This is the internet home of LitlJay's
Wee Beastie!

3 March 2007:
This is a battered old 1990 model Ford Bronco II, one of the last ever made (this was its final year of production). Many of you know that I am a big Mopar fan, so buying a Ford for a project truck felt a little out of character. When will I ever get to wear my "Dodge Motorsports" hat again, now that I own a Ford and a Buick? The price was right though, and I was desperate for cheap transportation for my business. The immediate goal is to make it serviceable and reliable enough to run around town, then I will have some fun with it as I can afford to. I will try to chronicle the steps on this and subsequent pages.

It's nearly bone stock from bumper to bumper, except for the wheels. They aren't as cool as they look. They're pretty rusty. The paint is a little oxidized, but when I am done it will be a rolling billboard anyway.

It's a 4x4 with a manual transmission, so there is a lot of potential for fun, but for the moment I barely trust it on the road, much less off. I have noticed that it has a wheelbase similar to a VW bug, and it can practically turn on a dime.

I suppose that bumper could be worse, but when I am done both bumpers will be replaced with ones from Reunel or something similar, as long as they are durable, the front one has a "cowcatcher", and they have winch cradles and hitch receivers in them. Fortunately, a truck this size won't require a very big winch. A winch does require something to be anchored to for it to be useful, and that can be a problem on the flat countryside around here.

Whoever bought the chrome wheels also bought a matching spare. You are looking at the back of it here. I'm not sure why it isn't on the swing-out carrier that you can see in the picture above, but for now I am going to leave it where it is until I get some Gorilla Locks to keep it from being stolen. It's flat anyway, but not for long. Do those hatch pneumatics look new to you? They sure work better than I expected. The hatch door doesn't fall on your head when you are under it like a lot of old ones do.

The interior is in surprisingly good shape for such a beater. It is well-worn though. As soon as your butt hits the seat, it sags waaay down. It is a sport truck, meaning that shifting the transmission takes some fishing and shifting the transfer case takes some wrestling (Get it? Fishing, wrestling, sports... Oh, never mind). I'm happy to report that the power steering works almost flawlessly.

Like I said; pretty good shape. There are no rips in any of the seats, but the door panels are barely hanging on for dear life and the windows don't roll up and down very well. The fan and heater work; don't even ask about the A/C!

No radio (what a surprise!). There will be an in-dash carputer by the time I am done, mainly for GPS navigation. I can tether it to my cell phone wirelessly and have internet access anywhere that my cell phone has service. I do that with my laptop now. My navigation maps are always fairly current that way. A printer somewhere in the truck will also allow me to print invoices, receipts, PO's, etc. without having to (embarrassingly) use a client's printer when doing on-site service. This will also give me on-the-fly control of aftermarket fuel injection and ignition systems. The odometer only shows five digits and says ~60K miles.  My guess is 160K, but it could be 260K. I haven't tested the cruise control yet because I haven't taken the truck above 30 MPH :-) I don't have high hopes for it, but I love cruise control and will fix it as soon as resonably possible. There are other priorities.

The factory 2.9L V6 is so worn that the poor thing can barely move under its own power! I'm pretty sure it is hitting on all six, but it misses a lot. The plug wires look pretty old and shot, so a rotor/cap/wires/plugs tuneup will likely help it a lot. There is a TON of good information and parts on the web for putting a 302 or 351W in a Bronco II, so that is probably in the future depending on time and budget. I like that a small block 351 can be bored and stroked all the way out to ~430 cubic inches.  There is also a brand-new radiator. Despite so many shortcomings, it can sit and idle all day without getting too hot and that will be good when sitting in traffic. One thing that made me laugh out loud was an under-hood oil pressure gauge just sitting, unsecured, on the fender. The in-dash one doesn't work and that was a previous owner's remedy! At least it has one, I guess. It may be worn, but I think that the engine will at least be reliable after a little bit of work.

