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This rusty mess needs to go  ...yup, thats better:   coil buckets removed:
pivot and radius arm brackets are next on the list
And so, with the frame stripped of all the TTB parts, i want to deal with all this rust and scale  needle scaled, wire wheeled.....  ...and painted!   Looks a million times better now! Finally, its time to start bolting parts back on! Absolutely scored on this deal. Back over the winter i found a 97 Ford D60 still in a truck in a junkyard. Got it pulled and dropped right into the back of my truck for $250! Wasnt easy getting it back out of the truck though....  So lets get this thing cleaned up a bit, shall we?  You could tell it came from a plow truck. Everything rusty, but also new seals and clean grease everywhere   My little helper getting in there and scraping grease and grime off it  Cutting off the sway bar bracketry, along with the retainer for the ubolts and the tracbar  Housing needle-scaled and wire wheeled  Pressing balljoints
...and getting a fresh coat of paint!  Diff out, shaft & pinion seals changed  ...and the final reassembly    Found some cool stuff in the junkyard today, hoping i can use some of it on the 96 F250. Was wandering around the yard with a buddy and stumbled across a 95 Explorer with some super nice seats in them, which we snagged up
Power everything! Lumber, bolsters, seat height & placement adjustments, basically everything you could ask for, and they only use 2 wires for power so they should be very easy to wire into the existing power lumbar wiring. The seat brackets are very very close to what's in the 96 F250, so i think with just some minimal work these will be a great option to replace my very-worn seats. From the same explorer we got an overhead console along with the entire wiring harness:  and some very nice dual wing visors with dual illuminated mirrors, which i *think* will swap right into the truck, or atleast they will with minimal effort  ...and then this i found interesting. I was unaware the 95+ explorers use basically the same steering column as the 92-96 trucks/broncos, right down to the shroud, turn signal switch, shifter, and even the ignition lock cylinder, which is convenient because the key was still there, so i got the lock cylinder as well for a spare;  There were a few broncos in the yard this time too, which is becoming more of a rare sight. Mostly stripped as well, but i still scored with this piece:  Mint! Almost anyways. Someone glued an LED into the panel, but all the tabs on the back are in good shape, so im still calling it a win!  Some of this was done while sorting out the diesel's electrical issue, but now that that's resolved, its time to get serious on the '90 bronco build. Part one: rebuild the rear axle! We're going to be using a 97 Ford Sterling 10.25 with 4.10s and a trac-lock, partially because its a good rear, and partially because i already had it!  Oil drained:
Housing stripped, cleaned, and painted!
Brake drum backing plates sand blasted and painted, and all new brakes and hardware installed:  Hub going back on, using the SKF Scotseal, as its the best one out there  I wish they made these for every FF rear axle. Its a 2-piece design so the seal lip rides on itself, instead of the spindle. Much better design.
Axle all done, just awaiting brake lines once the axle is under the bronco!  So far so good, on the Thunderer Trac Grip MTs im running on the green bronco. 10k miles, and im at 16/32 on tread depth, so still a decent amount of tread. Im guessing ill get 35k out of them which is pretty decent for a cheap MT. Tires are wearing nice and evenly. Typical MT hum, not bad at all considering its my daily driver. Overall happy with their performance up to this point.   Ok, the finale! So first off, ML Toys ignition cant carry the current, despite what they claim. But my kid liked the big blue key, so i found a lock cylinder that was basically identical, on Amazon, for $9, so i bought that. Then i grabbed a 12v 80a relay i had kicking around the garage, and wired that in:  I know 80a is way overkill (30a would prob be fine), but i already had it, and i figure since its 18v not 12v, having a big buffer wont hurt. So the key switch triggers the relay, which is mounted here:  In retrospect i should have just done this from the beginning, i was thinking K.I.S.S. and you dont get simpler than just a key switch. Anyways, this completes the wiring overhaul. The little dude was romping it around the yard and ran it for a good half hour in the grass with no sign of it slowing down. The voltmeter said we were still over 18v, so im guess a good hour plus on the run-time now, maybe longer  So with this done, theres nothing left to do but to just let the little dude cruise!  Nest up is to finish the wiring issue with the '96, and then its finally time to start the one-ton swap on the '90! So first up, we need to replace the accelerator pedal. The new one is not a simple on/off switch, its a variable resistor, for full variable speed control. So the original pedal has to go. The original pedal is a pretty low profile and just snaps into a recess in the floor, whereas the new pedal is boxy, which makes installation easy, but also puts the pedal way higher
Im not a fan of this, so lets make some changes. Here's the foot pedal all disassembled:  I have an idea. Lets chop it up!
