www.ColoradoClassicBroncos.com

I got the refurbed heater box back in without too many "Are you fxxking kidding me?" exclamations. I let it run for a few minutes and Holy Mackerel, it heats up awesome. The high setting sounds and feels like a jet engine. Now if I can keep the back window from mysteriously unzipping, I'll be all set.

Gregg wrote:The high setting sounds and feels like a jet engine.

That is a sweet upgrade, for sure. I kicked mine on high, and it cleaned out years of dust & debris from the defrost ducts.

Defrost that actually works is priceless.

About time you got that finished up.

Yesterday I finished up rebuilding the doors.

All new window tracks and felts, mirrors, inner and outer door handles and most of the connectors and clips/hardware in the linkages.

Still need to replace door seals to make shutting the doors easier but I'm afraid I would make it worse based on all the bad reviews on most brands currently available.

Took it for a drive last night and it is so much quiter without all those rattles and wind whistling leaks.

Actually from last weekend but had some help from Landshark and his Dad to work on the wiring of Drews dash. I find it amazing how many loose and un-identified wires were spliced into the original (replacement) harness.

Here is hoping that this time we are able to make it easier to ad circuts correctly than via whatever means he used previously

I finished mounting up my snow plow today.

It's working real smooth with the rebuilt pump.

While underneath the Ol girl I noticed that the front motor mount bolt on the driver's side is missing.

^ odd, was a lock washer or locking nut used?

Actually finished wiring the dash, Landshark came over and double checked my work, helped me add a few more "future circuits" and got me started wrapping everything up. Then Dan and I put it back in the bronco last night.

new heater motor (chebby upgrade)
New defrost ducts (tossed the tapped up dryer vents in the trash)
New glove box (silly BH did not have a heavy duty plastic one - just the cardboard so it will have to do)
New (to us) intermittent wiper switch (Thanks to Kinder)

Tonight and every evening this week if needed - I will be in the garage making connections to the fuse box under the hood

Cant wait to get it back together and fired up. Make sure everything works so when Drew is home on leave after boot camp - he can drive her

I know - pictures.....





The silly PO's idea of defrost ducts - and they were not attached...... no wonder it did not work for crap

kinder wrote:^ odd, was a lock washer or locking nut used?

This is a bolt that threads into the block so no nut involved.

Can't recall if a lock washer or lo tire of any kind was used

Made the connections to the fuse box last night, I think I have 1-2 more evenings of connections, reinstalling heater controls, lights, steering column etc and time to fire her up! And if anyone has a manual column that they would like to trade for this Auto one let me know (especially if it happens to be a tilt column!) Otherwise I am going to strip the shifter out of this and call it good.

I also need to run wires for the front speakers and make up a couple of good grounds (dash to frame and motor to frame) and I would love to have anyone who is available come over and double check my stuff / help trouble shoot when I attempt to fire her up.

I do have poster size wiring diagrams that are sorta accurate... I can promise the garage will be comfortable - not hot but a hoodie will be plenty warm.

Pictures:
The new fuse box I think all that is left is wiring up the relay for the electric fan. After deleting the factory fuse block in the glove box we decided to route everything through the under hood box. Still have room for more circuits!
Before:

After:

Yes - Poster size and full color 1974 bronco wiring diagrams are much nicer than the ones in the book!

Oh yeah - and a little glove box door mod:

Looks great! hopefully most everything works correctly ;)

Very nice!

Fine job! And I love the glove box door mod!

Rechecked all my loose rocker nuts and replaced a few. Engine very quite now and hopefully no
More problems for a while.

Yet another 27 hrs in the garage over the weekend, and still not ready to drive. But I am that much closer.

Kirk came over and helped last evening and we got the accessories to work via the accessory position on the key. Previously everything was powered all the time because the circuts were on the full time hot buss in the fuse box. We added a relay and some jumpers to non - full (open) locations in the box and now we are all good - I think.