The Bronco II's later generation 2.9L V6 is reported to have been plagued with oiling and cooling problems, some of which have clearly hit my truck right at home. I have the apparently all-too-common clicking lifters, oil leaks (albeit small ones), crankcase blowback, and very irritating transmission noise, among MANY smaller fix-its that the truck is begging for.
Here's what I have in mind someday (right now the goal is just to make a useable daily driver):
  • Convert the factory R-12 air conditioning to R-134a so that I can charge it myself. If I can find a bigger condenser I will get it. R-134a requires a larger one than R-12, so retrofits usually don't blow as cold as they should without this upgrade. I'll do this pretty quick because I don't want to drive to a business meeting in the Houston heat and get there smelling like a farm animal. Having Meagan ride in the heat is certainly not an option!
  • New paint (perhaps a shade somewhere between royal blue and midnight blue) and an airbrushed advertisement for PC Supreme. A magnetic sign will suffice for the time being.
  • American Racing Outlaw I wheels or something similar (preferably without the rivets). I just want a solid design so I don't have to battle brake dust.
  • Pro Comp All Terrain 31x12.5R15 tires: they aren't a very respected brand, but they are the only A/T tire I know of with a treadwear warranty. I may have to get something narrower to prevent rubbing with the wheels at full lock or with the suspension compressed. For now the curiously mismatched tires have a fair bit of tread left on them, but not a whole lot (maybe 5 or 10 thousand miles if I push it).
  • A World Castings' Man-O-War 351 Windsor engine, if I can't build something similar myself for less money. I'd like to use a marine-grade or similar camshaft because they focus on low-end torque so I won't have to downshift to accelerate in high gear. I'm not sure what I will do with the stock engine for the time being, because a V8 swap is an expensive and time-consuming affair that will definitely have to wait a while. Just the engine will run into the thousands of dollars and the job isn't really practical without removing the whole front clip. It also requires some modifications like trimming the heater box and grinding/reinforcing the chassis to clear headers.  An electric radiator fan will help clearances as well.
  • A 4-core aluminum radiator.  Others' experience has already taught that the factory radiator isn't up to the job with a V8, and this will obviously help the factory engine out a lot until I get one.
  • Roaring dual straight-pipe exhaust (grunt, grunt). My '96 Ram had this and I loved the sound when cruising down the highway.
  • A 2" body lift to make room for the tires and V8 (also based on others' experience). I'm not so sure about this because the truck is already top-heavy. Under the right conditions, the Bronco II's were prone to rollovers. Some have speculated that this was at least partly responsible for its short production lifespan before the Explorer replaced it.  At the time Fomoco was still smarting from the exploding Pinto debacle. I hope this doesn't cause insuring it to be as bad as my '05 Neon was. I had to get rid of it because that dern car's monthly insurance premiums were higher than the note (we also had no more need for three cars and two car notes).
  • A Holley (or similar) MPFI fuel injection system for obvious performance, economy, and reliability reasons. These amazingly cool kits can actually bolt right in place of a carb system with some plumbing changes and a few counter-bored holes added to the intake manifold to hold fuel injectors.
  • A distributorless ignition system for mostly the same reasons as the fuel injection: low maintenance and high reliability. This and the fuel injection make starting on cold mornings a cake walk compared to the old carb setups. Remember what a headache that used to be? I also hate having to fish around the back of the engine and break my arm in three places to get to the distributor for a tune-up! Why can't the distributor be up front like they were in the old days?
  • A Borg-Warner T5 transmission, as it comes highly recommended as an easy bolt-in for the Bronco II and is legendary for its durability and reliability. The factory transmission reportedly also doesn't hold up very well to a V8's abuse. I'll get this as soon as possible because I have to "stir the pot" quite a bit to find my gears right now and I really don't like the noise it is making with the clutch out. It doesn't mate up with the Bronco II's clutch system quite right because it is mechanical and the truck has a hydraulic one, but it is a popular enough swap that there are a lot of adapter kits out there. A new cluch plate/disk/throwout bearing will obviously be in order at this point, even though the current one seems to be quiet and has a decent amount of free play (not much, though).
  • A New Venture (formerly New Process) np203 full-time transfer case. I like the idea of having 4WD all the time since I am so leery of driving in the rain. I don't know what it will take to get this clunky monster into a Bronco II. At the very least I fear it will require custom made-to-length drive shafts that don't come cheap, so how long this will wait, like a lot of other things, remains to be seen. I guess it largely depends on how well the one I have now holds up and how much an np203 will cost.
  • Fortunately the later generation Bronco II's had really good Dana axles and differentials. They aren't howling or showing signs of wear now, but I'll surely put new gears with a different ratio in them someday (especially to compensate for the bigger tires) and maybe some air or magnetic lockers. I don't really want limited slip differentials because the friction plates make dust that turns the gear oil into sludge that must be changed often.  At least I have a good setup that won't be an expense for the time being.
  • The larger tires and added weight of the V8 and np203 will probably necessitate brake and suspension upgrades, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  It rides very comfortably now.  I guess a previous owner put new shocks on recently.  My '96 Ram had 170K miles on the factory shocks and bounced like a cheap go-cart when I sold it.
This will obviously be a long and expensive project, so I just have to buy parts and do the work as budget and time allow. I'll do my best to document and photograph the work as I go so that I can keep a running chronicle of the truck's progress on this site.
More to Come!
Back to litljay.com