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

[Peter Griffin]

I've still been at it, just suffering from the typical and not so typical setbacks and delays...

I decided to halt working on the suspension until I could get it safely lifted. I ordered a set of Quick Jacks from Home Depot with their truck/SUV adapter and it's good for 27+ inches. They fold super flat too so storage is easy and I can likewise get them under my Hellcat, which is slammed relatively speaking!

While I was waiting for the Quick Jacks to show up, I decided to start work on the stereo which I did NOT want to do until I was nearly done with the interior resto, but I was getting anxious to do something...ANYTHING! With the new Alpine H/U installed I started to wire in the MTX 8-inch powered subwoofer. My initial plan was to fit it underneath the seat but that was not going to happen based on the size, which was fine with me as it wasn't a deal breaker.

I bought the powered sub from Crutchfield's Outlet, which I've previously had success with before...but not this time. I'm hardly a novice at car stereo installations and it was hardly a complicated installation. Since I was just mocking things up for testing purposes, I didn't make any permanent wiring cuts, etc. I was clearly getting power to it so the power, ground and remote connections were good but no sound. I used the Alpine H/U's RCA subwoofer out to the sub's in, left the sub's adjustment for gain, crossover and boost at 12 o'clock and still nothing. Made sure the H/U was properly sending a subwoofer out signal and nothing. Crutchfield Tech Support is legendary for a reason, and I'm NOT arrogant to think I must know what I'm doing but after spending quite some time with them on the phone it was apparent why this sub was in the Outlet store...so they're sending me a new one.

It took me a bit to get the Quick Jacks put together and find suitable lift points on the frame...LOT of up and down, shifting back and forth, etc. It's set up on a dead level concrete slab and I was happy finally getting it where I thought it was in the safest possible position. I gave it a fairly violent shake test at both lift settings before I lowered and re-lifted it and set the locking mechanism...

I decided to tackle the front coil springs and sway bar bushings first. In typical fashion, the driver's side coil spring (and new isolator) went it without a hitch. To handle the sway bar bushings I made a press out of a 1 1/8 and 14mm socket and used my vise to push them out. You can see from the pictures that they were smoked so it was a satisfying feeling throwing the old ones in the trash!

The passenger side coil fought me like no one's business and kept slipping off the spring perch and it took a whole lot of futzing with it before it locked into place...total PITA!

So now that that's done the plan is to get the new rear leaf springs with Skyjacker helper spring installed. I also have their steering stabilizer to get done and then on to tackle the radius arm and axle bushings, which are going to take some re-configuring with the Quick Jacks, but that's fine. The brakes look nearly brand new so I'm not inclined to mess with them. The right front wheels bearings are apparently worn (or more likely the retainer lock ring is backed off...I still need to check that out) so I ordered a full set of replacement bearings for both sides IF I need them...

I got my valve cover gaskets in since they're definitely weeping a bit, and once I get that done I can finish up the A/C install. After that ALL fluids oil/transmission, transfer case and axles and it's done (mas o menos) mechanically. It should be starting to get regularly toasty at that point so I'll move it into my climate controlled garage to start hammering on the interior restoration...

So it'll be 100% in no time!

 

[Peter Griffin]

Only I could turn a 45-minute to hour MAX install of a steering stabilizer into an ordeal that lasted over the course of 3 days...

Hyperbole aside, it was a bit of a show. Instructions are garbage and as simple as they are, that doesn't mean the instructions should leave any room for interpretation, which they most certainly do. Full disclosure however; if I did NOT have a front sway bar it would have been an hour or so max. So what the hell made it take so long then? Glad you asked!

For some unknown reason I started the install with it still on the lift so I had to fix that. The ambiguous instructions were maddening, and the long bracket which had a 90-degree lip that was about a 1/2-inch or so prevented a straightforward installation, the reason being the bracket is quasi-universal for a bunch of different applications where it is needed. Mocked it up and the sway bar smashed into it. Measure twice, cut once...three times! Attacking it with my Sawz-All with Torch bi-metal blade my vise shook loose from it mounts, which the previous homeowner decided to mount with wood screws...in a particle board tabletop, so I upsized the mounting hardware and went with threaded bolts and nylok nuts; once finished it wasn't going anywhere... Once I got the 90-degree section cut off, flipped the bracket and held it down in its rearmost position in the slotted holes it gave plenty of room to clearance the sway bar.

