Is this bronco worth a damn?

[87xjmike]

Hey everybody I’m a ford guy at heart and am about to buy my 3rd. I'm going to look at this one later tonight and was hoping for some tips to look for. I've been through about 50 posts on this forum to see the good, the bad and the ugly of factory parts in these rigs but am not sure what to look for when checking out a rig that has been wheeled hard.
I know it has the stock 7.5 and Dana 28 axles in it so I’ll be stepping it down to 35" tires to hopefully keep them alive until I find some exploder axels. This will be strictly trailored to the Rubicon Fordyce ect..no road usage. He has no receipts for the rebuilds but claims the heads were left untouched when the engine was rebuilt.
Here’s the description from the add


$700obo

2.8V6REBUILT
4SP MANUAL TRANS REBUILT
1350 TRANS FERCASE
BRUTE FORCE HAYS CLUTCH KIT
REAR AXEL REBUILT WITHA AUBURN LOCKER
FRONT AXEL STOCK,GONE OVER
OVERSIZED DRIVELINES
ROCK RIMS BLACK
38" SUPER SWAMPERS-TSL'S=1 SPARE OF A DIFFERENT BRAND
MSD IGNITION PARTS
ROLL BAR AND TOW HITCH INSTALLED
PLUS COMES WITH SPARE PARTS TO FIX INCASE U BREAK SOMETHING ON THE TRAIL....

THIS BRONCO RUNS VERY STRONG AND IS VERY DEPENDABLE.FLEXES WELL AND HAS BEEN ON THE FAMOUS RUBICON TRAIL A FEW TIMES...GREEN STICKERED TILL 2009


Here are the pics

Shot at 2008-06-10


Shot at 2008-06-10


Shot at 2008-06-10




What do ya think?

[vabronconut]

sounds like a steel !!! $700 i would buy it. things i would look for on a rig like that is-
check the diff fluid for being milky or smelling like its burnt, check the trans fluid for the same, check the frame at the cross member for the rivets being loose. check the u-joints on the front axle shafts and drive shafts. check the a arms make sure the pivot points are not wollard out of round. but for $700 you really can't go wrong as long as it runs and drives.

[87xjmike]

great, thats some good tips. I would not have checked a lot of that stuff had you not mentioned it.

Thanks,
Mike

[87xjmike]

One more thing, I think this rig might have the duraspark conversion. But I do not know what to look for to verify; does anybody have a picture of a duraspark canaster and set up so i may compare?

[TJDukit82]

do a google search for duraspark conversion and go to the one from therangerstation it has good picks of what all the duraspark parts look like, and a pretty good write up on how to do it if it hasn't been done.

[87xjmike]

Well i bought the thing for 400 bucks. I had a lot of barganing power on him as he didn't know jack about trucks and didn't even have oil in the damn thing. The guy lived out in the sticks and let me take it 4 wheelen before i bought it. Luckily i brought a few courts of oil with me so i filled her up and crawled around on his property. It actually did quite well with the 38's in 4 low and high. Shifted in and out of all the gears nicely and was relatively tourquey with the big meats it has on it. The tranny felt tight and precise in all the gears and minus the 3" blocks the suspension looked nice and handled smoothly offroad. I've got a lot of fluids to flush now as i'm sure he didn't ever change or top off a single one the 9 months he had it.

One prob, now the thing won't start!!
The key lock cylinder in the steering clolumn will not rotate, Its just old and needs replacement. The seller was having issues upon first start up with it last night but after the first start it rotated fine each start after that. Now i got it home in my appartments unloaded from the trailer stuck in a red fire zone awaitng its home in my garage. I cant even get the key in the on position to push in the pin to take the key lock cylinder out and replace. Any ideas on how to get the damn thing out??

[vabronconut]

take the column ccovers off, and spray a rust busting lubricant on it, also spray it directly into the key slot, let it sit for a hour and start playing with it. make sure the wheel is not locked in position as this will make it even more dificult to turn the key. you can try wd40 for this, but rust busters work better. glad to hear you got a steal on it, and it ran good. if its empty on oil, where did it go? is it burning it or leaking? either way you lucked out.

[87xjmike]

i ended up soaking it in liquid wrench for 3 hours and it worked like a charm. Got a new key lock cylinder and it starts perfectly every time. Although i may have put in the cylinder wrong as it will not rotate all the way to the position at which it allows the key to come out. So the key is stuck in there, but its strictly a trail rig so oh well. I changed the tranny, t-case and engine oils today; along with the fuel and oil filters. The tranny fluid looked like green creamy shit and at the end of the pour ended up frothy and milky. What does this entale? Also the only stamping on the tranny case that i could see was a "r4". Is that the model number of the tranny? I'm not sure what tranny i have, its a 4 speed manual hooked up to the 2.8. The chilton recomended 80w so i put 1.5 quarts of 80w90 in it. All the spark plugs looked good (gap and cooloration was normal). Tomorrow its the diff fluids, new shocks and a good scrub down in preparation for some flat black paint. I like the look of some of the round headlights you guys do aroun here i think i'll convert the front end to old school.

Thanks for all the help,
Mike

[vabronconut]

the milky oil means there was allot of water in the transmission, which is a very bad thing. run the oil you changed for a few miles and change it again, hopefully doing that will flush out the bad oil. check the top of the trans for a breather vent it should look like a mushroom. if you do allot of wheeling in the water i would replace the breather vent with a hose and run it to the top of the engine compartment so water won't get in it again. i have no idea what tranny you have, im not to framiliar with the stock bii stuff. where you from, its not on your profile.

[87xjmike]

I live in Folsom California.
I don’t do much wheelen in the water or mud. Off road racing or crawling is the only thing on my wheelen agenda. I’ll fjord a river if I have to, to get to my destination.
I’ll lengthen the breather tube for some security, thanks.


I'll try and document my improvements on this rig with some pics and let you guys know how the truck takes my beatings. I'll be adding a cage and some tubular doors soon. To my amazement the b2 is only in need of one ujoint replacement throughout the entire rig.

[vabronconut]

i was looking for a roll cage for mine and came across a place in pa that bends the tubes for each application and i have to weld it for only $300 for a 10 point cage. it sounds like its too good to be true so i emailed them and im waiting to them to reply. i don't have the resources to fab one from scratch. any other ideas?

[87xjmike]

If that includes the tubing it’s a steal. If not you may want to think about spending another 100 dollars on a jd2 bender. I'll most likely bend mine with the piece of crap bender from harbor freight. But then comes chopping and notching the tubing. If they don't notch or include the tubing I would not do it. I’ve seen chop saws all over Craig’s list for 50bucks and I’m sure you have a grinder to do a cheap notch job. If not that is a must have tool to any novice/experienced wheeler. My 19.99 harbor freight special has held up great.

Good luck

[vabronconut]

i got a chop saw and bench and angle grider, dont have a bender or welder though. i wonder if i would save money fabing the whole thing and paying to have it welded? any thoughts?

[87xjmike]

Like i said if they don't include tubing with the 300 don't do it, get a bender for another 100 bucks and you'll get your money back after the first project. If you don't have a welder then you'll have to pay to get it done.

[TJDukit82]

http://autoweldchassis.com/rbc.ivnu

This site offers a wide range of pre-bent and notch roll cages they make one for the '83 B2 I'm not sure if there is any difference really between the different years that would make the cages any different but their prices seem pretty good and you can start out small and upgrade from a four point to a six point all the way up to a 14 point. They offer ranger cages as well. Starting price is 152 for the four point roll bar.