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MY build thread...'88 Bronco II Desert Rat Patrol Edition: MAJOR update 2/23/2025


Just gotta love a fresh set of tires...
 
Bad news on the rear bumper, @Uncle Gump confirmed what I thought; the mounting brackets were welded upside down/backwards...ugh...

IMG_3549 - Copy.jpg

^ frame rail/spar on the left, bumper on the right sitting on a step stool. I emailed AOR and I'm waiting to hear back from them. In their defense this is the second one they've ever done and they gave me a phenomenal price on it so I'm sure I'll get it straightened out...

Anyway, decided to spend Father's Day with my son in law in the garage and he helped me get the new wheels/tires on along with the (extended) Skyjacker sway-bar links. Still has WAY too much camber, but it's getting the alignment done on Wednesday and won't be driven until then anyway.

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Really happy with the ride height/how it sits right now. Once it's warmed up it's EV quiet...I thought it stalled at a stoplight the other day but nope, it's just smooth/quiet. My neighbor that I bought it from loves seeing all the work getting done on it too...
 
Looks really good...

I can't believe they those brackets wrong. I'm thinking I may call them too and maybe send my drawing again. Mine fit like a glove.
 
Looks really good...

I can't believe they those brackets wrong. I'm thinking I may call them too and maybe send my drawing again. Mine fit like a glove.
Thanks Sir!

Yeah...I'm REALLY bummed about the bumper but I'm not gonna get wrapped around the axle about it until I hear back from them. I know it was not cheap for them to ship it so I'm not sure how they're gonna wanna handle it. I did decide against mounting it upside down in the interim however, I don't want to put it on that bad! :ROFLMAO:
 
Yeah... like I said if it were me. Weld the holes closed... grind... re-drill pattern.

I said mine fit like a glove... with the half inch bolts the provided. I opted to use the factory hardware with the bolts that are strapped together... they are a smidgen bigger then half inch. I took a die grinder and opened them up.

Not sure how they will handle it... but I would be surprised if they didn't take steps to make you happy.

Something else... you said you had to bang it on with a dead blow. Mine was snug getting it on the frame rails... but I could wiggle it on by hand. I'm gonna guess when they welded those mounting bracket gussets (mine didn't have those but will when I do my tire carrier) they shrunk the distance between the brackets. The gussets are on the inside... correct?

That might be something worth telling them.
 
Do you need to weld the holes shut. Is there enough meat to just drill new holes?
 
Why not just cut the bracket off and weld it back on the right way? My amazon plamsa cutter would have that off in no time. Some grinding and welding and its back on. I hate using a drill if I don't have to do. If the holes are right, but its upside down. Id just cut the bracket off and reweld....
 
AOR is aware of the problem/issue and I'm waiting to see how they wish to proceed before I attempt anything on my end to try and fix it, which I'm really not in a position to do anyway...
 
Good news is that AOR got back to me and a new (rear) bumper is on the way!

So does that mean there's bad news? Of course it does! :ROFLMAO:

Found a small green puddle under the passenger side of the car, near the back of the tire. I knew it wasn't coolant and as soon as I felt it, I was fairly certain it was refrigerant oil, which I had treated with green dye additive for leak detection. That was a bingo. The evaporator (which, of course, was the only part of the system I didn't replace) was leaking. Since I don't have a recovery system and I didn't want to waste money and vent it to atmosphere I had a local shop recover the refrigerant and swap out the evaporator. Not too happy about having to do that but oh well...

Next was the alignment which I was really looking forward to. First thing the guy asks me for is the camber bolts to which I told him that I had told his girl that I didn't have them and it was gonna need them. So that was strike 1. I also did NOT take into account that the caster got pretty tweaked in the process too, it wasn't as visible as the camber being crazy out of whack. The tech stated he could get 2-degree cams but that wasn't going to cut it and recommended both radius arm and axle pivot drop brackets. Great. They didn't come with the kit I bought and Skyjacker is working on selling them to me separately since Duff apparently doesn't want any more business from me.

The issue was that once I installed the rear add-a-leaf I got WAY too much rake for my liking. I typically like no more than a 1/2-inch difference between the front and rear and it was more like 1.5 - 1.75-inches which looks stupid. I don't plan on towing but I've always used air-bags to keep the ride height level when towing anyway.

