Topless Alma needs some ice cream

[tw205]

So my brother has an old Ranger. 1985. 4 banger 5 speed. He’s had it since Christ was a child. She’s about as weight reduced as she can get and still stay molecularly in one piece. Another feller accidentally dropped a tree on it. Feeling guilty the guy offered to repair it until he discovered how much was no longer there. ( Rust Belt Truck). He found this 85 Bronco II chop top and gifted it to my brother in place of repairing said rusted Ranger. So here it is. She didn’t run , wouldn’t roll, but somehow was dropped in the drive at my brothers house. Brother asked me to get her road worthy so he can take the ball and chain out for ice cream. Ive worked on her a little bit this summer but not much. Somebody jacked this truck up. I decided its easier to work on it at my digs so today she came to the Bronco Ranch for a “freshening up”. Brother calls her Alma. I call her other things. I’m gonna record my progress on this thread. So if anybody’s out there, here goes nothing. Stay tuned.

 

[tw205]

I believe it was fall 2021 my brother got the truck. We wrestled her for an hour tryin to get her in the barn. Once we got the hood up and looked around she looked mostly complete. 2.8 with all the crap still on it. Tossed in a battery, tapped the key and oh my god a grinding noise from the starter. Took at look see and well there was no index ring between the engine and transmission. WTF. Pulled the starter and looked around underneath her. Grenaded U joint on the left from axle. Shattered transfer case. Drive shaft extended with longer bolts and nut with lug nut spacers. Rear axle u bolt spring mount plates are turned sideways, cutting into the rear tire. 6” suspension lift with overloads and blocks in the rear. 1 set of 2” blocks and a set of bump stops from maybe a Ranger. No shims. This is nuts.
Searched the inner webs and found an index ring. Removed the driveshaft and dropped shattered transfer case in the dirt. Removed all the bell housing bolts and pulled the transmission back enough to squeeze in the index ring. Back on goes the bell housing bolts. Top starter mounting bolt hole is stripped. Cleaned up the hole and use a bolt and nut. Called it a day and ain’t touched her again till this summer. Did a “ will she run” and got her to fire up but wouldn’t idle and rough running. Starter sounds like crap. I hope it’s not the flywheel. Pulled the carb off and did a total rebuild. Bolted her back on and hit the key. Fired up and ran like a champ. Next, see if she will roll. I need a transfer case. ( Hello tree crushed rusted ranger). Bonus, the ranger transfer case is the same manual shift but also has the double cardone joint at the rear, needed for suspension lifted BIIs. Removed, drained, cleaned, installed. Even fancied up the shifter.

I find it’s easier to see where you been when it’s clean and in good repair. Time for a break.

 

[tw205]

She needed a bath before going in the barn. All the girls are out. Playin musical Broncos.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Glad you're posting this here...

Looking forward to the progress and will be following along.

 

[tw205]

Borrowed the driveshaft off my BII as it has a 6” lift and installed it. She would move forward ok but did not wanna go in reverse. ???? Rocked her back and forth a few times and she started moving ok but the clutch was fading. Bleeding the clutch was futile. Between bleeding episodes the abused starter gave up the ghost. PO beat the hell out of it.
Looks new except for the hammered cover.
Tried the brakes and they were hard as a rock. Found the brake rod from peddle to booster was so rusted it wouldn’t move. Gonna need all new booster and master.
This is when I decided to bring her to the barn. Got her here alright. Loaded her on the trailer with a 4 wheeler and tow strap. Unloading was easy but because it was quiet with no 4 wheeler running I heard some disturbing sound. Crunch crunch crunch. Crap!!!! That sounds like rear diff gears. That explains why she didn’t wanna go in reverse. Door tag says 3.45 gears but I haven’t physically checked. Rusty ranger also has 3.45s so I think I can switch out axles but I don’t know if it’s a direct swap. I’ll have to take some measurements. BII has a different axle as one side is shorter than the other. I’ll have to investigate.
While she was still at brothers house I did a few smaller projects. She came with no keys. Column had been punched out and PO used a screwdriver to start it. I swapped out the rusty ranger key switch and both door locks. Still need to do the glove box lock. Also had a missing drivers door window glass and regulator assembly. Another swap from the ranger.
I think this catches us up to current conditions. She is waiting my attentions in the barn. Priorities?
I’m thinking I’ll go back to the starter. She need to start and run or everything else is futile. I plan on putting some shop rollers on her today so I don’t have to air up tires constantly. While she’s up I’ll spin that rear axle and confirm the grinding is in there. Stab a new starter on her and hope the PO and jacked up starter and missing ring didn’t ruin the flywheel gear.

