I just wanted to know if I was stupid or not.

Ok. Would it be possible to take the transfer case and rear driveshaft from a 4WD F150 w/ same engine/tranny and all and put them into a 2WD version. But...just leave the front output free so that it is not hooked up to anything. Essentially it'd be creating a low-gear capable 2WD truck. Would this not work? If not...why?

 

Hmmmmn.......welll.....that would work but it would be a lot of effort. You would be halfway to a 4x4.

 

2wd Low Range is an AWESOME feature to have, especially for pulling a boat out of a ramp, etc. It would work perfectly and yes it would be alot of work for just gear reduction. Although, if you wanted to later on you could easily swap in a 4wd front axle to make it a true 4wd.

 

It would work fine, and it'd be way cool to have a low range in your 2wd truck.

 

So I'm not going to have any complications anywhere? And why would it be so hard? If I had the parts...it'd be bolt up the tranfercase & new driveshaft, install linkage, cut out hole in floor for the low range selector. And yes...i was actually hopeing to someday just do a full conversion to 4WD if I could find all the parts for decent pricing. At that point it'd just be swapping in all the 4WD suspension components & the front driveshaft?

This all would just be relatively easy if I had a donor truck though, right? A weekend or two of work? Easy meaning no major complications with a very experienced mechanic helping me with this.

 

I noticed in another thread that the C6 differs from 2WD to 4WD truck - is this the same for the M5OD for an L6? Would there be a difference in transmissions?

What is the advantage of doing this even? Wouldn't it be cheaper to use the same size transmission (being expensive) and just letting cheaper things (driveshafts, etc) be the part that makes the reach or gets shortened?

 

well the difference is that the output shafts for the trannies are different....instead of the driveshaft hooking right to them they need to go into the transfer case in a 4wd...so its not quite as easy as just bolting on a transfer case....

 

You will also have to have the four wheel drive tranny to do this. It will be a simple two day swap if you have the donor truck with all of the parts available, half a day to remove parts from the donor and a day and a half to install in your truck. These are estimates of course. The donor truck is the way to go so you are sure to have all of the needed parts. Unless you`re willing to modify your rear driveshaft length, you will need the rear driveshaft off of the 4wd donor truck. Tranny yokes may differ also. It would help if you would give us more details of your truck and the donor truck and let us know what you have tranny wise etc. Why not sell your 2wd and buy a 4wd? You would probably be better off, but I know how it is. I get a real sense of joy when I start a project, even if I never get finished with it. As of right now, it would take me 200 years to finish all of my projects. Glad my wife hasn`t figured that out yet! Good luck.

Ryan, You got my vote, but you better not wait until 2016. We need help NOW! We may not have our trucks and guns by then and we sure won`t have our jobs! Corporate America is sending most of our jobs overseas for cheap labor (Child labor and sweat shops) and the ones they are not sending to other countries, well, our government sees fit to allow these companies to fill those jobs with illegal aliens because Americans supposedly won`t do that type of work. Maybe if our fellow Americans were paid fair wages, the jobs would get filled. I think it is time to put more money in the American workers pockets. Social Security! What`s that? I better stop before I get on my soap box. Need a Vice-President?

 

i won't be 35 till then....and i can't become president till i'm 35.....petition your senators to change the law...