Andres629's still at it! '87 BII this time!

[disciplerocks]

Nice. I think those rims look on it too.

 

[Andres629]

Well, not much to report. Kind of at a standstill 'til I can get a few parts to put the front end together. Stupid Ford only parts.

On a side note, I have to move my steering box forward. Anyone have any suggestions? I think it's kind of lame that the steering box is "frenched" into the frame rail like that.

 

[Boggin]

looking good bud. keep it up

 

[wahlstrom1]

How far are you moving the axle forward? Can you mount the tie rod ahead of the draglink and use a slightly longer pitman arm (F150 were 1/2-3/4" longer I've found)? I could go 3" ahead and the tierod was parallel to the draglink. If you mount them the other way around you could angle it the other way? Those NWF arms do have dual holes in both sides....

 

[Andres629]

I'm moving the front axle forward 4-5" and will be using a factory F-150 pitman arm. But it's still not quite enough.

While I've gotcha Andrew... the outer axle seal... basically just to keep the dirt/water out of the axle tube. Wouldn't happen to know a part number, or even what they look like, do you?

 

[wahlstrom1]

My stock axle shafts had them... the aftermarket ones had them built in, like a flanged part of the shaft. I couldn't find any to fit, and the shaft snugged up against the housing so I never worried about them.

Putting the tie rod up front should allow you to move the axle ahead, especially with the packaging of the air shocks. I ran with the setup in the pic for over 3 yrs, with very minimal bumpsteer and it worked great. I can't see running the angle the other way hurting anything? Only concern would be getting the trac bar sorted out.

 

[BONES]

Yeah with the axle moved 4" forward on mine and using the stock 91 Explorer pitman, the drag link tre is directly above the center link. It has touched the zerk a few times on some of the launches she's been thru, the zerk fitting is pretty much smooshed now. An inch longer pitman would work for my set-up for sure, but plans are to move the axle further forwards when I redo the rad arms down the road, hopefully you get this done so I can follow what you did!!

CheapThrills moved the box forward on his old Ranger Cab creation with the exo cage, IIRC he just cut out that section of inner frame and moved it forwards and Frenched it back into the frame. Looked pretty straight forwards on his. It's what I'll likely do with mine if I keep the ford box.

Wouldn't be very difficult to move the mount really or even plate in the section ahead of the box and drill and mount it forward a few inches.

 

[railman]

I saw this in another thread.....

not sure if it helps much....but you get the idea

l8r, John

 

[Andres629]

Huh... well that could work! Thanks for that pic, John! Hey Bones, how far forward did you put your axle? 'Cause if yours seems to work, then maybe I'll sacrifice an inch and move it back so I doon't have to deal with it... Haha!

 

[wahlstrom1]

Maybe I'm missing something.... but why do you even need to move the box forward to go 5-6" ahead. With the oddball dual holes on both sides that those high steer arms have, you can switch the tie rod and drag link and avoid the issues Bones is having. Your going with airshocks, so coil clearance isn't an issue either.

 

[BONES]

X2 on what wahlstrom stated, you have multi mount arms, use em to your advantage if possible.

OK granted this is a leaf sprung frame mounting a 4 bolt steering box but the process is exactly the same. If you choose to go the box relocation route here's some good pix to gander. Not my pix but is exactly how I mounted the Saginaw Camaro steering box on my old CJ5, worked great.

My wheel base measures 99.5"ish. I moved the front 4" and the rear 1.5" from the factory 94" wb.

I moved the front axle 4" forwards on the Deuce and my pitman/drag link tre is directly above the center link. My camera is busted so I can't even go take a pic right now, I'll see if i can get a buddy to come take a pic so I can show you it. The center link has touched the Zerk and squashed it under hard front end bottoming out, I bottomed out hard enough to split the bump stop and this damaged the Zerk. I went out wheeling several times after with that split bump stop and further damaged the Zerk. If I were to do it again without moving the box I would either go 3" forwards or 5" forwards just to keep the Zerk out of the center link area under a hard bottom out situation. Probably the best thing would be to slap it all together with mock up rad arms and get it where you feel it fits best, then go from there.

I also installed my bump stops on the bottom of the frame with built pads on the diff. With the diff bump pads sitting against the frame and no rubber bumps installed the diff and 4.0L engine oil pan are roughly 1/2 inch apart. Sitting on the bump stops with no springs in it the diff and engine are 2.5" apart. This is at full compression. At ride height I have another 3" to the bump stops. Was trying for a very low center of gravity with larger tires and little lift.

Here's the best pic I have of said parts, I'll see if I can get someone over to take a better one soon.

 

[Andres629]

Well, I haven't really been on lately, and haven't gotten time to work on the bronco too much, but here's the progress so far. Front end is almost done, just have to make a drag link, mount my air shocks and it's pretty much done. Other than fabbing up the engine cage. I picked up a 2WD F-250 pitman arm, I'm going to try and get a 2WD Ranger one, maybe a little bit shorter and I won't have to move the front end forward anymore. I could turn the link ends out another inch, but I think I'm about as far forward as I want to be. I already have a 0* approach angle, but we'll see. It's sitting front high, but at ride height. It sits 73" tall, and from a measurement of the front end, it's 84" wide... nice and sturdy.

 

[kris97ranger]

Looking good. I love the jackstands I want to make some like that

 

[wahlstrom1]

Good to see that diff finally under something! I noticed the radius arm bolts still loose... I had to rattle on them with everything my electric impact had to get them to bottom out the C against the radius arm...but you can do it!

 

[Andres629]

The air impact at the shop got them snugged all the way down, but for ease of installation I loosened them back off.