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RacinNdrummin
Well-Known Member
Project El Taco...1990 BII SOHC swap
So the story starts in september of 2006, My girlfriend and I fly down to Silver city, NM. We were going down to her uncles place to pick up a 99 chrysler LHS with 42K that he gave her.
The car was like brand new, with just about every option under the sun. After staying and visiting for a few days, we were off and on the way home, we left about 5pm on a wednesday and headed down the 90, watching the tarantula spiders running across the road in front of us, soon we joined up with I-10 just before the NM/AZ border.
Had the cruise set at 80mph and we were headed for vegas, we wanted to get there by thursday afternoon. About 15 miles east of willcox, at 80mph, it felt like somebody rear-ended us, I pulled over on the next exit and checked things over, everything looked ok, and it was pretty much dark at this point and getting cold. I put the car in drive, took off and when the car shifted into 2nd it acted like the gears were stripped, so I pulled it over and we made some calls, here we are stuck in the AZ desert 15 miles from civilization at night, with the nearest person we know 4 hours away...
We got the car towed into willcox to a shop and rented a room at the super-8, complete with crickets on the ground and tarantulas on the walls outside(no kidding). In the morning we went to the shop and waited for the tranny guy in town to show up with his diagnostic computer, when he got there he plugged it in and what came up was basically complete tranny obliteration due to the input and output sensors failing, computer going into limp mode (2nd gear) at 80mph and destroying itself. I called chrysler to see if they would warranty the tranny (it was only 2k over the warranty, worth a shot) and they said no, they wouldnt do anything. We looked into renting a car, but there was nothing available outside of Tucson, and no way of getting to Tucson from Willcox, We were basically screwed.
On the way in the night before I had noticed that behind the gas station on the corner, that there were cars for sale. I found out that the guy who owned the shop, also owned the gas station and the cars behind it, so I talked him into trading what was left of the chrysler for one of the cars. He hesitently agreed. So we went down and I picked out this bronco II:
I drove it back to the shop and loaded it up with all of our stuff while my gf went and got the paperwork done.
And we got back on the road.
We drove home problem free, aside from a little starter issue in Phoenix rush hour traffic.
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The Project
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We bought a 93 mazda navajo for parts. 4.0/5-spd D35 /8.8 3.27 trac-lok.
I had stripped the 2.9 harness out of the BII awhile ago, same with the Navajo:
I had planned to re-pin the navajo harness and just use that, but today I was out at the JY and I came across a 90 ranger 4.0, so a spent an hour getting the engine bay harness out of that. As far as I know, it is a plug and play deal for the 90 BII.
The Factory D35:
The FM-146 and Manual X-case
First thing is to put in the 4.0, Im going to use the FM-146 and 7.5 out back for now, until I can re-gear the 8.8 and rebuild the blown M5OD in the Navajo.
Ill have to double check the x-case, but I think its a BW1350, and Ill just keep that when I put the M5OD in.
Ill keep you posted.
So the story starts in september of 2006, My girlfriend and I fly down to Silver city, NM. We were going down to her uncles place to pick up a 99 chrysler LHS with 42K that he gave her.
The car was like brand new, with just about every option under the sun. After staying and visiting for a few days, we were off and on the way home, we left about 5pm on a wednesday and headed down the 90, watching the tarantula spiders running across the road in front of us, soon we joined up with I-10 just before the NM/AZ border.
Had the cruise set at 80mph and we were headed for vegas, we wanted to get there by thursday afternoon. About 15 miles east of willcox, at 80mph, it felt like somebody rear-ended us, I pulled over on the next exit and checked things over, everything looked ok, and it was pretty much dark at this point and getting cold. I put the car in drive, took off and when the car shifted into 2nd it acted like the gears were stripped, so I pulled it over and we made some calls, here we are stuck in the AZ desert 15 miles from civilization at night, with the nearest person we know 4 hours away...
We got the car towed into willcox to a shop and rented a room at the super-8, complete with crickets on the ground and tarantulas on the walls outside(no kidding). In the morning we went to the shop and waited for the tranny guy in town to show up with his diagnostic computer, when he got there he plugged it in and what came up was basically complete tranny obliteration due to the input and output sensors failing, computer going into limp mode (2nd gear) at 80mph and destroying itself. I called chrysler to see if they would warranty the tranny (it was only 2k over the warranty, worth a shot) and they said no, they wouldnt do anything. We looked into renting a car, but there was nothing available outside of Tucson, and no way of getting to Tucson from Willcox, We were basically screwed.
On the way in the night before I had noticed that behind the gas station on the corner, that there were cars for sale. I found out that the guy who owned the shop, also owned the gas station and the cars behind it, so I talked him into trading what was left of the chrysler for one of the cars. He hesitently agreed. So we went down and I picked out this bronco II:
I drove it back to the shop and loaded it up with all of our stuff while my gf went and got the paperwork done.
And we got back on the road.
We drove home problem free, aside from a little starter issue in Phoenix rush hour traffic.
----------------------
The Project
------------
We bought a 93 mazda navajo for parts. 4.0/5-spd D35 /8.8 3.27 trac-lok.
I had stripped the 2.9 harness out of the BII awhile ago, same with the Navajo:
I had planned to re-pin the navajo harness and just use that, but today I was out at the JY and I came across a 90 ranger 4.0, so a spent an hour getting the engine bay harness out of that. As far as I know, it is a plug and play deal for the 90 BII.
The Factory D35:
The FM-146 and Manual X-case
First thing is to put in the 4.0, Im going to use the FM-146 and 7.5 out back for now, until I can re-gear the 8.8 and rebuild the blown M5OD in the Navajo.
Ill have to double check the x-case, but I think its a BW1350, and Ill just keep that when I put the M5OD in.
Ill keep you posted.
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