The Deuce

[BONES]

I pulled the stock 4.0L air box out to mod it for a snorkel. Figured it would be more useful for the air intake hole to come from the back side of the box. Since I have a v8 swap planned in the future and the 5.0L I have has the air intake hoses of the engine routed to the drivers side, I relocated to air box over to the drivers side.

Sealed up the original air intake hole with a chunk of plastic bonded to the box after sanding the surface down for the adhesive to attach to.

I intended to use parts of the stock grill mounted intake hose to attach the tubing for the snorkel so I dissected it into it's 3 riveted pieces.

After measuring for clearances I traced out the outline of the elbow I intended to use to exit the air box and then cut the new air intake hole in the box.

thoroughly coated the elbow and air box hole in silicone and stuck them together, the elbow snaps into the new hole I cut in the box so the silicone is only there to help seal out contaminants.

I use a 3" hole saw bit on a drill to cut a hole through the top of the cowell, and the removed the small rectangular plate that holds the clutch reservoir to the fire wall and relocated it over to the inner fender support. Then I had an old 3" tube truck sport bar (thin fake roll bar from the 80's show trucks era) kicking around in my scrap pile, and with the old 2.9L rubber intake hose I mated the air box elbow to the 3" tube, all the bends in the tube were also done with the stock 2.9L rubber intake hose. Then I welded a tab to the snorkel A pillar upright piece and the A pillar to hold it in place.

The topper on the snorkel is from the stock 2.9L air box, it was the elbow that come out of the air box and the ran to the grill for the air intake for the box. Just looked neat so I used it to redirect the air flow away from splashes directly into the air stream.

 

[94bigsteele]

very nice!

 

[BONES]

Purchased a set of 28" long braided stainless flex lines for the brakes, lengthened the front shaft I had used with the d35 ttb as it had the correct U-joint for the d44 and then with a cross over U-joint I used a stock Explorer CV front drive shaft for my rear drive shaft, I also swapped out the stock 1350 rear flange for a front flange from the 1354e.

Picked up a new Battery as well.

With that I was ready for some testing around the yard.

I figure it has about 6" front lift and about 8" rear lift from stock, it has a 3" BL, rear Explorer springs which gave me just about 2" and 3" blocks out back and it's about 2-3" lower up front as of the time this pic was taken. With the stock 215's being about 27.5" tall and the 35's being 34.5" tall that gave it about 3.5-4" tire height gain. So over all she should be 12" higher than the stock Bronco II to the bottom of the door sills, tires, suspension and body lift height added up. Not bad I guess to gain about a foot of elevation after all this. And I said I wanted to keep it as low as possible, lol. I guess I sorta did.

A couple weeks went by and I came across these 38" Swampers for a song and dance so I scooped them up immediately.

Front differential measuring device.

DRUNKEN PIG!!!

Walked around it taking pics.

Then it was time to play in the ditch again. Funny with the TTB my ditch was a great RTI ditch, now with the solid axle the ditch wasn't so great any more, lol.

Started working on building the stinger and sliders.

Ditch wasn't deep enough to flex much so I figured I would ramp it up on my other beast.

That's right I ended up bending the front fender way before the bump stops touched the diff, my bad.

Finally got the rubber flare type shit attached, shocks bought and installed all around and most of the little shit ready for a road test.

Then wheeling.

And then a couple months ago I picked up one of these!!!!!!!

More recently I have been SnowX4ing prolly twice a month since we got snow in November. Sometime in the middle of December I installed a set of 2" TeraFlex coil spacers up front, now she sits closer to level, but still an inch or so low up front for some reason. Should be good for adding some more tube up front and the swing away tire carrier and 38" spare out back.

There you have it the evolution of a wheeler. So far she has done pretty well, broke stuff here and there but nothing major. I ripped off the passenger side shock hoop off when landing after jumping it a few feet in the air a few weekends ago and then ripped off the drivers side shook hoop after another jump last weekend. Figure I better get started on triangulating the shock hoops and build an engine cage to tie them into for added support.

Have had a few components fail as well, replaced the fuel relay, fuel pump, heater relay, and now my multi-function switch quit working on the low and intermittent wiper function. 4.0L Rad has started to leak from the drivers jug to tank seal near the bottom, and my washer pump quit working too. All these parts are original 92 Explorer parts so I guess it is to be expected of 18 year old components that have been beat on pretty good for the last few years of their life.

Here she is as of today

Should have more pics after this weekends wheeling trip, stay tuned!!

 

[BONES]

Couple vids from my last outing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-RmD1a2BY4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeR5fA8haVc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSO3zqSxx-o&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZjZ4wJ6YhM&feature=channel

 

[PaleBlue90]

impresive

 

[BONES]

Just spent the better part of the afternoon, welding my shock hoop back on and building a cross over bar to connect both shock hoops together, hopefully this will prove to be strong enough for now. At least untill I get the engine cage built to tie it all together.

Also spent a couple hours removing the rad and re-pinching the tabs that hold the jugs to the core on both sides and then reinstalling it. Ran it to bleed the air, then sealed the system with the rad cap and let it sit there and get up to open thermostat temps with the efan shut off, once the t-stat opened I let it heat up some more to see if it would create any leaks and found none, seems to have fixed the leaks for now anyways.

