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"Tom's Bronco Parts Twin Stick Install" | |
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Tom's
Bronco Parts 2294 Sage Road Medford, OR 97501
w w w . t o m s b r o n c o p a r t s . c o m
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More and more we are seeing these mass buys happening. What is a mass buy? It's when you get a group together to buy a specific product from a manufacturer or retailer and getting a discount through buying power with big numbers. The retailers are introduced to the idea and see what kind of discount we can get based on the number of units sold. Cool idea for buyers and sellers alike! One way we get the numbers up is through email lists, such as the Early Bronco Mailing List and Early Bronco Entertainment (BroncoFix) and message forums. Members are in the thousands now. Eric Fennel started researching his twin stick purchase and came up with the idea to try a mass buy. The request went out to the numerous lists and people starting lining up. With these informal numbers, Eric went to the different Bronco houses trying to get the best deal on the best twin sticks on the market. Enter Tom's Bronco Parts....... He was willing to mass produce and sell at a discounted price the following unit and its accessories purchased through the mass buy. | |
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| Twin stick shifter, T-shift style & J-shift style transfer case. Shifters are made of stainless steel and come with mounting hardware. With the twin stick shifter you can shift independently into front or rear wheel drive, high or low range. Thus giving you a multitude of uses. Shifter requires shift rail modification. | |
| I had been looking over the Bronco sites researching my twin stick options. I decided to get in on this mass buy and call Tom's. The gentleman at the sales desk was very knowledgeable about the twin stick and answered all my questions. Once he took my information, my twin stick was on the way. I figured they would be really busy and I would see my twin stick for awhile. But, it hit my doorstep in three days. Right on! | |
| This is what came in the box from Tom's Bronco Parts. I ordered the twin stick for my 1973 Ford Bronco with a T-shifter and the dual boot. |
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First thing to do was to take the old T shifter out. The previous owner of my bronco had cut an access hole in the cowl which made it easy to access the shifter assembly. Also having a 2" body lift made some stretching room between the body and transfer case. |
| Next you need to take off the cotter pins holding the linkage on the shift rails. Once you loose, I mean take off the cotter pins you need to remove the bolt holding the T shifter to the transfer case. The head of the bolt was 11/16" and the nut was 5/8". I then removed the shifter boot and pulled the assembly out through the whole in the cowling. |
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Here's a good shot of the difference between the two style of shifters. |
| I slid the new shifter into place. No instructions came with my shifter, but it seemed pretty straight forward. The first obstacle was the size of the bolt they sent would not fit the top hole on the transfer case. I had to drill it out to 1/2" to get their bolt to fit. Glad I had a 12" drill bit on hand to do that. |
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Next I had to open up the hole because the twin stick has a wider stance. Always like getting the sawzall out for a spin! |
| This is a good shot of the installation of the bolts into the transfer case. Once you are to this point it's time to put the pins into the linkage and shift rail. Good luck with the cotter pins. The older I get the harder it is to hang onto little things in tight places. |
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The installation is complete. All that's left is to figure out a way to attach the shift boot. It would be nice to have a billet ring to skirt the boot. And I made a diamond plate cover for the shitty hole in the cowl. (Not in picture). Overall it was a piece of cake to install the twin stick for a T shifter. You need to cut a plate that goes between the shift rails for J style shifter. But the rest of the assembly is the same. |
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One more thing......... a big thank you goes out to Eric for his relentless pursuit of this mass buy! Great work. Hope to see you out on the trail! |
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| Technical article and
photos are copyright © 2004, Motoman's
Madness. Do not duplicate without express permission from
Greg Banfield aka Motoman!
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