6daze project

[904Bronco]

Re: 6daze project

BTW, I love Ukiah. I spent four wonderful days there in a hotel on a fire assignment last year. Beautiful town.

At least someone can say they were out on a "field trip" last year

Nothing going on up here...........

[6daze]

Column

At least someone can say they were out on a "field trip" last year

Nothing going on up here...........

Well we didnt burn down a fire engine until late August last year so maybe its coming...

With the box mounted I needed to connect it to the column. I looked around for a used lower steering shaft but couldnt find what I needed. I decided to bite the bullet and get a new one from WH. I ended up with this one with a 36 spline lower and double "D" upper.

It is very nice and I dont need to worry about any used parts.

[6daze]

Column part 2

I also purchased a new column. I jumped when WH had a free freight deal a while back. I had been living with the non-tilt coulmn for the last 20 years and decided it was time to upgrade. I went with an Ididit black manual tranny version.

I used this adapter for my existing steering wheel.

My only hiccup was with wiring the horn button. The column comes with a short yellow wire that goes through the adapter to the wheel. One end slides into a white post on the column and locks into it to make a connection.

When I put the adapter on, it sheered a piece off the yellow wire and prevented it from locking into the column. IMHO the adapter needs to be bigger in that area to prevent this. The crescent shaped hole needs to be bigger.

Once again WH came through and sent me a new one! If you are careful as you slide the adapter on, you can move that white post in a little bit and gain enough clearance for everything to fit.

The other end of that wire slides into the horn button.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

My Bronco is a 71 with stock wiring. It took a little digging to find what wire went where.

I made a diagram for the wiring harness. Ididit supplies a female connector that attaches to the female from the column. I cut my stock connector off, crimped on the supplied terminals and inserted them into the male connector.

I left the flasher circuit out as I am still using the switch on the dash.

Ididit supplied a relay for the horn. I used two existing horn wires (yellow and blue/yellow) and added a new black wire to wire the relay. The diagram is below. This relay is right next to the connector for the column. The new black wire goes to "G" on the female connector.

[6daze]

Hose Diagram

Playing with Illustrator and came up with a quick plumbing diagram. I listed all the part numbers as well. I did change the return to -8.

Also put together a parts list for the fittings.

Only thing I didnt inculde on there was the hose. I used about 10' of -6 braided stainless, 1' of -10 and 2' of -8 cloth pushloc hose. Both from Aeroquip.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

The old gear sat inside the frame and this one sits outside the frame. This made my drag link too short.

I have been talking with Stonecrusher Steering about making me a new one but have been waiting to get things mocked up for a good measurement. I called again to order and find out Duff bought them out. So I decided to just have one made locally.

At the steel shop I bought 1.25 x 3.13 DOM tubing 38” long. I had a fab shop drill and tap it for the existing rod ends. He even put two lines on the left hand thread end. Then I had it powdercoated to match the tie rod.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

The steering column has been giving me a little trouble. When I test the turn signal cancel with the steering wheel off, everything works fine. However as soon as I get the wheel on, it won't cancel after a right turn.

I finally dug into it to see what was up.

There are return springs that put the turn signal cam back in normal position after a turn. (yellow arrow) There are two small "humps" on the horn cam that bump into these springs and rotate the cam.

One of my springs was either weak or in the wrong position and would not move the cam back to neutral. I tried bending the end of the spring but it broke. Fortunately it broke in a spot where it moved the return spring in towards the center. This put more pressure on the "hump" and its now working properly.

To get to this spring I removed a snap ring from the steering shaft that held the horn cam on. Attached to this cam is a stiff spring. So far I have been unable to get this snap ring back on.

Here is the text from an email from Ididt:

You shouldn't have to remove the horn cam to change springs. But if you do remove it make sure the shaft at the bottom of the column is supported so you don't unseat the bushings in the column. The easiest way to put it back together is to put everything back on the shaft than take a 3/4" deep well socket and push everything back in place. The snap ring will seat in its groove. It will take about 65 ft-lbs of pressure to get the spring compressed. As far as turn signal canceling issues I assume you have the horn cam tube clocked at 10:30. the right turn signal canceling spring is at 12:00. It is a double wound spring, take a pair of needle nose pliers with a 1/4" tip on them and just grasp the top winding and twist in a clockwise motion. That will put more tension on the spring which will in turn make contact with the horn cam canceling tab. Put the flat edge of the horn cam in a position to give you more room to work. If that does not work we do have new canceling springs.

