Dash rattle

[rusty70f100]

I got a 1987 Bronco 2 last year, and have been reasonably happy with it after fixing the problems. However, there is one problem I haven't been able to fix.

At about 1900 to 2000rpm, when I give it a little gas, there is this annoying little rattle coming from the driver side of the dash. It sounds, for lack of a better description, like a mechanical bumble bee. To me, it sounds like some plastic thing inside there resonates at whatever frequency is produced when the engine is at the aforementioned rpm, and rattles against something else.

Now I can get around it by turning the radio on, but I can't have that on all the time! Please point me in the right direction; it's getting annoying.

 

[whocares]

I'll see your annoying dash rattle, and raise you a clunking spare tire carrier, 4 bad shocks and a silent cowl leak. The latter has been fixed though.

Can you replicate the noise when sitting still and raising the RPM's?

 

[rusty70f100]

Yes. It does it sitting still with the transmission in neutral, and / or with the clutch pushed in.

Shocks on mine were easy enough, just had to bust the top stud on the front ones.

The spare tire carrier can be fixed. First, make sure the tire is tight against the carrier. Next, make sure the bushing is still there. That's the trouble 99% of the time. Mine was clunking. I found that the bushing had split out, but the back half of it was still there due to the duct tape the previous owner had used. I moved the back half of it to the front, wrapped it with black duct tape, and found the clunking to be gone.

What you might try, if the bushing is gone, is to make your own bushing. The tube is 1.5". I would guess that if you got some 1.5" thin wall PVC pipe, you could cut a short section, cut that in half lengthwise, and glue it on with RTV. Then put some black duct tape over that if it's still loose. The original Ford bushing was pretty thin.

 

[adsm08]

Put your hand on the speaker grille and rev it. Mine made a similar noise years ago, it was a loose speaker grille.

If that's not it, keep touching things until you find something that makes it stop. If that fails, remove the dash, the air duct, and flip it upside down to get the buttons out of the defroster.