70 Sport resto/mod

[Lars]

The Bronco is back in action.
I did not bother to take any pictures of the exhaust because it's not really that much different than how it was before; slightly altered around the big ZF transmission but otherwise reconnected to the same old exhaust and Borla muffler. It is weird (but nice) that the new Dynamat is doing its job. I hear almost nothing coming into the cab from the engine bay anymore - most of the sound is going out the tailpipe as it should. I am not going to make any more exhaust changes anytime soon if I can help it...

It's good to have it home again, and was REALLY nice to drive it back through town without waking the dead.

I'm interested in that Dynamat job. It's probably somewhere in the previous 74 pages, would be much obliged if you could point me to it.

My Bronco is LOUD. Even moreso now. But not from the exhaust; that's actually pretty quiet due to the gigantic Dynomax Super Turbo muffler, which is doing a better job taming the 408 than I expected. But mechanical noise from the engine compartment is impressive, to put it mildly. Roller rockers, front dress, fan, etc. I had that before but it seems worse now. I thought the fiberglass hood might improve things but perhaps it made it worse.

[CityHick]

I'm interested in that Dynamat job. It's probably somewhere in the previous 74 pages, would be much obliged if you could point me to it.

My Bronco is LOUD. Even moreso now. But not from the exhaust; that's actually pretty quiet due to the gigantic Dynomax Super Turbo muffler, which is doing a better job taming the 408 than I expected. But mechanical noise from the engine compartment is impressive, to put it mildly. Roller rockers, front dress, fan, etc. I had that before but it seems worse now. I thought the fiberglass hood might improve things but perhaps it made it worse.

Pages 71 and 72 show some photos of it. I may have more saved elsewhere. It's pretty basic - peel and stick, press it down with a roller. The DynaPad is basically the same process; it's a thicker, closed-cell foam which seems to require a bit less effort. If you go this route, the dynamat extreme will cut your hands so wear gloves. Gloves make it harder to work, but you don't end up with cuts on your hands...

I would not call my bronco quiet, but it is noticeably quieter than it was before. I have quite a bit of Dynamat Extreme left over, and if I get the urge I may find a few more places to put a layer down. Perhaps under the seats, and maybe also over where the muffler is since I have "bed rug" material in the rear.

I have actually considered fully carpeting my bronco, however that would be a custom job since my floor isn't exactly stock - I have the wild horses passenger seat storage compartment thing welded in place. Not sure its worth it to go full custom. Dynamat makes "DynaDeck" which I have read quite a bit about. It may be the winner should I go that route someday.

[crawlin68]

I agree that Boom Mat or Dynamat makes a huge difference inside the cab of an EB. I did this on the floor and firewall and also the inside top of the hard top and wow, what a difference!

[CityHick]

Thanks Patrick, that's basically what mine looks like under the other stuff.
The thing that's most striking about dynamat (and similar) is how it deadens the sound when you drop something like a socket or a wrench onto it, vs bare sheet metal. You end up with just a dull thud. The sound waves hitting the firewall from the engine bay don't reverberate in the same way that they do when its bare. I think that's the entire difference. The sound isn't so much gone as it is deadened.

The heat control is noticeable as well, and anything in that regard is a welcome change. I am hoping that the footwells stay cooler than they did before. The radiant heat coming into the cab combined with ambient summer heat made driving miserable on the hottest days as we're all aware...

[CityHick]

Atlas cable shifter adjustment is finally done.
Also, my Dakota Digital speedometer is fully operational and accurate. The problem was the pulse generator that I used on the Dana 20 (and have adapted to the Atlas) had failed. I ordered a new one after exhaustive troubleshooting. It worked immediately, right out of the box. I did learn that you're not supposed to tighten that unit with a wrench for fear of damage. I apparently damaged the old one by doing just that. As luck would have it, despite the transfer case speedometer gear being a Jeep unit configured for who knows what tire size, the Dakota pulse generator is sending the right amount of pulses to make my speedo needle agree with the roadside radar signs. Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.

The Atlas cable shifter instructions say that the shifter levers should be vertical when in neutral. They have been "vertical" in neutral from the outset. I say "vertical" because apparently they were not "vertical enough" before - more on that later.

The floor shifter end is a very simple mechanism - basically just a steel housing with two sticks that pivot on a through-bolt, which each connect to the shifter cables via heim joints that thread onto the cable ends. The transfer case end is just two cables with ferrules and an acorn nut to tighten against the ferrule on the cable, the cable being slid into the drilled holes on the ends of the shift rails.

