I have had many questions about the suspension on my Bronco. It is the Wild Horses System 7, 3.5" with all extra goodies supplied with the kit. I even went for the long travel rear hoop shock mounts so I could mount the dual Rancho 9012's (which by the way have the most travel of any of their shocks.) I figured that I had cut my body up quite a bit already, what was a little more?

Several people have asked me-Why do you need that much travel, why didn't you save some money and just use the double shock mounts in the "regular stock" positions? Well, I don't like doing things half-assed and since I was putting the complete suspension in, what is a couple hundred more bucks. If I knew how to weld, and had a good welder, I would have saved about $200 doing it myself.

Being a graduate student in Geology, I also do field work, collecting rock samples, and mapping geology/topography and structural features in my field area. All this work I have had to do on my own, and my field area is really in the middle of nowhere. If I were to get stuck, I might be found by BIGFOOT (yes, that is a real picture-not faked, I wear a size 11.5) before any search teams could find me (supposing my CB won't transmit out of the mountains I am in.) Therefore, suspension travel is very important to me-my life could depend on it.
 

• The coils lifted the front 3.5", and the rear leafs (10 pack) lifted the rear 2" - not as much as I would have liked. Wild Horses (and everywhere else I called, stated that Early Bronco lifts are designed to level the truck, as it came from the factory with the rear higher than the front.) True, the front has to have more room due to steering considerations, but the rear should be at least another inch higher (in my opinion.)
• I now have the 11 leaf Nationals from WH, and they are a much better match for the front 3.5" coils (see below).

• Rock Crawler coils
• long travel (this picture shows about 3/4 extension, note that the front shock is longer to accomodate the increased travel arc of the radius arm)
• front shock hoops with Rancho 9005's (front position), and 9010's (rear position)
• 10 leaf National leaf springs (long travel)
• The rear sits down a little more than I like. I think that the 11-leaf springs would bring the rear up a little more.
• 11 leaf National leaf springs I replaced the 10 leaf versions with 11 leaf springs from Wild Horses.  The 10 leaf set sagged and didn't even give 1 inch of lift over stock.  Here is a picture of the 11 leaf Nationals compared to the stock heavy duty 6 leaf set.  This 11 leaf set actually raised the rear more than one inch over the 10 leaf set.  The front and rear are now level (rear sits slightly higher with the hard top off.)  UPDATE, Oct 8. 1998:  After about 1.5 years with the 11 leaf springs, I have to say that they have held up very very well.  Much better than compared to the 10 leaf versions.  I also ended up adding a 4 degree shim under the 11 leaf pack to make the rear driveshaft/u-joint angle better.
• rear shock hoops with 2 Rancho 9012's per side (Thanks to Tracy and his welding skills at High Mtn. 4Wheel Drive, Spokane, WA)
• Lower rear shock mount for the hoops. I left the stock one on as it wasn't worth the effort to take it off and I can go back to the stock shock if necessary. The front uses the same lower mount as for regular dual shocks.
• The inner wheel wells must be cut out and metal covers (supplied from Wild Horses) must be trimmed to fit the inner wheel wells and welded in (after the hoop mounts have been welded, so that you can have good access to the hoops). I don't use my rear seat, but if you notice the front mounting holes in the bed, you probably will have to move the seat back several inches. You can probably trim the covers an inch more than I did, but I wanted to leave some space behind them for the upper shock bolts. Thanks to my friend Greg for welding the covers in - ugly welds, but free.

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*New Oct. 8 1998 Here is another way to have your rear shocks mounted.  This is Todd Zuercher's Bronco. The pieces are available in kit form. Prices told to me as of March 23, 1998 are: $109. *** Here is a quote from Todd (March 23, 1998): "I erroneously quoted the price of the setup as $89 and I apologize for any misunderstanding it may have caused. I goofed-that's the quantity (6 or more) price. The actual retail price is $109 through Desert Motorsports and $129 from ProtoFab. RADFK, Todd Z."*** I don't know any more about this kit, so if you have ANY questions, please contact Todd at his email address: toddz69@juno.com for more info.

