Hello everyone,
I am sure all of you have been asked this very question a billion times, and I did a forum search for answers but didn't come up with anything concrete.
I have a 2WD 1984 F150 long bed. It has the carb'ed 302 and AOD transmission. Its a beautiful truck in its original paint (white/blue) but has over 300K on the clock and the tranny is FINALLY on its way out... I figure I might as well do a STOCK 4wd conversion using stock parts.... I don't want to add lift kits, or have 33's etc etc etc.. I just want a nice looking stock 4x4 F150.

Can I just convert it to 4wd using a later 1987-1990 F150 4x4 long bed parts truck (with 5.0 but F.I., and AOD/1356) and have it be a no problems bolt up affair? Or will have to do some fab work to adapt some things here and there?

What I have envisioned in my mind (A scary place sometimes) is that I buy a 1989/90 F150 long bed 4x4 long bed parts truck (Dime a dozen 'round here) with a blown 302 engine but good AOD and T-case, and just unbolt the TTB, rear axle, trans, T-case, driveshafts, shifter(s) and just bolt them all into my 84's 2WD chassis and engine without fab work.. (Cutting a hole into my cab floor for the T-case shifter is NOT fab work. Making a new tranny/T-case X member IS.)

I know. This question is like NEWB territory for most of you. I'm learning! I'm just gonna say it now. I'm a recovering Dodge guy. This whole Ford thing is kinda new to me and I am figuring things out.

Thanks

 

That is a good plan, it will all bolt in place. You may need to mess with some of the wiring on the AOD. You have to be careful, at some time they went to the AODE, and then the 4R70W which are electronic transmissions and need a computer to run them.

I just looked in this link, as long as you stay before 1993 you should be ok. https://www.becontrols.com/aod.shtml

Everything should bolt in fine. I would keep the donor truck till the end, there are small things you might find out you need. You even have the AOD now, with the special linkage to the carb, you can replicate that, but the adjustment for this is critical. You can read up about that in the link above.

If you like, you can do this in stages. You can unbolt the frontend and swap the other one in place and get the brakes and steering working, and drive it around like that with a 2wd trans and a 4x4 frontend till you get time to swap the transmission.

 

Thanks! That us exactly what I was thinking..Taking the 1989/90 axles/brakes and bolting them up to my '84 and working out the suspension kinks while still a 2wd and then when the original '84 2wd AOD finally implodes.. (sooner rather then later...) Ill just bolt up the '89/90 AOD/1356 using either the '84 or '89/90 X member, driveshafts and work out those kinks. No stress, no headaches.. Just drink beer, eat tacos turn some wrenches and go!