I just found this while browsing around over on FSB and want to save it for future reference:
1990 Ford Bronco 4BT swap
- Thread starter BrandonMag
- Start date
H2 Wheels
I left this thread on a "wanting to move to Portland; will be busy for a few months; no time for Bronco project" note. Well, the wife and I searched for the last month and a half fairly diligently. Long story short, this is not a market we're interested in.
In the evening a couple of Saturdays ago, we found a house we liked, so on Sunday morning we drove by it. We really liked it, so we called the listing agent to see if we could schedule a walk through. We left a voicemail, and she called us back about an hour later. (At this point, the house had been on the market less than 24 hours.) She told us the owners already had two offers and would be making a decision Monday evening. We hadn't even met with the mortgage loan officer at our credit union to get pre-qualified yet, so we passed.
Curious to see if the house had sold, we looked at the listing on Zillow Tuesday evening. The sale price listed was $41K over the asking price! Undeterred, last weekend we met with a realtor to look at a couple of houses. Both were old, overpriced and virtually all of the work that had been done on both places was hacked together. The realtor had a family thing she had to go to, so she left. Jenn and I looked at one more house. It was literally about 80 feet from one of the local Interstates. To say it was noisy is an understatement.
So yeah, not the time to buy.
The good news is, I now have time to get back to my project!
I picked these up a couple of weeks ago:
They came off a 2004 Hummer H2. They're 17X8.5 and have a 8X6.5 lug pattern. I think they look pretty good... but the hub hole is not big enough for the rear Sterling 10.25 that's going under this Bronco:
I read a thread (on FTE maybe?) about a guy using a dual-flute carbide bit on his router and removing enough material to fit over the hubs of the Dana 60s he had on his truck. I followed his advice and this is what I ended up with:
Problem is, the hub on the Sterling is bigger. So, I called up a machinist buddy of mine and did this yesterday:
And here is the finished product:
Well, not exactly. You can see how the chrome is pitted and oxidized. I plan on getting these sandblasted and powder coated black.
I have read about guys running these wheels on leaf sprung D60s under their F350s using this technique, only to have backspacing clearance issues. (The tires contacted the leaf springs at full lock on the steering wheel.) Fortunately, I will have a coil sprung D60, so I don't think I will have that problem.
I left this thread on a "wanting to move to Portland; will be busy for a few months; no time for Bronco project" note. Well, the wife and I searched for the last month and a half fairly diligently. Long story short, this is not a market we're interested in.
In the evening a couple of Saturdays ago, we found a house we liked, so on Sunday morning we drove by it. We really liked it, so we called the listing agent to see if we could schedule a walk through. We left a voicemail, and she called us back about an hour later. (At this point, the house had been on the market less than 24 hours.) She told us the owners already had two offers and would be making a decision Monday evening. We hadn't even met with the mortgage loan officer at our credit union to get pre-qualified yet, so we passed.
Curious to see if the house had sold, we looked at the listing on Zillow Tuesday evening. The sale price listed was $41K over the asking price! Undeterred, last weekend we met with a realtor to look at a couple of houses. Both were old, overpriced and virtually all of the work that had been done on both places was hacked together. The realtor had a family thing she had to go to, so she left. Jenn and I looked at one more house. It was literally about 80 feet from one of the local Interstates. To say it was noisy is an understatement.
So yeah, not the time to buy.The good news is, I now have time to get back to my project!
I picked these up a couple of weeks ago:
You must be registered for see images attach
They came off a 2004 Hummer H2. They're 17X8.5 and have a 8X6.5 lug pattern. I think they look pretty good... but the hub hole is not big enough for the rear Sterling 10.25 that's going under this Bronco:
You must be registered for see images attach
I read a thread (on FTE maybe?) about a guy using a dual-flute carbide bit on his router and removing enough material to fit over the hubs of the Dana 60s he had on his truck. I followed his advice and this is what I ended up with:
You must be registered for see images attach
Problem is, the hub on the Sterling is bigger. So, I called up a machinist buddy of mine and did this yesterday:
You must be registered for see images attach
And here is the finished product:
You must be registered for see images attach
Well, not exactly. You can see how the chrome is pitted and oxidized. I plan on getting these sandblasted and powder coated black.