Also:

The shafting is held in place by the spring tension on the snap ring. The steering wheel and adapter would hold everything in place but you are losing some preload on the spring because of the gap from adapter to column. If you cannot get the snap ring on it is telling me the shaft might have dropped down in the column a little bit. If it is out of the car stand the column on the floor and that will support the shaft in the column. If it is in the car try supporting the lower end of the column with a floor jack or another person with a 2x4 putting pressure on the shaft at the bottom.

I am going to try the socket method next to get it all back together.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

I've been driving this for several weeks and everything has been working great. I haven't fixed the column yet however.

I had Howe check out the finished product and they recommended a couple things.

First the return line from the gear to the reservoir was too close to the headers. I ran it backwards from the gear and behind the a/c compressor. With the new reversed radiator I now have a radiator hose preventing me from running the line in front of the serp belt.
I also had a kink in this line due to how I routed it. I think this was the cause of an occasional whine.

So I rerouted the line straight up from the gear box and in between the compressor and inner fender. It is very tight but seems to work.

Howe also said I could upsize my pressure line from the pump to the hydroboost. This should increase performance.

I'll try this version and see how it goes.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

Finally got around to installing a Hellwig swaybar. It has been sitting on my garage floor since WH brought it down to Bronco Daze in November.

I also bought some new lower coil cups from Duff.

The install went fairly smooth but there are always a few "issues".

I have TRE steering installed over the knuckle. The lower sway bar brackets mount under the coil cups and stick out far enough to hit the tie rod. To solve this I drilled a new hole 1" farther back in the bracket and mounted them up.

The passenger side proved a little more difficult. There was no way the sway bar bracket was going to fit behind the tierod and drag link. I ended up moving the tie rod under the knuckle to make more room.

The other issue was with the track bar riser. It is large enough that it didnt allow the larger Duff coil cup to sit flat. I considered moving the cup outwards a little but it would have hit the inner C.

I ended up grinding some material from the side of the cup. There is a small tab the holds the coil in place. I removed about 1/8" from the tab. I will keep an eye on it and hopefully I didnt weaken the cup.

The last obstacle I had was the frame brackets. The mount via two studs to a threaded plate that sits inside the frame. I have a Protofab bumper that just barely allows the plates to fit. I had to move the plates back about 1/2".

I have a 4x4x2 steering box and everything fits great!
Here are some pics.

[904Bronco]

Re: 6daze project

Thanks for sharing... been thinking about sway bars for my Lubr. Any feedback yet on how the ride has changed?

Be Safe this summer, the East hills here are already brown... It will be busy summer for Fire.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

I have only made a few short trips with it but so far it is night and day! Driving it to work tomorrow on the freeway so we shall see.

Hills are dry here to. It will be a busy summer. They have me a red hat in the fall and moved me downtown. I don't have a brush rig in station but the type 1s will be out I'm sure.

[904Bronco]

Re: 6daze project

I have only made a few short trips with it but so far it is night and day! Driving it to work tomorrow on the freeway so we shall see.

Hills are dry here to. It will be a busy summer. They have me a red hat in the fall and moved me downtown. I don't have a brush rig in station but the type 1s will be out I'm sure.

Congrats and Welcome to the Red hat world (Driving is still the best job in the fire service!)

I pulled the plug at the end of May, almost a year has gone by, hard to believe. I have been busier that when I was working

I look forward to your posts on how it drives...

[jperry1290]

Re: 6daze project

Is the WH steering shaft nice and tight? I read that some of the slip joints start to hollow out over time and become unsafe. Hoping to get things swapped soon and get driving after 5yrs.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

Is the WH steering shaft nice and tight? I read that some of the slip joints start to hollow out over time and become unsafe. Hoping to get things swapped soon and get driving after 5yrs.

The shaft is still nice and tight. The box I rebulit has a little play. I honestly don't put that many miles on it so I expect it should last a long time.

The swaybar makes a world of difference. From freeway driving to slow speed turns I can tell that it is there. I definately reccomend it!

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

Look who I found out in the trail!


Had a great weekend up in Big Bear for the Early Bronco Registry 50th event. Everything is working well except the kids are growing out of their car seats... I need to order a new bench seat.