I then moved on to getting the leaf springs installed, having installed the Skyjacker helper spring into them the other day. The front and rear shackle/mounting bolts were easily removed, and U-bolts on the other hand were a show. They're likely galvanized and original equipment so at 35 years old they were not in any hurry to come out so it was a combination of my cordless impact, air impact, ratchet and breaker bar and plenty of PB Blaster to get them off.

I did NOT order new U-bolts when I ordered the leaf springs for a couple of reasons; the first being I wasn't sure what size they were and it looked like there were several different possibilities and secondly I thought I be able to readily grab them locally once I did determine what size they were...WRONG!

My U-bolts were 1/2-inch, 2 7/8ths wide...not 3 inches, not 2 3/4, 2 7/8ths, and while the stock ones were 6 1/2 inches long, I wanted to go with at least 8-inch ones to account for the extra width of the additional leaf so after looking around it looked like Dorman had exactly what I was looking for on Amazon so they'll be here in a few days. In the interim this is about as sexy as they're gonna get:

I also got my replacement subwoofer from Crutchfield in and decided to test that out, hoping my diagnosis of it and not the H/U being defective was correct. It literally took about 2 minutes to wire it in to test and once CarPlay fired up I found several songs in my Spotify favorites that were worthy of testing the sub. As you see from the current state of the interior, there's plenty of stuff lying around to rattle and boy did it ever! I'm glad I didn't wait to pull the trigger on it and as modest as this system is it's going to be ridiculously clean and LOUD with stout/tight bass. The soundproofing plan I have is extensive so that'll help with the speakers' efficiency and keep interior noise down too.

While I'm waiting on the U-bolts to show up I'll get to working on the radius arm bushings and figure out how I'm going to attack the axle bushings too. I've seen a bunch of different methods and I think I'm gonna order a bushing puller kit that was originally designed for Mustang rear suspensions that some folks have had success with to get that knocked out...

 

[bobbywalter]

i cant imagine needing a steering stabilizer on a d28....or anything with beams. but i have ripped alot of linkages in half though back when i was running those beams... may have been a good idea in hindsight...


i run one on my dana 60....because my 42s are not very round. and i am on leaf springs...the bronco 2 does real well with no sway bars...but needs hydro assist.

 

[Peter Griffin]

i cant imagine needing a steering stabilizer on a d28....or anything with beams. but i have ripped alot of linkages in half though back when i was running those beams... may have been a good idea in hindsight...


i run one on my dana 60....because my 42s are not very round. and i am on leaf springs...the bronco 2 does real well with no sway bars...but needs hydro assist.

I do NOT disagree, at all, but did this for several reasons...

The dual setup is almost comical the way it sits now, no question. I'm going to run 31s, maybe 32s but Skyjacker made it too easy to add this to the mix when I bought their lift; no tax, free shipping, discount and rebate...it more than covered the price of admission!

This build needs to be on/off road capable and as balanced as possible; the interstate speed limit here is 75 and I need to be able to do that without any drama in addition to tackling the desert environment that I spend a LOT of time in...I initially wanted a more extreme, off road purpose built build but I'm interested in seeing how it's going to turn out the way I've planned it.

So far, so good. I REALLY like how it's sitting now with the new 2-inch body lift and mounts/bushings and the front end with the Skyjacker coil springs and shocks. Once I get these u-bolts and the rear suspension wrapped up it should be sitting pretty. Of course everything is going to settle but now that I have the body properly aligned on the frame to between a 1/16th - 1/8th of inch, not bad for a 35 year old truck my suspension measurements were looking like there was a 1/4-inch difference left to right in the front and near identical left to right on the rear.

I still need to add the AOR front bumper and @Uncle Gump and I are trying to talk them into retrofitting one of their current rear bumpers to fit the BII, so that would change things up a bit too.

