Hello all,

long time lurker but first time poster so bear with me. I recently purchased a 1986 f250 4x4 with a 6.9 idi and T19 with overdrive. 4.11 gears, sterling 10.25 in the rear and Dana 50 ttb in the front. After changing out the tie rods, I noticed the front spring bushings are basically done and the axle bushing is close. I was thinking that instead of fixing these, I would upgrade to coil springs for a better ride. So here aware my questions:

1: do I go Dana 60 with coils from a 2008+ superduty or stick with the Dana 50 ttb with coils? There is a company down here in SoCal that fabs Dana 50 ttbs with coils and radius arms. The whole kit is 2.5k plus install time / cost. I guess a third option would be an older Dana 60 and get the inner C arm shock mounts and go coil overs. I’m not trying to make rock crawling rig, just a better ride for a daily driving truck. A better turning radius with the Dana 60 would be nice too. There is a guy selling a Dana 60 front and rear for $1k from a 2008 super duty, but looks like he sold the coil spring perched on the axle. So I’d have to buy those or go coil overs, and then buy radius arms (another $150)

2: I don’t think the 4.11 gears are best suited for my needs. I don’t tow and if I do it’s not anything significantly heavy. What are your thoughts on 3.54 vs 3.73 gear instead of the 4.11? From what I’ve craigslisted, I can get a sterling 3.55 that should be close to plug and play, but if I get a matching Dana in the rear, may take more fabrication to get things lined up.

3. Speaking of switching out the sterling, I was going to go rear disc brakes instead of the rear drums that are on the sterling now. The kits I’ve seen are about $600 once you factor in the additional $ for the parking brake set up.

Thanks for reading. Open to all input!

 

With all the changes you want to make, I would go with the 2005+ axle swap. That will give you everything you want in one swap operation