70 Sport resto/mod

[CityHick]

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?

I would be upset if I relied on my bronco for daily needs. But fortunately, I don't. So I will deal with this the same way that I've dealt with numerous other delays. I am still in a state of not trusting my tires anyway, so its not like I'll be driving farther than around town until that's resolved!

Spending time under my Bronco reminds me that I did not powder coat my frame. I have no desire to separate frame from body at this point, but someday if I get very ambitious I will clean the frame up (again, and better this time) and at least apply a better paint job to it. but that's going to require levels of boredom that I haven't yet achieved...

[cag33]

After you mentioned the leaf spring problem I looked at mine and they were doing the same thing. I jammed a chisel in there and heated with a torch, plenty of space now.

[CityHick]

After you mentioned the leaf spring problem I looked at mine and they were doing the same thing. I jammed a chisel in there and heated with a torch, plenty of space now.

Hah. yeah a friend of mine had the issue as well, he removed the springs, took them to the machine shop where he works, and his machinist found a way to tighten the radius of the bend for him. His no longer contact either; but they never should have in the first place. I considered doing similar things, but in the end since I wanted to drop some height, this was the path of least resistance. I did however deal with it for many years...

[CityHick]

RuffStuff got my new U-bolts out to me in a week, and that allowed me to finally complete my new rear suspension installation. Everything is now torqued and finalized.

I like the new stance quite a bit, though I cannot yet speak to any difference in ride and handling since I haven't been sufficiently motivated to drive a Bronco without a top in the rain. I will be off work for two weeks starting Friday so I am sure I'll have plenty of time to tinker and test.

Given how well the tires appear to fit, I plan to flex the suspension and look for any interference issues, and then figure out how to address them - be that with bump stops or what have you. I will be staying with 37" tires.

I can clearly see that my rear shocks are now way too long, and given that I've never particularly liked my front shocks, I will be upgrading to something nicer soon. I don't yet know what that will be, but I am going to look into offerings from Bilstein and Fox once I have the extended/compressed lengths figured out.

I attached a photo of the old leaf spring where you can see just how bad the rub issue was. I was happy last night when jacking the vehicle up and down, and also while getting in and out of it, that I no longer heard the creaky sound of the spring rubbing where it shouldn't...

As I've likely mentioned, my goals are to get my bronco to handle and ride better, to tame it down a bit while still being capable enough for my purposes, and to get me to drive it more. In the past year I've been chipping away at many of the things that I didn't like, and I feel pretty good about where it's currently at, and about where it's heading.

[crawlin68]

The lower stance looks looks really Tony. Boy that leaf spring wrap really was hitting pretty hard wasn't it!? Should ride a lot smoother and quieter now

[CityHick]

Between the storms and being out of town for a while, I had not had a chance to drive the bronco with the new Deaver leaf springs installed. I now have probably 30 miles on them and I am very happy. The ride quality is nice, and there's significantly reduced body roll in the corners. Bumps feel less jarring, and there's no more leaf spring/hanger contact, so I no longer hear the metal on metal sound. On top of all of this, I really like the new appearance.

I haven't felt motivated to pull the shocks off and then go flex it up to measure for shocks and bump stops, but the sun is out today and I've got nothing but time for more than another week.

This is the most "solid" my bronco has ever felt to drive, and I'm not done with the improvements yet!

[CityHick]

Had some fun with a fork lift today. I've established that each tire can be lifted 33” before another tire begins to lift - which is more capability than I have a desire to use, but it's nice to know it's there!

Shock lengths for anybody who is interested:
Front: 20" compressed, 31" extended, 23" ride height - 11" shock travel needed
Rear: 20" compressed, 27" extended, 23" ride height - 7" shock travel needed (the geometry of a slant mounted shock seems to be the difference here).

It is interesting to me that both front and rear shocks only compress about 3" at max (as measured when the tire is stuffed as far as it will go into the wheel wells), but that both will extend so much when the axles droop. I've always known that down travel accounted for most of the travel, but this shows just how much travel is needed in the down direction.

Attaching some photos since I cannot seem to locate the photos that I took 15+ years ago when I did the same kind of test on the old suspension.

The good news is that the tires do seem to stuff into the wheel wells with no contact anywhere (it is VERY tight, but there's no tire to sheet metal contact). I will limit the travel to keep the tires farther from the sheet metal, and possibly adjust my flares just a tad.

I need to extend my front differential breather hose a bit, I also need to redo my rear brake lines, and I need to extend the rear bump stops down a bit so that they become functional, since they never have actually touched the axle... ever.

Fun side note - anybody who's been around NCB for a while may recognize the location as Chris's (Fordcore?) hangar at the Livermore Airport, where we had a meetup back in 2006 or thereabouts. Chris sold his Bronco some time ago, and now has a pretty bad ass Cherokee in it's place. I did not take any photos of it, but it is a really nice rig.

