Andres629's still at it! '87 BII this time!

[wahlstrom1]

My stock axle shafts had them... the aftermarket ones had them built in, like a flanged part of the shaft. I couldn't find any to fit, and the shaft snugged up against the housing so I never worried about them.

Putting the tie rod up front should allow you to move the axle ahead, especially with the packaging of the air shocks. I ran with the setup in the pic for over 3 yrs, with very minimal bumpsteer and it worked great. I can't see running the angle the other way hurting anything? Only concern would be getting the trac bar sorted out.

 

[BONES]

Yeah with the axle moved 4" forward on mine and using the stock 91 Explorer pitman, the drag link tre is directly above the center link. It has touched the zerk a few times on some of the launches she's been thru, the zerk fitting is pretty much smooshed now. An inch longer pitman would work for my set-up for sure, but plans are to move the axle further forwards when I redo the rad arms down the road, hopefully you get this done so I can follow what you did!!

CheapThrills moved the box forward on his old Ranger Cab creation with the exo cage, IIRC he just cut out that section of inner frame and moved it forwards and Frenched it back into the frame. Looked pretty straight forwards on his. It's what I'll likely do with mine if I keep the ford box.

Wouldn't be very difficult to move the mount really or even plate in the section ahead of the box and drill and mount it forward a few inches.

 

[railman]

I saw this in another thread.....

not sure if it helps much....but you get the idea

l8r, John

 

[Andres629]

Huh... well that could work! Thanks for that pic, John! Hey Bones, how far forward did you put your axle? 'Cause if yours seems to work, then maybe I'll sacrifice an inch and move it back so I doon't have to deal with it... Haha!

 

[wahlstrom1]

Maybe I'm missing something.... but why do you even need to move the box forward to go 5-6" ahead. With the oddball dual holes on both sides that those high steer arms have, you can switch the tie rod and drag link and avoid the issues Bones is having. Your going with airshocks, so coil clearance isn't an issue either.

 

[BONES]

X2 on what wahlstrom stated, you have multi mount arms, use em to your advantage if possible.

OK granted this is a leaf sprung frame mounting a 4 bolt steering box but the process is exactly the same. If you choose to go the box relocation route here's some good pix to gander. Not my pix but is exactly how I mounted the Saginaw Camaro steering box on my old CJ5, worked great.

My wheel base measures 99.5"ish. I moved the front 4" and the rear 1.5" from the factory 94" wb.

I moved the front axle 4" forwards on the Deuce and my pitman/drag link tre is directly above the center link. My camera is busted so I can't even go take a pic right now, I'll see if i can get a buddy to come take a pic so I can show you it. The center link has touched the Zerk and squashed it under hard front end bottoming out, I bottomed out hard enough to split the bump stop and this damaged the Zerk. I went out wheeling several times after with that split bump stop and further damaged the Zerk. If I were to do it again without moving the box I would either go 3" forwards or 5" forwards just to keep the Zerk out of the center link area under a hard bottom out situation. Probably the best thing would be to slap it all together with mock up rad arms and get it where you feel it fits best, then go from there.

I also installed my bump stops on the bottom of the frame with built pads on the diff. With the diff bump pads sitting against the frame and no rubber bumps installed the diff and 4.0L engine oil pan are roughly 1/2 inch apart. Sitting on the bump stops with no springs in it the diff and engine are 2.5" apart. This is at full compression. At ride height I have another 3" to the bump stops. Was trying for a very low center of gravity with larger tires and little lift.

Here's the best pic I have of said parts, I'll see if I can get someone over to take a better one soon.

 

[Andres629]

Well, I haven't really been on lately, and haven't gotten time to work on the bronco too much, but here's the progress so far. Front end is almost done, just have to make a drag link, mount my air shocks and it's pretty much done. Other than fabbing up the engine cage. I picked up a 2WD F-250 pitman arm, I'm going to try and get a 2WD Ranger one, maybe a little bit shorter and I won't have to move the front end forward anymore. I could turn the link ends out another inch, but I think I'm about as far forward as I want to be. I already have a 0* approach angle, but we'll see. It's sitting front high, but at ride height. It sits 73" tall, and from a measurement of the front end, it's 84" wide... nice and sturdy.

 

[kris97ranger]

Looking good. I love the jackstands I want to make some like that

 

[wahlstrom1]

Good to see that diff finally under something! I noticed the radius arm bolts still loose... I had to rattle on them with everything my electric impact had to get them to bottom out the C against the radius arm...but you can do it!

 

[Andres629]

The air impact at the shop got them snugged all the way down, but for ease of installation I loosened them back off.

