaker surround and destroy the speaker. Not only that but you're obviously generating some heat when cutting through the metal which can likewise damage the speakers. I consider myself lucky that didn't happen, but that doesn't mean I'd do it again!

I'll get them mounted today and believe me when I tell you, mounting hardware isn't even necessary...! I had to push the upper part of molding to fit the lip of the speaker underneath it which holds it in place.

Since I did end up buying a powered sub I SHOULD have just gone with some 5x7s that would have fit without the drama and have the sub handle the bass. The Infinity Reference speakers in the dash sound insane, and the mid panel could have just handled the mids (see what I did there!) and adjust the low pass crossover lower than I would if I had 6/6.5/6x9s...

So now I'll have Bluetooth phone/audio with an Alpine H/U that will completely rock, especially once all the soundproofing is done!

So true man, factory fits are best

 

[Peter Griffin]

The mid panel is a goofy size for sure and to be expected of that era vehicle, especially for Euro cars. I haven't had a chat with Crutchfield yet but the only installation note is that the speakers wouldn't fit if there weren't speakers there to begin with, nothing about needing to extensively modify them in order to smash them into place!

Without the powered sub (MTX TN8MS) to fill in the bass/low end, the system I put together would have sounded fine, just lacking. Especially considering there's no door speakers and I didn't want to hack up my brand new Covercraft door panels, it really left me no choice. Since the interior is completely gutted right now it's pretty easy to knock stuff like this out and run wires/cables the way they should be, I'm just trying not to go done the same road twice and duplicate work, although it's already happened at least once and is going to again (especially when I go to do the valve cover gaskets AFTER I bolted in the new A/C compressor last week, WAY easier to do it with it out...oh well!)

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ve found there really is no replacement for a sub in the system. Don’t get me wrong, my Rockford Fosgate speakers in my F-150 sound great, but there is no adjustment that makes up for the lack of a sub. I had got a 10” in a truck box, but I couldn’t get it to fit behind the seat. Some day I’ll have to do something about it.

Really kinda surprised that Crutchfield was wrong, usually they are the best place to get that information.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Really kinda surprised that Crutchfield was wrong, usually they are the best place to get that information.

I double checked it today just for laughs and there's nothing to indicate that the speakers I bought would be anything other than plug and play. I've been doing business with them since around the same time my Bronco was made so I was surprised. I have no doubt they wouldn't have had any issue taking them in return but I accepted the challenge...which in hindsight was not the brightest idea I've ever had...