Mounting the cross bar-You don't have to remove the body to do this, but it sure would be easier.
toddzrearshock2a
toddzrearshock3a
toddzrearshock4a
toddzrearshock5a
*New Oct. 8 1998 (notice the beautiful frame and EFI fuel line/pump/filter setup.......oooo aahhh)
tzrhoop1
tzrhoop2
tzrhoop3
tzrhoop4 dual shock setup
tzrhoop5 dual shock setup

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Back to my Bronco............
 
• front and rear drop bumpstops
• 7^o polyurethane C-bushings with rubber radius arm rear bushing
• I was skeptical, but the rubber works good
• drop tracking arm bracket with polyurethane bushings
• drop pitman arm
• *New Wild Horses adjustable drag link
• The drop pitman arm was needed to cure any bumpstop, but it actually is a little "too dropped" for a 3.5 inch lift.  It off-centered the steering box/drag link by effectively 'lengthening' the stock drag link.  This meant that I could turn harder to the right than I could to the left.  In order to be able to make a full left turn and center the steering box, I would have to have an adjustable drag link.  The one from Wild Horses is adjustable and also has a bend in it (although, I am not sure that it really is necessary for the bend.)  In order to center my steering box, I had to have it adjusted all the way closed/shortened.  It is made up of 2 pieces and an adjustable sleeve.  The long end looks custom made and doesn't look as stout-looking as the stock drag link.  I don't think it has a good of an angle where it connects into the tie-rod either.  The one end that fits into the pitman arm looks like it was taken from a tie-rod end and is very heavy duty.  However, because it has a "drag-link type" mounting hole in it, the stock steering stabilizer bracket doesn't fit very well.  I ended up using only one of the two u-bolts.  I also had to move that bracket end closer to the pitman arm because the drag link was now shorter than stock.  To really center the steering stabilizer (and relieve the increased angle due to the drop pitman arm), I should make a slight drop bracket to drop and move the frame connection for the steering stabilizer towards the passenger side.  Anyway, it centered my steering box, which is what I was after.  It really sucked on tight trails not being able to turn all the way to the left (or even making U-turns for that matter.)
• removal/install tips
• When I took out the stock draglink, the studs that go into the pitman and tie-rod were really in there.  I used a hammer to bang them out (I don't have a pickle fork.)  Make sure you keep the castle nut at the top of the threads so you don't mangle your threads and you have more surface area to bang on.  Who knows, you might have to use it as a spare in the future.
• When installing the new draglink studs, I used a lot of antisieze (that silver stuff that never seems to come off your clothes) to make removal easier in the future if necessary.  Getting the old one out sucked.
• Leave the adj. sleeve loose so you can line up the bend & ends on the new drag link.  Leave the steering stabilizer bracket u-bolt(s) loose too.
• Figure out the center of your steering box by counting the turns left and right (it helps to have the front tires off the ground.)  I wanted to center the steering box, which is more important than centering the steering wheel.  My steering wheel is easily removed and adjusted on its own.  If your steering wheel is centered when the steering box is centered, that makes it easy.  You want to be able to make as many turns on the steering wheel to the left and to the right when the box is centered.  Depending on the amount of lift in your front coil springs and if you have a drop pitman arm or not, you will either have to lengthen or shorten the drag link with the adj. sleeve.  With the WH dropped pitman, WH rock crawler coils, and WH adj. drag link, I had to have it shortened as much as it would go.  If my coils were any shorter, I would have to maybe cut some threads off one end or another of the adj. drag link to make it even shorter.
• The last thing after torquing the ends and sleeve nuts is to center the steering stabilizer.  You want some of the chrome rod visable still when turned all the way right.  You want to make sure there is still some rod left to come out when turned all the way left.  I had to move the bracket end towards the pitman arm since the adj. drag link was now shorter than it was.  This actually helped to clear the big bulge/hole.
extended brake lines and parking brake cables

e-mail me at i6735189@wsunix.wsu.edu.
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