Hey all, thought I’d share my journey on a couple projects from my recent purchase. Truck was bought in April and so far we’ve tackled a few jobs. It’s a 1972 Ford F-250 4x4 Custom

Goals are to make the truck safe and reliable #1, then when I can get a shop to take it we’re going to do a frame off restomod upgrading some comfort features but largely leaving original.

So far we’ve tackled:
1) rewired entire truck using American Autowire kit (including 1 wire alternator upgrade)
2) installed new Retro Manufacturing radio and center speaker
3) new LED headlights, tail lights marker lights
4) 3 point seatbelts

I think that’s everything so far….

Additionally I’ve bought the following and we’re just waiting on the engine to be completed before installation.

1) 390 FE 400HP/450TQ build by FE Specialties
2) Tremec TKX 5 speed with OD & hydraulic clutch kit
3) Dakota Gauges factory looking gauges, HDX I think
4) Aero Tank gas tank - the u shaped between rails option
5) 1979 Dana 44 swap & rebuild, gains tighter turning radius and disk brakes
6) rear disk brake upgrade
7) Bilstein shocks, fox ATS steering stabilizer

I’m currently using as a daily driver and our objective is to make as safe as possible for a highway commute.

The reason I’m doing this is many of the parts I’m buying I couldn’t find a recent review on how the projects turned out or troubles they experienced. Please feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to share with the community.

 

American Autowire Kit -

recommended tools - various screw drivers, wire strippers, multiple types of crimpers, heat gun, electrical tester and/or test light

I was fortunate my wife volunteered to help me with the American Autowire kit for this model year install. When opening the package the kit was very intimidating, however, after breaking down the various packages and instructions into their pieces the project seemed very manageable.

We decided to start prep by removing the hood and bench seat to offer up more room in the truck. We treated the various bags like our kids Lego sets by putting similar parts from each bag into piles so we could easily and quickly find pieces. The bags are labeled so you open them in sequence as you move through the instruction booklet, this makes the entire process easy to follow.

Our first day we removed the old wiring starting at the headlights back through the cab. The old wiring was brittle and failing in spots but I kept the old in the event we needed to reuse any original pigtails. After removal of the old we started by mounting the new fuse panel and pulling the various branches to their appropriate destinations. We had to remove the headlights, parking lamps, and grill to install all of the electrical; this turned out to be super easy. The kit has a ground for the lights which the original pigtails did not, I had to use my test light to ensure we wired the lights for turn signals and parking lamps correctly. Under hood was quick and easy, up until the battery and alternator wiring.

The alternator and battery I was not familiar with this type of setup, I believe it’s a GM type setup and operates perfectly now that we got it right. The directions are good, just know you are best served with a single wire alternator. I ultimately tried doing a 3rd gen ford alternator and ended up having to pivot and buy a second alternator that was a 1 wire. I also goofed up a ground that caused a little reflection as it smoked when we connected power but we were able to quickly trouble shoot and correct.

The interior is really quite easy, our toughest challenge was chasing down the fuel gauge power, this is due to the ability to have a switch to switch tanks which I chose not to use. Again, it was a simple fix with a test light and walking the diagrams to figure out the path of power. Ultimately we had to connect two of the connectors we believed to not be needed which fixed the issue. Trouble shooting on this issue was 20-30 minutes and quickly resolved.

Twilight harness was pretty simple and quick, maybe had 1 hour in total hooking up wires, and other 30 in running the wires. The most difficult challenge we had was the interior lights staying on whenever the ignition was on, took me a while to figure this one out….I had the headlight switch rotated to turn them on. That darn problem plagued me for about 2 hours testing various power leads trying to track down if I had connected something wrong, this was the same time as the fuel gauge and they ran off the same harness so I had assumed they were related and clearly were not.

All in all, I highly recommend the kit, it was super easy install and is working perfectly. We have had no charging issues, no shorts, and no other electrical problems. I did buy and use quite a bit water tight butt connectors and shrink tube to ensure we had good connections. I also ended up with A LOT of extra parts from the kit, you only use the ones you need based off your trucks options. The kit offers a lot of choices on how you want to run things with ample extra wire length.

I hope this helps someone else looking into this kit out, it was a great experience. I’d guess if we’d worked straight through it was probably about 15-20 hours, I’d consider myself fairly competent that I can figure out challenges but certainly not mechanical in my career or any training. I’m an old farm kid who can track down mistakes which I had a few of during the process.

 

Great looking truck and nice write up on your experience with the wiring. Looking forward to more updates as you move forward with the project.

 

I second FoPar1972's comments! I am currently reassembling my F100, and the wiring is not something I'm looking forward to...

 

I was shocked, it’s really much more intimidating that it really was difficult.

Probably the best tip I can give is my wife held the instructions and we went through each branch or group of wires, while they’re all labeled it’s not completely transparent which go where without the schematics. She would advise where they routed and answer questions as I one by one hooked them up. It was nice to have someone help read the instructions while connected or terminated each wire.

 

I went with Centech. its custom built for your needs.

 

Thats a good looking truck. As for the wiring, on my 72 f250, I ended up keeping the OEM harness and adding a fuse and relay box under the hood. The new wiring takes most of the loads off the original wiring. It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be even though I have been dragging it out.

