Bronco #2 The wheeler

[YJKrawlin]

Been slamming stuff together this week, got the suspension all torqued, finished up getting the passenger side slider in place, not perfect but good enough. Got a stick of DOM from a friend and built a stinger for the front. Started working on painting the rear bumper. It is coming along for sure. Got the diffs filled up finally as well.

Ran out of gas for the welder and the wife has cut off the budget for this trip, so planning to finish the last welds in class next week and then get the power steering installed next week. She’s coming together though. 2 weeks to go.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Been working this week on buttoning up everything. Got the power steering thrown together after some messaging back and forth with the seller. Took it out for a drive and everything felt, odd, is the best way I can describe it. Brought it back in and tightened up everything and then took it the next day for gas. Drove fine. The carb was back to it's old issues of not being sure what RPM band it wanted to be in, but I've also added a ton of weight to it since then, so not too surprising. Working on reinstalling the sniper before this trip now. Worked on getting together 2 toolboxes to bring with me with a thinned out tool selection vs my normal "throw all the tools in there" attitude. Also got the rock lights my wife got me for christmas last year installed. All thats left is buttoning some stuff up, checking fluid, finishing the sniper reinstall/fuel pump swap, one or 2 things left to torque and loading her up. Got the Green bronco running well after the EFI swap just need to finish up some amenities like heat and heated seats and she's ready to go as well.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Got back from gulches and had a great time! A little bit of damage but nothing too crazy. Small bump on the rear bed corner from heartbreaker and broke on of the hardtop windows on boomshakalaka. Power steering was getting tired towards the end of the second day. Wheel seal started leaking at some point between friday and saturday and I'm pretty sure the rear end ran out of oil by the end of day saturday. Bronco performed great, did everything I asked of it. Bowed out before our group did shipwreck to get the glass cleaned up, but they all had fun even if everyone had to winch and got back 3 hours later. Can't wait to plan the next trip!

 

[YJKrawlin]

Some photos of gulches from the other weekend. I’ll post the videos in a separate post.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Finally had a chance to drive the bronco after the trip a few months back. Had a weird feeling in the steering. Almost a dead spot when driving. Made for a sketch drive. Finally got the bronco into the shop this week and don't notice the dead spot when standing still. I do know the drag link and tie rod are pretty close, but never noticed anything in SC. Need to look into it before out Veteran's day trip to uwharrie. I did notice the steering was not centered. Have about 2-1/2 turns to the left from center and 1-1/2 turns to the right. Hoping I can get that corrected without too much hassle. Hoping that is the cause for the odd steering sensation as well. Time will tell. We had our baby in march and I don't have much time between working constantly and taking care of house stuff/baby stuff so I work on stuff when I get the chance. Hoping to get things situated by november.

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

Too much caster could cause a dead spot? 5-8 is recommended 6 being the sweet spot

 

[YJKrawlin]

Too much caster could cause a dead spot? 5-8 is recommended 6 being the sweet spot

Should be correct, haven’t actually measured it but using the correct bushings for the lift springs I’m running and the long arm with built in caster. The dead spot is only in one direction. Not both that I noticed. It would go dead turning right but not noticeable turning left.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

Are you still running the Inverted T steering? If so, my bet is tierod roll is creating the dead spot.

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

Are you still running the Inverted T steering? If so, my bet is tierod roll is creating the dead spot.

The Cure! for Jeep (CJ/YJ/TJ /XJ)

Check out the deal on The Cure! for Jeep (CJ/YJ/TJ /XJ) at RuffStuff Specialties

www.ruffstuffspecialties.com

 

[YJKrawlin]

Are you still running the Inverted T steering? If so, my bet is tierod roll is creating the dead spot.

I have a GM 1 ton tie rod setup from Barnes. So I think that’s y link? The drag link connects to the passenger side tie rod.

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

The Cure!

Check out the deal on The Cure! at RuffStuff Specialties

www.ruffstuffspecialties.com

One ton version

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

I have a GM 1 ton tie rod setup from Barnes. So I think that’s y link? The drag link connects to the passenger side tie rod.

Sounds like inverted T, which would have been stock style, IIRC. I would put a camera on it and cycle the steering. You will likely see the tierod roll while turning. This will create a deadspot. ^^^ has the fix, without going true cross-over.

T is the tierod goes from knuckle to knuckle and the drag link connects to the tierod near the pass knuckle.
Y is the drag link goes from pitman to pass knuckle and tierod goes from driver knuckle to draglink, near pass knuckle. This is a factory Jeep style.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Sounds like inverted T, which would have been stock style, IIRC. I would put a camera on it and cycle the steering. You will likely see the tierod roll while turning. This will create a deadspot. ^^^ has the fix, without going true cross-over.

T is the tierod goes from knuckle to knuckle and the drag link connects to the tierod near the pass knuckle.
Y is the drag link goes from pitman to pass knuckle and tierod goes from driver knuckle to draglink, near pass knuckle. This is a factory Jeep style.

Gotcha, I always get them confused I know the factory bronco one had the tie rod connect halfway up the drag link in a weird way. I wouldn’t think the brand new tie rods would have that much noticeable slop in them but for the price it will rule one thing out

 

[YJKrawlin]

Got 20 minutes free while waiting for some rain to pass while mowing the grass. Got to work on the bronco steering a little. First I got the steering arm centered so we are now 2 turns either direction from center lock to lock. Adjusted the drag link and started working on installing the "cure" spacer. May need to take it off and shave it a little for fitment but it's in there at the moment. While the drag link was hanging down I noticed some play at the pitman arm, immediate thought was that the insert had walked itself out. Wiggled it a little more and noticed the cooler hoses were moving as well. The entire steering box was "just" loose enough to walk a little. Tightened it up. Unsure if it loosened up or I somehow skipped over that stepped when getting ready for gulches. So hoping somewhere in those 3 fixes, my steering doesn't feel like it wants me to drive straight into a ditch when turning.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Took the bronco to uwharrie for veterans day, finally did front side of daniel even though I had to take the bypass on the first ledge. The bronco performed great! The only issues that popped up with it were a shock coming off of the mounting bolt in the rear and a leaf spring being hung up on the shackle mount. The transfer case rear output popped out going up daniel twice and the np435 popped out of 1st once going up daniel. Nothing crazy, minor inconveniences. Some things to tweak, need to redo the shock mounts in the rear and look into ordering some new rear leaf springs. Hoping to get some of this wrapped up before our next outing.

 

[YJKrawlin]

Forgot to add some of the work I got done before the trip to uwharrie. I finally upgraded to a 4 barrel intake, some amazon brand to save money. I had a stripped out carb mounting hole on the Oem 2 barrel and figured it was time to get rid of the adapter for the sniper. I also worked on redoing my storage situation. Got some of the pack out boxes from harbor freight, some small d rings and turnbuckles, reinforced mounting the d rings to the pack out and welding them to the floor of the bronco, now my tools to fly around as I’m bouncing on the trails! They also fit just under the bed rail in case I ever want to come up with a tonneau cover design for it like I used to have for my jeep.