Does anyone know or have a diagram from a manual showing the front differential on a 66 F-100 4X4? Im in the process of tearing down the front suppension on this truck, and other than the wheel bearings in the drum/hub and the bearing in the rear of the spindle shaft, I cant find any other bearings. After removing the steering knuckle and the front drive axle, the only thing I have found is a seal in the end of the axle housing. should'nt there be a bearing on the axle or in the housing?

Also need to know if a 4spd out of a 65 F-250 2WD 6cyl will work in this 66 4X4 V-8
Also if any body parts from 65 will work on 66 ie: front clip, doors, ect.

Thanks for any help...Eric

 

Eric-There are not any more bearings in that axle, except for the carrier bearings in the center section. The outer axle shaft(u-joint out to hub) is supported by the spindle bearing(or bushing) and the hub at the outside. The inner axle shaft "floats" supported by the spider gear(in center) and the u-joint.

It will likely match up, but check output for possible differences ie. bolt on or slip yoke.
Many pieces will match from those two years. There are some slight differences in trim and styles, but the basic parts match.

 

The 66 F100 Four wheel drive uses a mated case where as the F250 uses a divorced case. I have not seen where the T18 or 19 or NP435 can interchange the integral tail shaft as the 2x4 transmissions have a short tail output housing.

Go on line a get a LMC catalouge, it shows really good detail views from the ford shop manuals. It's Free

Or purchase a 66 shop manual that fully details the process of rebuilding the front dana on a 66

Garbz

 

First thing, second only maybe to batteries, wheel bearings are the most neglected item on these vintage trucks. Do everyone a favor and change 'em out on the vintage iron with some sweet Timken or Federal Mogul and some disc grease. why, you ask? My '64 effie bearings failed fairly when I threw in a half dozen bags of play-sand in the back, out on the highway - "midget with rubber mallet" sound... If you're going to inspect them, might as well replace them, the work is equiv.

Does the spicer 2wd F100 have full floating axles? The bearing was cracked in two. The shop cleaned out the diff and all that but I shudder to think if that happened at night on some pass somewhere. Interestingly, the part # for the bearing seems to have been specified for 48-79 which is a good run.

 

The last Federal Mogul(BCA) bearings I purchased were made in Romania, it seems it is getting harder to find "made in USA" anymore.

 

The '66 Ford Truck & Econoline service manuals are available for $35 under "Literature" at www.RockAuto.com . The manuals are on CD-ROM.

 

Besides the wheel brearings, there is a small brearing inside the hub housing, the axle rides on it inside the housing.

 

> I pulled the front drums and steering knuckles, and the front drive axles and the
> only bearings I can find are the 2 wheel bearings in the hub, and 1 in the back of
> the spindle shaft. there are none on the axle itself, or in the end of the housing.
> Should'nt there be a bearing on the axle somewhere?

Go to Jeffs Bronco Graveyard and look at the Dana 30 picture. This is exactly the same set up (and same mini kingpins, seals, and bearings) as the F-100 4x4 Dana 44. At least on the 67-72 models.

If the bearings in the spindle where the mini-king pins slide into are worn, you will have a lot of slop in the wheels just as if you had worn ball joints. Usually you get a bad shimmy and loose steering.

Stick your finger into the knuckle under the seal and you can feel the bearings. The only way to test the bearings is with everything assembled. If you search the 67-72 forum for "+mini +king +pin" you will pull up a lot of good information.

Also note that the drums are pressed on and if you do not want pressed on drums you have to hog out the stud holes. (search on my user name to bring up the topic). Otherwise if you just push on the drum instead of pressing it on, the front end will self-destrict while driving.