Im not sure what tonight brings, I might be installing a shower door instead of getting this rig road worthy.

Left to do list:
Install steering column
re-install driver side defrost duct (this might be the biggest pain in the butt left)
Install glove box
Install stereo
tidy up and wrap all the wires coning in/out of the fuse box
mount passenger side fender
connect the head lights and turn signals
double check all connections
Bolt the top back down and reattach the wiper motor

Then test everything one more time and toss the keys to our young marine to drive while he is home on leave.

got the t case sealed back up and stabbed back in. Got the trans pan sealed up. All thats left is fluids, batteries, driveshafts, and exhaust and she'll be drivable again.

Greg - keep at it!! Can't wait to see the Vroom vroom post!

Rob - all good news!

Jesus_man wrote:Greg - keep at it!! Can't wait to see the Vroom vroom post!

Getting closer, however it is now apparent that I will not meet my goal of having it ready for Drew to drive while he is home on leave. We head to SD for his graduation tomorrow and tonight I am installing a shower enclosure for a member here. So we will just have to team up and finish when we return from Cali.

Last night I finished closing up the fuse box, wrapped the rest of the wiring up in the harness, made a bracket to keep the main harness out of some of the road grime and started to rebuild the new to me/Drew manual-floor shift column.

What brilliant Ford engineer came up with that design"- friggin "T" bolts.

Only took me 2-3 hrs to get it together. Still need to get it in the Bronco and mount the steering wheel. But 10:30 pm is late enough for me.

Finally got my synthetic winch rope spooled on my winch. Only sat on the floor of my bronco for 6 months.

Went wrecking yarding to find missing explorer parts. Found an untouched '97. Got upper intake, heater tubes, timing pointer/sensor, tensioner and pulleys. Got to go back in the morning for the timing cover, trans dipstick/tube and blockplate. I did manage to get the fan and balancer off before time ran out. Hope nobody snags that timing cover before I get there.

Since no issues were found with the transfer case I put it all back together this week and finally pulled it out of the garage again. I'll drive it around today to double check everything.

Gregg wrote:I got the refurbed heater box back in without too many "Are you fxxking kidding me?" exclamations. I let it run for a few minutes and Holy Mackerel, it heats up awesome. The high setting sounds and feels like a jet engine. Now if I can keep the back window from mysteriously unzipping, I'll be all set.

Is the zipper pull at the top?
I learned the hard way that a zipper on a backpack will unzip if the pull is on top, I suspect vibration would do the same on a soft top.

sykanr0ng wrote:

Gregg wrote:I got the refurbed heater box back in without too many "Are you fxxking kidding me?" exclamations. I let it run for a few minutes and Holy Mackerel, it heats up awesome. The high setting sounds and feels like a jet engine. Now if I can keep the back window from mysteriously unzipping, I'll be all set.

Is the zipper pull at the top?
I learned the hard way that a zipper on a backpack will unzip if the pull is on top, I suspect vibration would do the same on a soft top.

I suspect a viperwolf1 may be the culprit.

I suspected the same. I should have taken a closer look with all the sh$t eating grins by the bystanders.

Gregg wrote:I suspected the same. I should have taken a closer look with all the sh$t eating grins by the bystanders.

Went to the Upull to grab radius arms. Came home with them attached to a HP Dana 44 with welded wedges and a matching big bearing 9"

Nice. Full width, I'm guessing. Disk brakes?

Sweet, good score.

Drove it to work today. First time since putting it back together again. And what do I find the freakin trans is leaking again. Only leaks when it's been driven and warm. It has sat in the garage the last week and a half and hasnt dripped one drop. Looks like its coming out the vent.

Gunnibronco wrote:Nice. Full width, I'm guessing. Disk brakes?

Full width is correct. From a 72 F100 4x4. Drum brakes unfortunately but I can also do the Chevy stuff. If I decide to keep them.