Installing a motor that was never intended to fit a '78 bronco means I have to fab my own mounting points. Here's what the original mounts look like.

August 21st 2004:

I used a plasma cutter to remove the mounts so I could set the new engine in place. How well does it fit? The exhaust manifolds are barely inside the frame, so they will determine where the engine sits left to right. The brake booster diaphragm comes very close to contacting the driver's side valve cover and it looks like the steering box I sent off to have rebuilt may interfere with the steering pump. Also the lower radiator hose looks pinched between the steering pump and frame. Raising the engine would help, but the brake booster prevents it. My options are relocating the brake booster to get it out of the way, or use the booster from the '04 which may or may not operate on the same pressure.

September 26th 2004:

I found the engine fit best when I pushed as far back as possible. Once I felt it was in its final resting place I tack welded the mounts to the frame and pulled the motor out leaving the mounts in place. I then finished welding the mounts with plenty of room to move.

One problem with where I put the engine was the passenger exhaust manifold pointed right at the frame. This isn't too suprising once you realize that the '04 frame is about three inches wider than the '78. Rather than experiment with aftermarket manifolds I decided to notch the frame and reenforce its exterior with some heavy square tube.

The before picture on the left shows the area of the frame that's in the way. The arrow points out the factory body mount. The picture on the right shows the completed modifications. Since I was removing the factory body mount anyway I decided to replace it with one off the '04.

Here's a view from the outside.

With the engine placement done I can start on the firewall. Here it is all cut away!

I'm taking Ford's "patented quite steel" firewall from the '04 and using it on the Bronco. Neat stuff by the way. Sounds like plastic, welds like steel! Here's half of it tacked in place.

October 3rd 2004:

With part of the firewall sitting in place I installed the ductwork and fit the new dash. It required quite a bit of trimming, but it eventually went in with enough room for my knees!

October 16th 2004:

It turns out the new ductwork doesn't leave much room for the windshield wiper motor inside the cab. The '04 simply had it outside the cab above the engine bay. I'm going to try the same thing on the '78. Below are the parts disassembled. At the top is the steel pipe I bored out to fit two bronze bushings. I then turned a shaft to fit the bushings with 0.002" clearance. I milled one end of the shaft to match the D-hole on the wiper lever from the '04 and drilled the end to accept the original wiper shaft from the '78. Silver solder worked great for securing those pieces together. The remaining parts were purchased with the bushings.

This is what it looks like assembled. Tomorrow I'll weld the pipe into a plate bolted to the firewall so the whole assembly can be removed if needed. The end with the collar will protrude into the cab under the dash but this can't be helped due to the location of the firewall. At least the motor and levers will be outside the cab so any noise they generate won't be heard.

November 7th 2004:

Inserting the wipers required trimming a lot more sheet metal away. This ended up being a good thing since it helped me visualize the best way to connect the new firewall with the body. Here you can see the wipers and linkage installed right above the new sheet metal piece tacked in place. Now I can work on mounting the new wiper motor and make any linkage modifications that are needed.

Here's the inside view. Notice the accelerator pedal mounted in place. Also the newly fabbed wiper bearing assemblies can be seen protruding from under the windshield.

November 14th 2004:

Below is a picture of my wiper motor installed with the test wires still connected. Instead of just having power and ground terminals the motor has a 12 pin connector leading to a microprocessor and hall effect switch built in that control the wiper speed, delay, and stop position. I had to connect just the right combination of pins so I could test the new linkage in slow speed operation. Also I needed to make sure when the motor found it's park position the wipers were fully retracted.

Once the wiper was in I decided to confirm the fit of the sheet metal with the engine. It's a little tighter than I thought it would be around the transmission, so I'm glad I checked.

12/5/04

I was getting tired of playing with sheet metal so I thought I might work on mounting the transmission. I was trying to make part of the transmission support from the '78 work but found it interfered with the new exhaust.

Here it is mounted in the vehicle.