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| My '88 Bronco 2 Build-Up | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Here's the '88 Bronco 2 the day after I got it. The 30 x 9.5" tires on ~8" wide rims had made some contact with the fenders, and she certainly was no looker, but the 2.9L seemed to run O.K. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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About a month before I bought the B2 I paid way too much a rusty Ford 9" and Dana 44 off of a '77 Bronco. I should have done a little research. Oh well... Note: Moving a loaded Dana 44 front end by yourself is a real gut-buster. |
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| The blue and fake wood dash also got painted, and some cheap ($20 pair) neoprene seat covers from Costco rounded out the initial project. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strapped for cash, and not wanting to run up a big tab on the plastic, I started with an inexpensive project. I gutted the interior, stripped it of all sound-deadening material and grime, welded up the cracks in the floor pan and coated the entire inside in Herculiner. It came out great. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For a writeup of the interior Herculining, Click Here | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Without a whole lot of thinking or planning, I bought the tires and wheels. I bought 37" MTR's on 8" rims, which will necessitate major sheetmetal trimming if I stick to the 3.5" EB coil SAS (est. 5 - 6" of lift). | After a long delay, due to availability of funds, time, and space, the suspension swap is finally underway. My stepfather is kindly donating space in his outbuilding, but the downside is that he lives about a 1.5 to 2 hours drive from me, so work will only be on the weekends when time allows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| On day one, I was able to get the truck up blocks, pull off the front and rear axles and springs, remove the 3-bushing style factory tranny crossmember, and remove the stock radius arm crossmember. Above is the Dana 28 TTB (mercifully, much lighter than the Dana 35 TTB), getting ready for the scrap heap. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here is the stock 7.5" rear axle. I am hoping to salvage the emergency brake cable for use with the 9" drums, but we shall see. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Here is the empty Dana 44. It is a hell of a lot easier to move around gutted. A few weeks prior I cleaned and degreased the EB housings, removed the rust with Naval Jelly (NOT to be confused with KY Jelly), and primed and painted them with Rustoleum. Here the axle is ready to slide under the B2 for initial placement, with radius arms and drop brackets from a straight axle Big Bronco. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In back is the original 3-bushing style tranny cross-member, bent all to hell, and in front is the one off of my Ranger which now has the Skyjacker model. It bolts right up, and my original plans were to hack it to work with the Big Bronco radius arm drop brackets. I am not so sure right now. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On to Page 2... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
