I use to work at a tire/lube shop and did mounting and balancing. I forget the reason but if the tire is mounted in a certain spot on the rim it doesn't always require any weights or if any very little. Balancing and rotating at least from what I've been told, helps increase the life of the tires. In some vehicles if it calls for 0.25oz of weight you won't notice it, but in a car you will notice it. When you do start to feel a vibration I'd have the tires re-balanced so you can get more life. But I always did hate balancing off-road tires because for whatever reason they sometimes ask for a counter balance, so I always just took what the one side needed and lined it up with the extra weight and it usually worked fine. Whenever you buy tires from a shop at least at the one I worked at (Tires Plus, which is tied in with Firestone/Bridgestone) you're paying for the mounting and balancing all in one go.
+Ratkill9000 So here's what I've been up to. On my wife's car, a 2003 Ford Escape with 265,000 miles on it...the road trip car...I always buy tires in town, and have them mounted and balanced. Like you said, it's just smart to do that for tire life and all that. If you take a quick look at my other videos, you'll notice that my other cars are a lot older than 2003, most are over 45 years old...and I don't put 20,000 miles a year on any of them. They each get around 1,000 a year, some just stay parked in the garage for a year or two, depending on what work is needed. My tires tend to expire before the tread runs out. Tires have a shelf life of about 10 years, and some of my tires are older than 20 I think. Hard to tell with my tires that have pre-2000 date codes. In the old days, I'd buy an old car, and it would need new tires, they always do, so I'd buy tires in town, and have them mounted and balanced. Normally mounting and balancing would add up to about $25, but the mark up on the tire was killing me. Now I buy tires on-line, you can search ebay for a tire size, then rank them by cheapest first. Some are way cheaper than I can get in town, really cheap, and free shipping too. Then I mount them myself, and I don't bother with balancing at all. So far so good, can't even tell the difference in ride quality, like I said though, only 1000 miles a year, and almost no interstate travel. Mostly I just drive the old cars around town, so this new strategy is working out well for me.
I love your truck I am restoring a 76 bronco and it was an auto but i swapped to an np435. What did you have to do with the floor and cross member also what transfer case did you use a dana 20? Thanks love the truck
It was pretty easy, I found a guy that sold a nicely machined steel adapter plate. This was back in '96 when I had a '66 Bronco with the straight six cylinder and a 3 speed manual. I upgraded to a 302 and the NP435 all at the same time on that '66 Bronco. The adapter plate he sold me was for a V8 Bronco, stock flywheel and bellhousing....then the NP435 main body (435 tailshaft housing removed), then the adapter, and then a Bronco tailshaft housing, but it had to be from a six cylinder Bronco (which was nice, because I had a six cyl Bronco tailshaft housing). After that it was cake, I just bolted my '66 Bronco's original Dana 20 transfer case to the six cylinder Bronco's tailshaft housing...and I was able to use my Bronco's original transmission crossmember, and the original driveshafts, everything just bolted right in. I think the six cylinder tail housing that connects the trans to the transfer case is shorter, and makes up for the thickness of the adapter plate...something like that. The guy that sold me the adapter, included a full set of instructions, and like I said this was back in '96, when I was stationed at Hill AFB, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy, I might have had to cut a bit off the NP435's tailshaft, 3/8" or so, but that might have been some other project that I'm thinking of. The hardest part was having to cut off the '66 Bronco 6 cyl motor mounts and having to weld in 8 cylinder motor mounts, but that doesn't apply to your '76 Bronco. Anyway, then my old '66 Bronco was burned down by vandals, in '99 I think, and everything that was in it, is now in my '75 Bronco, even that '66 Bronco six cylinder tailshaft housing. Then I upgraded the 302 to a 351W in my '75, and the NP435 is still going strong. That transmission is 45 years old, and still works great. People say it shifts like a dump truck, but I love it. I'm not running my old '66 Bronco Dana 20 transfer case anymore, when I bought the '75, I removed it's automatic transmission, and kept the '75's Dana 20 transfer case and I kept the 75's drive shafts (beefier than the old '66 stuff), and that's what's still in it. As for the floor modification, pause my video at 8:26, see the aluminum plate I made? Underneath that plate, it's a wide open hole, with just enough around the edges for the plate to have something to screw onto...then the shifter boots are just screwed to the aluminum plate. That massive hole was a little bit of overkill, but but not much, and it's more room to work on stuff, from above, which isn't terrible. As for the machined steel adapter plate you'll need. I found one before I had internet, just by calling around. I think Jeff's Bronco Graveyard, hooked me up with the guy. These days a quick google search should find one for you, and probably a slicker set up than what I've got, as it must be hard these days to find a junkyard tailshaft housing from a first generation six cylinder Bronco. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I had to bend the 435's shifter a bit, because it wouldn't go into 1st gear without hitting my dash...but that wasn't hard.
