Looks really good! I'd like to have your current wheels...

Now that you know what it takes to get the D44 steering arm off, you will be much better off if you can locate a 76/77 F250 highboy open knuckle D44 arm, instead of using that 3" steer block. The 76/77 F250 arm sets approximately 2" higher than the 77.5/79 F250's.



This particular truck has a 6" Skyjacker lift with SJ drop pitman arm, SJ drop drag link, along with the 76/77 F250 arm



I believe it reads as F 3 8 0 8 3 L

 

Looking good! Can't wait to see it on the 35s

 

Looks great Mike! I'm curious about how you and your uncle got the pitman arm off the knuckle? I just broke dwon and bought a set of knuckles that had already been machined for cross-over steering, but I'd still like to get the arm off my original d/s knuckle.

Also, what gears are you running in your truck? I'm going to do the same lift as you, but am on the fence about upgrading my D44 to 4.10 gears, or just stick with the 3.54 ratio that are currently in there.

 

We did a lot of different things to try and get the arm off. Ultimately it took a lot of heat, penatrating oil, air hammers and chisels. We heated up the cones then doused them with penatrating fluid several times. We also took a air hammer to both the top and bottom side of the arm. eventually we got the cones loose enough to spin them out with a hammer and chisel. This probably took us about 5 hours. It was a real pain. I have 4:11s in the truck, so that should work well with the 35s.

 

I'd say I'd have you beat on the ridiculousness lol

 

Haha yeah, you've go a 6" while I have a 4. What happened to the 38.5s?!

 

Yep! Also skyjacker and Rancho probably aren't exactly the same in terms of their definition of 4" and 6" lifts, if that makes any sense. But either way yea mine sits a little higher. I took the tires off since I'm not 4 wheeling right now and could use the extra mile per gallon lol

 

Well I have a little bit of an update. I put on my new stainless steel braided brake lines. The truck was still using it's original rubber lines and with the 4" lift I was really pushing it. If the truck was a mall crawler it probably would have been fine, but I like to take the truck back on the farm and I feared that if I was the flex and turn the steering wheel, that I might snap a line. I got the lines from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard for $72 + shipping. I think they are made by Crown and the are US made. All in all I'm pleased with my purchase and trust my brakes more now.



I also got new tail lights for the truck. The old ones were dull and cracking in the rear, so I thought it would be a good idea to freshen up the lighting. I also got these from bronco graveyard for $15 a piece. I was a little disappointed. The molding on one of the lights was defective. For the left tail light reverse socket, it had a lot of flash on it, requiring me to trim a lot of the opening with a razor blade. Also, the lights come with a larger thick gasket, which pushes the tail light out of the bed. The final flaw is the hole for the two screws, it's too small. When I screwed in the tail light I heard the plastic stressing and cracking as the screw expanded the plastic. I should have reamed out the holes more, but I got lazy. Anyway, they light up brighter. I'll probably look for some NOS lights eventually, but these will do for now.



My final update is regarding my tires. They finally came in! I got 315/75/16 Generally Grabber AT2s. I have them on my F-150 and love them. 40k miles later and they still have about 50% tread. I have family that works for General Tire, so I saved over $300 on the set. Going with the Grabber AT2 was a no brainer for me. Hopefully I'll get them mounted on the truck later today. I can't wait to see what it looks like.

 

Finally got the tires mounted! They change the entire look of the truck. I'm ecstatic with the overall stance of the truck and the rims look great with the new tires. I might lift the rear another inch, but that won't be till later. The tires ride great and the final drive ratio is matched much better with the 35s and 4:11s. My dog Pabst is in the truck.

 

Looks great!

 

Pabst is one good looking lab! Truck is turning out great! Keep us updated

 

Thanks everyone! I'm very pleased with it. We got a couple inches of snow yesterday so I couldn't resist taking the truck out back on the farm to test out the new mods. It did fantastic with everything I threw at it.

 

It's a personal preference but I'd remove the running boards unless you absolutely need them. It'll make the truck look like it sits a little higher.

 

That's true, but I don't think I could do it. The steps are so convenient and they protect the cab from mud and rocks. My cab corners are perfect and I contribute alot of that to the running boards. I have a brand new set of NOS ones ready to go on when I do paint and body work. You can see in some of the pictures that the passenger side step is damaged. That was from a blow out several years ago. I've toyed with the idea of removing them, but I think I'm going to keep them. At least for now.

 

That's what mud flaps are for!