On the transfer case end, you basically place the ferrule such that the cable end will seat fully in the end of the drilled hole on the shift rail, and tighten the acorn nut down against the ferrules, and then go through a pretty simple adjustment process where you tighten jam nuts against the support fixture. Pictures show it better than I am explaining it.

So.. back up to the floor shifter. Adjusting these is a little more complicated and I have gone through about every combination and permutation of cable adjustment that's possible. I have had it such that I could shift into some but not all shifter combinations, and the "some" has varied. I finally had it such that I could do rear high, 4 high, and VERY close to having the ability to do rear low and 4 low. I was tired of messing with it so I did not pay any attention to it over the past week. I was happy to simply be able to drive it around town; something I've done a decent amount of now.

This morning I went out there and pondered a while. I finally found that the heim joints/jam nuts on the cable ends were keeping the cables from pushing the shift rails into the case far enough to get the shift rails into the low position for both front and rear. I dropped my newly installed exhaust to give myself more room to work (I have a removable section that runs under the transmission and makes it basically impossible to reach up to the bottom of the floor shifter when it's in place). In the process I learned that the exhaust v-clamps are freakin awesome and apparently foolproof. I was able to loosen both heim joints and their associated jam nuts and back them far enough off so that the cables can now retract far enough into the cable sheaths, to allow the low range to engage on both rails.

I bolted the exhaust back up and took a couple of longer drives around town. Shifting the Atlas is an absolute dream now, and the ZF continues to impress with its car-like shifting. I am getting used to the clutch engagement being a little higher off the floor. I do not believe the hype that a new Atlas is hard to shift by design. Mine shifts with very little effort.

90:1 feels pretty good. Idling up the driveway I can feel individual tire tread lugs as the tires rotate. I don't think I need to be any lower than that...

Anyway - a couple of photos to explain my earlier gibberish about the shifters are attached.

The flooring insulation has definitely helped with heat. It was in the mid-90s here today and I did not feel that the floors were cooking my feet anymore. I am still interested in further heat shielding for the exhaust, but that's not super high on the list at this time. Wheels and tires need to happen soon.

I finally drove it at night too - and I am no longer afraid of the dark. The new LED headlights, aside from needing better aiming, are amazing. Maybe not quite up to "new car" spec but damn close.

At this point it's feeling a lot more "done" than it has since January when I started tearing things apart. I do have a belt-driven accessory that has a little squeak; hopefully it's the tensioner but who knows... it may be the water pump. I doubt that it is the alternator, but if it is, this may be what gets me to finally install the explorer front dress that I've been ignoring on my shelf.

[cag33]

Do you have any pictures of where you mounted your clutch master cylinder?

[CityHick]

Do you have any pictures of where you mounted your clutch master cylinder?

I keep forgetting to snap a photo, but as I mentioned to you the other day when I picked up those coils it re-uses the factory hole where the speedometer cable went through. You have to enlarge that hole a little bit and drill two bolt holes to secure the master cylinder to the firewall. Then you slightly modify the factory clutch pedal by drilling a new hole through the pedal's arm, attaching a bolt, which pushes the new plunger into the clutch master cylinder. Very straightforward installation.

...

So I installed the coil springs, my bronco now sports a ridiculous forward rake since my rear suspension still sits at 5.5" of lift (coils are 3.5"). This being said, I like the new front height and I'm going to drop the rear to make it level. I will very likely stay with 37" tires but on 17" wheels. The wheel saga is fairly ridiculous at this point, but this is the year for ridiculous...



I placed a call to Deaver to see about getting springs from them; they referred me to bronco graveyard so I am sure the shipping is going to be crazy. But as I've mentioned before, my existing springs from another vendor don't fit the way they should; I am sure that I started a thread about this before. Basically, the military wrap touches the spring hangers and makes noise. The noise is the least of my concerns; I don't like metal on metal contact. I am told that the deaver wrap is much, much tighter to the main bushing wrap. So... we shall see where this leads.

[cag33]

Couple other ?'s. Which clutch master cylinder did you use and how is the clutch pedal pressure? Light feeling or it takes some effort to push in? thanks

[CityHick]

Couple other ?'s. Which clutch master cylinder did you use and how is the clutch pedal pressure? Light feeling or it takes some effort to push in? thanks

I believe that the master cylinder is from the same truck as the ZF, which is a mid-1990s F250. You might call BC Broncos to confirm, since they're who sold me the kit.
Pedal pressure is lighter than the mechanical contraption that came on the bronco. It's enough resistance for me, and I can feel the clutch engage, but it's lighter. It engages farther from the floor than I was used to, but I got used to it quickly.

