Lill Mule 89 BII

[shawn.m]

spring install and shock issues

Pics of new jeep grand cherokee 4 inch lift coils
side by side

Wire diameter of SkyJacker 6 inch coils

Wire diameter of Jeep Grand Cherkokee coils

Shot of coil retainer washer on Jeep Coils - probably going to have to get a new bottom washer

Outside diameter of SkyJacker Coils

Outside diameter of Jeep Coils

Pic of cycling suspension on drivers side through travel - hitting top of fender and rear. The travel up is limited by the shock hitting the bump stop at this point

16inches of travel up at the shock bump stop

Coil compressed at Shock bump stop

About 3 inches till the arm hits the bump stop. This might be why the impact is so harsh when the suspension bottoms out. Looks like I need 6 inch bump stops in the current configuration or put in the Ford F250 shock towers.

one Pic of passenger side showing it stuff also and hitting the shock bump stop.


another thing that I noticed on the passenger side was that at full stuff and full turn left that the tire was hitting the brake line at the bracket- might have to go bend that bracket just a little bit for safety. I have had a brake line blow while driving and prefer to never have that happen again

 

[shawn.m]

Fenders Massaged

While I was checking stuff I was having a hard time turning the steering wheel as the wheels were hitting the rear of the fenderwell and the top. I used the baseball bat trick to roll the fenders on the top and back. Or should I say I TRIED to. The fender is pretty loose in there. Since the fender was already bent in the back from hitting the tire I grabbed a hammer and started hammering away. Bent the rear of the fenderwell over by about 2 inches at the bottom and then pushed the top of the fender out by about a inch or so.

I still need to collapse the top part of the fender rim to get more space for when I am aired down. For now it is not bad for 45 minutes of wailing away with a hammer

passenger side

 

[shawn.m]

grinding away at beam

while I was cycling the suspension I noticed on the passenger side that the axle was hitting the beam window. In fact I had what looked like 2 inches less of travel on the passenger side. I had shock travel so this means that up travel was being limited by the axle hitting the beam. REALLY NOT GOOD.

I know that this has been mentioned for Jeep coil springs - however I thought it was only for the long Jeep coils. I am replacing a existing coil with a same length coil - just softer.

so this means that possibly on all B2 with the SkyJacker 6 inch lift suspension the arm is hitting the axle and preventing up travel.

I didn't get a before shot just the after shot. I just started grinding away until the axle was not hitting the beam. Gave it a nice chamfer on the outside and also on the inside of the to remove any stress points. Not a lot of clearance between the two but their is about 1/16 their.

I am about 2.5 inches from the bump stop at this point. So I need to go find about 5.5 or 6 inch bumps stops to replace the stock one. That should lessen the impact of those big bumps. When I did my last snow run their were two holes where I bottomed out the suspension and it was a real hard hit.

 

[shawn.m]

forgot - was able to use stock spring tab on passenger side to hold spring in. Think can do the same for drivers side.

 

[shawn.m]

small stuff

ground down the front middle u joint as it was getting hit hard by its mate. will try and get a picture of the messed up u joint on the diff side.
decided to put the jeep 1 3/4spacers on instead of the washer stack from the skyjacker springs. The washer stack was 1 inch tall so only gained 3/4 of total length. the springs were moving around on the washer stack and I did not like it. Put the spacer down, spring and then the cup that the skyjacker spring was sitting on to locate it. moved it around so it was bowing a little in to the frame instead of out.
Put that together. It sits a little higher than before but it is bouncy now. Instead of stiff. Will have to see where it all sits onces the motor and trans get in.

cleaned all the oil off the front diff to see if it is really leaking or not. the oil is still at the fill line when I remove the plug. All this oil is coming from someplace. :icon_idea:

Pulled the intake top off and the wiring harness off the original engine. Used a dental pick to loosen the fuel injector harness clips off the fuel injectors.
It will get rolled out of the garage tomorrow and the new motor rolled in.

real busy next three days - hope to have engine in truck by Sunday night. One of my friends offered me a dual electric fan for the radiator. Would really like to get rid of stock heavy fan.:icon_thumby:

Might also have a 1354 manual transfer case as a trade for the 92 explorer sport that I still have. :icon_hornsup:

 

[sohc86-06]

pretty cool looking truck man

 

[shawn.m]

Ok so the front pig is not leaking! That is really good news. Looks like oil was coming from power steering pump and engine. one less thing to worry about.

I really want to make time to get this engine in and start this thing up! I am very curious how much more power I am going to have with all 6 cylinders running instead of 4.5 cylinders.

 

[shawn.m]

got wiring harness all swapped over. everything matched EXCEPT for 1 wire going from the drivers fenderwell to the engine. The wire does not exist on the 92 explorer 4.0 harness. I was going to bolt the inkae manifold top on but I cant find my tube of black RTV. Will have to pick one up tomorrow so that I can put the intake manifold top back on.

going over the 93 4.0 motor I cant tell where the extra wire went to. have oil pan, oil pressure, transmission neutral switch and reverse light all hooked up. Just one more wire that I cant tell what it goes to as all the sensors have a wire hooked up.- after about a hour of retracing everything I give up . too tired after a long day. will attack it tomorrow.

 

[shawn.m]

A friend of me is giving me two jeep roll cages. So that will give me metal to complete the front cage. Trying to decide if I should exo skeleton around the cab or not. Not much room in their right now. A exo tied into sliders would be pretty good strength move. Would have to decide how to tie the exo into the rear rollbars.

 

[shawn.m]

got some RTV Gold and put the intake manifold back on . finished buttoning up the rest of the hookups. Looks like the wire I am thinking about is a extra that was on their previously.
Measured the clutch disc and it is at spec. so looks like I am ready to put the motor in.
Got a phone call that the guy who looked at the explorer sport yesterday wants it. so I will be getting a manual 1354 this week unfortunately without linkage, . will have to either build on or buy one. Maybe the linkage from the manual 1350 fits? I want to do it all at once so it is a small hiccup to wait until the manual trans is in.

Found a small oil cooler at a garage sale a couple weeks ago. Looking at return line for power steering pump , the line is the same diameter. The existing line needs to be replaced. So think that I am going to run a couple of 3/8 lines up to the front for a power steering fluid cooler. Mainly prevention for the trail.

Now if I can bug my other friend about the electric fan i could get that in now while the motor is out.

Starting to look at the existing rollcage and measure it for more bars and rock sliders. :icon_welder:

 

[shawn.m]

only about a hour and half today to work on the bronco

swapped flywheel and clutch over and got it lined up. the old flywheel was really messed up. it is a near new valeo set - cover, plate and the throwout bearing looks new also. Motor is now ready to go back in.

started working on putting in the power steering pump cooler. Cut the return line, flared it and then put a hose on it running to the front. ran the other ran to where it is supposed to be. thought I had hose clamps to put the hoses on the cooler but NOOO I bought the wrong size this morning. grr will get hose clamps tomorrow morning. will post a picture of it when I am done.

trying to decide if I should pull the dropped pitman arm and have my neighbor reweld it 2" lower

local junkyard says he has the linkage with shifter for $35 will have to pick that up tomorrow.

 

[shawn.m]

didnt make it to the junkyard - too many farm tasks to do

motor is in and all hooked up, all thats left for motor is to run ground to block
got tranny in and bolted up, cross member, starter, y-pipe - 3 of 4 bolts went in fine. 4th one went in fine half way and then got tight.

stance is pretty good - front is sitting about a inch lower than it was before. not bad at all.
trying to hook up with the guy who has the manual transfer case to do the swap so I can finish everything off and drive it!

 

[shawn.m]

loading the Explorer on the trailer so that I can go get my manual transfer case tomorrow

 

[shawn.m]

pics of the manual transfer case - he threw in the front driveshaft as a bonus

along with the long travel rear driveshaft that was custom made.

also picture of the manual shifter - they gave me everything that I asked for. even the bolts for the going into the case. plus the shifter boots - all this for $35

 

[shawn.m]

IT RUNS!
so happy -no check engine lights either

decided to just buy the correct 1354m shifter and linkage
I test fitted the 1350 linkage it is 2 inches off. Was looking at what it would take to create a linkage.Can create it but the correct linkage is only $60 shipped to my door and I can sell mine for $30


drained transfer case and transmission. refilled with fresh mercon. filled radiator up with water for the moment. (I might put a 3 core auto EX radiator just for fun.)
Threw battery in, MAF sensor and tube and fired it up. can already tell it is running better by how much louder it is.
Need to bleed clutch as it is not disengaging. might be able to drive it tomorrow :icon_bounceblue::icon_hornsup::icon_twisted:

 

[shawn.m]

bleed clutch, changed oil and filter, filled up power steering fluid, checked radiator fluid.

started it up and drove it around.

Lots more power! took a moment to relearn idle. once it did would chug along at idle. did not do this before.

the 4" jeep springs gave lots of flex.

BUUUUUUTT they are way too soft. sagged almost 3" tires are 4degrees camber in

SO pulled the jeep springs out and put the stock SkyJacker 6" 450lb in springs back in.

Also made a quick disconnect pin out of a bolt for the front swaybar. Just did one bolt. might do the other side also. Need to figure out how to hold the sway bar up when it is disconnected.

spaced the shock out on the passenger side as it was hitting the front beam.

pretty stoked - no leaks and the motor idled down very well. Lots more power ! just need to get the 1354m shift linkage and I will be ready to drive it for a while.

 

[shawn.m]

more flex shocks - skyjacker 6 springs

now some flex shots with skyjacker springs and sway bar unhooked. you can see that the front does not like to stuff as much as the jeep coils. still stuffs the rear wheel very well. Rolled the rear wheel well after these shots. Looks like going to have to cut the rear fender well as rolling it is not cutting it.

rear wheel is off the ground

 

[shawn.m]

sway bar disconnects

ok while looking at the sway bar and I had a brillant thought. why not just cut a groove in the bolt and put a hitch pin on it ? pretty quick and clean after it was done. Only problem was getting the hole to line up again require my high lift. Which is not a bad trade off.

 

[ThaBlueRidge]

Dude, NICE! I wish I could work on my B2 everyday. It's real fun once everything comes together!

 

[shawn.m]

helps when your unemployed . I also don't watch much TV - try to do a hour a night on the bronco if I have a project on it .

I have noticed that the 1st gear on the m5od is not as low as the FM146. have to use more clutch.

I do have a line on a shifter for the transfer case. Having a hard time finding the shifter pawl from the transfer case. hopefully stuff sells on ebay this week and I will be able to get my shifter.

I took the glasspack off and put a real muffler on it. much quieter but I cant wind the motor out as much. So i will switch it out to a more free flowing muffler when I get some money in.

I can hear more squeaks and groans not that it is quieter. It runs very smooth with a lot more power. Really nice to just let it idle down and put along.