Lil Hussy

Lil Hussy is a classic 1974 Ford Bronco.  The history of this bronco is completely unknown to the Rabblerouser race team.  Bobby found the bronco on Craigslist, and immediately fell in love with it.  The previous owner who lives in Oregon, purchased the bronco from an owner on the east coast about 10 years ago.  The two previous owners met halfway in Illinois in the middle of the night, and their transaction was made.  With this said, the last owner of 10 years knows nothing of it’s history.

We believe this bronco was built for racing in the late 70s, and at that time, we believe it was one of the toughest bronco’s around.  All of the technology put into the bronco is over 30 years old, but it was done right.  Here are some of the specs.

Suspension:

(4) rancho shocks on each front tire

(3) rancho shocks on each rear tire—Total of 14 shocks!

Lift seems to be a 2” lift on a good day.  No body lift

Stock radius arms, drag link, tie rods, and rest of the front steering components.

Motor:

351 Windsor with acclaimed 12.5:1 compression.  We were told to only run race fuel, so we are currently running 108 Octane.

  •       Holly Double pumper carburetor.
  •       Old skool Mallory ignition
  •       Hooker super competition headers
  •       Power steering.

Brakes:

The brakes were a set up we have never seen before.  The brake pedal and clutch pedal were welded together, and there is a master cylinder push rod connected to each pedal.  In the engine compartment, there are two master cylinders.  One master is for the front brakes, and one is for the rear brakes. 

Drivetrain:

  •   Rear end is a custom (back yard) trussed ford 9” with 5:32 to 1 gears, and spooled.  There is a caliper bracket  welded to the housing, and it has rear disc brakes.  Axles are 31 spline, and the tire studs are massive.  It took a 1-    3/8” wrench to loosen them. The third member has a hairline crack, and must be replaced.
  •    Front end is also a custom trussed Dana 44.  It runs open differential, and also has front brakes.
  •   Transmission is a C-6 with a racing shift kit.
  •   Transfer case is a stock Dana 20.

Roll Cage:

Roll cage is a completely caged 2” – thick wall tube cage.  It will need some updating to pass SCORE regulations, but seems pretty stout.

Misc:

Old, rusted out fuel cell.  The frame rails were actually cut down a bit and boxed, so the cell would fit between the frame rails.  It came with a Mallory fuel pump and fuel filter that turned out to be garbage.

  •       Oil cooler and transmission cooler that were also garbage.
  •       Gauges are marginal, but will work for the time being.
  •       Seats are plastic molded Summit Racing specials with seat covers.
  •       Electrical needs some TLC.

Right after we picked it up, we took it for a test drive, before tearing into it.  For the mild terrain we hit, the suspension seemed to do OK.  The motor sounds very healthy, and has some real potential once it’s tuned properly.  The transmission and gears seemed to be working fine as well.  We have a pretty good foundation, and the placement of things gives us a road map of how we should install our new parts.  It’s going to take some work, but a lot of the heavy lifting is done for us.