A Bronco has dual front shocks. Since these were worn out, they were replaced as well. To be consistent, the rear ones were replaced at the same time.
A new transmission cooler was installed, as required by the warrenty.
So timeline wise, we took a few weekends and did some off-roading with the rig. On Memorial Day we went to Tasker's Gap, where we had fuel problems. That was sort of fixed on the trail. Thank goodness for our easy access but sealed gas tank access panel.
Then on the July 4th weekend, we went with a slightly larger group to Tasker's Gap and Peters Mill Run. This time the Bronco came home on the trailer with transmission problems again. Troubleshooting started - and finished the following January. This is when the Bronco really lived up to its name of Knight Mare.
From the factory, the Bronco had the E4OD automatic transmission. There are many possible fail points to the overall system: the trans itself, the torque converter, the computer, the wiring in-between, the sensor on the speedometer, etc. We now know all of them - and gave up on the automatic.
The instrument cluster was removed to try the sensor on the speedometer first.
Kurt thought the plastic cover looked "plain" so he customized it and added the small Ford emblem.
On a lark, the transmission pan was painted in the same dazzle paint scheme as the rest of the truck.
The transmission filter was plumbed out to an open area and installed.
For trail survivability, the front brake lines were replaced with street-legal braided steel lines.
After several conversations with Monster, they determined that the torque converter was bad. They sent us another torque converter. So now we wait a bit longer.
While we waited on a new torque converter, the next step was to replace the bearings and hubs. The original locking front hubs were worn out, as were the wheel bearings We thought we would save some time and not do the front suspension just yet. Kurt wanted to install a lift kit later and planned to do the front suspension at that time. Just one more surprise waiting for us down the road.
One the left is the new hub. On the right is the old hub.
On the left, the old worn out seal. On the right, the new seal.
The hub was removed to install the bearings.
Everything was painted and reassembled.
So the torque converter arrived and the transmission was installed and the new torque converter installed. No change. We still had little to no forward gearing. Ok, so if it isn't in the transmission itself, what else could it be? We replaced the PSOM with a known good one. No change. In diagnosing, we came to the conclusion that we had a faulty wire between the PSOM and the transmission. Time to pull the dash.
The wiring harness for the Bronco is much more complex than the older vehicles. We decided that we would need several pictures to document where it was and how it went in order to get it back in correctly..
Around and behind the vent holes.
And the last segment. Further away pictures that showed the whole dash did not provide the detail that we wanted.
Aha, a suspect problem where the harness was butchered for something.
Instead of making up a complete new harness, we found a doner. Unfortunately, it was a different year and had a few extra wires and a couple of different plugs. To solve this jigsaw puzzle, both harnesses were laid out and checked, one wire at a time.
Our son dove into this puzzle and started tracing wires. Everything was labelled and tracked from end to end.
After two days on the dining room table, the new harness is done. The plywood base allowed us to move the harness off the table to eat.
The main panels at the column area. BMW harness wrapping tape was used to wrap the new harness.
The radio and lighting harness plugs in the middle. The new harness was installed in the dash, then the dash was put back into the Bronco. And ... no change.
Another round of phone calls to Monster and many internet searches later, we were stumped. We had checked and/or replaced everything transmission related in the Bronco:
- PSOM
- Shift Linkage
- Transmission
- Second torque converter
- Wiring harness
- ECM
- Neutral Safety switch
- Checked various known wiring locations known to short (and cleared)
We threw in the towel. This Bronco may have come from the factory with an automatic transmission, but it will be moving forward on a manual 5 speed transmission. For this, we looked to Craigslist to find a known good doner rather than taking a chance at the salvage yard. We found one a couple of hours away. It had been an old farm truck that was no longer needed and was parting out.
So Kurt and I went down on the worst possible day to remove the transmission from the old F-150. We were in 10" of snow that was still falling, underneath the truck and inside the truck trying to get all the components to make the conversion. At this point, I think we can be classified as certifiably nuts. And to make this even more of a clincher, the F-150 had been parked because it was having - you guessed it - transmission problems. The truck only had 4th gear. At worst case, we bought a core. Best case, we can rebuild the manual trans.
