Hello everyone,

My dad is looking at purchasing a 1973 Ford F350 that is currently a dually. He wants to take the grill and everything off to put on his 78, and he will just take the 78 front end and put it on mine. My question is can the dually be swapped to a single rear axle? And is there a way to change the front hubs out to make it so normal rims would fit? It is a 2 wheel drive model.

 

It currently has a flat deck on it, but I was hoping to put a normal pick up box back on.

 

ALL 1953/79 F350's with DRW (Dual Rear Wheels) were only available as a Cab & Chassis or with factory installed flat & stake beds.

1980 was the first year that F350's with DRW were available with a pickup bed (Styleside only).

 

I'm assuming it was originally a cab on chassis. My question is can I swap in a single wheel rear axle and what would be the best one to do? And how could I get the front wheels swapped so I could get away from the dually styled wheel up front? Is it a hub swap required? Also would you be able to find a matching rear end and just swap the hubs on the end?

can you put a regular pick up bed on a cab on chassis? Or would I be better off just building a flat deck for it?

 

Have a look at Rockauto's website and punch in your truck details.

There are different front rotors for SRW and DRW.

Not sure about the rear SRW or DRW drum choices.

The PDF below shows the difference between Dana 70 SRW and DRW rotors (if that's what they're called).

Yes you can put a regular bed on, but you'd have to widen the inner wheel arches for maximum tyre clearance.

I'd keep it as a dually.

 

So it would appear you just need the single rear wheel hub and brakes for the rear. For me I just want to install a flat deck and use it as a cruiser mostly so leaving the DRW doesn't have any benefit aside from making tires much more expensive and having a very limited wheel selection. Rockauto only has the dually front brake setup so you cannot see the difference.

 

I see what you mean.

Here's a link to the '79 F350 showing the differing options which might be useful :
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1979,f-350,5.8l+351cid+v8,1125953,brake+&+wheel+hub,rotor ,1896

I have no idea if you can fit 'normal' rims to front dually rotors or if the rotors do indeed have to be changed.

I also have no idea if changing the rear hubs will give you what you want. (I haven't done it, or seen it done.)

Helpful huh !? LOL

If you can live with the look of the dually rims, or at least for now, remove the inner rear wheels, fit wide-ish mud flaps to camouflage the odd look, and drive around like that.

(Check the load rating of the rear tyres if you take that route.)

Best of luck with the project.

 

Thinking about this, if you removed the long hubs and fitted short hubs, the axles would be too long, so they would require shorter ones.

A headache !

I think it's best if you research Dana 70's and see what the EXACT difference is between SRW and DRW versions.

 

I do appreciate everything. The reason I could not find as much information on rockauto was I was searching with the 390 engine which only comes up with one type. Turns out you can use a lot more so I am hoping if someone has seen or done this that they can chime in with the front hubs being swapped. I

If I have to swap in a Dana 70 with the SRW that is what I will do. Was just trying to see if there was an easier way to accomplish this. I know I was reading to get rid of the split rims is quite the headache as well.

 

Sorry, my last post said the axles would be too short, I meant ''axle shafts''.

Funny how changing the engine option reduces choices !!

Your research will take a while, but I'm sure you'll get sorted.

I've been looking on and off for 5 years for a Dana 70 dually disc brake conversion.

Nothing until today. Finally !!

There's differences between the Ford, GM and Dodge Dana 70's

 

And as it turns out your search was for the 1979 model where mine was a 1973 which only had the one type of front brake from what I can find. So you would have to swap it from a later model. I did notice there were many differences so it seems like I would have to swap in a rear axle to gain what I want. I think I will be looking at both f350's and f250's of the same generation for the swap parts.

 

Changing the hubs/rotors to 5 stud, to replace the dually 8 stud, will give you a wider rim selection.

Mind you, 5 stud rotors/hubs for a Dana 70 might not be available.

You've got some homework to do.

It might be more viable to get a non dually instead of the one your Dad's looking at.

Let me run before I start getting YOUR headache, LOL

 

The reason dad wants it is the price is right so he can steal the front clip to convert his to the earlier style. It just happens to be kind of a free truck for me lol. I will just keep the 8 stud and try to figure out the front vs rear.

 

I’m looking for SRW front hub/rotors. They stopped making them. I heard the spindles are the same. I want to convert my dually to single wheels also. Can’t you just bolt single wheels on the back? I just got this truck and just started looking.