I saw your bronc today at the Y. I live here too and have a 67 Military bronc that im still working on. Trying to find a 435 to put in mine. Its coming along nicely I think. We go take the broncs riding the dirt roads in Manchester from time to time. Have to get together sometime and talk bronco
Absolutely, I'm pretty easy to find, just google "Headturnerz car club Sumter", the website lists the dates we get together, and where. We get together once a month for a cruise-in, here in town. Lately we've been meeting at Bubba's Diner's parking lot on Broad Street. -Owen
+John K 32X11.50 15's...nothing crazy, but I like them. They're quiet on the road, drives around town just fine. It's sad, but around town is all my Bronco sees these days. When I lived in NV, you could just drive off the road and into the desert just about anywhere you wanted to, trails everywhere...not so much here in SC, it's all private property, and people don't want you on it. Also, it's flat here, and insanely overgrown...lots of trees, thick bush, and swampland...pretty much the opposite of Nevada.
I use to work at a tire/lube shop and did mounting and balancing. I forget the reason but if the tire is mounted in a certain spot on the rim it doesn't always require any weights or if any very little. Balancing and rotating at least from what I've been told, helps increase the life of the tires. In some vehicles if it calls for 0.25oz of weight you won't notice it, but in a car you will notice it. When you do start to feel a vibration I'd have the tires re-balanced so you can get more life. But I always did hate balancing off-road tires because for whatever reason they sometimes ask for a counter balance, so I always just took what the one side needed and lined it up with the extra weight and it usually worked fine. Whenever you buy tires from a shop at least at the one I worked at (Tires Plus, which is tied in with Firestone/Bridgestone) you're paying for the mounting and balancing all in one go.
+Ratkill9000 So here's what I've been up to. On my wife's car, a 2003 Ford Escape with 265,000 miles on it...the road trip car...I always buy tires in town, and have them mounted and balanced. Like you said, it's just smart to do that for tire life and all that. If you take a quick look at my other videos, you'll notice that my other cars are a lot older than 2003, most are over 45 years old...and I don't put 20,000 miles a year on any of them. They each get around 1,000 a year, some just stay parked in the garage for a year or two, depending on what work is needed. My tires tend to expire before the tread runs out. Tires have a shelf life of about 10 years, and some of my tires are older than 20 I think. Hard to tell with my tires that have pre-2000 date codes. In the old days, I'd buy an old car, and it would need new tires, they always do, so I'd buy tires in town, and have them mounted and balanced. Normally mounting and balancing would add up to about $25, but the mark up on the tire was killing me. Now I buy tires on-line, you can search ebay for a tire size, then rank them by cheapest first. Some are way cheaper than I can get in town, really cheap, and free shipping too. Then I mount them myself, and I don't bother with balancing at all. So far so good, can't even tell the difference in ride quality, like I said though, only 1000 miles a year, and almost no interstate travel. Mostly I just drive the old cars around town, so this new strategy is working out well for me.
