Welcome to my
79' Ford Bronco Project

This page will probably never end.
Page Started:  12-6-2002
Previously Modified: 1-31-2004
Last Modified: 5-9-2005

NOTICE: This project deals with the electrical system only.  I replaced the dash with a digital display, and I am in the process of rewiring most of the add-ons from the previous owner.  I give the wiring schematic and lots of useful pictures of what I have done.  If you are hear looking for mechanical information, you'll have to go else where.  Interested in the electrical side?
  Read on . . .

My buddies have large off road vehicles, and I felt it was my turn.  (Of course, they had nothing to do with it.  No pear pressure here.)  Keep in mind, I have never had any experience in any major car or truck repairs.  My experience is limited to oil changes, and front brake pads on compact cars.  My buddies saw this add in the paper, and said this is the truck for me.  I went and checked it out, and a week later brought it home.  (My wife was pretty cool about it!)  This truck has a 9" rear, Dana 44 front, 32" tires.  This is my 1st vehicle with enough ground clearance I can actually crawl under it.  What a difference.

460 Internally Balanced engine
9" Ford rear
3/4 Dana 44 front end
NP205 Transfer Case
T28 Transmission
3/4 Suspension

My one buddy has a pretty cool off road vehicle, and I want to be just like him! J   The "01" truck below is his.

(Dave, I need a picture!)

Originally I was going to use conventional gauges.  While looking through the catalog, I saw a digital dash insert that I decided to use.  My buddies weren't thrilled.  They said it won't hold up to the pounding of off roading.  They will probably be proven correct, but for now this is what I am sticking in.  Since I have a degree in electronics, this is what I had to have.  if nothing more, i just wanted to see how it worked.  The board is actually broken up into 6 different circuits, with each having it's own +5V regulator and PIC chip (Programmable Micro Controller.)  Actually, very simple when you break down each section.

The last shot above shows the transducers that sense speed, oil pressure, and coolant temperature.  Once the circuit board is installed, a darkened bezel covers it.  The digits themselves are incredibly bright.  It is hard to see, but the circuit board has a blue LED for a high beam indicator, and two green LED's on either side for turn signal indicators. 

The original Blue LED was so bright, I had to replace it with a diffused type and I also put a larger value resistor in series than the original to turn down the brightness.  At night, the old way devices were overpowering.

The 5 volt regulator for the Odometer gets very hot, and I have had one fail which I believe was related to the over heating problem.  I put a heat-sink on this regulator, but it required to be cut in half so it wouldn't touch any other solder pads.  Prior to the heat-sink, the regulator could not be touched it was that hot.  Now, it is much cooler.  I may add another heat-sink to the RPM meter since that one also gets warmer than I believe it should.

The 1st step was to pull apart my original dash and start measuring everything.  I have some CAD back ground, so I drew everything up in Auto CAD.  Once this was done, I have another buddy that works in a shop that has a laser cutter.  All he had to do was dump my Auto CAD file into it, and a short time later, my dash was cut out perfectly!  This plate included all the holes (12 of them) to fasten it onto the vehicle.  Since I was going to have this cut out with a laser, I opted to use the rectangular hole switches instead of the traditional round hole switches.  The rectangular switches look better, and don't spin on ya.  I also got the kind that light up.  The three holes in the center above the main dash will be for the alternator indicator, and maybe a future alarm light.  That still gives me one spare.  The upper right cut out will be for the existing temperature controls in the truck, and the lower right will be for the stereo system.

Since I posted the above picture, I have wire brushed the dash and it has really given it a good textured finish.

Originally, I was going to use separate round gauges until I found the digital dash.  Have a look at my first drawing.  the measurements may not be correct, so don't try and use them for your own.

Here are some pictures of the dash coming out.  I had to cut out the small plate in the lower right corner that supported the existing head Light, and Wind Shield Wipers switches.  These switches will now be mounted into my new Dash Plate.

Other small things I have done while making the mods were replacing the dome light with a orange turn signal dome.  This gives off a nice warm glow.  Since this unit had a duel filament bulb intended for a running light, and a turn signal light, I decided to use the running filament because the turn signal was just to bright.  I will also be placing some smaller running light marker lights down near your feet to light the floor area up better.  These will also be of the orange variety.

While the dash project is going on, I wanted to redo some of the wiring.  Basically, any system that I had to change, or on some way modify, I removed that section off of the original fuse block, into my own.  This way I new exactly what went where, and how it works.  I'm sure you have looked at original manufactures wiring schematics and scratched your head a few times.  Well, I have an electrical, and industrial controls back ground, so this has helped me considerably.   This is what i came up with.  The fuses may be way over kill, but if I ever have a wiring problem, I will be able to trace it down to the exact system.  Never again will one bare wire take out multiple devices.  This was also drawn up on CAD.

More Coming Soon . . . Maybe . . .