'95 Bronco Wants and Needs

[kjp1969]

While I'm always thinking of the next great thing to spend money on, the reality of my world is that I'm driving a 13 year old truck with 117,000 miles on it. I've already gone through the cooling system and replaced the radiator and all belts and hoses, but I'm trying to put together a list of "likely to wear out" parts to replace as sort of a grand preventative maintenance scheme. The goal here, obviously, is to prevent any kind of trip-ending breakdown. With a little help from my local auto parts store, I've come up with the following. Please help me add to it.

Edit: Forgot to mention, but all fluids have been changed- that's a given.

Auto (E4OD) Transmission- perhaps not to replace just yet, but service and get a professional evaluation of its likely remaining life.
Fuel pump
Alternator
Starter
Serpentine belt pulleys
Battery (unknown age)

Anything else likely to fail?

 

[02TahoeMD]

My old '87 Bronco had its exhaust manifolds crack, the donut gasket for the exhaust wore through, and a leak developed in the gas tank as well. The truck was about 7 years old when it had those problems.

Can't remember anything else that broke on her at this time.

 

[bronconite]

While I'm always thinking of the next great thing to spend money on, the reality of my world is that I'm driving a 13 year old truck with 117,000 miles on it. I've already gone through the cooling system and replaced the radiator and all belts and hoses, but I'm trying to put together a list of "likely to wear out" parts to replace as sort of a grand preventative maintenance scheme. The goal here, obviously, is to prevent any kind of trip-ending breakdown. With a little help from my local auto parts store, I've come up with the following. Please help me add to it.

Edit: Forgot to mention, but all fluids have been changed- that's a given.


Auto (E4OD) Transmission- perhaps not to replace just yet, but service and get a professional evaluation of its likely remaining life.
Fuel pump
Alternator
Starter
Serpentine belt pulleys
Battery (unknown age)

Anything else likely to fail?

Great to see another Bronco here.

The life of the E4OD can be extended alot by adding an external cooler and filter. This is also a great time to add a temp guage.

The fuel pump WILL fail at some point. When you replace it you'll need to drop the tank. A great modification to do at this point is cut a trap door in the rear floor to create access to the fuel pump. This way any future issues will not require dropping the tank. The fuel tanks are known to rust out, but you shouldn't have that problem in your area.

This may seem obvious, but if you replace any working parts, including belts and hoses, carry the used ones as spares. I also carry a spare rear drive shaft and rear axles.

I bought mine with 68,000 miles 12 years ago, it now has over 170,000 and I've never replaced a pulley. Maybe I'm just lucky.

For all things FSB visit www.fullsizebronco.com
You will find great preventative procedures in the technical write ups section

 

[kjp1969]

Great to see another Bronco here.

The life of the E4OD can be extended alot by adding an external cooler and filter. This is also a great time to add a temp guage.

The fuel pump WILL fail at some point. When you replace it you'll need to drop the tank. A great modification to do at this point is cut a trap door in the rear floor to create access to the fuel pump. This way any future issues will not require dropping the tank. The fuel tanks are known to rust out, but you shouldn't have that problem in your area.

This may seem obvious, but if you replace any working parts, including belts and hoses, carry the used ones as spares. I also carry a spare rear drive shaft and rear axles.

I bought mine with 68,000 miles 12 years ago, it now has over 170,000 and I've never replaced a pulley. Maybe I'm just lucky.

For all things FSB visit www.fullsizebronco.com
You will find great preventative procedures in the technical write ups section

Good advice on the fuel pump, I'll move that to the top of the list., ditto with the trap door- maybe- once its got a new fuel pump, I should be good for another hunna thou, right? By the way, my fuel pump is noisy- you switch the ignition on and it hums pretty loudly. Is that normal?

I do have a spares box with belts and hoses- but axels and a driveshaft? Are these weak links?

You might want to replace your tensioner and idler pully- mine went bad on a trip. Cheap repair, but it did mean an untimely detour to an auto parts store. It sure made me glad I had a Ford and not a Landrover, up at the parts shop in Ridgecrest!

 

[bronconite]

Good advice on the fuel pump, I'll move that to the top of the list., ditto with the trap door- maybe- once its got a new fuel pump, I should be good for another hunna thou, right? By the way, my fuel pump is noisy- you switch the ignition on and it hums pretty loudly. Is that normal?

I do have a spares box with belts and hoses- but axels and a driveshaft? Are these weak links?

You might want to replace your tensioner and idler pully- mine went bad on a trip. Cheap repair, but it did mean an untimely detour to an auto parts store. It sure made me glad I had a Ford and not a Landrover, up at the parts shop in Ridgecrest!

I can hear my fuel pump cycle when I turn the key on, but I wouldn't call it loud. Once you drop the tank you won't want to do it again. Then again I probably had a lot more mud and rust to deal with than you do.

Drive shafts and axles aren't week points but I wheel it, sometimes pretty hard. Both can be easily replaced in the field if you're carrying what you need. If not you're kind of screwed. I think it's cheap insurance.

I have a spare tensioner and idler pulley. I'll have to find a place for that and keep it in the truck.