Digger's '69 Build Thread

[Kinder]

Thanks for the tip on the 200 amp relay, I like my truck to stay unmelted.

[Digger]

Thanks for the tip on the 200 amp relay, I like my truck to stay unmelted.

McMaster P/N is 7995K31

It looks like the price is up to $58 now. Quite a more than when I purchased the last one.

[Gunnibronco]

http://www.dieselorings.com/1994-1998-f ... relay.html

A few bucks cheaper, anyways.

I'll be getting an extra for the Bronco's winch when I have to get one for the F250. Thanks for the good idea.

[Digger]

Time seems to slow down when I'm working on the switch panel (I'm at about 50 hours invested now), but I'm trying to cover every little detail so it works flawlessly and continues to do so over time.



I finished all the drilling, tapping and o-ring sealing of the relay box:
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Mounted the relay board on a plastic back plane and isolated it with little rubber O-rings
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048 by J W, on Flickr



I had to invert the Comm board, Control board and Power supply and mount them to the lid, but you can see it forms a tight nesting of the components
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I tested the signal from the switch panel before proceeding any further




With that working, I wired up the relay control board to the relays and hooked up power (red and white wires) and signal (blue and red striped wires)
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First test run was a success. Now I can get WeatherPack plugs on it and get it in the truck!!!

[Jesus_man]

That is amazing!! What is front heavy on engineering and design amounts to something that is very simple to the end user! I love it!

[Digger]

Small Update:

I wired the relay outputs on the accessory board and added WeatherPack connectors for plugging into the vehicle harness later.
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Completely done!!
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[Digger]

Next I needed to fabricate a tray to hold two Optima batteries where the old battery tray was. I think God was smiling on me that day, because I had a 304 stainless steel lid from a box that was nearly perfect dimensions. I only had to shorten one side and notch some holes to make it fit. This was a serious shoehorn job to keep the batteries low in the engine compartment.
057 by J W, on Flickr

058 by J W, on Flickr



The tray needed to sit about 0.5" higher than the old one to clear the inner fender. At first I had some plastic spacers, but I decided to try my hand at metal forming using my press and some homemade tools. The results look half-way professional.
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Here you can see how the notches help the routing of the headlamp and turn indicator wiring.
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I re-worked the wire loom and routed the wires to sit in the saddle of the battery tray supports. This gives them about 1" of total room between the bottom of the tray and the supports.
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All bolted in and wiring routing shown coming up from the back corner.
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063 by J W, on Flickr

[Digger]

A big part of re-working the wiring harness was adding a proper, modern power distribution block to house the MAXI fuses and relays. When I pulled the box from my Ranger, I left the mount behind because it was welded to the body structure. SO, I had to fabricate some new brackets.
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065 by J W, on Flickr



I took a moment to document the disaster my garage has become.
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Then back to work mounting the distribution box.
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Next I drilled holes and installed RivNuts to mount the accessory relay box on the driver's side inner fender.
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[Digger]

To keep the box watertight, I added O-rings to the stainless mounting screws and RTV'd the RivNuts for good measure.
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[Digger]

I repeated the process to mount the dual 200 amps relays that will handle battery combine function and provide power to the Anderson connector for the winch.
076 by J W, on Flickr

077 by J W, on Flickr




Lastly I could not find a good place to mount the connection box for the VHX gauges. I settled for a spot under the steering column that keeps it clear of the gauge cluster, ignition switch and my accessory switch panel. But this required another bracket to be fabricated.
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Mounted up with some serious 3M double-sided tape. This is the same stuff the OE's use to attach badges to the exterior of new cars.
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080 by J W, on Flickr



A couple of holes later and it's in its new home.
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[mickphatmac]

OMG!!! I hate you!!!

I just installed an 8 prong turn signal and it took me 10 days to figure out which 2 wires were criss crossed!!! CRAAAAAAP!!!

JK Obviously! Your Bronco and Electrical knowledge and real life actual application has me ing with envy!!!!

Keep the pics and the explanations coming!!! (feel free to dumb it down for me;)

[cravenbronco]

Welcome to the club. Very Nice rig

[Jesus_man]

More incredible work!

[EFI Guy]

Awesome build!

I can't wait to see what you end up doing with Mega Squirt. It sure has come along way since I looked at it as an option, and with your skills it should be pretty impressive. I'm not sure how I missed this thread, but it now has my full attention.

[CORed77]

Keep the pictures coming! From the female perspective, are you this organized inside the home as well? Just asking...

[Digger]

Thank you all for the feedback. I'll keep the pictures rolling!

I can't wait to see what you end up doing with Mega Squirt. It sure has come along way since I looked at it as an option, and with your skills it should be pretty impressive. I'm not sure how I missed this thread, but it now has my full attention.