 

[BONES]

Nice!!

Your about 4-5 inches wider then mine and I bet she'll grow up some more when you get the rear leveled up to the front. By the looks of the front diff pix if this is at your projected ride height, you'll be sitting a few inches higher then me.

She's looking great man!!!

I've been contemplating removing the inner fender structure and core support and replacing it with a tubular structure as well, how was it to remove?? Did you just cut it off or actually drill out the spot welds?

A buddy and I were outside measuring my rig the other day, we decided I have roughly 6-7" of combined suspension and body lift. However, going from the 205 75 r15 (27") up to the 38x12.5's also gave me another 5-ish inches lift! That's a WHOPPING 11-12" LIFT TOTAL!! OUCH!

I'd still LOVE to loose another few inches of lift some day, lol. She is pretty stable mind you, have been on some very steep side hills and severe leaning obstacles and she's stayed planted "so far." I can afford to loose a couple inches in the rear as the front already sits a couple inches lower than the rear and keep the BL or even half the BL and take an inch out of the rear suspension...... I'd like to be sitting at roughly 4" suspension/bl lift then add the 5inches of tire height lift and have her sitting 9" over stock with tire height included. LOL, I've seen guys add 9" of combined lift (6" suspension + 3" BL) just to make room for 35-36's, haha, not often you see a total lift of 9" including tires!

I just got back from HRC and really want to build up a rig to compete now, lol, watching some of the CrawlinBC boys get it, I'm hooked now!! The one guy, Jenson and his d44/9" combo under his Heep made me realize my rig is basically ready to play with these big boys, aside from missing a couple components like full cage and air bump stops and maybe some more power, lol. We'll be back there next year for sure. Buddy of mine is also building an HRC rig too, it's a lwb LJ Sammy converted to p/u with vortec 4.3/4l60/toy doubler sitting on linked Toy 8" axles with longfields and 40" LTB's. He's contemplating on rear steer now. I can't decide if I should start building a tube buggy, get the Rover ready for this or get the Bronco ready for this!!!! LOL decisions decisions, haha.

 

[Andres629]

I'm hoping to bring it down about an inch or so... but I want to keep my ~5" uptravel, so we'll see what transpires. The way it sits, I'm going to have to trim out a bit of the engine crossmember, but I've got the diff moved far enough forward that the majority of the pumpkin clears the crossmember. My next worry is the tie rod hitting the frame. I've got, give or take, 5-6 inches to the frame rail before the tie rod will make contact. As it sits though, I'm at a 99" wheelbase with keeping the rear end in stock location. That being said, I may move it back slightly, or wait 'til I link/comp cut it, I have yet to make up my mind.
I took my measurements basically right after the windsheild, so it shouldn't go up anymore, but we'll see. I want to keep it at approx. 73" tall, and the nice thing about air shocks is I can do that easily! I also will not be running a body lift, just cutting the fenders out like crazy... stupid sheetmetal.

I wanted to get out to HRC, that would have been rad! Yeah, the CRIB guys have some crazy rigs that really get it... I'm hoping to have mine built to be even semi-competitive there. I think it'll be alright, but I could probably go up a tire size or two...

 

[wahlstrom1]

I was at HRC too... wtf? haha... I'll be in it next year!

 

[BONES]

You know before I went to HRC I briefly though about contacting some of the Alberta people I have come across online, but then forgot, lol. Would be nice to put a face to some of these user names!

 

[Andres629]

Hey Bones, forgot to mention in my last post... The inner apron and core support come out easy, I just cut it out. I'll get a couple pictures of what I did, and I'll keep ya updated on the mounting of my fenders/hood. Just... don't use a plasma close to the firewall. I didn't accidentally punch a hole through it and light my interior on fire or anything...:icon_welder::icon_surprised:

 

[wahlstrom1]

Goin full tube front clip? or just skinning it with whats left of the sheet metal afterwards?

 

[BONES]

Just.... don't use a plasma close to the firewall. I didn't accidentally punch a hole through it and light my interior on fire or anything...:icon_welder::icon_surprised:

Hahaha oops!! Too funny!

X2 what wahlstrom asked. Skinz er tubez? :icon_welder:

 

[Andres629]

Well, I still plan on streeting it a little bit, and plus I like the look of the BII front clip, so I'm tubing it and using my sheetmetal as "skins" if you can call it such... I don't know how much of the factory sheetmetal will be left once I'm finished cutting!

 

[kris97ranger]

i do hope you keep the grille though yours was pretty cool

 

[Andres629]

I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping the grille and just running some rectangle flood lights in the spot where the headlights used to be.