1970 Rust Bucket Project

[GloNDark2]

Maybe one day the newer broncos will come down in price as I would love to get the GF into one (she’s been telling me how she likes the army green ones as she calls it). I prefer the older one there!

I love the new one. It's definitely fun to run around in. But the only one is my favorite by far. My girlfriend wants a new 2 door Badlands. It's crazy what they are selling for on the open market though.

[GloNDark2]

Getting really close now. Figured out most of the Holley Sniper issues that I was having. Still not 100% happy with it. Might swap it out for the Edelbrock Pro-Flo system. I drove my neighbors 65 Mustang with that kit and it's smooth, powerful and he has had zero issues with it.

I have decided however that I positively hate the 3 speed manual. I didn't expect to really like it, and was hoping to live with it for a bit while deciding what to do next. But it's just awful in this thing. The James Duff floor conversion shifter is in the worst place possible for me. The gap between 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd with this motor is just a bear to drive with the 4.88's. Now to decide if I go with an AX-15 or go big and do the Tremec 5 speed. hhmmmm I like the lower 1st of the Tremec that's for sure. I guess and NV4500 would be an option too. Could be less than the Tremec when it's all said and done. Any advice or experience on those swaps would be awesome.

[904Bronco]

I have been talking with Modern Driveline in ID. on the TR-4050 swap for my 79. They have some Hydraulic stuff, but not a kit developed for the Gen 2 yet..
Most everything out there is for the EB. AA sells the rear adapter/spud shaft for the D20 and the adapter ring for the Bell housing.
WH's has sold a few kits, but they are not experts at this yet. (Or so I was told)
Silver sport transmissions (SST) on the East coast sells a kit, which might be who WH's is buying from. They supplied the Trans for Jay Leno's Hot rod bronco and were the first to develop the kit. SST has been bought out by Holley.
The TR 4050 is not inexpensive...
The NV4500 is huge and takes a bunch of space.
The NV3550 (now replaced by the AX-15) was in my 67 and I really enjoyed that transmission. You could start in 1st, but I used 2nd mostly. (4:11's and 31")

Your going to need a spread sheet to figure the cost on each of these options...

[CityHick]

As stated there's a lot to consider in a transmission swap. I'm really happy with my choice of a ZF 5 speed and Atlas, but it's a cost/benefit exercise. I think I have a thread here about this topic, but in short I landed on the ZF because it turned up sooner than the other options I was considering. The nice things about the ZF are:
1. It bolts directly to a 302/351w without adaptors.
2. The Hydraulic clutch setup is sweet - dead simple to install and it gets rid of the rube-goldberg linkages and bell crank designed by a drunken Ford engineer 50 years ago
3. If you're not married to the D20, it is a bolt-up to several OEM transfer cases, and you can get an Atlas that'll bolt directly to it also.
4. The shifter comes through the floor at a location that doesn't require silly shifter bending and/or a gear banger type shifter.
5. It shifts nice!

It is large, you're going to need a body lift. I guess that's a negative... but in my mind not much of one.

[GloNDark2]

Hmmmm I had not consider the ZF5 before. Looking at the price of that with an Atlas is considerably less than the TR4050. I bet that Atlas is a tight fit between the frame rails.

[GloNDark2]

Got the tires and beadlocks mounted up finally. The list is getting shorter but lots of dumb setbacks. Have to pull the brand new Wildhorse power steering pump as I believe the pressure relief valve is stuck. Steering is garbage and I can't get the Hydroboost to create any pedal pressure. So out it comes Been trimming inner fenders and cleaning up some other crap in there. Wiring is almost 100% done. Need to finish rock lights and finally do something about the loud ass frame mount fuel pump.

[GloNDark2]

[GloNDark2]

[904Bronco]

Looks Great! Low Maintenance Front/Back yard (Testing grounds) I see

[GloNDark2]

One more pic just because it's cool. hahaha

[GloNDark2]

Looks Great! Low Maintenance Front/Back yard (Testing grounds) I see

I have an Acre of land and the back 1/3 of it is where the shop, RV, car trailer and chickens are at. haha Most of the rest of the yard is landscaped thank goodness. Otherwise my house would be a sandy mess 100% of the time.

[GloNDark2]

I am officially giving up on the Holley Sniper. What a POS. It has been nothing but trouble since the first start. Stalling on decel, Stalling when you push the clutch in. Finally got those somewhat worked out. But now all of the sudden the damn thing wants to revert to a 4 cylinder 302, Racing cam tune everytime I shut the truck off. Today had to pull it home because it reset and then the damn controller "touch screen" didn't want to work. When I talked to Holley they told me "Yeah sometimes it does that, deal with it"

Time to pick up an Edelbrock ProFlow I guess.

[PhantomEB]

Have you got it tuned up or just running the wizard?

I am in the process of wiring up my sniper but I am also gonna be getting a base tune installed instead of Holley’s plug and play kit.

mad science Motorsports on FB is a well known sniper tuner.

[GloNDark2]

I ran the wizard and smoothed out the config file in the software. It's weird because half the time it runs fine. I think whoo hoo I got it and then bamn it's back to stumbling and stalling when you push in the clutch.

I have not heard of Mad Science Motorsports. I'm going to reach out to them and see if they can take my datalogs and make it better. Thanks for the suggestion.

[904Bronco]

I did not have a good experience with a Sniper install. Bad IAC which took Holley forever to acknowledge, then they chose to send me a replacement unit rather than the replacement part. That took another 2 weeks...

Skip had a guy he referred me to that is supposed to have those units figured out, but the Owner had already reclaimed the car after 5 months... I haven't had any feedback from him since the install, so I guess that means it is all good?

I am not a Fan of the Product.

Good luck Chris.