I posted this in another thread but thought it need it's own.


I have an 86 f-150 4X2 4.9l.

After spending half the day yesterday at the local pick and pull looking for EFI exhaust, I started looking really hard at the front suspension on the truck I got the manifolds from. It was a 95 f-150 with the EFI 4.9. The front 4x4 twin i-beam suspension appears to be close to the same set up (cross member, how and where everything attaches to the frame). I also ran across an 86 f-150 4x4 to salvage parts from for the tranfer case, transmission and cross member.
Without having my truck sitting right next to the salvaged trucks, I couldn't closely compare the two, but it looks like the conversion could possibly be done.

My question is, can this conversion be done without making major modifications to the frame? Are the radius arm mounts and the coil spring mounts in the same location on the frame? Can the tow suspensions be swapped out for each other fairly painlessly?

 

As you suspect, it's a bolt in job. I am not sure what you mean by "tow" suspensions. If you mean sway bars, yes they bolt in also.

 

If you look around there are tons of writeups on how to do this swap.

 

LOL, typo, I meant two.

 

Ok, so I have been reading the other posts on this conversion and one thing I'm still not sure on is the years. Am I correct on assuming that I can pull the front end 4x4 parts from any F-150 truck 80 to 96 that uses the twin I beam suspension? And does the engine cross member need to be changed or can the existing 2wd cross member work?

 

Any truck from 80-96 will bolt in. The crossmember will work, no need to change it. The differences through the years where small changes to brakes, locking nuts on the bearings, etc. but if you keep the axle all together, the whole thing will bolt in.

 

Does anyone know if a bronco 4x4 front end will bolt into an F150? Or a explorer for that matter?

 

Yes, you can swap in the Bronco front axle into an F-150. The Explorer would take some fabrication, but it's been done. You might want to check out The Ranger Station.

 

Thanks for the info and the website. I've convinced my wife that we "need" to keep my 95 so now I need to convince her that we "need" to convert it to 4X4