I just bought this on a whim, I paid $950 for it but I think I made out alright. It's a 302 with a c6 that was originally a 300ci/4spd. I don't know what kind of lift it has, how high it is or if the axles are limited slip or anything like that. One tire is smaller than the others and I'm going to replace both fronts.

Any estimate on how high the lift is? I don't even know how to measure it. It needs a lot of work, but there's enough truck there to make something useful out of it. I want to be able to tow a car or boat with it once I get the front end sorted to drive strait and smooth on the highway.

Right now it's so out of whack I can't even take it over 45mph. I imagine it needs ball joints, tie rods, drag links, etc. I just did a ball joint job on a TTB Bronco so I'm familiar with the process.

Is there any hope that I can get the TTB to drive true at 65mph towing a boat or car?

 

I'm sure when you start looking it over you'll keep finding things wrong, or that need fixing, but from the pics, it doesn't look like you went wrong. My cousin bought one for $3000 and had to spend about that much making it road ready.

 

Um... Yeah. I towed an escort one time on a dolly at 80+ with my Bronco. I literally forgot it was back there.

Inspect/replace: ball joints, pivot bushings, radius arm bushings, tie-rods/drag link and get it aligned and you should be fine. Also check the wheel bearings - if they're loose they can cause the front to wander.

 

The suspension, in good shape, won't be your problem when towing a car or a heavy boat at 65. But the 302 might, depending on gear ratio. However, most people that have lifted a truck have put low geared differentials in it, so you will probably be fine. I say that because some of the 300/4-speed trucks had really high-geared diff's when new.

 

It looks like it's just got a 2 or 3'' body lift to me. Body lifts are ugly on most trucks. Notice the gap between the frame and the bed, the bumpers being lower than the sheetmetal, etc.

While you're going over the steering, check all your bushings in the front end too. And make SURE that the body lift was put on halfway correct.

It can have an 8.8'' or 9'' rear end. You can have gear ratios from 2.73 to 4.10. If it's a 300 with a 4-speed and 4x4, it probably had 3.08 or 3:00:1 gearing in it from the factory. The 4-speed in it was probably a T-18 or a New Process with a granny gear. With a C6 and a 302, this might be a problem for a towing truck. A 302 with a C6 really likes 3.27 (8.8)/3.25 (9'') or 3.55 (8.8)/3.50(9'') gearing. You'll find the truck might be a dog when you start towing. The taller tires simulate numerically lower gears as well.

Other than the tires, the body lift, some body and paint work, and making sure the motor and transmission are right, it looks like you could have a keeper.

Make sure that you take that truck to get an alignment as well. Putting bigger tires on the TTB than what came from the factory without changing the camber/caster bushings adds negative camber to the tires and pushes the top of the tires into the wheel well when it sits still.

How's the wiring on that thing? None of it is butchered up I hope.

It still baffles me when someone takes a 300 out and sticks in a 302. But hey, to each their own.

 

Bingo - both the tall gears and taking a torque monster of a 300 out and installing a ..... wimpy 302. I don't care how much go-fast you put on the 302 there's no way to get around the lack of mechanical advantage it lacks - read stroke. Couple that with tall gears and it won't get out of its own way when towing, and the C6 is gonna get HOT due to all the slippage.

 

Which brings me to two more points...

Torque is due in most part to a longer stroke. Longer rods increase torque as well.

And, that C6 overheating IS gonna be a problem, so the OP might want to take a look at aftermarket transmission coolers. I'd have one anyway, regardless of if I towed or not. It just helps extend the life of the transmission, so no real reason why you shouldn't have one.

 

Amen. That's the reason I brought it up. As opposed to today's transmissions that lock the torque converter, the C6's torque converter slips all the time, and more as you add load. Further, with tall gears you are actually requiring the engine and transmission to supply more torque than with lower gears, and the torque converter slips even more.

 

Yeah, I don't know who put the 302 in there, I prefer the 300 strait-6 myself. I'm not POSITIVE it was a manual. I know it was a 300-6 for sure but don't know about original trans. Would a 300-6 4x4 have come with a c6 if it was auto? If it did, they may have re-used the original stuff and just plopped a 302 in front of it, could have been an auto from the factory.

I'll have to check on gear ratios, I'm not really sure what it's good for because it has a dumb Holley with blown power valves and I hate Holleys, just personal preference. I ordered a 500cfm AFB replacement 4bbl to go in its place.

I would say the wiring IS butchered but I work on all kind of electrical nightmares on new Volvos, I don't expect trouble from a 30 year old Ford, this thing has less wiring than a riding mower. I'm very good with electrical and it's just a matter of un-butchering what's there. Doesn't scare me a bit.

