Well, finally the Bronco project is started. About two years ago an old friend stopped in the shop and asked if I knew
anyone wanting to by a '78 Ford Bronco, being a devout Ford man and always wanting a BIG Bronco I asked how much.
Well three days and 1000$ later I was loading my prize on a trailer; it had no brakes you see. Anyway I got it home
and let her set while we finished the Jeep and played with it for a while, well now we're finally doing something with
it.
While not much to look at now, hopefully it will come around. The cage is built, and I pray it will slip out to be
painted but I may have to make it a two piece unit. The beard super seats have been mounted on their own structure
with a built in console area were the Art Carr shifter and Klune-V shifter will mount.
A 460 cube motor is being
machined as I write this. I am taking this motor a step or two farther than the Jeep motor. At 9.5 to 1 compression
with a Comp Cams 4x4 Extreme bump stick, DUI Ignition, Edelbrock intake and either a Edelbrock or Road Demon carb plus
a set of Ford Roller Rockers the power plant should be a grunt monster. Sure it will require premium fuel but hey,
power cost's.
The engine package will drive a C-6 fluid drive with an Art-Carr low ratio gear set with a full manual reverse valve
body. Yes, I will have to shift up and down just like a manual but the trans will never shift with out input from the
driver, meaning I can start in second gear if I want and hold the gear till red line if need be. The reverse part means
this tranny's selector would look like this, P, R, N, 1, 2,3. Notice reverse and first are next to each other and there
is no drive.
The tranny will unload into a Klune-V crawler box, a 2.7 to 1 ratio unit was chosen instead of a 4 to 1 simply because
the full size behemoth won't fit on the tiny rock crawling trails but the anemic low range of the stock NP 205 case
isn't enough at 1.96 to 1. As I plan to drive this a lot however the decision to leave the stock t-case was to
facilitate inclement weather drivability, with out being to low, as would be the case with a low range t-case.
Besides, I just wanted to try it out.
All this will drive a Dana 60 rear with an ARB, 4.56 Gears and Dynatrac 1.5 inch 35 spline shafts. The front Dana
44 will be left in for now, but will also receive 4.56 gears, an ARB and the outers swapped to the eight bolt wheel
pattern to match the rear. High strength axles will be put in to try and deal with the tires for the project.
Tires are going to be in the 38 inch range as much for the look as anything else, a big truck need's big meats right?
Also, a set of Bushwacker flairs are being installed to facilitate the removal of some rust, ( very little for this
model truck ) so the flairs require a large tire with some offset to look right in the opening.
To clear the tire package I'll have to lift it a little, I haven't totally decided what I want to do in this area but
probably National springs front and rear. I'll remove the factory block so we can get some extra spring length in the
rear and maybe some trick radius arms in the front.
More later I need to get to work. Keep posted.