Heading out snowX4ing in the morning with a bunch of guys so I'll see how it all works again.

Will post pics and stuff after the run.

 

[PaleBlue90]

Just spent the better part of the afternoon, welding my shock hoop back on and building a cross over bar to connect both shock hoops together, hopefully this will prove to be strong enough for now. At least untill I get the engine cage built to tie it all together.

Also spent a couple hours removing the rad and re-pinching the tabs that hold the jugs to the core on both sides and then reinstalling it. Ran it to bleed the air, then sealed the system with the rad cap and let it sit there and get up to open thermostat temps with the efan shut off, once the t-stat opened I let it heat up some more to see if it would create any leaks and found none, seems to have fixed the leaks for now anyways.

Heading out snowX4ing in the morning with a bunch of guys so I'll see how it all works again.

Will post pics and stuff after the run.

lookin forward too it. u guys up north build some insane rigs!

 

[BONES]

Thanks for the kind words man!!

I better get off the computer....it's time to go wheeling!!!!

 

[Andres629]

lookin forward too it. u guys up north build some insane rigs!

Oh man, you have no idea! Some of the rigs I've seen here in town are retarded.

 

[BONES]

She survived another trail day, this time without and serious carnage.... only carnage was I ripped off my other rear fender flare.

I launched her several times, even drove like a mad man down some whoop trails created by the snow machines, bouncing over the tops of the whoops, bottomed the diff against the bump stops a couple times too, my shock hoops and cross over bar held strong this time. I think I better truss these diffs before I bend em, lol.

Rad held up great with no signs of leaking now, tho the stock 92 Exploder over flow rez needs a sealed lid or something because when I'm bouncing around getting some air here and there, coolant splashes out the lid. Sucks cause I still get green snow under there every time I stop. At least it's not the rad leaking anymore.

Sundays run consisted of 3 Jeeps, a Toyota and the Deuce. I pulled each one of them out several times, but this time I never got stuck long enough to need a pull. She was always able to back up to some degree and then back and forth over and over till she would claw her way back onto firmer ground. Impressed the hell out of the Jeep guys all day.....Oh and I came very close to laying it on it's side not long before the end of the day, I decided to cross and set of 3 foot deep ruts at a 45*angle on an 20*incline and as my passenger front tire hit the far bank to climb out the back end pivoted over to align the Bronco with the ruts and she tipped up on 2 wheels with the high tires about 2 feet off the ground. Luckily she didn't want to roll over an play dead that time. Need to get on building that cage ASAP!

So the next round of mods will be further building the cage and then building a truss for each diff.

The front I'm not exactly sure where to put the truss as I have no room over top of the diff due to the engine being so close when the suspension is stuffed into the bump stops and I will never install a truss under the diff for obvious reasons.

The rear will be getting an upper link mount system as part of the truss in preparation of linking the rear sometime in the not so distant future.

Here's some shots from the day.

 

[KELLY88]

That's a great looking BII and really good pictures to go along with it. Nice work!

 

[BONES]

Thank you very much!!

 

[BlackBII]

I like the pumpkin!

cool BII!

 

[BONES]

So far the specs for this rig are as follows:

1986 Bronco II Eddie Bauer

92 Explorer 4.0L swap, K&N filter, snorkel
fm145 5 speed manual
1350 manual shift front and rear 92 Explorer CV drive shafts
Full Width high pinion Dana 44 with mini spool
Full Width 31 spline 9" with mini spool
3.5:1 gears whoa! did he say 3.5OH's? yip I did.
Custom long travel Johnny Joint rad arm front suspension 4* Poly C bushings
front 16" stroke Procomp es3000's
Explorer rear leafs w/3" blocks and 12" stroke Gabriel's
custom 3" body lift on Daystar BII poly bushings
Stinger, sliders, skid plating
receivers front and rear
10,000 Crapion winch w/Daystar cable keeper
92 Explorer dash/wiring harness swap
Sirius sat radio, Pioneer head unit, 500w Rockford punch
8" JL Adio subs, 6" Alpine 3ways, 4" Kenwood in door 1" Sony sweets
Optima Blue top battery w/800watt inverter
Roll bar, Hippo Lined floors
Duplicolor color changed interior
Power locks, Power windows
Realistic CB

Gear carried is as follows:

60" Jack All
4500lbs come along
2x Snatch blocks
4X 3/4" clevis
2x 50 foot 7/16 air craft cable w/looped ends
1" snatch rope
3"X30 foot snatch strap
shovel, hatchet, Pulaski
folding shovel
12v air pump
150 piece multi tool kit
1/2" drive metric ratchet kit
assortment of fluids w/catch kit
electrical kit w/multi meter, survival knife


On the "to build" list:

Swing out/drop down tire carrier
Exo cage, 5.38 gears, DIY bead locks
Tube rear bumper, PIIA Lighting
Rock lights, flip up hatch window
Cut down doors, C4 swap, fuel injected 5.0L swap
Removable hard top, rear winch, rear 4 link suspension
Cargo area drawer storage system

 

[Andres629]

3.50's?! Holy dang! That's kind of cool though... but it must be a dog!