My Bronco threw a shoe, so I gave her high heels

I own a 1970 Ford Bronco.  It was owned by my grand father and after that by my aunt.  I bought it from my aunt over 20 years ago.

Just a couple of weeks ago my son Kyle was driving the Bronco to pick a friend up from college. As he rounded a corner at the school, he heard a thump and felt a jolt through the steering wheel. The front corner of the truck dropped and he saw the wheel go rolling down the road ahead of him. He said it was very much like an old black and white slapstick movie.

As near as I can figure, the last time I was working on the front end, I must have failed to really tighten the lug nuts, and they eventually worked their way free.

I posted about my dilemma on the local Bronco club forums and within just a few hours, someone had replied that not only did he have parts to help me repair the damage, but they had even better parts that would allow me upgrade from drum brakes to disc brakes.  That's quite an improvement in stopping power for such an old vehicle.

I messaged back and forth with Kirk and we setup a time for him to bring the parts down to help me with the change.

So this last Saturday Kirk came down.  I figured he'd drop off the parts and a few words of advice on changing things out, but to my surprise, he didn't.  He backed his truck up right next to the Bronco and started pulling tools, parts, overalls, and shoes out of the back of his truck.  He setup a full workshop right there on my driveway.  He then put on a pair of coveralls, strapped on knee pads and began doing the change himself.

My son and I already put the Bronco on jack stands and stripped everything down to bare knucles, so he didn't have to do any of that.  Within 2 hours the entire change was done and we were bleeding brakes.  It just amazed me how knowledgeable he was about all of the parts and their torque values and sizes.  I'd have been on the internet for hours checking and double checking everything.  I might have had it done in a couple of days.  But instead, we were driving the Bronco that afternoon.

The brakes are still a bit spongy, so there's probably still some air bubbles trapped in some brake lines.  We drive it gingerly as the brake pads wear in, and we'll bleed the brakes a few more times.  But it already feels allot better than the old drums.

.....

And we torqued the lug nuts to 90 foot pounds!!!!

.......

The Bronco sitting on the side of the road without a wheel.


Bronco up on stands and without wheels. Ready for the trasplant.


If you look at the studs, you can see that they are worn down. The lug nuts were loose for a while.


Drums, hub, pads, backing plate and bolts are all removed. Spindles are just hanging to keep dust out


A Bronco friend (Kirk) working on the new(ish) rotors. Sanding off a little rust.


Kirk struggling with the calipers. With the old disc brakes, everythig floats loose till you get the hanger pins in.


One side is done. The other side went easily too.



As a fun little side item. He's a panorama of my office