The TTB however, does scare me a little. I have an alignment rack at my dealer which I can use as much as needed, I plan to line it all up myself.

I don't need to tow any more than 4500lbs, it has an external trans cooler, hopefully that's enough. I've never had a vehicle with a c6 but I've heard they are pretty stout.

 

The 300 and 302 share a bell housing bolt pattern, so it would be fairly easy to replace the engine and keep the tranny.

As for the Holley, wanna join my IHateHolleys club? Good move to put an AFB on - either the Carter or E'brock version. No power valves to blow, just set it and forget it.

 

YES! I would like to join that club, thanks to previous experiences my first instinct was to relocate the Holley to the dumpster and install a Carter AFB in its place. I'm not going to try and fix something that's a piece of crap in the first place.

Could you get a posi front or rear with the 300-6 4x4? It would be superb if there's already one in the front and/or rear.

How do you think this would do in the snow and offroad if it doesn't have any posi units? Even with both front hubs locked it's still not a locked axle, I mean one wheel can spin while the other doesn't correct?

 

The trucks could be ordered with LS in the rear, but not the front. Check the rear diff for a tag hanging from a bolt at about the 11:00 position when looking from the front. But, even with an open diff on both ends it'll do pretty well in the snow. I used to have a Mercedes ML320 SUV with a pretty sophisticated AWD system. Got a really big snow and I took it out to play. It went quite well, but then I drove Dad's truck, the one I have now, and it blew the ML away. Found out recently that the LS in it was toast as I got stuck in a field in 2wd mode and spun only one tire. Locked the front in and pulled right out.

As for the Holley, don't toss it but sell it. There are lots of people who haven't worked on a good carb like a Carter/E'brock or Q-Jet so don't know what they are missing.

 

A good 4x4 truck with a good driver can go just about anywhere. Look at Land Rovers and FJ40s.

300's did come with C6's from the factory.

You could get a limited slip from the factory in the rear, but the front limited slip is kind of hard to find from the factory, though some do exist. The best setup you can do for a 4x4 is to put a limited slip in the front and an automatic locker or limited slip in the rear. You can do just fine with an open front and limited slip rear though. Ford called their limited slip a "Trac-Lok". Do NOT put a locker in the front.

All the manual hubs do is engage/disengage the front wheels from the differential's axle drive-shafts. What's in the differential will dictate whether one wheel spins or both wheels spin.

If you can get underneath the truck and look at the rear differential, you'll see one of two things. You'll see a smooth differential with no cover on the rear, just a big hump. This is a 9'' rear end. Or, you'll see a differential with a bolt on cover. This is an 8.8'' rear end. You could get either one in 1983. If you have an 8.8'' rear, you might still have the tag bolted to the differential cover that will tell you the ratio and whether or not you have limited slip. You'll probably have to unbolt the tag and pull it all the way off to see what the ratio is. The tag might say "3 08" or "3L08" or "3 55" etc. The L in the middle stands for limited slip. The numbers are your ratio. Ford paired the front end with these trucks with a 0.01 difference in gearing. This helps the front end pull more without damage due to drive line bind. You can have 3.07/3.08 gearing, 3.54/3.55 gearing, etc.

Here is a 9'' rear end:



Here is an 8.8'' rear end:



We can tell you almost everything about your truck, but we need a picture of the driver's side door jamb sticker. Bear in mind, the sticker only has the codes for what originally came on the truck.

If you look on the sticker under "trans" you should see a letter. If I remember right, K is for a C6 automatic. A is a New Process 435 4-speed manual. I think B is for the T-18 (not sure on that one).

If you run open differentials, you can do just fine in up to a foot or so of snow, maybe more but you have to watch how you're driving.

 

It's an 8.8" rear, forgot to mention that earlier, need to see if the tag is still there to find out if it's trac-lok or not.

I'm not with the truck, I keep it at my girlfriend's house because there's more space to work on it and I probably won't be over there until Saturday.

I would hope it can get through more than a foot of snow, I mean the floorboards are almost 3 feet off the ground. It might be hard to tell, maybe this is a better perspective:



I used to have a pretty stock 1987 Jeep Wagoneer (XJ Cherokee with fake wood) save for bigger tires. Since it was a fully loaded Limited model, it had limited slip front and rear and it was so wonderful in the snow. It would push through almost 2 feet of snow with relative ease.

I am very excited, I kinda really like the truck and I'm probably getting ahead of myself but I like to fantasize about how good it will be once it's road worthy. Every time I acquire a cheap project I find that researching what I got is half the fun.

 

I'm interested in how this turns out, my projects always seem to turn into money pits.