I have read about guys running these wheels on leaf sprung D60s under their F350s using this technique, only to have backspacing clearance issues. (The tires contacted the leaf springs at full lock on the steering wheel.) Fortunately, I will have a coil sprung D60, so I don't think I will have that problem.
Last edited:
More Dana 60 work
I've decided to use a ground-up approach to this build: start on the axles and work up. The last time I updated progress on the D60, it looked like this:
I spent some time yesterday and this morning working on it, and now it looks like this:
The kingpins are going to need to be replaced, here's the passenger side:
Driver's side:
And here is one of the king pin bushings:
I don't know exactly what material this is, but it has NO place in my front axle. I'll be replacing them with Reid Racing bronze upper kingpin bushings.
For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to yet tear in to a Dana 60, here's a picture of the driver kingpin to give you an idea of the beefy nature of these axles:
I read that the axle tubes have a 1/2" thick wall.
I can say without a doubt, assembled this axle was retardedly heavy. Now that it's basically stripped (except for the ring, pinion, spider gears, some bearings and the yoke) I can move it without slipping a disc.
Here's the diameter of the passenger axle shaft:
Compare that with the passenger stub shaft:
I have concluded that it's time for a full-on, bad-ass SAS rebuild. Here's a teaser:
Stay tuned.
I've decided to use a ground-up approach to this build: start on the axles and work up. The last time I updated progress on the D60, it looked like this:
You must be registered for see images attach
I spent some time yesterday and this morning working on it, and now it looks like this:
You must be registered for see images attach
The kingpins are going to need to be replaced, here's the passenger side:
You must be registered for see images attach
Driver's side:
You must be registered for see images attach
And here is one of the king pin bushings:
You must be registered for see images attach
I don't know exactly what material this is, but it has NO place in my front axle. I'll be replacing them with Reid Racing bronze upper kingpin bushings.
For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to yet tear in to a Dana 60, here's a picture of the driver kingpin to give you an idea of the beefy nature of these axles:
You must be registered for see images attach
I read that the axle tubes have a 1/2" thick wall.
I can say without a doubt, assembled this axle was retardedly heavy. Now that it's basically stripped (except for the ring, pinion, spider gears, some bearings and the yoke) I can move it without slipping a disc. Here's the diameter of the passenger axle shaft:
You must be registered for see images attach
Compare that with the passenger stub shaft:
You must be registered for see images attach
I have concluded that it's time for a full-on, bad-ass SAS rebuild. Here's a teaser:
You must be registered for see images attach
Stay tuned.
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FordGuy100
Registered User
Portland is having a housing bubble, thats for sure. I think a lot of it is for investment reasons, kind of like Socal.
fte
Registered User
Glad to hear you're staying on the good side of the river!
junk
Full Access Member
Hey your remember what size you opened up the wheel hole to? I've got some wheels to open up also.
I do like those hummer wheels. They are pretty sharp. I'm anxious to see how this front end goes together for you. Should be cool!
I do like those hummer wheels. They are pretty sharp. I'm anxious to see how this front end goes together for you. Should be cool!
I'm at school right now. I'll get that measurement for you tonight.
I've decided to use a ground-up approach to this build: start on the axles and work up. The last time I updated progress on the D60, it looked like this:
You must be registered for see images attach
I spent some time yesterday and this morning working on it, and now it looks like this:
You must be registered for see images attach
The kingpins are going to need to be replaced, here's the passenger side:
You must be registered for see images attach
Driver's side:
You must be registered for see images attach
And here is one of the king pin bushings:
You must be registered for see images attach
I don't know exactly what material this is, but it has NO place in my front axle. I'll be replacing them with Reid Racing bronze upper kingpin bushings.
For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to yet tear in to a Dana 60, here's a picture of the driver kingpin to give you an idea of the beefy nature of these axles:
You must be registered for see images attach
I read that the axle tubes have a 1/2" thick wall.
