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1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks 1987 - 1996 Ford F-150, F-250, F-350 and larger pickups - including the 1997 heavy-duty F250/F350+ trucks

cab swap question

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Old Sep 19, 2015 | 12:34 PM
  #1  
BRay09's Avatar
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cab swap question

I have a 94 f350 7.3 idi that has a rotted out cab. I was going to repair it, but its too far gone for me to want to attempt that. I have a rust free 89 f250 cab that origionally had a 351w in it. Would this swap be pretty straight forward, or should i find a 92-96 cab to put on it. Ill be using the newer front end as i do not have a older core support for the diesel.
 
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Old Sep 19, 2015 | 05:11 PM
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The 87 to 91 cabs are direct swap with dash and pedal assys. 92 to 96 cabs are direct swap with dash and pedal assys. The wiring harness will be different also with diesel engines vs gas between the years(87 to 91, 92 to 96).

You can use the older cab but it's going to take some figuring out if you want to keep the newer dash installed. The mounting points are different.

As for the wire harness issue, I would use the diesel harness and install it into the better cab if you choose to use the older cab

Best and probably easiest way is find a 92 to 96 cab and swap the diesel harness over to it.
 
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Old Sep 19, 2015 | 06:36 PM
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As long as the lights and everything worked, i would have no issues with keeping the older dash in it. I would have to figure out the tach signal from the diesel and how the e40d (89cab had a 5 speed) wiring and computer? would go into the older cab... i have the 89 cab off the truck for aometime now and its just sitting around taking up space. Id like to use it, but if i cant then ill have to find another "clean" truck.
 
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Old Sep 19, 2015 | 07:44 PM
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I would swap the Diesel engine bay harness over into the 89 cab and make it work by reconnecting it at the 89's firewall bulkhead connector(big round one) One reason is the E4OD tranny and the ECU for it.

I have done this already to my 89 F250 by using a 92 engine bay wire harness(89's was hacked up badly). Took me a solid week to reverse engineer(trace out) the bulkhead connector wires between the years as I never found any of the bulkhead connectors schematics below the 95 years.


The best way may be a total wire harness swap(engine bay and cab) and adapted the 92's dash wires into the 89's headlight,wiper ,ignition switches ect.... I know the 92 connectors are different than on the 89 years.

I know with some minor dash mods, the 92 up clusters should fit in place of the 89's cluster. This way you keep the 92 Diesel tach and most/if not all electrical functions same as a 92 set up

You will have to modify the firewall from the big round connector to the rectangle ones used by the 92.
 
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Old Sep 20, 2015 | 07:55 AM
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It is going to be A LOT of unecessary work.

I would be looking for a 92-97 cab and sell the 87-91 cab
 
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Old Sep 20, 2015 | 08:07 AM
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<p>agreed. the 91 and older cabs are mechanical speedometer. the 92 and newer cabs are electric speedometer. and they use completely a different wiring harness, dash, instrument cluster, and the holes in the firewall are all different.</p>
 
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Old Sep 20, 2015 | 09:49 AM
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Ok guess ill be on the look out for aomething worth buying.
 
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