I feel like it's really starting to come together and despite the setbacks it's been a tremendous learning process with a lot of help along the way from y'all, particularly @Uncle Gump, @Shran, @lil_Blue_Ford, @Josh B amongst others and I'm very grateful for the help...I obviously need it!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks for the props! A lot of this is pretty similar to a lot of stuff I’ve done with mine, so while I certainly don’t have all the answers, I do have a bit of “been there, done that” to comment on.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Starting to get toasty here (gonna be 99 here today...!) so I need to wrap up the mechanical stuff so I can move it into my garage and get started working on the interior. I was taking a look at the radius arm and axle pivot bushings in anticipation of getting those done after the u-bolts come in for the leaf springs and I noticed the right side coil spring was not seated properly on the lower mount and the giant washer was cockeyed. I had'nt noticed it previously and comparing it to the left side which went in easily it's apparent that something's not right. The right side fought me like nobody's business and the upper perch/shock tower definitely got tweaked in the process. While I doubt the spring is out of spec...it's a possibility as the shock tower appeared to be fine. I'm not really in the mood to swap springs either. I'm gonna call Skyjacker today and see what I can do, if I have to buy one spring to test it and warranty the defective one that's fine, I just don't want to leave it in pieces for any amount of time and limit the work I can do on it.

I started to poop a chicken contemplating that my shock/spring upper mount did get damaged and started looking for replacements. I'm fairly certain one for a Ranger would work and since I could NOT find one for a BII anywhere, I emailed ATS hoping the one they list for the Ranger would also fit the BII. Anyone know why it wouldn't...?

Ford Ranger Coil Spring/Shock Tower Bracket Kit, RIGHT SIDE FRONT SINGLE SHOCK

Ford Ranger Shock Towers, Ford RANGER LEAF SPRING HANGERS. Ford RANGER LEAF SPRING SHACKLES. ATS OFFERS Ford RANGER TRUCK SUSPENSION PARTS IN COMPLETE SUSPENSION KITS. ATS now offers Ford Ranger Coil Spring/Shock Tower Kits. REPLACEMENT SUSPENSION PARTS FOR Ford RANGER TRUCK LEAF SPRING...

www.autoandtrucksprings.com

So in the interest of getting some REAL work done I decided to start working on replacing the valve cover gaskets. Getting the A/C compressor out of the way was mandatory for the driver's side and the passenger's side was more time consuming but wasn't terrible. They definitely had been replaced before and while all the hold-down tabs were present one bolt was different that all the others. The gasket on the driver's side was busted and there was a defect towards the rear, where it was weeping. It doesn't look like any RTV was used in the most recent installation, although there was definitely some residue leftover from a previous one I gather.

I scraped off what I could and wiped down the mating surface with carb cleaner, although before I go ahead with the install I'm going to Scotch-Brite pad both mating surfaces. I bought Fel-Pro's sexiest gasket along with some Permatex and was thinking I'd run a bead on the cylinder head, lay the gasket on top of it and run another bead on the valve cover itself before doing a torque sequence...

Does that sound right? Too much/overkill? I watch a lengthy tutorial on YouTube for what it's worth and that's how they did it...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Soo… the ATS coil buckets that are listed for a Ranger work fine on a B2. Or rather fine enough. I have a set on my 88. A couple of the holes were off, but it wasn’t a world ending problem, I got it to work easy enough.

I’ve never used RTV on a valve cover gasket. I have used both cork and rubber and my usual method is to paint some Indian Head Gasket Shellac on and assemble while still tacky. Need a dead blow mallet and some care to get them loose again, but it sure seals it. I have seen some metal and silicone gaskets and I dunno how good those actually are.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Answered my own question...well at least ATS did! The helpful gentleman I spoke to confirmed that it's more likely than not that the spring/shock tower-upper mount that fits the Ranger will likewise fit my BII. The only thing I'm gonna need to do is get the angle grinder out and take care of the rivets!

I also spoke to Skyjacker today and they were likewise helpful. We collectively came to the conclusion that the best way to figure out what's going on is to switch the springs; otherwise I'll end up with a spring/shock mount I have to return or a coil spring I'll have to return...kind of aggravating but it'll save me some money with shipping so that's on the list of things to do now...!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ve found a torch to be faster for rivets, but I’m not yet as slick with it as the one older fella that I met who owned a junkyard. He had a tiny ball peen hammer, he would whack the head of the rivet off slick as you please with the torch and give the rivet a sharp whack or two with the ball end of the hammer and out they went. Since I’m not that slick I use a hammer and punch after slagging the head most times. Grinder works though. Actually what works better is if you can cut most of the head off with a sawzall then grind the last) I’ve also used an air chisel (every speck of dust and rust that you could possibly imagine and then some rains down), drill after center punching (doesn’t work very well, especially because a lot of rivets are hard to access), and BFH with a cold chisel (works, but a brutal process).