 

After a few weeks of fighting extreme heat, wrong parts, and generally learning about my Dana 44 front axle assembly, we finally finished the rebuild of the front axle. While the process wasn’t difficult it did prove a lot of lessons learned, some frustrating moments, and a few skinned knuckles.

I purchased a brake kit from lugnutz online store, a rebuild kit from broncograveyard, and tools from eBay.

1st lesson learned - don’t buy tools from eBay, the ball joint press I bought was junk, eventually broke, and when it did work wouldn’t press in the joints effectively. Once I fought with this for and entire day I went and got a loaner from parts store and it drove the ball joints in without issue.

2nd - the axle came apart very easily but the reassembly was a little frustrating. We bought bearings for the Dana 60 rear as well as the front, as a result we were trying to determine which were which. Just when we thought we had it figured out I realized one of the bearings we had as Dana 60 was fro the 44. No biggie, just a little lost time in sorting and researching which we’re for which axle.

3rd - I tried to preorder as many parts as possible but the spindles had the spindle nuts cross threaded, this proved both difficult to remove and caused us to have to replace the spindles, a 2 week delay for parts. Additionally the axle has warn premium hubs before disassembly, we learned through the removal they also needed replaced, result was another delay for parts.

We (my wife and I)ended up also replacing the diff cover (why not), grinding and painting the axle, and replacing the rotors despite not needing to on this project.

If anyone tackles a similar a couple recommendations:
- make sure you have the spanner wrench
- invest in a good spindle nut socket
- and you can use the old races to press in the new races and the inner seal, this was a good find
- the specific tool for pressing the inner bearings, inside the actual differential was awesome and made it easy work.

I’m happy to answer any questions if anyone has any, I’ll be posting photos later this afternoon of the project.

Next will be putting the axle under the truck. I’ve read that it’s a pretty direct bolt up from the old axle, I’m hoping so and I’ll post my experience once I have the project completed.

​​​​​​​All in all, a completely rebuilt Dana 44 was between $3,500-4,000 and I figure I’m into mine about $1,200-1,500 with everything I’ve bought to complete. I would highly recommend to anyone who has a need to rebuild, after doing it once I think it could be knocked out in about 16-20 hours including painting if a guy knew what he was doing. Easily worth saving $2,500 to me.


Rough and ready for updating

Outside getting painted

Almost complete

Completed and ready for brake pads (excuse the mess)

 

This past weekend we got the new front axle installed along with the rear disk brakes. The axle is t quite as easy as a simple bolt in as most folks suggest…..I was surprised to find the axle is about 3.5” wider than the original. The spring perches do align perfectly but I do think the pitman arm is going to hit the shock mount on driver side once installed. Also, I think the front drive shaft would’ve fit moving from low pinion closed knuckle to high open knuckle, trouble was the exhaust was routed right where the drive shaft would need to run.

I think I’m going to need to reroute some brake lines to each wheel, with the disk upgrade the hard-lines just seem like they’ll cause some rubbing on the flex lines if I don’t adjust somehow.

Rear axle we put new bearing & seals but should’ve replaced the axle flange gasket. I’m going to get 2 and install them when I put spacers on rear axle to match front width. At some point we may upgrade rear to matching size but for now the spacers are an inexpensive solution. We also had to figure out the emergency brake config, no instructions were included but we figured out after a couple hours trial and error. All in all, we could’ve finished the rear axle rebuild and brake install in a single day if we pushed a little.

I also am having to upgrade my power steering, PO had put an electric system in it but the steering shaft was a size and spline count that I couldn’t find a universal to fit. Since we upgraded to an ididit steering column I had to change it out as I couldn’t get the systems to mate up. We’re going to install a new system from Benchworks as a result. Short term I’m running without PS…..reminder of how tough that used to be on our farm.

still have to get the new power brake system and master cylinder installed before we can get it back on the road to dial in and test our work.

 

You might need to upgrade your brake differential block, I ended up moving mine right next to the booster. Got tired of wrenching down in the OE clutch area. I used the diff block from Bronco Graveyard. The first one I tried from NPD was a leaky mess.
I use the 72 CS front disc /rear drum OE booster that I had rebuilt. When I went from a closed knuckle 44 to the 78 d44 HP the old drive shaft was the right length. Ubolt brackets should work from your old closed knuckle axle.

Since you’re clicking in a number of items on your build, a good upgrade is Maybe consider battle born brake’s super duty front springs replacement bracket for up to 79 front axles. I use it with their front rear shackles on a front dana 60 and there is no harsh ride or sag from the Oe springs.

It gets rid of the OE front bracket, beefs up the suspension, and restores stock ride height or if you’re doing a lifted situation.

 

I actually did the battleborn brake booster and master cylinder combo. I haven’t decided what to do about springs yet, I’m going to run the 50 year old springs until I decide to pull body off and restore the sheet metal.

I put new ubolts on, couldn’t save the old ones as they stripped a bit when using impact to remove. The new distribution block is a good idea, I’ll get one if my current one is any problem. I also am doing all new brake lines on rear axle to shorten up the lines to better fit the new disc setup with longer flex lines.

 

So we got the new motor, tremec TKX tranny, gas tank, power steering, and Dakota digital dash. Everything’s running great and the engines power is so nice compared to the worn out 50yr old 360.

I'm stoked with how it all turned out and it’s so much fun to drive now. We also installed 1966 mustang seats last night but haven’t had a chance to drive it yet with those installed.