[cag33]

Ok, I bought the Wilwood kit, hopefully works just as well. I was reading about leverage and how others were having a hard clutch pedal. It seems the higher the M/C is mounted on the firewall it increases the leverage ratio therefore decreases pedal pressure,
There must be a happy medium where it is easy clutch pressure and engagement feel.
Glad to see the spring worked out. With the short springs in front it makes it easier to see the trail.

[CityHick]

Ok, I bought the Wilwood kit, hopefully works just as well. I was reading about leverage and how others were having a hard clutch pedal. It seems the higher the M/C is mounted on the firewall it increases the leverage ratio therefore decreases pedal pressure,
There must be a happy medium where it is easy clutch pressure and engagement feel.
Glad to see the spring worked out. With the short springs in front it makes it easier to see the trail.

Wilwood makes nice stuff; hopefully it works well with your setup. I have gotten to where I try to stay with OEM style parts where possible and with the ZF, it seemed the easiest path to take rather than adapting. The ZF is really nice that way; bolts directly to the back of the engine, and bolts to the Atlas transfer case, all without adapters anywhere. The only non-oem part of my whole setup is the shifter. Very simple.
The master cylinder re-purposing the original speedo cable hole places the master cylinder up pretty far, so as you mentioned, I've got about the most mechanical advantage possible.

I need to decide on which rear leafs I'm going to try next, and make that order. I'm not a fan of the current extreme front rake!

[CityHick]

Some updates - My wheel saga continues. I believe that I wrote a summary of my trials and tribulations in another thread but suffice it to say, I've received two sets of wheels, both of which have been wrong, and both of which have been returned. I am in the process of getting a refund, and I will never deal with that particular vendor again. I have found two viable alternatives, one of which is on backorder until February. More on that another time.

After installing my 3.5" coils in the front, I decided that I like the lower stance, and I ordered a new set of Deaver 3.5" leaf springs for the rear. Bronco Graveyard had them out to me in a week. I cannot get a great photo to show just how much better they fit, but notice in the attached photo you can see the "witness marks" from where the poor fitting leaf springs had rubbed. The Deaver springs do not contact the hangers anywhere; I can run a 1/8" cotter pin between the hanger and the spring everywhere. So I should no longer have that lovely metal on metal sound when I hit a bump in the road... fingers crossed!

Removing the old leaf springs wasn't too bad, however I destroyed the u-bolts in the process. Wild Horses cannot get replacement u-bolts anytime soon; they are backordered. They gave me the dimensions and wished me luck in finding them elsewhere. I ordered a set of u-bolts from RuffStuff, so hopefully they can ship them out to me soon.

Installing the new Deaver leaf springs was a dream. With the old WH leafs I had to devise a way to "stretch" the springs in order to get the bolts through the eyes on either end. It always made me nervous to "load" a spring in order to install it. I am not a fan of dealing with stored energy in any form. The Deaver springs do not require any such histrionics. They simply bolt into position as I'd expect them to. No stretching needed.

So... if I ever get new u-bolts, I will have my Bronco back in running order again... and then I revisit the wheel dilemmas.


...anybody want my old springs? 4.5" front coils, 5.5" rear leafs. I'll make you a good deal!

[pippinmader]

So I should no longer have that lovely metal on metal sound when I hit a bump in the road... anybody want my old springs? 4.5" front coils, 5.5" rear leafs. I'll make you a good deal!

... After you make them sounds so good!! lol

Glad you are getting there, I am running the Ruff Stuff U bolts, they are nice but I think they only do 5/8", which is a nice upgrade but do require you to drill out the mounting plates of course.

[CityHick]

... After you make them sounds so good!! lol

Glad you are getting there, I am running the Ruff Stuff U bolts, they are nice but I think they only do 5/8", which is a nice upgrade but do require you to drill out the mounting plates of course.

Well I am told that "every bronco is different" and that this problem doesn't happen on all broncos... lol. I will make folks a fantastic deal. Someone's got to be building a bronco trailer or something!

I have the extreme duty mounting plates from WH already, which are designed to accept the 5/8" u-bolts. I don't know when to expect the u-bolts but I am getting there. I don't like to leave the bronco on jack stands like this but, well, what choice do I have.

I am nearly a year into my renewed interests in the bronco, hard to believe. I've driven it a fair amount since the 5-speed and Atlas. Next summer I definitely need to get it back up into the mountains!

[904Bronco]

I feel your pain Tony, I too have the extreme duty set up on back order... But since mine is a project at this point... I can wait. My frame powdercoaters said after the 1st of the year would be better for them, so... plenty of things to clean, modify, patch, rebuild, etc. We will get there eventually... Right?