The Story:

When I transferred from North Carolina to Texas in 1997, I only had the Thunderbird. I wanted keep some of the mileage off of it (I was putting about 14,000 miles a year on it), and I wanted something that I could go camping in, as I hate throwing that wet, muddy tent in the back of a nice car. Therefore, I started cruising the used car lots looking for something like a little old Nissan or Mazda 2WD pickup. One Sunday, I found this old tan Bronco at a Cadillac dealer in the very back corner of the back lot behind a few rows of other cars (get used to this theme with me). No two of the five very bald 29" tires matched, the rear window wouldn't work, the speedometer was dead, and it had some good sized, yet simple, dents. However, the 4WD worked, the engine ran well, there was no rust at all, and the only scent in the interior was the vinyl being hot. I had worked at a car dealer as a kid, so I knew how to read the dealer marks on the windshield. This Bronco, for which they wanted $5000, was going to auction the next day. I went home, called Dad, got his opinion, and went back to the dealership. I offered the dealer folks $2500, reminded them about the auction, and got the Bronco the next day after they re-did the brakes. After about another $1100 for tires, rear window gears, a tie rod piece, tune-up parts, and a speedometer and cable (oh, $300 of that was the insurance deductible for the surgery to put my hand back together after I installed the window gears), I had a great daily driver and camping rig.

The Bronco, in all its rough glory.

In March of 1999, while I was taking a friend on a camping trip, we were 206 miles from home, when the engine blew. Notice that this is 6 miles past AAA Gold's 200 mile free towing limit. I was able to limp it back on first 5, then 4, then 3 cylinders to 198 miles from home before it totally gave up the ghost.

The backyard autopsy revealed that the mechanical fuel pump (less than one year old) had pumped almost a full gallon of gas into the oil. ("Gee, I changed the oil yesterday, and now it's thinner than water and more than three quarts high!") This, combined with darkness, fog (we could've been on fire and I wouldn't've seen the smoke) and 75mph, caused both engine heads to crack. No, that's too mild of a word. Break is a better word. Small pieces were missing from between cylinders. The compression was so far gone that I could turn the engine over by grabbing the crank pulley with my hands and rotating it in either direction. I could hear the air hiss about inside the engine from one cylinder to another. Thank the Lord God above that we didn't have a major explosion that night.

I found it was cheaper to get a rebuilt long block engine than it was to purchase just the rebuild parts. It was an even better deal, once I saw that I'd need new heads, in addition to the machine work. Also, I got a 12-month warranty on the rebuilt engine.

The new guts, almost fully installed.

After putting the new engine in, I couldn't get it to fire. I was sure the distributor was off, as that was the one part I was the least sure of that I had put in correctly. I messed with that thing for a week. Got to the point where I can pull, align, and re-install a Ford distributor in less than one minute. Then, one evening, I got to thinking (dangerous for those of us with a Y chromosome). With all the cranking I was doing, why wasn't I smelling any gas? The carb was dry. So, I squirted in a little starting fluid (I have no idea why I didn't think of this before, so don't ask). The engine fired for two seconds. I tried it again, to be sure it wasn't a fluke. It fired for two seconds again. I checked the fuel line. It was dry. I knew that there was at least 20 gallons of gas in the tank. I pulled the fuel pump and tried it by hand.

Run, why don't cha?

My brand new fuel pump was toast. I rushed back to the parts store before they closed, got another pump, and put it in. The engine turned over twice and caught. The timing needed some fine tuning, so it was idling a bit rough, but it WAS finally running.

Note: My neighbor lady thinks I'm nuts, since at this point, I was dancing around in my back driveway, going "Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!".

Now that the beast was running again, it was time to take it in for the pollution inspection I missed while it took me the month to get the engine taken care of.

Dallas County allows only 200 ppm of HC. I was throwing out over 2500 ppm (the sniffer machine doesn't read any higher). At the recommendation of the kid running the inspection booth, I revved it up. At about 3500 RPM, this loud, well, farting noise and a big black cloud came from the back of the Bronco. The HC reading dropped rapidly and held at 120 ppm, well below the accepted maximum. Boy, that kid gave me a funny look.

"What happened?" he asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Must've foundered." (If you don't get it, ask someone who knows horses.)

Needless to say, the Bronco runs great now.

The Bronco's HC reading problems don't end there. In May of 2000, when I took it in for the emissions test, it was blowing high again. Not a whole lot, but just a little. Also, around this same time, the transmission was having problems. Even after I changed the fluid (which had NEVER been done on this vehicle before), the transmission still didn't want to shift. A local transmission shop recommended I try adding another half-quart of fluid. This fixed the shifting problem for one day.

No matter what I did, I couldn't get the HC readings down below 340 ppm. I finally broke down and took the Bronco to a local garage to have them look at it. Turns out the vacuum modulator in the transmission was leaking. This was allowing fluid from the transmission to be sucked into the engine, thus lowering the transmission fluid level (causing the shifting problems) and causing the engine to blow a high HC level.

I never would've found this one myself. I was starting to save money for a transmission rebuild, which probably wouldn't've fixed the problem, as a lot of rebuilds don't replace that modulator.

One nice side effect; my mileage went up about 15%.

Well, it's now December 2000, and the Bronco did it again. Last month, engine started running really lousy, and decided to slowly die on the way to work. Remembering something like this happening before (and after calling AAA again for a tow), I pulled the dipstick. It read okay. Turns out that the alternator died. Cute. I replaced the alternator and regulator, and it ran okay for another week. Then it pulled the same stunt again. This time, the dipstick read high. Really high. Yep. Another fuel pump bit the dust.

