Hey everyone!

I would like to hear from anyone who has done an axle swap, steering, brakes, or powertrain as I would like to know what type of unforeseen issues exist as my time is limited. Right now I'm seeing if it will be possible to do in time, and I really hope it is, but I need some feed back and need to better understand the man hours involved.

Bit of a beautifully chaotic mess for me at the moment, but I can't help but really want to see if I can't drive my truck in this move verse having to ship it.


What I need to do is swap the axles with suspension, new tires, brakes, but I would also like to swap out the engine and powertrain as well. I haven't bought parts yet, right now I'm just trying to understand what all I will be biting off.

The truck drives, but the brakes are very worn out and since it's an F600, not a quick fix. Since I was planning on making it a 4x4 and thus have to swap the axles anyways, I figured I'd just upgrade the brakes that way. However I've never done this, it looks simple enough but I don't want to ship a truck in pieces vs a driving one. My concerns are lining everything up right as well as setting up the brakes and the steering. The steering I still need to look at and understand how that works.

The powertrain seems easy enough, though I'd want to swap to a Triton 5.4 so there will be computers involved. I'm not going to be making the paint pretty, I just want to put it together so I can really drive it. As of right now I stop a lot like a horse on ice. It's ok for this town and some driving, but no way it should go 1,000 miles at 50mph. Assuming I could get it to go that fast, lol.

Thanks for the help as always!

 

Stephen, gonna need to know what parts you plan on using. Frame swap or just the axles? If just axles, which springs? Steering will likely require some fab and more u-joints to line up the column.

Sounds like you will have to blow the whole truck apart and do it all at once.....

 

Exactly!

Welcome back, Stephen! What you're looking at is no way less than a major job. Sad to say it.

 

Thanks

Yeah I've been afraid of that. It's always easiest to do it all at once, and maybe I should wait till there isn't a deadline behind it.

For parts I don't have too exact and much to research to still do to give a better answer. Just axles I think, Dana 60 up front, ideally from a late '70s Ford so it will have disc brakes. Steering I still need to research out, I have been told the original steering set up would work, that I wouldn't have to change things up if I used the older axles, but I still need to research that out and how those ones work. Plus all the brakes and alignment...

My plan was to do the axles, then if there was time the powertrain, but I'll still need a driveshaft worked on, I highly doubt I'll be so lucky again to just have one work. The engine will be a newer 5.4 Triton, but at this point I think I'm just asking for trouble to do it now verse down the road a little bit.

Still... one can't be drawn in by the idea of driving it how you want it setup... and being able to stop at a normal rate, lol.

It does make me wonder if I could do a frame swap quicker rather than just the parts. However this has it's own hurdles for sure.

 

I find that the work usually expands to fill the time available!!

 

Depending on your time frame, I think you are setting yourself up for a lot of frustration if you try to hammer out the axle swap fast. There are always a multitude of little things that will each take a day to do and, when time is getting tight, you will be tempted to make some compromises that could bite you in the future (like brake failure, u-joint explosion, etc).

As much as I would be tempted to try to force it together to drive it, you will be a lot better off to ship it and take your time to do it right if you don't have everything planned out and enough time to do it correctly now.

 

All ya need now to make the trip is better brakes, right? So what is all wrong with the brakes ya got. ya can rebuild or replace the wheel cyl, hardware and shoes in a day. The master must work as do some of the other parts or ya wouldn't be driving it now. I say overhaul what ya got and head on out. When that truck was new it could slide all four tires.

 

I'm in the middle of a 4x4 conversion right now on my F-3, and its no easy task. I'm using a Dana 44hd out of a 77 f-250 up front (had to custom narrow the housing to match stock axle width) will have to send axle shafts out to be narrowed as well. Dana 60 rear out of a 68 f-250, which was a bolt in. Still fabbing up engine/tranny/t-case mounts for the 1978 351m, np435 4spd, and np-205. Steering im in the planning stages, but believe I can use a stock 78 f-150 4x4 steering box if I modify the passenger side knuckle for a cross over high steer (readily available because of the off road market)

Not trying to scare ya out of the idea, but ive had to figure and re-figure this project on multiple occasions. I'm not sure how it would go if I had a hard deadline.

 

Are you still in Wyoming?

 

Yeah I think I need to wait, history has taught me what takes the most amount of time is what I didn't plan for having to deal with, lol. I think my 4x4 swap will be a little bit easier since I shouldn't have to shorten the axles. I planned it out a while back and the F600 is a little bit wider in a way that allows for the fullsize axle width.

The brakes work, maybe a power booster that it should have would help a lot, the problem is is that it locks up badly and I skid like I'm on ice with it when having to stop even somewhat quickly. In other words at a higher speed I'll probably go sideways at this time, not worth the risk. Plus it hasn't gone more than maybe 10 miles in a single trip, who knows what problems could arise. Between crappy tires, crappy stopping and poor gas mileage, it's voyage will have to wait till it's rebuilt.

I'm still in Wyoming. After thinking it all through I think I will be better off doing it on the other side of things. Easier if I had a proper driveway at the very least, no need to make things more complicated and stressful. I should be on the road to the Seattle area sometime in July I'd say.


Thanks for the advise, sometimes I think I just have to write out my thoughts to get them processed, lol.

 

I Stephen, glad to see you back on the forum! I agree you should wait. You will incounter alot of obstacles and each one takes time to figure out....

Is there one doner truck that would have the engine trans and axles that your looking for? That would be the way to go if there is.

It was 18months of saturdays to do my 56 f600 engine, trans, and axle swap. I only used the engine and fuel tank from the doner 94 f700 still had to find the 6speed and diesel friendly rear end (3.31 ratio) ... Anderson Bros. (truck wreckers) in Oregon is where I found the rear end. www.andersonbrotherstruck.com/‎