Bobby A.K.A POS Bronco II

[retep88]

My truck isn't exactly under construction, but I want to record what I do to this thing and what better place to do it.

To give my Bronco some credit, it's not a total POS. I mean it has it's rust, but it has working power window, power locks, cruise control and a clean interior. Come on, that counts for something right?

About the name. My fiance insists on our vehicles having names. By last names starts with B so they must be B names. My first truck was named Betsey. I almost lost her to a bad transmission, but I rescued her and my fiance drives her now. My next truck was Billy, he was a 91 Chevy 1/2 ton. Bill liked to leak oil really bad, but he was good for short trips. This brings me to Bobby, A 89 Bronco II.

I found Bobby on craigslist for 400 with a bad clutch. And knew I had to have him. I sold billy and used the money to buy him. I bought him before I went home for thanksgiving break and let him chill at his old owners house while I was on break.

I pick up a clutch, radio, and speakers while I was home. Being a broke college student, I went for the 100 clutch. The speakers are ford factory that I pulled out of the junkyard for 24. The radio is a stock ford radio out of my little brothers 88 ranger so I got that for free. My brother doesn't know I have it, so.... if you are reading this little bro, just consider it a early christmas present .

Anyway, two days ago my friend pulled Bobby to his garage. It was kind of embarrassing being pulled be a jeep, but what can you do?

Today my friend and I pulled the transfer case and the transmission. The only frozen bolts where the ones holding the skid plate on that protects the Transfer case. The rest come off with a good shot of PB and an impact. The most annoying part of the whole thing was the quick disconnect for the clutch turned into a never disconnect. Spent a good half hour trying to get the stupid plastic ring in the notch to release the line. We ended up taking the clutch master cylinder and the reservoir out with the transmission. I think Ford kind of screwed up with that. When I was marking the drive shafts I almost opened the bottle of white out upside down in my face. I caught myself, but my buddy thought it would have been hilarious.

The bell housing looked like a rat made a nest of clutch material, it was that bad. The pilot bearing was pretty much shot too. The fly wheel was a little scored, but I think I can clean it up with some sand paper.

The plan for tomorrow is to get a puller to get the pilot bearing out and put bobby back together.

Sadly I don't have any pictures yet because I forgot my camera , but I should have the some pics up tomorrow, friday by the latest.

So summing it up
Truck 400
Clutch 100
Radio free
Speakers 24
leaf springs 100
O2 sensor 60
total to date(TtoD) 684
not bad so far, but I haven't touch my brakes, which need to be redone. :icon_thumby:

I will get Pictures up, just give me a day or two.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

sounds like a cool b2, they dont have to look the best as long as they function properly and suit your needs. now go get some pics!

 

[retep88]

Bobby is alive. Finished the clutch the other day, I am just slow at the updating. Any way...

I had to buy a slide hammer to pull out the pilot bearing. I think I bought the only one in the Houghton/Hancock area. The downside to living in small town is that they never have the tool you need in stock. I yanked the bearing out and put the new one in. Cleaned up the fly wheel with some sandpaper and brake cleaner. Put the new clutch in and put the whole thing back together. With the exception of the starter cable not wanting to go on, the assembly was a piece of cake. Here are some pics of the old clutch driven disk

I started working on the truck at five with a lite dusting of snow on the ground. When we opened up the garage door to test drive it five hours later that was a least three inches of unplowed snow on the road. I was really happy the 4x4 worked!

During the test drive, I take a corner and try to go up a hill. it's starts slowing down pretty much to a crawl. I have the pedal floored and can't figure out what is going on. I thought it might be spinning the tires because of the snow. then I realized the tach wasn't doing anything when I feather the pedal. Put it in neutral and tried revving it. Nothing happen. Turns out the throttle cable had feel off. Makes me wonder what else is barely holding on.

Went to Bobby after class to get him registered and found this. All that snow happened overnight.

It really needs some weight in the back for traction, but my friend saw this when we where under the truck so I don't want to overload the springs

I really don't want to ride around on a broken leaf spring so I am on the look out for explorer leaf springs to do this mode with http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/ExplorerLeafs.htm

Here are some pics of the interior. It was cleaner before I fixed the clutch. I stupidly decide to climb up in the cab when I still had by oil cover clothing on.

And here is Betsy and Bobby in the local Wal-mart parking lot. Don't they look so cute together.

The truck has been sitting for a while. The original owners plate I pulled off was from 07 so it's a least be 2 if not 3 years. The engines not running right and is throwing a CE light, but I am hoping its do to some bad gas. If you have any suggestions, put them here http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67749

Anyway, that's all I got for now.

 

[retep88]

worked on the radio. I have it mostly figure out, but I can't get the factory amp to come one. I am going to troll around here and see if I can find some help.

 

[retep88]

Finished the radio:icon_thumby: I have a nifty soldering gun that my future father-in-law gave me. The radio was so messed up that I had 25 solder connections to make, but it's done and bobby is put back together. Unfortunately I broke the head unit. All it's doing it giving me fuzz. I think I did it when I let two speaker attach to it with their magnets. It was free so I can't complain, but I would like music while I work on him.

 

[retep88]

So it's been a while since I have done anything to bobby. Partially because I don't have time and space to do any work, but mostly because I don't have any money and I am buying parts paycheck to paycheck. He has been having some gas tank issues. The dumb thing doesn't want to fill up properly. I need to get at the top of the tank and see if the valve that leads up to the charcoal canister is clogged up. But since it's been in the teens and snowing here in Houghton and I don't have a garage, I haven't really gotten the motivation to do it. But that is not the reason for my update. The reason for the update is that I got my new leaf springs . I have to wait for my next paycheck to put them in though cause I still need to buy some hardware to put them in. I will try and take some picks when I put them in.

 

[retep88]

THE LEAF SPRINGS ARE IN! last week I put in the driver's side and today I put in the passenger side. It was interesting driving around with one good leaf spring and one bad. I would get lots of body roll turning left, and barely any going right.

The driver's side was a pain. Jacked up the truck. Pulled the tire. With some grunts I was able to get the u-bolts off. Then I tried to remove front spring bolt. I couldn't remove it with my wrench, or with a breaker bar, so got the longest pipe I could find and tried to get it off. I ended up cracking my socket . To avenge my poor socket, I got a new angle grinder and cut off wheels and cut the bolts off. turns out the space behind the bracket was completely filled with dirt. [insert pic here] it completely rusted the nut making it pretty much impossible to come off[insert pic]. With the help of the angle grinder I got the old leaf out and wrestle the new leaf in. Seven hours later I am driving home to warm up because I had nearly given my self frost bite working on the truck.

Round two went a lot better. This time I was in a garage instead of a driveway like round one. The u-bolts didn't want to come off even with some grunts, but the angle grinder took care of it. every thing went back together a lot quicker and I was done in about four hours this time.

Good news, I don't need to replace the brakes. They still have a lot of life left, they just need some rust cleaned off of them.

Bad news, the engine isn't running right, I am getting code 14 and 41 which are intermittent rpm signal and engine running lean. I think the O2 sensor is bad and is telling the computer it's lean, the computer doesn't go into close loop or tries to compensate, either way I think the engine is running rich.

The bolts that I got to replace the original hardware were a pain to find. I had to special order because no one in town had anything big enough or hard enough.

 

[bobbywalter]

looks like a bobby....

 

[ozziemo27]

looks like a bobby....

:icon_rofl: and whats does that say about you? lol

 

[bobbywalter]

he he he.....

 

[ozziemo27]

he he he.....

lol. oh my. :icon_twisted: