My Bronco II plans

[LittleHorse]

These are my plans...

Engine Swap:
2" body lift
EFI 5.0 HO engine w/AOD transmission
31"-32" tires

Suspension Phase 1:
either 2" leveling coil lift or 3-4" suspension lift (JD or SkyJacker?)

Suspension Phase 2 (no longer a DD):
35" tires
6" suspension lift (converted from 4" with just coils)
rear leafs
extended radius arms
double front shock mount
4.56 axle ratios
31 spline 8.8 rear w/ disc brakes
lock rights front/rear


So that's the idea, just gotta decide whether I want to start with the Suspension Phase 1 or do the engine swap first. Even with the suspension lift I'm not gonna wanna get new tires until after the 5.0 due to 2.9 and 3.73 axles.

also complicating things is that I'm replacing the brake rotors, pads, wheel bearings and doing an auto-manual locking hub conversion soon, and it almost makes sense to do a suspension lift while I've got the whole front end torn apart. my stock springs are sagging unevenly so the driver side is about 3/4" lower than the passenger side, giving me incentive to change springs ASAP.

The more I type, the more I think I'm talking myself into the suspension lift first. But I'm gonna do the digital equivalent of flipping a quarter and collect the opinions of internet forum folk. :icon_rofl:

What say you?

 

[Explosive]

Not bad, I have a 5.0 sitting outside on a stand I really want to put in mine, But I think I'm gonna do a 6" lift and tires first. But mines not a DD so it's not that big a deal if mines down for me.

 

[LittleHorse]

yeah mine is my DD, so i'll be doing it with as little downtime as possible and riding the motorcycle to work while it's down. Also it goes without saying there's quite a sum of $$$ spoken for in all this so I've got to plan for that too. No way will my wife let me do it all at once so I've got to do it in pieces, and figure out the best grouping and order to find the best compromise between cost and downtime.

 

[Explosive]

Yea, I'm to the point where it gets costly, lift and tires....

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

im thinking that if you already plan on regearing and putting 35" tires on it, you might just want to go ahead and do that first, otherwise youll be buying tires twice (im assuming you dont have the 31-32" tires yet). the 5.0 swap could take a month or a year depending on how many parts you have gathered and how much time you have to work on it (life always seem to get busier when you have something you want to spend most of your free time on). of course if you go this route first then your proabbly going to want to retire it from DD and make it a toy. if you just want to fit big tires and keep DDing it i would say throw on the BL, get some 30-31"s so you dont HAVE to regear right away, and if you can, borrow someones leveling springs before you buy them. i was excited as hell to put mine in, then i pulled out the originals and they were about 1" taller, so i still had to use spacers under the skyjacker leveling coils.

 

[LittleHorse]

im thinking that if you already plan on regearing and putting 35" tires on it, you might just want to go ahead and do that first, otherwise youll be buying tires twice (im assuming you dont have the 31-32" tires yet).

I do but....this thing still has some DD duty left in it before I go that far. The initial lift (whether it be body or suspension) will be 2010, engine swap will likely be 2010 but the full off-road conversion is probably a couple years away...like 2012. So by the time I get to buying a set of 35's, the 31's may be pretty well worn anyway. And, I'm also considering catching some used 31s on craigslist so they'd be cheap. Either way I'm not doing mud tires yet anyway, I'm thinking Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac or BFG AT KO.

 

[Explosive]

I'm going with used tires for my first set, just for the price and it will allow me to get a feel for what it can handle.

 

[country0001]

I ended up getting a heck of a deal on 3 used 30's, so I bought 2 new ones for the front. I have my body lift planned for the spring and a 4.0 to drop in it once found. I wanna go w 33's eventually.
Go w lift first.

 

[bonedoc]

Sounds good! I'd personally go with the James duff suspension kit. I'm getting ready to put their 5-6 inch stage 3 in my Bronco II...just need to iron some kinks out with the motor first. While your at it consider the super superrunner steering kit...I've seen it and it is well worth it.

 

[idriveafordranger94]

Does your Bronco have the Dana 28 front axle or the Dana 35?

 

[LittleHorse]

Does your Bronco have the Dana 28 front axle or the Dana 35?

Got one with each but the one in question has the 35.


I'm definitely thinking lift first the more I think about it. Glad to hear JD being recommended, I feel like I'm supporting a "small" business by buying from them rather than Skyjacker.

superrunner steering kit will definitely be considered...but one of the things I plan on accomplishing is acquiring a welder and learning to weld, making some bumpers, rock sliders, some motorcycle stuff, a little body welding, and once I get to where I'm comfortable with welding steering or suspension parts I might try my hand at fabbing my own superrunner style steering system.

 

[nate12346]

why not save up to do phase 2 before/after the engine swap and skip phase 1 and just know that you cant unleash the 5.0 until the rest of the drive train is built. I have the 4.0 cant unleash it because the clutch is slipping. I have been getting 32mpg on the highway haha 18 in a mountain college town

 

[LittleHorse]

basically because I lack the patience to do that lol. I have some wheeling/backpacking trips planned for the summer that I'd like to have some of the upgrades done for, and I definitely won't manage to put together all of phase 2 by then. The wheeling is light enough that phase 2 will be plenty sufficient.

I grouped the phases such that repeating work would be minimized.

 

[country0001]

Where do u go wheeling at? I do the majority of mine just driving. When it gets muddy it nasty over here. There is a local group I've thought about joining, just haven't yet.

 

[LittleHorse]

i haven't joined any local groups either.

Most of what I've done is actually Jeep trails in Colorado. My in-laws have a cabin in Creede and I've been around there a bit, just never in my own vehicle. I'm just now starting to get into it, which is a lot of why I bought a Bronco II to begin with.

 

[adsm08]

get the E4OD. Its a better transmission, but still gives you the over drive ratio.

 

[country0001]

We need to get all the Okies on here to meet up one weekend. In all reality we're not that far away. U should have some good stuff in ur area.

 

[LittleHorse]

get the E4OD. Its a better transmission, but still gives you the over drive ratio.

I guess that's also a possibility, I haven't really done the research to tell whether it would fit as easily as the AOD, and what it would do to me with adapting it to the 1354 t-case - availability of adapters, driveshaft lengths, crossmembers, etc. The AOD is very well documented, I just haven't come across much for the C6 or E4OD.

We need to get all the Okies on here to meet up one weekend. In all reality we're not that far away. U should have some good stuff in ur area.

yeah I'm only 30 minutes from Disney, and I've heard of people wheeling at Camp Gruber in Muskogee. Would be a good time. Have to be light wheeling for me though, as long as I'm running a stock BII with 28" Cooper Discoverer ATRs. :icon_rofl:

 

[country0001]

Me too. I've only got 30's on mine. Plus I'm not completely sure my 4wd is working. The light is comin on, but I'm not feelin a difference. It worked a little the other night. All I know for sure is I want lockers and a manuel t case now.

 

[TheOne]

manual t case is the best...my dad had an electric one in his 93 ranger...ripped it out and shoved in a manual...everything bolts up so long as u get the linkages for the tcase!