I first posted this in the superduty forum... my mistake guys. Haze away lol

Hey Ford folk :-)

I have a mess of parts and i want to throw it all together... like dumping a box of lego's... of course i have a few compatibility questions... if no body knows i guess i will find out either way when i get to the farm and start ripping into it.

I have a 1986 F250 4x4 ext cab long box. bed is trashed and the gas tank is trashed but it will run on a boat bottle with some Reg Unleaded in it. Truck is a gasser (460 / C6 / NP208)

I have a set of axles from a 77 F250 (D44HPHD and D60)

I have an NP205 as well.

SO the thought comes to mind... demo the trashed bed and tank shorten the ole girl up for custom bed (not too short.. like 5.5 or so) and build neat SAS'd Farm truck. (a poor boy version of that beast they built for offroad adventure)

the Kicker... i also have a 78 D44HP set up for coils from an f150. i have the buckets, track bar and mount, radius arms and mounts. all the steering... i got the whole front suspension minus the frame.

compatibility question: Can i convert the HD knuckles and brakes etc'' to the coil sprung axle? And do a coiled front end for a good ride?
are there other options with all these front end parts?

Ideas welcome! Please chime in...

Peace, War, and 4x4
Jimmy

 

Its alive and moving. 460 runs real good but made a noise. Noise: dad missed the oil pump drive (F@#$) we fixed it now but it idled a bit like that. :-(

we will see if its fubar when i drive it more.

ford harness burned up so we swapped in an HEI set up and a holly blue fuel pump. Runs like a champ. Pulled the old fuel tank from the tank and bypassed the pump.

now i need to re wire everything else.... gages etc.

after all that is done and its running and driving again i will start the build.

 

Not sure why you want to change the frontend out? The original TTB will most likely do anything you want it to do, and you won't have to do all that work. I guess you know the pumpkin tends to hit the crossmember when you put a 70's straight axle under a 80-up truck?

 

i am currently contemplating this conundrum !!

it currently fails to impress me. and i dont think lifting it will change that.

just looking at it i dont understand how it made production honestly.

poor leaf spring is trying to go up and down while the beam is trying to swing in a radius... they fight each other it seams to me.

i know leafs can articulate ok ish when the pivot point is the center of the truck... but with the TTB it seems its a miserable opposition of force.

my coil TTB in my bronco is fine, it articulates good, rides good... no complaints.

i would do a leaf sas but finding a 36.5 spring pad width D60 and all the junk to do it would be $$$ just buy the damn F350 and fix it instead lol

i have these parts laying around and they just wont sell so i am gonna try this.

right now i am weighing the investment.... buy a lift and risk disappointment and eventual coil sas? or just do the dang thing and coil sas the truck and move on.

i wish i could see/drive a lifted ttb f250 in action and make my choice that way.

 

My 89 has the original dana 44hdttb with a 4 inch lift. It handles ok, the ride is a little rough. While the original springs were arched upward and only had 2 leaves, my truck has some sort of lift spring in it, it's arched down in the center and has many leaves in it.

I am not sure how nice of a ride you could get out of a truck with 35 inch tires bouncing around under it though. I have a snowplow on mine, with the lift and the 35 inch tires. Haven't broken anything except one leaf on the driver's side spring.

 

A truck named Lazarus.

It's official... it lives.

It truly lives... so now I can start this discussion over again. With humble apologies.

I have since obtained a 36.5 SPW D60HP... ball joint.

I still have all the 1978 radius arm goodies.. so the ONLY question is leafs or coils. I can extend my arms no problem... full weld and machine ability on hand.