 

[tw205]

Shop rollers. I hate airing tires. Tires are super swampers TSL XS. 29 x 10.5 x 15. I bought them new a dozen years ago. Girl friend at the time had to have them as she already moved the driver seat and took over my rig. Sexy but noisy and rough riding. ( the tires not the girl friend )
Still have good tread and no dry rot. Rims are Cragar soft eights. 15x8 with 4”backspacing. They have never been on the road just used as rollers indoors. This setup will rub on my stock 85 when turning on anything but completely flat terrain. They would rub my 89 with 2” body lift on a steep departure angle while turning.

 

[tw205]

Got the rollers on. Found my grinding noise was left rear brake had broken the auto adjuster cable and it was tumbling around in there. Aside from that the brakes look new. Even all the hardware.

Pulled a starter from my rig and put it in. Turned the key and had a good sounding starter and a great start. I was worried about the flywheel teeth. Let her run a few minutes and shut her down.
Want to move on to the clutch but I have no rear driveshaft and the front has a broke axle....... axle it is.

She didn’t put up much of a fight but I did use a big pry bar. Splines were not twisted. Stole the axle from the rusty ranger a few weeks ago knowing I would be needing one so I cleaned it up and put it back together. Spindle could use new bearing and seals but we will come back for those later.

Now I can start the clutch and I have a drive shaft to move if I can get it to engage. Tomorrow I’ll pull the master, reservoir and the hose. Try and bench bleed it and put it back on.

 

[tw205]

A couple days outside the barn cuz..... SQUIRREL!!!
Today I’m gonna get back to the clutch. I understand these are notorious for being difficult to bleed. The trans is a FM145. I have the same in 1 of my 85s but was originally an A4LD. I never had a clutch issue when I did the conversion. Never had to bleed it. Now this one here has already tried my patience but I’m gonna give it another try. First I’m gonna try and vacuum bleed from the res. We’ll see how it goes.

 

[tw205]

So that damn clutch is killin me. I’m convinced the master is bad. Leaking air from the peddle side. Anyway, trying to get the line off the slave. Pulled the pin but no joy. I think part of the pin broke off and is still holding the barb on the fitting. This is a FM145 with the grenade pin holding the line to the slave. A picture of the one I removed vs a picture of one I found in another thread.

Mine looks a bit shorter. No Es bueno. I think I’m gonna have to drop the transmission.
Pedal is still hooked up so I’ve got a board wedged against the seat holding the pedal down. Let it set overnight see if it pops loose. My hopefulness is waning

 

[tw205]

Upon further testing I don’t think there is any of the old pin in there. I can probe with a pick or drill bit and I can probe past the connection. Soooo... crap. For fear of damaging something I think I’m gonna drop the transmission. Chances of it going smooth? I give it 50/50. I’ve had it loose to put on the index ring. Hope the y pipe come off.

 

[tw205]

As a testament to not giving up, I finally got the clutch line disconnected from the transmission. Removing the bleeder gave me a little more room to get on it with some lock pliers. I damaged the plastic hose but I have spare parts and can make one good set. Here it is ready to go in but sweet Moses it’s hot out there. Break time in the A/C with a cold drink.

 

[tw205]

Master back in the truck. Bled it every conceivable way. Gravity, vacuum, forward, backward and upside down. I can get it to disengage the clutch once when I start it. It will go into gear if I keep clutch pedal in after I start. Put shifter in neutral and let off clutch, push it back in and it’s gone. I’m not leaking any fluid so I can’t figure out where the failure is.
I have now removed the transmission and it’s on a dolly in the middle of the barn. Pulled off the slave, it looks old. Says FoMoCo and USA. does this mean it’s factree? New slave and master are on order so I hope to be reassembling later this week.

