'84 Bronco II Build Thread

[arse_sidewards]

Pics look fine to me.

 

[willis_racing]

Thanks for the compliments

Is anyone else having issues with the pictures? I attached them directly through Irate (not a 3rd party hosting site) and they show up fine on my end

The first 7 pics on post 55 aren't loaded for me. Idk what's up with that.

Sorry you had to miss the trip, but I totally understand why you threw in the towel. I definitely don't envy dealing with that nightmare the night before a run.

Sweet build thread, cool to see another local guy who decided wheeling the shit out of his first car was a reasonable thing to do.

 

['84 Bronco II]

The first 7 pics on post 55 aren't loaded for me. Idk what's up with that.

Sorry you had to miss the trip, but I totally understand why you threw in the towel. I definitely don't envy dealing with that nightmare the night before a run.

Sweet build thread, cool to see another local guy who decided wheeling the shit out of his first car was a reasonable thing to do.

I think maybe there are too many pictures and if your internet connection isn't fast enough, it won't load and display all of them. I notice it on my phone a lot when I open threads on here with lots of pictures. If I refresh the page and scroll down really quick to where the pictures didn't load originally, they will usually be loaded after the refresh.

I am looking forward to getting it back together and getting another run planned.

 

[Toreadorranger]

Thanks for the compliments

Is anyone else having issues with the pictures? I attached them directly through Irate (not a 3rd party hosting site) and they show up fine on my end

First 7 pictures of post 55 dont work for me either.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Very cool build. I've got a 94 ranger with EB 44/9". 4 link f/r with coilovers. I actually have (2) of the manual shift 1354's and have been looking into doubler options. 4.0 auto as of now. Subbed for future 4.0 build/swap tech and also to come back to your doubler stuff when time/money allows. Keep up the good work.

 

[Will Scarlet]

The obstacle that took out the leaf spring that I am glad I didn't get to Those are 42" tires for scale.

My bent shock

I straightend out my skid plate in my 20 ton press and added some reinforcement to keep it from bending up into my transfer case again

Then I tore apart the front end and dropped the diff to replace the center joint. The C-clip I had made out of a washer the last time I broke the center joint had gotten hammered pretty hard from I assume the slip yoke bottoming out until it had punched the plug out when I had it on the lift getting it ready for Trail Hero 2020. That is also probably why the original C-clip was broken too

These are the images not showing. Nothing wrong with my internet connection, 1GB connection, and same thing on three different browsers.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Very cool build. I've got a 94 ranger with EB 44/9". 4 link f/r with coilovers. I actually have (2) of the manual shift 1354's and have been looking into doubler options. 4.0 auto as of now. Subbed for future 4.0 build/swap tech and also to come back to your doubler stuff when time/money allows. Keep up the good work.

Thanks! Hold on to those manual shift 1354s

I'll probably get going on the 4.0L swap once I get the 4600 Bronco driving so I have something else to wheel if it ends up down for a while.



Now looking at post #55 on my phone the pictures aren't working for me either Must have been cached on my computer. There was a glitch and it was a double post so maybe that has something to do with it. I'll get it fixed tonight when I have access to my computer again.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Pictures in post #55 should be working now.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Before the doubler when I was running 35" tires, I never has a problem with axle shaft breakage and wheeled for several years with a locked front end. The first time I broke a front axle was shortly after the doubler and 37" tires on a trail (Rattler in Caballo) I had done a few times before without an issue when I was on 35" tires. Since then, even with my conservative driving style, I have not been able to keep front axle shafts together. I upgraded to 5-760X joints after the first breakage, but the issue was never the joints. The U-joint C-clips would spit out and allow the caps to eject, taking out the axle shaft ears in the process. I tried tack welding without much improvement, then I started modifying the shafts for full circle retaining rings. That was an improvement, but the yoke ears would eventually stretch and still rip out. Then I resorted to full circle clips and welding the caps 50% in. That lasted about two years before my next failure, but at that point, I didn't trust my Bronco II to not break, and I was getting tired of having to source and modify shafts from the junkyard. I never broke a U-joint, or the actual shaft portion of the axles shafts (even the tiny stock Dana 35 outers ), but I was always ripping the axle shaft yoke ears out. I did however put a slight twist in two 27 spline inner shafts in that time that I only found because I had broken axle shaft yokes.

