Okay, I have searched and still have no clue what I have going on here. I bought this truck as a project and assumed it was sitting on a F250 chassis but then I found the vin number stamped on the frame by the passenger cross member. AFAIK there were no F350 4x4 trucks made?









Before and after

 

FORDification.com - The 1967-1972 Ford Pickup Resource go to "decoding your V.I.N. Tag" section.

 

Marmon-Herrington was big into conversions. You could order the truck and Ford send it to have it converted to 4wd.

 

No factory F350 4WD's until 1979.

F35 = F350.

B = 300 1V I-6.

R = San Jose CA Assembly Plant.

C86643 = 1968, assembled February 1968.

135" Wheelbase.

COLOR: Blank.*

F350, 10,000 lbs. GVWR

3 81: 3 = Medium Beige Crush Vinyl & Medium Beige Ladder Pattern Vinyl / 81 = 81A Standard Cab.

A = New Process 435 4 Speed Manual Transmission.

22 = Dana 70 Rear Axle / 4.88-1 / 7,400 lbs. Rear Axle Capacity.

10,000 lbs. Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.

139 net HP @ 3,600 RPM

DSO: 7?1424 / I cannot make out the 2nd digit.

7? = If it's 72 = San Jose (NorCal) Ford District Sales Office, where the original selling dealer ordered the truck from.

1424 = Domestic Special Order number, truck ordered special by original purchaser, not "bought off the lot."

* When there is no COLOR code stamped on the Warranty Plate, the truck is painted a non standard color per the original purchasers order, making it a Domestic Special Order.

Marker lamps on front fenders were installed on 1968/72: F250/350 Camper Specials, Cab & Chassis and with factory installed flat & stake beds.

 

I actually have bought 3 of these from the same location. If these are marmon conversions they did a good job. There is no mounts for a 2wd steering box all that was there is a manual 4wd box mounyed to the frame with the factory raised bump in the frame. All three were fleet trucks, bought them from a sale in San Francisco these were all Pac Bell service trucks.

 

 

For a 68 conversion, I wonder if that Dana 44 light duty open knuckle axle is a replacement front axle, as the original factory axle was a closed knuckle axle.

 

I swapped the open knuckle from a 78 f250 and did the power steering at the same time. Before it had the closed knuckle.