Spent a little time tinkering with small issues. When you turn the key to acc the dome and dash lights come on. I don’t think it’s supposed to work that way. With key off, opening a door won’t turn the dome light on. No tail lights, emergency flashers work but turn signals don’t. Crazy stuff happens when people do their own installs. It’s easy to believe anybody would have enough common sense to do simple things like change a light bulb or use the same power source for their new radio as the old one used. Apparently I over estimate people’s intelligence. So the radio (not original) used the same power wires as the original however, they used all of them. Always powered ( for clock and memory), acc power and dash light power all twisted together for power source to radio. That’s why dash and dome lights come on when you turn key to acc. Got that mess all sorted. Then found turn signal, brake light tail light bulb(1157) in the right tail light was installed backwards. It’s not supposed to even fit in the socket that way but there it was. It was allowing power to draw from the wrong source bypassing the flasher. That and some wires crushed and melted under the rear bumper mount bracket was the cause for the lighting issues. Some one removed half the fuses most likely because they ran out after continued blowing. Got that mess all sorted and now have functioning lighting with the exception of no dash lights and no dome light with headlight switch. I have all the other exterior light so I believe the trouble is in the headlight switch itself. I will swap it out with a spare to confirm.

Spent some time getting the rear axle u bolt brackets turned to the correct orientation. Again common sense has left the job sight. Trimmed the u bolts enough to get a deep well socket on them. Got the bolts off and spun the plated 90 degrees. Whoever did this had to splay the bolts to fit in the bracket. You would think that would be a clue but never mind

 

[gettinmyfirstone]

was the color of that blue b2 with black stripes in the background a factory color? (the blue) I really like it and I need to repaint my 90 pretty soon.

 

[tw205]

was the color of that blue b2 with black stripes in the background a factory color? (the blue) I really like it and I need to repaint my 90 pretty soon.

No not factory. Original color was a dark blue. I believe it’s grabber blue. A ford color I’ve seen on early mustangs. I was painted before I bought it.

 

[tw205]

Haven’t posted in a minute. Parts came in. New clutch slave and master. Wrong slave. Rockauto mistake. It’s in transit back but now I’m still waiting on parts. Stay tuned.

 

[Peter Griffin]

My '88 has been kicking my azz since January and I haven't had to deal with a fraction of the stuff you or most other folks that wrench on these old goats do! The more threads like this I read the more I appreciate how mechanically solid it was for starters and how I just needed to do relatively minor stuff to get her moving along...

 

[tw205]

Alma update......
Finally got the correct slave and have put it on the trans and the trans on the engine. The new clutch master is a little different. It’s a cast metal piece not plastic. I think it’s aluminum. Nice. So it’s in and bled. I think I have a clutch but the firewall and floor are so weight reduced they won’t securely support the brake and clutch. I’ve tried talking my brother into giving up as she is so rusted but he doesn’t care. Just wants to bomb around on the farm and in the woods. Even if it’s never on the road again. So I will endeavor to persevere.
Here’s the firewall and floor.

It pushes away when you apply the clutch pedal or the brake. Short of tearing everything out and cutting bending welding ect ect ect. The only fix I can think of is support rods holding it. Pulled out some scrap steel and started fabricating. I’m making a back plate and two rods from the firewall to the radiator core support. They need to be removable and avoid interference with other equipment. Here’s what I got.

Parts are in the paint booth ( back yard on cardboard). I will post assemble when the dry.

 

[tw205]

Here is redneck s$@t right here.

 

[tw205]

With the new braces in place the firewall appears to be stable. No movement when the clutch is pressed. Still don’t have a brake booster. But I’m expecting the same result.
However, I still have no usable clutch. Bleeds out fine. Pedal feels great. I can hear it give a small squeak when the throw out pushed on the pressure plate fingers but it won’t release the input and allow the trans to spin freely.
Took a couple days off to contemplate. I got nothin. Sooooo..... I yanked the trans back out and inspected the pressure plate. 4 of 6 bolts were only finger tight. There is my problem. All the clutch travel was used up pushing the pressure plate on the flywheel. Torqued it all down to spec and stuck the trans back in. All the fluid drained from the res to the slave. Hooked up the line and filled the res. It gurgled going down. I did not bleed. Pumped the pedal to set the throwout and I got great clutch. Releasing as it should. I should have seen it when I put the new slave in. A lesson in being thorough. I’ll button up what I got left tore apart and move on to the brakes. Progress.

 

[tw205]

Started in on the brakes today. Ordered a new booster yesterday, came in this morning. Don’t know it I need a new brake master or not, but the booster was rusted solid.
I’m not mad about how the firewall braces turned out. I get no movement from applying either or both of the pedals. Good enough for a trail rig.

Everything went together well. Masters bad . Rear res ( front brakes ) bench bleeds ok. Was full of yuck nasty. Front res ( rear brakes ) will not move any fluid. I suspected something would be amiss. I’ll get one ordered. I went ahead and mounted it so I could fix some line damage. Bled some nasty out of the front. Waiting on parts. Back in a few days.