The final straw that cut my birthday wheeling weekend short:

Jeff's Bronco Graveyard offers and affordably-priced set of 4340 axle shafts for the Dana 35 minus the driver side inner. You can get a custom made driver side inner, but the real trouble is that no one makes a 4340 slip yoke for the Dana 35/44 TTB (see 4340/4140 Chromoly TTB Slip Yoke). The only way to go then was a Dana 50 TTB Passenger side inner shaft and slip yoke since the Dana 50 TTB uses 1350-size Driveshaft joints which have the same cap size, but a larger cross width and full-circle external retaining rings. This requires a 30 spline carrier and there are several options available for the Dana 35 due to Jeep queers polishing their Dana 35 rear axles. Had Eaton still sold service parts for their shitty products, this would have cost me under $200 to swap the side gears out, but they don't because they suck. Branik quoted me $500 to EDM my side gears to 30 spline, but I figured I would come out ahead just buying a new 30 spline carrier and selling my ELocker off. I chose to go with a Yukon Zip locker since it was under $850 (although I had to pay another ˜$300 for the ARB CKMA12 compressor). I decided to go air because I really like having a selectable front so I am not fighting the steering constantly and because I might want to put another selectable in the rear to replace the spool primarily for streetability. The only selectables besides the shitty ELocker for the 8.8 are all air. I got the bigger ARB compressor for another $100-150 because I figure it will replace the compressor I normally carry for tire repairs/airing up for long highway jaunts. I originally ordered the Zip Locker from Sexton Offroad since they had the best price on it, but they called me a day or two later since they drop ship directly from Yukon, and they said that Yukon is discontinuing their 30 spline Dana 35 product lines if not support for Dana 35 lockers altogether. At this point, I had missed out on the Northridge 4x4 Labor Day ARB sale which would have only cost about $100 more than the ZIP for a locker that was still supported, so I ordered a Zip from Quick Performance since they still had several in stock.

I got the driver inner custom made by Dutchman which is fully machined and cheaper than all the other custom axle options It is 4340, 30 spline, 1.315" seal surface diameter from 3.8125" to 4.625" from the end of the splines (I think they made it wider per my discussions with them), and 13.3125" long (I had measured 13.265" (13 17/64") but they only cut in 1/16" increments). I used a passenger inner and slip yoke from a C-clip Dana 50 ('84-'97), and 4340 Dana 35 outer shafts and a 4340 intermediate passenger shaft from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard.

New shafts on top, stock shafts on bottom:

The JBG shafts were basically copies of the stock design and had some bad core shift as well as needed to be modified for full circle retaining rings. While the yokes didn't appear to be any bigger than stock, I really had to pound the shit out of them to get them through the knuckle openings.

The Dana 50 shaft did not fit in the 30 spline Zip Locker due to the neck down from the third member roller bearing being way shorter than the Dana 35 shaft and it interfered with the Zip Locker bearing journal. Additionally, the boss for the C-clip was larger than the Dana 35 boss despite using the same C-clip part number. This boss interfered with the pocket in the 3rd spider gear cross pin and caused the C-clip to expand too much to fit in the side gear pocket. Fortunately a machinist at work was willing to turn it down for me with a stock Dana 35 shaft for reference and this shitty drawing I gave him:

Unmodified shaft:

After turning:

For what it's worth, the neck down on the Dana 50 shaft was only about .010" larger diameter (just under 1.125") than the smallest section of the Dana 35 inner shaft I also took the time to clearance the Dana 50 slip yoke since stock it wouldn't even hit 20º before binding. I think I ended up with about 28º since I didn't want to break through into the splines under the plug. The other plane was over 35º without any work.

A comparison of the 5-760X joint with the Dana 50 5-1350X joint.

 

[arse_sidewards]

So you're running the JBG chromo D35 stuff plus a little bit of D50 at the slip?

 

['84 Bronco II]

Strangely the 5-1350X joint came with three different sets of retaining rings that were slightly different thicknesses. The copper-colored ones ended up being right for me.

Even after turning down the C-clip groove diameter slightly to match the Dana 35 shaft, the C-clip still did not fit in the pocket of the Zip Locker side gear by about .010". I did some light grinding on the OD of the C-clip with my Dremel and got it to slide in.

With all that out of the way, it was time to install the Zip Locker into the third. I elected to reuse the penetration in the third originally drilled for the ELocker instead of plugging it with a bolt and drilling a new one. The ELocker hole was drilled to 1/2" for the wire grommet instead of 7/16" specified for a 1/4" NPT fitting, but the NPT tap still had enough meat to cut into for the airline bulkhead fitting. I just used a healthy dab of RTV when installing it to avoid potential seepage.

Carrier installed and copper airline routed.

In hindsight, I kind of wish I had moved the bulkhead fitting to a different position and plugged the old hole because it put the airline directly under the beam flange I didn't have time to screw with it, so I just hole-sawed a 3/4"hole in the beam to be able to hook up the air line.