My version will be slightly distilled from a full-blown multiport system. Primarily because I'm trying to keep everything simple and clean. I'm focused on using the Microsquirt unit because in comes in a nice sealed case and has the minimum features necessary to run a central port injection system. The only feature I wish it had was stepper outputs for the IAC, and only because I am going with an off-the-shelf TBI unit because I have gotten squeezed for time. Otherwise, my plan had been to use a Ford Mustang throttle body with a 4150 adapter elbow and machine my own injector plate.

All this will allow me to keep the current intake manifold, which is suppose to have a wide power band.

Keep the pictures coming! From the female perspective, are you this organized inside the home as well? Just asking...

LOL Normally yes, but my garage begs to differ at the moment.

[Digger]

I finally finished the electrical system!

I started the final wiring at the power distribution box and worked out from there. Looking at all the ground connections to be made, I added a single point grounding block.
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083 by J W, on Flickr



Then the wiring harness for the accessory relay box was assembled. Here is how I made the twisted pair for the signal wire.
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And WeatherPack'd the harness: (I retained the ARB compressor connectors for ease of replacement should something fail.)
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While at it, the ARB compressor was re-configured for its new home and an airline fitting added for emergency tire filling:
085 by J W, on Flickr

[Digger]

With the underhood wiring done, the dash wiring went pretty quickly. So much so, I didn't take many pictures, but here is the final shots from the fuse panels and main harness. A far cry from the rats nest I started with.
088 by J W, on Flickr

089 by J W, on Flickr



I also put some extra effort in while wiring the VHX box. Every wire was terminated with ferrules to reduce strain and prevent fraying.
085 by J W, on Flickr



With the wiring done, I needed to build a new dash. Starting with this:
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I began penciling in the various components until everything fit.
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093 by J W, on Flickr



The biggest challenge was placing everything in a way that it would clear the heating ducting and wiring harness. It's a tight fit around the steering column. Here's the dash all cutout, mounting holes drilled and sanded. It's not as nice as what other people have done, but it is clean and functional. I will probably do a fancier dash when I build the new stretched body and frame. But I just want to drive the thing right now!
095 by J W, on Flickr

[Digger]

The biggest hassle in mounting the dash was working around the old dash. The PO had cut it up pretty bad and there wasn't much left to screw to. I did the best I could evenly spacing the Rivnuts so the dash will be mounted with machine screws instead of sheet metal screws. Here you can see the some of the old dash was attached with what appears to be Liquid Nails.
094 by J W, on Flickr



First test fit. Thanks to B.O.B. for supplying me with a new glove box door. I'm not sure why the old one was cut up. The truck does not have a full cage.
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With gauges and switch panel installed
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I spent some time testing all the vehicle functions before final assembly. It was nice that everything worked as it should, given the extensive amount of re-work I did and all the new wiring that was added. But with everything working, I was able to get a night shot of the new dash.
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With the wiring done, I decided to celebrate with a motorcycle ride and some KT's BBQ!

[Rox Crusher]

Now your just showing off

(And I like it !)

[Jesus_man]

Now your just showing off

(And I like it !)

X2!

[Colorado75bronc]

Looks great!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Digger]

More progress:

Due to tight spacing when reassembly dash, I had to further thread and shorten the headlight switch nut
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[Digger]

Fitup the trans and T-case
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Exhaust header now no longer work, so I was forced to buy shortys
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ARB showed up. Time to do gears
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[Digger]

Numbered the bolts so I didn't forget to torque one
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[Digger]

Improvised knuckle jig for reaming for high steer
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Big hole
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Adapter fit
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Check extended radius arm clearance with axle assembled
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Make new tie rod for 1-ton TREs
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Ream tie rod end for high steer
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Mill wrench flats into tie rod and test fit
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[Digger]

Whipped out a transmission mount
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Reattached spring buckets with 2" spacer. I'll redrill the lower spring mounts 1" inboard. This should make up the 3"/side difference of the full width axle.
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My weld-in tube bungs got delayed by UPS, so I'm sitting around with little to do at the moment. Hopefully I can still get the front axle in soon.

Also talked with my boss and lined up some Bilstien 7100's with a custom tune for Jeep TJ from the old Nth Degree suspension system. This should give me a good starting point since the TJ is similar weight, wheelbase and suspension geometry to my planned suspension.

[Jesus_man]

It'll be a roller soon!

[Justin]

Looks good, you're doing some awesome work!

[Digger]

Well I have been working my rear off and I'm still falling behind schedule. Oh well, not much to do about that.

While I had the front axle out, I decided to do something about the ridiculous amount of positive camber these things have from the factory. I bought some ball joint sleeves from work and went about test fitting several until I found a pair that removed the lash right as they were hitting proper adjustment.


1.5° units:
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Installed with angled washer
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Before:
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After:
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I also needed to cut down my old radius arms to work with the Bronco's package space and suspension geometry
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For this project, I decided to ditch the Johnny Joints I had been running for 7 years and switch to a combination of rubber bushings and some new joints I designed which feature an OEM-style construction with boots to keep the crud out.
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136 by J W, on Flickr