So after 'finishing' the resto on my '88, (plus countless parts trucks & junkyard trips) i ended up with boxes of OEM hardware.  Interior, body, frame, whatever.  I cant help but save it!  But it was super helpful when putting the 88 back together, so thats my excuse for keeping it!  It was a bit of a mess though, so i started sorting it.  This is just one of many boxes:

Bought some organizers from HF, this wasnt enough:

...so i ended up building a frame to store them:

The finished product:

Built it so that it would just roll under the workbench for storage

So im pretty happy with how this came out.  I figure next time im working on one of the trucks i can just roll this over if i need hardware.  Before you ask: Yes, every bin in every organizer has hardware in it.  Took me a week to sort it all!

So naturally, the night after i finish building this i pop into the lab at work to find out that with the expansion theyre getting rid of all their old cabinets!  Thankfully i had driven the truck in to work, because i scored big:

Somewhere under this mess is a t-stat

intake is now off:

reference pic for myself.  Front of motor at bottom:

This one doesnt come across well in the pic, but the pushrods are pretty rusty

Exhaust manifolds are now off.  This went well; there was already one broken bolt in each head, but the rest came right out

This is concerning though; on the right head, the forward bolt hole for each port is cracked

#2 plug broke off the second i touched it

....so did the #3.  And the #6.  And the #7...

Rolled over.  The oil pickup is pretty gross

The cam is showing its age:

...so i decided to pop the #2 main cap.

The bearings are pretty worn, and you can see some scoring

...which corresponds to scoring in the crank journal

The flexplate is cracked all the way around too

The bores dont look too bad, but i cant truly examine them with the pistons in.  The crank needs to be cleaned up and new bearings.  Probably just change cam at that point.  New lifters, pushrods & rockers.  New flexplate.  The cracks in the passenger head are concerning though, not sure about those.  That kind of seals the deal for me, now thinking i would be better off just using this as a core for a reman.  Not sure what im going to do now, but either way this isnt going to be a quick fix.

I wish i could say ive been enjoying driving this thing, but sadly i havent.
Not for lack of trying of course, its just that as soon as i got the front-end alignment dialed in, i started hearing it.  What started as a mild tap rapidly turned into a pretty loud knock.  By the time i burned thru the first tank of gas, it was pretty apparent that my knock wasnt going away.  It seems rod knocks never do.  So now i have to put a motor in.

Back in early March i picked this up

Its another 460, this one out of a 95, with 120k on the odometer.  Fired right up, idled smooth, no smoke or anything.  So it seems to be a good candidate to swap in place of my tired noisy motor.

Got it unloaded, and up on the stand, ready to inspect

You can tell it came out of a plow truck.  Started soaking the plugs & manifold bolts in prep for removal next week

Popped the right valve cover, and found a disheartening surprise:

Doesnt look so good in there.  Guessing this thing sat for a while before i got my hands on it.  Decided to dig in deeper.

I like this style of oil cooler as opposed to the older oil-to-air cooler, but ill have to inspect it, and see if theres rebuild kits for them

She's looking a little rough on the outside:

The water pump, while looking awful, appears to be an OEM piece.  In fact, everything appears OEM, including all the parts that have obviously been replaced.  Im pretty sure this truck was being maintained by a dealer, right up until the frame rotted and broke

The oil does not look good.  I suspect coolant contamination but cant confirm.

Timing cover coming off

Chain is at the service limit and should be replaced.  But the condition of it is disappointing, as is the condition of the coolant passages:

Cant see much from underneath.  Next weeks plan is to pull the intake & heads, roll it over, and inspect the bottom end.  Hopefully i find things in better shape down there, because im thinking this motor might need a rebuild as well.  Oh well, at least it was cheap.

LMC to the rescue!

One new 'diesel' bumper with trim:
I also ordered new bumper brackets because one of them was bent

Removed the trim from across the bottom, and the large braces are next:

Original braces cleaned up and painted!

Now weve got to put this thing together!

Before we do that though, were going to carefully trim the corner of the bumper, to make some room for the 35s.
​Before:

And after:

Its a decent amount of material, but once the bumper is installed, you wont even notice its missing.
So moving on, brackets, braces & trim installed, next up is the moulding!

...and the finished product!

Heres a close-up of the corner.  You cant even tell it was cut.

Overall this is a decent bumper.  As youd expect of the aftermarket, its a little thinner than the OEM bumper, but it looks good, and all the holes were in the right place, so i cant complain too much.  I do like the look of this bumper more than the solid XL bumper, i just wish it didnt have to get swapped under these circumstances.
I got the front-end alignment adjusted during the week, so we're good to go to drive this thing again!

Swerved to dodge a car in the snow this morning, ended up losing it and hitting a guardrail.  Shoulda had the hubs locked in, oh well too late now.

​Caught it dead in-line with the frame horn.

​The whole bumper is twisted, so thats gonna have to go

​Frame horn is bent in slightly, as is the bumper bracket

​Steering wheel is crooked so its gonna need a front-end alignment. Still snowing so i dug out the diesel (which i never did from the big storm last week) so i can drive that to work tonight. Ive got a plan for tomorrow to straighten the frame horn, and then ive got to come up with a plan for a new front bumper.