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I grind a cross into the rivet head, then use a cold chisel to pound off the quarters. Works pretty quick. Usually one hammer blow does one quarter.

 

[3stgs]

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...

Wow, I can easily relate to this whole thread - 86 BII, just bought the EXACT same speakers from Crutchfield, front and back, and the Etsy adapters for the front. I have some PB blaster soaking the 2 dash grill screws, they were torqued on tight for some unknown reason… I got the cheapo Jensen media player, which I actually really like.

I also was told the JBL were plug and play, and to my dismay they aren’t even close. I’ve also dealt with them for over 30 years and I’m surprised, and disappointed, they haven’t changed the fitment information. After a ton of research, I can find no 5x7 speakers that fit the stock recessed space without modification - I really don’t want to cut, dremel, grind, etc. 5x7 really doesn’t mean 5x7, the speaker dimensions are always larger than that, and the factory speakers are 5x7-1/4. I’m willing to cut a couple extra tabs, but that’s about it. Also, I can’t find an ABS speaker adapter that would work to mount say a 4” speaker.

I’m stumped. I guess I’ll continue the search unless anyone has a suggestion I haven’t thought of yet.

 

[Peter Griffin]

@3stgs, thank you for adding that context so everyone here doesn't think I'm crazy or full of (at least in this one particular case!)

Like I said I would NOT do that again...it was nerve wracking to say the least and I knew once I started, I owned them! I could have EASILY ruined one or both speakers at any point and would have been outta luck/money.

They fit in the there so tight I actually don't need to screw them in, although I will of course. I thought about heating it up to get some stretch on the molding plastic but I'm gonna hard pass on that. While it's gonna turn out awesome when it's all said and done, it's gonna be a show getting there, particularly considering my limited skillset!

Running an adapter would be a great solution, especially is you're gonna fill in the lows with a sub so you have full range sound. The dash speakers I have are insanely efficient and impressive for their size and there's decent 4-inch speakers out there, but the low end would most definitely be lacking if you didn't fill it in...

 

[Peter Griffin]

Whew! Been real busy the last week, the increasing temperatures have the pressure on to wrap up the mechanical/suspension stuff before moving onto the interior/stereo which I'm going to do in my garage.

Got the leaf springs in the other day. For some unknown reason I did NOT order new U-bolts when I ordered the leaf springs so I had to wait on those. Took the spring packs apart to insert the Skyjacker helper spring in them was relatively easy with 2 good size C-clamps to keep them together.

I started with the driver's side and it took me entirely way too long to get the old U-bolts unbolted. Surprisingly the other mounting bolts came out rather easily however. I've been in the habit of pre-spraying hardware with PB Blaster a day or two before starting to work on something and that's served me fairly well.

The bottom of the tie bolt fit perfectly into the perch, however the nut was slightly oversized for the top plate compared to the original hardware, so I had to drill that out. I didn't have a stepped bit big enough so I grabbed one from Ace (more on that later!) and in short order it was good to go...

Don't worry, I trimmed the excess length of the bolts with the ole Sawz-All with Torch Blade and made short work of them!

On to the other side and lessons learned from the first, I used the Sawz-All to cut the U-bolts which took a matter of seconds...would have saved all sorts of time had I done that originally but oh well. The leaf springs were supported and unloaded with my jack and I have NO doubt these were the original, so I'll just say that they were "relieved" to finally be done with their job. They didn't go flying when they were cut but did let out an almost satisfying groan...I always wear safety glasses/eyewear doing this stuff and that reminded why I do.

So I get the tie bolt dropped into the perch and bolt up the front and rear and all I need to do is drill out the top plate to fit over the larger nut. My stepped bit is still in the drill and after a few seconds nothing is clearly happening. Drill in reverse? Nope. I look closely at the bit and there's maybe a little bit of scoring/heat marks on it but it is NOT working. Run over to Ace for that and some "spare" valve cover hardware and get back at it...