Surprisingly the Dana 50 shaft had about one RCH worth of clearance to the front face of the beam without any modification. I couldn't get the shaft to hit it once the carrier was installed, but I could get it to graze it slightly with the shaft only supported by the roller bearing in the third. See the rub mark in the picture below, but the top and bottom flanges on the Dana 35 beam ironically have way more clearance around the joint than Dana 44 beams. I decided to send it and let it self clearance if it would be an issue, but I never heard or felt it hitting during Chile Challenge, so I would say it is good to go unmodified.

I was in a serious time crunch so I didn't get any pictures of or fully finish the skid plate mods for the compressor install, but I mounted the CKMA12 compressor on the back of my modified and relocated stock transfer case skid behind the driver side of the transfer case. The included ARB harness worked great other than having to extend the main power leads to reach the battery and a pin in the switch connector that slipped out when I made the connection since I was in a hurry and the pin didn't fully clip in. This caused me some pain during Chile Challenge since the locker/compressor were only working sporadically until I traced down the problem with my multimeter

I'll try to get some pictures of the skid mods, but other than that, the rest was pretty straight forward. I also started building a rear bumper that I never documented in this thread I should get some pictures of.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the spline engagement at the slip yoke. I believe the Dana 50 passenger inner is around 10.14" long like the Dana 44 passenger inner (I didn't measure to verify), and the Dana 35 passenger inner is actually longer at 11.04". This actually helps me since it moved the center joint closer to the pivot point of the passenger beam and gives my more clearance to keep the the slip yoke from bottoming out at full droop, so I was able to leave the plug in the slip yoke. With the beams level at ride height (should be minimum engagement) the yoke isn't quite fully engaged with the intermediate shaft splines. Using a 31 spline 1350 slip yoke would fix this problem since you can get them quite a bit longer than the 4.81" long Dana 50 slip yoke. Supposedly, the '80-'83 Dana 50 slip yokes are 5.25" long which would probably be enough to give full spline engagement. This has not been an issue so far, so I might just leave it. I was able to barely stretch the factory boot enough to clamp it in the grooves on the shaft and slip yoke.

 

[white-rhino]

Wow, very creative. Lots of head scratching to get all that together. Good job!

RE the snap ring thickness, I'm embarrassed to say I have never payed any attention to that. I've had U-joints where there is some lateral slop and I always chalked it up to poor tolerances in manufacturing. Now I'm wondering if that is the issue. Huh. Old dog learning a new trick.

 

['84 Bronco II]

So you're running the JBG chromo D35 stuff plus a little bit of D50 at the slip?

From Driver to Passenger side:

JBG 4340 Dana 35 outer > 5-760X joint > Dutchman Custom 4340 30 spline inner > Dana 50 C-clip Passenger Inner > 5-1350X joint > Dana 50 Slip Yoke > JBG 4340 Dana 35 Passenger intermediate > 5-760X joint > JBG 4340 Dana 35 outer

Wow, very creative. Lots of head scratching to get all that together. Good job!

RE the snap ring thickness, I'm embarrassed to say I have never payed any attention to that. I've had U-joints where there is some lateral slop and I always chalked it up to poor tolerances in manufacturing. Now I'm wondering if that is the issue. Huh. Old dog learning a new trick.

Thanks, I am glad you learned something from my pile

 

['84 Bronco II]

Some pictures from Chile Challenge.

Here you can see the rear bumper I haven't finished yet.

No mechanical issues other than fixing the loose pin in the ARB harness connector, but that was totally my fault. Unfortunately the lack of the front locker cost me some damage to my hatch since the front wasn't able to pull me up a ledge and the rear slid around into a big rock. Fortunately it did not take out the quarter window which I was sure was going to happen.

 

[Brian1]

Looks good and that is some good info!

Maybe I missed it but why are you still using the inner c-clip and not eliminating it with the collar/spring mod?

 

[rattle_snake]

that shit will buff out....

 

[willis_racing]

that shit will buff out....

Everyone on the trail was like "good thing it's fiberglass, that's fixable."

I think he just wants to pout

 

['84 Bronco II]

Looks good and that is some good info!

Maybe I missed it but why are you still using the inner c-clip and not eliminating it with the collar/spring mod?

A combination of lack of time, and I am not nuts about a spring smashing the passenger stub shaft into the back of the spindle and tearing up the seal and thrust washer. The C-clip as you know isn't an issue like it is for rear axles, just a lot more labor to change the passenger inner and slip yoke if the joint or one of them break. Hopefully with the Dana 50 shaft that won't be an issue any more