...and with just some minor trimming, it fits in the original space!  All back together and installed, looks like it came this way from the factory!  The brake pedal i installed slightly to the left. First though, we need to deal with the wire coming out of the bottom. Cant have exposed wires in the interior, thats just asking for problems!  So the plan is to mount the brake pedal here. Of note is the upper and lower mounting points have been removed:  And then modify the pedal assembly so the wires come out the back instead of the bottom:  Because.....in this spot, the wires will pass thru a hole in the floorpan, to be hidden in the wireway and protected by the track!  The finished product- nice and clean, with no wires exposed anywhere, inside or underneath:  So here's the new ESC from ML Toys: 
Theres some prime real estate for this, in the back next to the batteries:  ...yeah, that looks good there:  So lets start wiring this thing up. It comes with some very nicely made wiring harnesses. Crimped, soldered, and heat-shrink. One for batteries with a 40a breaker built in, and a second made up for the motors. Different plugs so you cant get it wrong.
Simple enough install, and plenty of room to route the wires cleanly  Now, in a Power Wheel the battery would be under the hood, and you unplug them to charge them. But since the batteries are under the seat, we need a way to charge them. So lets tear into the harness and examine the original charging port:  So the switch is in series with the battery. A closer examination reveals contacts inside the switch, that open when the charge cable is plugged in, cutting power to the vehicle in the process so it cant be turned on while charging. Clever.
A quick test with the voltmeter verifies this:
So this was a pretty clever solution to a problem, but im not sure that it can handle the power, considering were now putting 3x more voltage through the contacts. Plus the teeny tiny wires they used. So im going to reuse this to charge, but im going to wire it direct to the battery, and then just remember that the Bronco has to be turned off when charging.  So that covers the batteries and the motors, now its time to move on, and start laying out the pedals!  So the obvious solution to the inadequate wiring in the Kid Trax Bronco, is a full replacement. I could have done something simple like upgraded wiring and switches, but instead i decided to go all out, and use ML Toy's Electronic Speed Control. This thing is pretty cool. its a full variable speed ESC (so full variable speed control), with a brake pedal as well. Its programmed to apply the brakes after a certain amount of time if it doesnt see either pedal input, so you cant have a car runaway down a hill, which i think is a nice safety feature. It also has a 12v output for powering the stock headlights & radio, which we'll be using as well. In addition to this, i am adding their key switch, and digital voltmeter.  The meter is not necessary, i just want it for the convenience of knowing battery life. The key switch i do want though; Power Wheels have the batteries under the hood where you unplug them to charge them, but Kid Trax has them hidden in the back under the seat, with a charging port. Having a key switch means we can turn it on/off to charge without having to unplug the batteries every time. So lets get that wiring harness out: With the track removed the harness is exposed:  Foot pedal wiring:  Remove a couple screws and the steering wheel and dash comes out:  power plug for dash harness:  ...and the chassis harness is removed:  Here's the plug for the horn pad, which we'll obviously reuse  ...and this mess of wires is the backside of the directional switch, where Kid Trax tapped off for all their other 'key hot' accessories, such as the horn, radio & headlights. We're gonna reuse some of this, but not all:  Just give it a slight tug and the volume knob pops off to expose the jam nut to remove the dial:  This is about as far as we need to go, as far as disassembly is concerned. Tomorrow we'll staart installing the new harness and ESC! So the 18v Kid Trax Bronco is running well!  This thing runs great, and the run time is much better than before. However, the stock electronics are not happy! The On/Off switch finally melted yesterday from the load:  Unfortunately, so did both the Forward/Reverse switch, and the socket for it:
Looks like the next upgrade is going to be getting some proper wiring and electronics in this thing. Stay tuned! |