Nothing AGAIN with a brand new bit. WTF. Drill is fine and when I measure it with my micrometer it's only a few hundredths off so out comes the Dremel and it's done in minutes. $50+ bit (Milwaukee) so it wasn't Chinesium garbage and stated is was rated for mild steel. Meh, anyway, rear suspension is completely done, now back to the front!

 

[Peter Griffin]

Now one of the moments we've all been waiting for...or dreading (at least me personally!) the front suspension radius arm and axle pivot bushings!

Hint; probably a little too confident to mentioned those both in the same sentence...!

Anyway before I got into that I needed to determine whether or not my issue with the front suspension was with the coil springs or the upper spring perch/mount. I was rather agitated to have to undo the working side but after futzing with it and swapping the coil springs between sides it's clearly an issue with the perch. On the driver's side the coil spring spins into place and then doesn't move any more (counterclockwise); the only way to take it out is the way they went it, which is the way it's supposed to be. Additionally the Skyjacker logo and part number face straight out. On the passenger side the spring was fighting with the perch, slipping off and when I got it seated and lined up in a similar manner as the driver's side it could be moved more counterclockwise with little effort, and spin right off the perch. Additionally the bottom mount with the giant washer was not sitting flush as it was on the driver's side, clearly indicating that it wasn't seated properly.

As irritating as that was to figure out I'm glad I didn't end up ordering another pair of springs and getting stuck with having to ship them back after figuring it out that it was the perch after all. The only thing I could tell that was wrong with it was the one tab that goes outboard as opposed to the other 4 that go inboard was on a different/goofy angle. The metal is relatively soft and trying to bend it up or down may have worked but would have likely cracked or significantly weakened it, so off to ATS to buy new mounts...and yes I'm replacing both sides because I want them to match!

I can't tell how many articles I've read about the radius arm bushings and YouTube videos I've watch, but if your BII/Ranger is 4-wheel drive and completely rivited and NOT bolted, it's not a 10-minute YouTube one and done deal!

Started off with the passenger's side because I was concerned with the close proximity of the catalytic converter being an issue as I could barely get the 1 1/8th open end wrench over the nut. That was a mistake for reasons I'll explain in a minute...which I'm sure some of you already know!

The bushing was TRASHED and I'm almost certain this was the OE one. It disintegrated as I took it apart. I definitely was wrasslin' with it and need some ratchet straps to get the threaded end of the radius arm clear of the mount, but it came out. I did have the wheel off (DUH?!), brake caliper disconnected and supported with a bungee cord and the shock and coil spring likewise out of the way. I also ended up unbolting the axle pivot arms to (1) give me more wiggle room and (2) UGH...I gotta replace those two. So without too much struggle I managed to get the passenger side done and bolted up. Big mistake!

So onto the driver's side which is set up similarly to tackle the installation on that side and I'm immediately reminded that somewhere along my research that someone mentioned the driveshaft gives you WAY less wiggle room to slide the arm out of the mount. Grind the rivets and use bolts instead? Well what's on the other side than none other than the new fuel pump I installed a while back. The monster bolt that goes through the front of the radius arm bolting it in place was going absolutely NOWHERE. I unbolted the crossmember to help...which is does a lil bit. Ratchet straps holding stuff this way and that way and with MAYBE a 1/4-inch to go to get it out of the mount and I'm facing a brick wall...

Einstein is always my second pair of hands whenever I'm doing stuff like this...DON'T keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, that's the definition of insanity. So I let out an audible sigh and admittedly a chuckle and decide that unbolting the passenger side may give me more articulation in the suspension to get it out.

That does the trick and with a few more minutes of wranglin' I get the driver's side threaded enough for the bolt to LITERALLY catch one full thread. I move to the passenger side and do likewise and decided to wrench the driver's side down completely first before doing likewise on the passenger's side just in case.

Success! Got them all bolted up, now I just have to deal with the axle pivot bushings so I'm off to Ace and O'Reilly's to grab what I think I'm gonna need to get that done that I don't have handy right now, and hopefully save myself a trip.

Hopefully!

 

[Peter Griffin]

A picture(s) is worth a thousand words they say...

I have just four.

Axle. Pivot. Bushings. DONE!