Its done, i went for a cruise about a half hour ago.  It shimmies at 75!

It is night & day better than it was before. The slop in the old box was damn near the whole problem. Its a little twitchy, might be toed in a smidge? Its god damned cold outside, theyre (big) old bias plys, and its got a locker in the rear. Its not gonna be perfect!
I still want to triple check the toe-in tho and see if i can get dialed in a little better.
​
So just cruising down the road, i cant tell a difference in the power of the box with the way Redhead has it ported, as opposed to the way PSC did it. I always thought porting the control valve was the 'correct' way to do it, but RedHead knows a lot more about this stuff than i do! The real test will be the next time i get a chance to play on some rocks with the tires aired down.

Got my old PSC ported box out:

​New redhead box, unfortunately ports are in a different place:

​Terrible picture!

​The box is in. It was sleeting! So i didnt get a good pic. Im working on new hydraulic hoses now, hopefully have both done & installed tomorrow so i can bleed it and resume the front end alignment.

Passed inspection last week!
Also, i finally figured out how to properly adjust the Eldorado calipers. Turns out theres a really easy way to adjust them that i guess most people dont know? I certainly didnt.  Check this video out:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0vDpE0bbo
​
Ok, so now that youve watched that, you should know: I just followed that and adjusted both of my calipers, in about 30 minutes. With the tires still on, on the ground.

Plenty of room to swing a wrench:

Push the lever down until its starting to apply the parking brake, and this is the gap i have them adjusted to:

100% done with tires still touching the ground.
Now, here's the important part: When setting the parking brake, make damn sure your other foot is on the brake pedal!!!!! I cant stress this enough. The caliper ratchets. Thats how it locks the brake, and thats how it self adjusts. But! It only moves a very small amount at a time. You have to have the caliper already clamped on the rotor when you set the parking brake. If you dont, it wont be tight enough, and it wont hold.
So, if i set it w/o my foot on the brake, itll power thru at idle. If i pump the pedal up a few times and then set the parking brake while im still holding the brake pedal, it holds great.
I read all sorts of articles on adjusting these, and never once saw anyone mention holding the brake when setting parking brake, but it makes a huge difference.

So now im still tinkering with the front end alignment.

Im not happy with it. Flat spotted bias plys (in the winter no less) arent helping. I do have some slop in the steering box which also isnt helping, so this happened:

​Redhead #3! This one ported for hydro assist, to replace my 14 year old ported box from PSC.

Hopefully the weather holds, and i can start the swap tomorrow.

I started throwing codes in the diesel recently, only i didnt know what they were!
As im sure anyone with an OBS 7.3L knows, the OBD-II implementation in these trucks is pretty spotty, which made this one a little frustrating to solve.  I started getting a CEL that would appear & disappear and not throw a code (confirmed or pending), but the idle would change when it set.  I figured ICP, so pulled the connector and sure enough there was oil in there, so i assumed that was the problem, bought a new OEM one, and slapped it in.  It wasnt the problem.
I started digging a little deeper and found in Continuous Memory code P1211, "ICP Higher/Lower Than Desired (engine running)".  So now im figuring either my IPR or HPOP is failing.  Cant get live data from the PCM with my scanner, so i figured id just yank the IPR out and inspect it.

In case you dont know, removing this required removal of the fuel bowl.  Its a fairly daunting task if you havent done it before.  The last time this one was out was ~10 years ago, so i was a little rusty on how to do it, but honestly its not too bad.

I immediately noticed something funky going on.  It like the silicone boot for the plug turned to goo inside the  socket:

The plug for the IPR is on a short harness connected to the fuel bowl.  With this removed from the truck, it was easy to inspect.  And it looks like weve found a problem!

Well, surely thats our problem!
So i did some research and then called the local Ford dealer.  Turns out they had the pigtail in stock, along with all the short fuel hoses you need to reinstall the fuel bowl!  So i made a run up there and picked everything up.  Fast forward a day, and we're ready for repair!

So here's the replacement pigtail from Ford, p/n 6E7Z-12A690-DA.

It comes in a bag with some crimps and shrink sleeving, but i opted to solder it, and use my own shrink sleeve, as i have adhesive lined

I disassembled and cleaned the IPR while it was out (i should have taken pics, but i was a bit oily at that point), and then reinstalled it.  Fuel bowl went back in with all 4 hoses replaced plus the short one for the drain, and i cleaned all the sediment out of the bowl.  The HPOP resevoir had been drained so i put about a half quart of new oil in there so it wouldnt try to start dry, and then fired it up!

It did initially pop a CEL, but i attribute that to there being air in the fuel & oil systems.  I let it idle for a while, then turned it off/on, and problem solved!  Runs great now, and no CEL.  

...with ~3PSI in the tires, the bronco drove out of the garage on its own!

Its covered in a couple years of dust, so i washed it, and then....tires! 

I did get my depth markings back on the door, but with it so overcast the pics didnt come out the best.  Ill get some better pics one we have a nice sunny day!

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I took it for a quick spin around the block, and it definitely needs a front end alignment!  So thatll have to be monday's project, because i cant wait to cruise this thing around again!