Here's the diameter of the passenger axle shaft:
You must be registered for see images attach
Compare that with the passenger stub shaft:
You must be registered for see images attach
I have concluded that it's time for a full-on, bad-ass SAS rebuild. Here's a teaser:
You must be registered for see images attach
Stay tuned.
The KP's are 7/8 hex. I bought the kp tool from east coast gear. Don't waste your money. It was a sawed off hunk of 7/8 hex bar stock. Unless they heat treated it (which I doubt) you can buy a foot of it from McMaster car for less than they charge for a 2" piece. When you go to take them out, take a cutoff wheel and cut around them about 1/8" up from the bottom but not all the way through to the hex. Put the impact gun on it and drive it tighter then reverse it and it will spin right out. It takes the 650 ft/lb load off the threads and brings them out easy. Unless you have a gigantic impact gun, this is the fastest/slickest way I've seen to do them.
They are right at 5 1/16".
junk
Full Access Member
Awesome Thanks! They still fit the hub pretty close or do they have some pretty good clearence?
I'm not sure; I haven't had the time to mount them on the 10.25 yet.
I'll mock them up and take some pictures this weekend.
I'll mock them up and take some pictures this weekend.
I took a look at the ECGS website, it says the KP tool is chrome-moly and is $10. On McMaster, a 12" piece of 7/8 chrome-moly bar stock is about $22. With shipping and the time to trim a 12" piece down, I'd say the $10 piece from ECGS is priced fairly.
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You're right. My bad. I was thinking that I could make several for a little more than the price of one shipped. It was like $15-20 to ship it to me if I recall which was the real ball breaker. It was real close at the time. The good and bad thing about McMaster Carr for me is that being so close to NJ, I get my stuff next day for ground shipping so its usually no more than a few dollars to ship boxes full of bolts and the like. Typically the stuff I can't get local easy.
H2 wheels
Before I dropped the wheels off at the powder coaters this evening, I snapped a couple of pics:
It's kinda hard to tell, but the hub actually flares out to a slightly larger diameter beneath the face of the wheel. As you can see, 5 1/16" is a pretty good size. Much smaller and they wouldn't fit:
I went to America's Tire and bought new chrome lug nuts. I'll paint the axles once I get them rebuilt/customized, so the Sterling hubs will look a little better. I read somewhere that the offset on H2 wheels is about 1 1/2" less than ideal for these Fords. Once I get the tires mounted on the wheels and the whole assembly mounted on the axles, I'll determine if spacers are a necessity. If they are, I'll get some.
Once I got to the powder coaters I talked with the shop manager for a few minutes. He thought the wheels might not turn out perfect (because of the pitting and oxidation, which was fairly significant). We agreed to use a three-step coating process; one coat of primer and two of color.
My standards are not stratospheric; I'm pretty confident I'll be happy with the finished product. They will DEFINITELY look better than they do now.
Before I dropped the wheels off at the powder coaters this evening, I snapped a couple of pics:
You must be registered for see images attach
It's kinda hard to tell, but the hub actually flares out to a slightly larger diameter beneath the face of the wheel. As you can see, 5 1/16" is a pretty good size. Much smaller and they wouldn't fit:
You must be registered for see images attach
I went to America's Tire and bought new chrome lug nuts. I'll paint the axles once I get them rebuilt/customized, so the Sterling hubs will look a little better. I read somewhere that the offset on H2 wheels is about 1 1/2" less than ideal for these Fords. Once I get the tires mounted on the wheels and the whole assembly mounted on the axles, I'll determine if spacers are a necessity. If they are, I'll get some.
Once I got to the powder coaters I talked with the shop manager for a few minutes. He thought the wheels might not turn out perfect (because of the pitting and oxidation, which was fairly significant). We agreed to use a three-step coating process; one coat of primer and two of color.
My standards are not stratospheric; I'm pretty confident I'll be happy with the finished product. They will DEFINITELY look better than they do now.
Just curious, any idea how much the powder-coating is going to set you back? Are you doing 4 wheels, or doing the spare also?
