Some pictures from my recent journey. I felt like 1986 driving this thing across the country. It was awesome.

 

Wow, thanks for all the pictures and the write-up! Reps for all that work.

Ya know, I have a 1981 F350 4x4 400 cid 4-spd that's needed ball joints & pivot bushings and all that stuff for the 10+ years I've owned it.

I finally succumbed to the pressures of real life and farmed out the job to a local guy with decades of Ford experience who is wanting to retire soon... I figured I'm never going to make the time to do this job myself and I either throw the truck away and get something more modern needing less work, or pay somebody else to do it.

I really don't like to pay people to do something I can do myself but sometimes it makes sense to do that.

Anyway, if I had decided to do the job myself, your thread might have been helpful - do you have a Dana 50 up front?

I do; one good thing about these old trucks is that there were bajillions of them built and the aftermarket support is still pretty good; I'm also using Moog parts and also, hey, this might interest people, I'll post pictures when I get the truck back...

This guy fabbed up some front shock mount brackets so I can have 4 shocks total in the front, 2 per side.

Ford had offered that configuration on certain Broncos & F150s but apparently not for the 250 & 350, so he made the system himself. The shocks he used are standard equipment for the rear of, um, I think a Ranchero, I'll figure out the details before I post that stuff.

But thanks again for your write-up & pictures.

 

Hey ctubutis, and thanks so much! :

I checked the price to have it all done when I was in Iowa. I about choked when I found out it was going to run me over $1000 in labor.

I've got the Dana 44 up front.

You never know what someone may need. I know some of the stuff I post is common knowledge to quite a few on here. That being so I find that a lot of this information goes unmentioned. So someone like me who isn't too familiar comes along and has a hard time finding the answers to simple questions. But that's just like me, to get the difficult stuff and struggle with the easy stuff.

Dual front shocks would be pretty awesome.

Not a problem! I appreciate the appreciation! lol

 

sometimes, friends, sometimes,
I DRIVE her out of the shop...

geat pics. thank you,

I have to go to the shop, I have to do a couple, only a little...


hardy, can't wait

 

Still kicking. Carrying tools to work across the pass. Total of three large tool boxes. In truck and trailer. Rollers and toppers full of tools. Teton pass is up to 10* grade. At the top is 8400 feet above sea level. The end of the video looking down and to the right is the town of Jackson WY. Where I live. It's average elevation is 6200.

Still running an out of the box Edelbrock 1407 750 manual choke mechanical secondaries carburetor. It's super rich. It was rich before at 1000 to 1600 feet. I go home (Missouri) in April. 10 months. I'm rebuilding the engine, transmission, t-case and rear end then.

The 460 consumes oil. It builds up excess crankcase pressure and pushes oil out where it can. Typically the dipstick tube. 60 or 65mph it does this too. Or with a heavy load. Uhaul luckily didn't notice my rust prevention on their trailer this time. The T19 has a really loud bearing noise in 3rd gear. The heavier the load the louder it is. The rear end I have to tighten the yoke once ever 6 months or so. It needs rebuilt with a new crush washer and a 10.5 yoke. It also has a bad seal in the passenger side. It's contaminated the brake shoes with gear oil which aren't that old.

I won't be driving this back to MO. It will be trailered. I don't think it will make it. It starts getting warm when pulling a heavy load. I've worked this truck hard. Pulling loads across the mountains. Sometimes in 3rd gear at 3800 to 4000 the whole way. It won't pull most of them in 4th.

I'm saving up and anticipating an awesome rebuild when I get home. Anyhow. That's what's up.

 

What a write up! I am buying the same truck, even the same color, this Saturday in Vegas. I'm gonna solve a ton of issues just with this thread. Thanks man! Are you on the Bullnose Facebook pages by chance?

 

Here are the pictures of the dual-shock retro-conversion the guy did on the front of my truck, my notes say they're Monroe #34911