I am in no way a religious person, but for the love of god PLEASE don't run stacks!
That is one step down from treason, esp. on a OBS Ford.

Use car-part.com or other junk yard search engines to find hubs. They also come up on ebay sometimes.

 

I just have a downpipe because it had large muffler and catalytic converter! so I was getting like 14mpg at best but now 16 mpg going 65 mph or 55 towing a trailer with a jeep on it going over the grapevine (if anyone knows what that is) and then LA traffic.

 

Researching 4x4 conversion of my '97 crew cab dually. Can someone give me a ballpark cost of parts to do this? And a sense for how many gazillion hours by a decent wrench to make it all happen? Lastly, any sense for increased value of a well-done 4x4 conversion on what was 2wd from the factory? Truck is very clean and stock in virtually all other aspects. Thanks.

 

If done properly nobody would really be able to tell it wasn't 4wd aside from paperwork.

The best way would be to have a parts truck that is 4wd. Then you can pull all the odds and ends off. Wouldn't be too intensive besides swapping the transmission. Front axle swap is easy, throw on an rsk with some SD springs and get a better ride and level it out at same time.

Or you could swap to 05+ axles and get coils on the front. Depends where you're at. Theres a complete 08 ish F350 srw 4wd frame complete with axles by me for cheap

 

Thanks Brett. I've already started the search for donor truck. What year range would you recommend? I'm not terribly fussy about suspension/ride quality.

 

Year range is really anything 80-97 for the F350. 99-04 Superduty F350 axle and springs can fit with an appropriate RSK. An decent rsk runs about 400 and springs the same new or can be found locally.

Just nite if you get the 99+ stuff you'll want to swap the rear axle too as the lugs switched to a metric pattern.

 

Thanks Brett. I will shop in the '80 to '04 range. On the lug change to metric pattern, can you elaborate on that? I don't understand why stock rear axle would become incompatible with 99+ 4WD front axle.

 

The axle itself would be fine, however the lug pattern is different so you'd need different wheels on the front and rear.

 

Thanks Brett. Sorry to be thick on the nuances of mixing axle years.