That resulted in my adding the 1.5-inch coil spacers to the front which sufficiently threw the front end geometry out of whack. I considered deleting both that spacer and the rear add-a-leaf but that left the rear shocks with minimum travel that bottomed out backing out of my driveway so that was a non-starter.

The alignment tech, who specializes in all sorts of custom/off-road lifts, etc. was confident that with the cams and brackets he could get everything into spec or close enough. It's not my Hellcat or an F1 car so I'm not looking for perfection, I just don't wanna chew up my new KO2s! Speaking of my wheels/tires every one of the wheels had finish defects which I brought to Discount Tire's attention and they immediately gave me a pretty huge price adjustment which I was happy with since they're gonna get beat up anyway.

Got the rest of the interior removed and the headliner out in one piece so I'll be working on getting that done as part of the interior upgrades. There's additional factory sound insulation on the wheel wells which I need to remove before Raptor lining the floor and installing the sound mat so I need to get at that too.

Got my new/factory radiator and just waiting on the cap, thermostat and hoses to swap it out and get back to the factory cooling system (more or less).

1 step forward, 2 steps back but it's a learning process so it's all good!
 
I kinda figured AOR would treat you right. I honestly have nothing bad to say about those guys.

For the rest of it... sometimes you just have to walk away until you don't want to beat it with a hammer.

Hang in there... it will be worth it in the end.
 
I kinda figured AOR would treat you right. I honestly have nothing bad to say about those guys.

For the rest of it... sometimes you just have to walk away until you don't want to beat it with a hammer.

Hang in there... it will be worth it in the end.
AOR seems like super solid/decent folks, that's for sure!

I just cracked open the box for my new radiator...and it looks NO different from the old one, which has a significant angle which puts a kink on the hose:

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This Alloy Works radiator is sold here and listed as fitting '85-'94 Ranger/Bronco II/Navajo. My understanding is that the later model vehicles require the angle while Bronco IIs like mine, do not. I'm continuing to have cooling/overheating issues which is why I wanted a stock configuration radiator and Parts Geek sent me this one which is no different and has the same angle to it:


I bought the Autopart Premium Radiator, Part Number: 4976-02643390

Before I COMPLETELY lose my mind, I have to ask, am I correct that the stock radiator upper radiator outlet does NOT have a bend in it? The way the hose is kinked and how I had to wrestle it on I KNOW it's not correct...which I why I bought a new radiator, hoses, thermostat and cap.

This whole cooling system was a :poop: show when I first bought it and started digging into it; it had no thermostat and a piece of PVC pipe in the lower hose to act as an adapter for the oversized lower outlet, which is another difference I thought between my BII and the newer model year Rangers/Navajos...

If anyone has any pictures of their BII I'd appreciate, or anything else to help me regain my grip on my ever slipping sanity! :ROFLMAO:
 
I’ll have to see what I have sitting around for radiators. I can’t remember if it’s straight or angled
 
My truck has the 2 row expo radiator.

The inlet certainly isn't straight.

20230625_094727.jpg


20230625_094719.jpg
 
Thanks for responding with pictures @UncleGump! That's a radiator for a later model Exploder, correct?

I was at O'Reilly's yesterday driving them crazy and I'll have both the upper and lower hoses for my application and a later model 4.0 Exploder this week. Mocking up with upper radiator hose that should with my radiator it's WAY out of whack and puts it on a crazy angle nowhere near the thermostat hosing. Flexible/universal hoses are an option, I have one now on my lower radiator hose but it took two clamps to keep it from leaking which chapped my backside...

I hope it doesn't sound like much ado about nothing but given the extreme environment here both cooling and A/C are critical; it's gonna be 106 here today and next Sunday looks like it's gonna be 111 and we're still not even close to peak summer temps...! 🥵
 
If I recall correctly, when I changed the radiator in my 1990 B2 from the original to an Explorer ('91-'94) thicker core radiator, the original 2.9 lower hose was still usable, but on the upper I used the hose for the 4.0 application and had to trim it just a tad. Been a while, and I didn't take too many pictures back then.
 

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