So, I went and got another mechanical fuel pump. However, the hard line fitting wouldn't quite stay; I could tighten it by hand, but the moment I used a wrench to turn that last little bit, the fitting would jump a thread. Great. Since the pump is tucked in below the A/C compressor and behind the power steering pump, it's not like it's an easy place to get to. Anyhow, I pulled the pump off again, check the fittings and part numbers. The part number is right, but the fitting seems to be just a bit big.

Also, while I was pulling the pump off, I noticed that the timing chain cover was flexing as I wrenched on it. (Evidently, the cover flexes enough to allow the pump to walk around on it's cam, and is probably what's eaten three fuel pumps on me so far.) At this point, I gave up on mechanical fuel pumps, and bought an electric. It's loud inside the truck, but it works and it won't dump fuel into the oil if it breaks. Installing the pump was a bit of a mess, but I did luck out on one thing; while I was looking for a keyed wire in the fuse box to use to power the pump, I found an empty slot marked "fuel solenoid". The wire in there was perfect for my purposes.

After an oil change (had to stop and dump the drain pan twice), I tried to start the beast. After lots of turning over (and jumping it off the Thunderbird once I killed the battery) and a lot of black smoke blowing over to the neighbor's house, the truck fired up. I let it run for awhile, then changed the oil again, as there was still a little gas in it, and the lifters wouldn't pump up enough at idle.

The Bronco gets me to work kinda (it starts running bad AGAIN) for the next week. I parked it, and take the Thunderbird while I figure out what to do. I'd planned on putting throttle-body-type fuel injection on it, but really didn't want to invest the bucks right at this point, since I'd started a new job, and Christmas was coming. Then, we had an ice storm hit Dallas. No way was I taking the Thunderbird. The Bronco is my bad weather vehicle. So, I fought with it and finally got it running, and then fought with it all the way in. After fighting it on the way home, I took the Thunderbird the next day, and risked the ice and bad drivers.

I spoke with my dad about the fuel injection. He told me about how my brother-in-law had talked him into putting an Edelbrock carburetor on the 350 Chevy in his motorhome. This sounded interesting. I checked it out, and found that the Edelbrock 1406 is 50-state emission legal, and would fit. And, at $200 bucks, is a lot cheaper than the $350 for a rebuilt Holley, like the one on the Bronco (which, by the way, I bought as a rebuilt unit three years ago). Also, the Edelbrock is adjustable; something that the old Holley wasn't, and changing jets on it is a snap, as it actually just uses metering rods that can be changed from the top, using a phillips screwdriver.

Dead carburetor.

I also purchased the throttle linkage kit for a Ford with an automatic, and a 1/2" spacer plate (the linkage hit a boss on the intake manifold), some longer carburetor studs, and some other small bits and pieces (okay, not all in one shot, but in seven runs to the part stores). Sure enough, with some adjustment to the throttle cable assembly, the new carb fit perfectly. Even the air filter fit.

Now, to fire it up. I let the fuel pump run a couple of seconds to fill the line with gas. Then, I stabbed the gas pedal to set the choke, turned the key, and the beast roared to life. Cool. Time for a test drive.

All I can say is that this thing has more power, starts better, and idles smoother than before.

It's now June 2001, and the Bronco is still running great, except that sometimes it doesn't idle down very well. Oh, well, something to fix before I get it inspected this month.

Also, I had an unusual repair to make. Up to this point, pretty much all repairs I've made to the Bronco have been mechanical or electrical. This was a bodywork repair in the fiberglass roof, and it was starting to leak.

In the lead photo on this page, you can make out a mulberry tree on the right side. Well, yours truly was up in that tree, doing some pruning, and klutzed up. I dropped a branch and put a hole about the size of my finger in the roof of the Bronco. (Lesson of the story: Don't park your truck under the tree you're cutting on.)

A small fiberglass repair kit from the auto parts store made quick work of the job. Boy, that fiberglass resin sure set up nice and hard and fast when I let it sit out in the hot Texas sun for the afternoon. After some sanding, I sprayed on some primer. I'm not sure how one thing led to another, but a few hours later, we had the entire fiberglass roof cap masked off and painted Ford Wimbeldon White.

At that point, my plans were to finish the bodywork and painting on the Bronco, as the roof turned out great, and the rest of the body looks even worse by comparison. I ordered a replacement right front fender (which I never got to put on before the Bronco was hit square on the right front fender), and planned on ordering a replacement tailgate. The paint scheme plan is to paint the rest of the Bronco the same shade of white, and then add black zebra stripes. I may still go with that paint scheme if I get another Bronco.

For me personally, the Bronco was a great vehicle. It had the advantages of an extended cab in a pickup, without the long vehicle length. If I removed the rear seat (very easy to do, it's just two pins) I could haul eight-foot long lumber with it only sticking out the back window by about eight inches or so. For camping, I found that I could toss in the 3/4 mattress from my guest bed, and instead of setting up the tent in the rain, I could just pull in, turn the engine off, and crawl in back and go to sleep. With the vinyl flooring, I could hose out any dirt from me or from the Jeep parts I hauled in the back. The big 351 Windsor engine, strong C6 transmission, and short rear overhang made the Bronco a great towing rig. With bucket seats and no center console, getting into the back was very easy. As I said before, that truck worked really well for me.

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