[crawlin68]

Nice Tony! It looks like you are ready for a Coyote Lake trip this summer. It would be fun to get the band back together for that trip!

[CityHick]

I discovered that one of my coil retainers appears to be bent. It doesn't clamp down as tight on the coil bottom as the other does. I ordered a new pair to replace them both. That's an easy fix...
Wheels, tires, and shocks are what are standing between me and driving my bronco longer distances. Backorders continue to be a frustration point, but I am working through these delays as much as I can.

Nice Tony! It looks like you are ready for a Coyote Lake trip this summer. It would be fun to get the band back together for that trip!

Yep! That's one place that I definitely miss. If we can plan a two night trip, that's best for me. An overnighter there is too much rushing around for not enough time to enjoy it given the distance factor.

[cag33]

How does it feel with those front springs on the road, they felt really soft on mine. They really flexed well with the big tires. Pics look good

[CityHick]

How does it feel with those front springs on the road, they felt really soft on mine. They really flexed well with the big tires. Pics look good

It's a mixed bag with these springs. I feel that they absorb bumps better than my previous 4.5" springs from WH, and I also feel like there's significantly less body roll. However I also feel that they rebound more. For example, if I take a turn faster than I should, and the turn has a dip somewhere around the apex, hitting the dip isn't as jarring, however the rebound is enough to toss me around a little more. It may be a touch of bump steer that I'm now experiencing. This is part of the reason that I want better shocks. My shocks are the wrong length at all 4 corners now, so I figure this is the time to significantly upgrade.

I do plan to run these springs until some later time when I change my mind again for some other reason... hopefully that is a long time away. lol.

[cag33]

Im running the Bilstein 7100 on my white Bronco and they seem to have taken the bounce out of it. I don’t know how tunable they are. They do have a nitrogen valve that you could try different pressures.

[CityHick]

January has been a productive month. I managed to locate Bilstein shocks for all 4 corners despite the widespread backorders for Bilstein these days. In the front I am running Bilstein model 7100 reservoir shocks valved 360/80. In the rear, unable to find 7100s I opted for the (very similar) model 5165 reservoir shocks, in the same valving. The primary differences between 7100 and 5165 models are that the 7100s are owner-rebuildable and have heim joints in the mounting eyes at both ends. The 5165 is not owner-rebuildable, and has more typical rubber bushings in the mounting eyes. There are probably other differences between the two, but I'll leave that to those who've done more research on the matter than I have. So far, they've exceeded my expectations.

The drivability difference with a better shock is... shocking. The handling is tightened up far beyond what I'd expected in many aspects. Cornering is flatter, and the odd dips and bumps (which exposed the weaknesses of my cheap, old, worn out shocks) are now handled much better. I was hesitant to spend that much on shocks but I am now 100% convinced of their value.

In an earlier update I showed the results of my flex testing, during which I figured out where my bump stops needed to be placed. Rather than search for proper fitting bump stops since none of the available vendor bump stops actually make contact with my axles on full compression, I decided to build some extensions out of scrap material that I have here at the house. They are not going to win any design awards but they place my bump stops to where they'll actually serve their intended purpose, and they're strong.

In other news, I cashed in my (decade's worth) of Amazon rewards points and got a set of 5 US Mags Indy wheels in 17x9 with 3.5" backspacing. After making a dozen calls, I located a set of BF Goodrich KM3 tires in 37x12.50-17 and had them mounted onto the ridiculously shiny new wheels yesterday. As with everything these days, tire prices are absurd, but I expected that.

I am having trouble with the electronic speedometer sensor which feeds my Dakota Digital speedometer. I am considering switching it over to the GPS solution to avoid the sender issues. I may make a call to Nevada Speedometer this week to see what their solution is, since they apparently have dealt with the incompatibilities of the Atlas and Dakota hardware. We shall see... the GPS option is tempting in many ways.

...And here are some photos in no particular order!

[69crawler]

That wheel and tire combo looks awesome Tony . I've been looking at tires and shocks lately. I've been unsure whether the extra cost of the nicer shocks are worth it but it sounds like it is .

[CityHick]

That wheel and tire combo looks awesome Tony . I've been looking at tires and shocks lately. I've been unsure whether the extra cost of the nicer shocks are worth it but it sounds like it is .

Thanks, the wheels are growing on me in raw, polished form. I did consider getting them powder coated black before getting tires installed, but decided to see how these grow on me for a while before I change their appearance. It's a big adjustment in the appearance department with mostly favorable reactions from others so far...

With regards to shocks - I have a long history of not so great experiences with them. My first configuration I felt was actually dangerous to drive. I moved beyond dangerous and into manageable and stayed there for far too long. I think a lot of it comes down to preference and driving style. For me, even when I am wheeling, most of my driving is on pavement so it makes the most sense to me to set it up for that. I enjoyed blasting around on the dunes so a little bias towards higher speed performance makes some sense to me in more than one way.

Not to mention, as long as I am not commuting I do like to use it as a second daily driver.