I picked up an 85 f150 xlt a few months ago and just started working on it this week. It's a 302/aod truck with a bad trans. Has a few things done to the motor intake, carb, headers with dual exhaust. Immediate plans are a healthy drop and wheels change, rebuild the trans, and clean up the outside. Down the road my plan is to build a cheap single turbo blow through set up for it. Here it is when I picked it up.






Very little rust and a solid start to a cool street cruiser.

 

Guarantee the carb and intake swap ruined the tranny. Do you know all about that?

 

I actually just read that in the how to links. I'm putting a Holley on it in place of th Edelbrock so I'll buy the bracket to get the proper 1:1 ratio and the Lokar tv cable.

Here are some updates. I got the front end together with the dropped I beams from a 95 f150 as well as the spindles. I bought new calipers and pads for the 95 and used the original 85 brake lines. They needed to be tweaked a bit but work fine. I also used gen 1 Lightning coil springs which lower it another inch up front.












Next is to tackle the rear.

 

Quick question. The truck is carbed now but has a ton of extra wiring and what appears to be an o2 sensor welded into the header making me assume it was originally efi. But from what Ive read online the vin says it came with a carb. It has an F engine code. Any ideas what all the plugs and wires went to on a carbed motor?

 

I know the 300 went from carbs to feed back carbs run by computers to EFI run by computers.
Now I am not up on the years of the switch for the 300 so no way I would for the v8's.
So could your truck have been a feed back system?


Maybe the PO installed the O2 bung for a air/fuel meter for tuning the carb?
Is there one on the other side too? One side could run lean and the other rich and why there should be one on each side.


As for plugs/wires not used maybe options not installed on the truck and the factory using only 1 wiring harness.
Just a guess on both.
Dave ----

 

No only one that I saw. Figured when I pull the trans I'll go through the harness and eliminate all unneeded stuff and rewrap it.

Rear is done. I just put the rear on top of the leafs, set the pinion angle and welded perches to the rear. I didn't get any progress pics only one of it done.




Not the best pic but it was late and best I could do. The rear is quite a bit lower then the front so I'll have to buy a 2 or 3" drop spring to level it out.

 

You dropped the front properly with the special axle beams, not dropped springs for a reason. Adding dropped springs will put you back into the bad situation you avoided with the dropped axles.

 

First I have to say it is your truck and you are building it as YOU WANT and that is good.


Me I don't like the rear that low and then you want to lower the front to match the rear by using springs-read less wheel travel.
Me I would go back under the spring with the rear and use shackles to drop the rear to match the front.


Nice work so far keep it coming
Dave ----

 

I'm running 2" drop coils with drop I beams on my 96 f150. Chamber was set with special degree accentrics. No problems at all and it's my daily driver. I just didn't realize the rear would drop so much on this truck. Figured the 1" drop from the Lightning coils would be enough.

 

It is lower in the back then I wanted but i don't want to go with just shackles as it won't be low enough. And id rather not do drop hangers up front to lower it the rest. I'm going to throw the 2" drop springs from my 96 on it and see how it looks with one of the 3 sets of wheels I have. My truck rides really nice with the drop beams and coils. I cut the snubber in half in order for it not to bottom out and it never does. I've lowered around 10 I beam trucks so I know what works and what doesn't.

 

So today I started cleaning the truck up a bit. I changed out the bumper to a not impact style one. I removed the big swing out mirrors and the wheel well trim as well. And I installed some later model aluminum f150 wheels with tires that fit alot better with the drop.



Does anyone know if the upper mirror holes from the swing out style is the same bolt spacing as the small chrome style mirror like this?

 

Truck is looking really really good. I love that you're trying to switch to those mirrors also.

 

Truck is looking great! Did you have to change the '85 radius arms when you went with the newer style I beams? Thanks for the help

 

I do know the small sport mirrors like that which were installed on my 86 ranger stx DO have the same upper bolt pattern as the large f150 mirrors that have 4 bolts. I unbolted the small mirrors on the ranger and the f150 mirrors bolted right on up top in the threaded inserts, and then I just drilled two holes in the door for the lower mount.

I bet there is a good chance they will fit. You might want to look at the local autoparts store, they usually have cheap mirrors for sale like the ones above.

 

Thank you. I did use the newer radius arms only bc they were still attached to the dropped I beams out of the 95 f150. But I don't see why the old arms wouldn't work.

I hope your right bc if that's the case it will be a super easy swap. I haven't ordered any parts yet but when I do I'll let you know.


A little update: I pulled the trans Friday and will drop it off Monday. Trying to decide whether to buy a mild 2500 stall converter before it goes back in. I'm not 100% sure I'll keep the aod but I planned on giving it a chance once I add some hp to the truck. My buddy is really bugging me to build a turbo set up for it but I'm focusing on getting it ready to drive and clean up the interior first.