I love your truck I am restoring a 76 bronco and it was an auto but i swapped to an np435. What did you have to do with the floor and cross member also what transfer case did you use a dana 20? Thanks love the truck
It was pretty easy, I found a guy that sold a nicely machined steel adapter plate. This was back in '96 when I had a '66 Bronco with the straight six cylinder and a 3 speed manual. I upgraded to a 302 and the NP435 all at the same time on that '66 Bronco. The adapter plate he sold me was for a V8 Bronco, stock flywheel and bellhousing....then the NP435 main body (435 tailshaft housing removed), then the adapter, and then a Bronco tailshaft housing, but it had to be from a six cylinder Bronco (which was nice, because I had a six cyl Bronco tailshaft housing). After that it was cake, I just bolted my '66 Bronco's original Dana 20 transfer case to the six cylinder Bronco's tailshaft housing...and I was able to use my Bronco's original transmission crossmember, and the original driveshafts, everything just bolted right in. I think the six cylinder tail housing that connects the trans to the transfer case is shorter, and makes up for the thickness of the adapter plate...something like that. The guy that sold me the adapter, included a full set of instructions, and like I said this was back in '96, when I was stationed at Hill AFB, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy, I might have had to cut a bit off the NP435's tailshaft, 3/8" or so, but that might have been some other project that I'm thinking of. The hardest part was having to cut off the '66 Bronco 6 cyl motor mounts and having to weld in 8 cylinder motor mounts, but that doesn't apply to your '76 Bronco. Anyway, then my old '66 Bronco was burned down by vandals, in '99 I think, and everything that was in it, is now in my '75 Bronco, even that '66 Bronco six cylinder tailshaft housing. Then I upgraded the 302 to a 351W in my '75, and the NP435 is still going strong. That transmission is 45 years old, and still works great. People say it shifts like a dump truck, but I love it. I'm not running my old '66 Bronco Dana 20 transfer case anymore, when I bought the '75, I removed it's automatic transmission, and kept the '75's Dana 20 transfer case and I kept the 75's drive shafts (beefier than the old '66 stuff), and that's what's still in it. As for the floor modification, pause my video at 8:26, see the aluminum plate I made? Underneath that plate, it's a wide open hole, with just enough around the edges for the plate to have something to screw onto...then the shifter boots are just screwed to the aluminum plate. That massive hole was a little bit of overkill, but but not much, and it's more room to work on stuff, from above, which isn't terrible. As for the machined steel adapter plate you'll need. I found one before I had internet, just by calling around. I think Jeff's Bronco Graveyard, hooked me up with the guy. These days a quick google search should find one for you, and probably a slicker set up than what I've got, as it must be hard these days to find a junkyard tailshaft housing from a first generation six cylinder Bronco. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I had to bend the 435's shifter a bit, because it wouldn't go into 1st gear without hitting my dash...but that wasn't hard.
I saw your bronc today at the Y. I live here too and have a 67 Military bronc that im still working on. Trying to find a 435 to put in mine. Its coming along nicely I think. We go take the broncs riding the dirt roads in Manchester from time to time. Have to get together sometime and talk bronco
Absolutely, I'm pretty easy to find, just google "Headturnerz car club Sumter", the website lists the dates we get together, and where. We get together once a month for a cruise-in, here in town. Lately we've been meeting at Bubba's Diner's parking lot on Broad Street. -Owen
Owen Robertson sounds good, if you see a grey 67 with soft top riding around town, thats me
what size tires are on that? I've got a ford t18 with similar gears going in a cj8
+John K 32X11.50 15's...nothing crazy, but I like them. They're quiet on the road, drives around town just fine. It's sad, but around town is all my Bronco sees these days. When I lived in NV, you could just drive off the road and into the desert just about anywhere you wanted to, trails everywhere...not so much here in SC, it's all private property, and people don't want you on it. Also, it's flat here, and insanely overgrown...lots of trees, thick bush, and swampland...pretty much the opposite of Nevada.
I like your Bronco, the video would have been so much better if you had shut that stupid as music off!