Well here goes fellas, I'm 42 years old and hate to say it, but just bought my first truck, a 69 F 250 Crew. Very clean, straight body, no rust, rebuilt 360 (w20K mi), headers and flowmaster exhaust. I'm pretty excited about owning and working on this truck, however I can't find much information about it, so I thought maybe some of you guys could hook an old man up. I have a manual on order, so that will help, but it hasn't come in yet. Also being a halfway competant mechanic (just enough to break stuff), I know that you guys that have been working on these trucks since you were 10, know all the tricks. I'm looking for info and web sites that may help me out and I have a few questions that maybe some of you can answer. 1) Is it possible to convert the front drums to discs? I know I could take it to a shop and give them my first born (he's 18, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea), but I would really like to do this myself, for instance if a 70's era F 250 discs could be swapped, without needing a masters degree in engineering. 2) Any suggestions on lift kits for these vehicles, again, I know I could go to ORW and ask, but then I get what they want to sell me, maybe not what works best. Not looking to "sky" it, maybe a 3- 5". 3) My master brake cyl is leaking, someone said to swap stock for a F 350 mast cyl, to increase stopping power, will this work? 4) Ignition, any suggestions thoughts on swapping to MSD? 5) Anything else someone might think useful to me. I apologize for this lengthy questions session, I'll try to keep it to a minimum in the future!

I appreciate any info you can supply me with and look forward to talking with you all as I get my ride tight.

 

You came to the right place. Although the crew cabs are a bit rare, we have several CC owners check in here.
Is this a 4x4?

Brakes: I believe you can use brakes for a pretty straight forward swap from 67-79 F250/350- trucks. The general rule, find a donor truck and take everything associated with the brake system.

Use the search feature here at FTE to find lots of previous threads on Disc brake conversions and on the Crew Cabs.

Also, check into the FE (330,360,390,406,410,427 and 428)engine forum (scroll a bit further down the main forum page). You will find a great bunch of guys willing to provide information on that 360.

 

welcome .....about your lift kit question theres body lifts and suspension rancho sells lift 2' and 4' and you can also if you just want to lift it aliitle for maybe tires or just stance theres body lift from performance acc. and some from pro comp and others.......ignition theres MSD and PX i have herd good about both......as for the master cyln. never realy heard any thing about that(switching to 350's) when you get disc's and or a booster it should not have any braking problems evern if you got a new stock one it woudent....just acouple thoughts....hope this helps.....

 

Also you might want to do a search on crewcabs. We had a big discussion about those a while back. It seems Ford shippes the pickups off to Canada and a private firm converted them. Yake a back door panel off and you will see what I mean.
And by the way congradulations on your purchase. What a great first pickup. I have been looking for a decent affordable C/C for some time.

 

Guesing it must be 4x4 if you want to lift it? I don't think you can convert closed knuckle fronts to discs, probably need to swap in open knuckle 44 or 60 front which bolts right in and has benefits other than just disc brakes. Many manufacturers offer lift kits. I have a 4" susp. and 3" body and I could fit 40" tires if I wanted. I don't care to much for body lifts and plan on going down an inch to just a 6" susp lift and removing body lift. Definately check out the fe engine forum for info on your 360. I just rebuilt my 390 and can't beleive the results. I went with a D.U.I. HEI style ignition on my motor. I am very happy with it, although I did have to have it recurved after I got it. These FE's are some tough engines. My motor was balanced and blue printed, but not much over a stock performance level. Just 2 days ago I was pulling a 12K lb trailer up the steepest hill around in 4th gear at 2000 rpm (about 50) and accelerated to 65 by the top. I've never had an engine that would do that. Another thing you might want to think about is power steering if somebody hasn't already upgraded your truck. Good luck.

 

Wow! I didn't expect such quick response time. I appreciate all of your input and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I now see that I should have been more specific as to what options my truck has. It is not 4X4, I searched for over a year for an old Crew, I would have liked to have found a 4by, but as Gtex stated they are scarce and my main goal was a straight, clean no rust Crew that ran well, with little to no problems. I do have power steering and a non stock steering column, need to research this more to learn what they are. I'm also not sure what type of tranny I have (automatic 3 speed with overdrive), but I'm sure by looking underneath, I can find ID numbers and cross reference. My service manual still hasn't come in, so I'm a little bit stupid as to what I'm looking at on my truck and whether it is stock or not. I'm not even too sure if all the running gear and drive train is stock at this point. The guy I bought it from couldn't telll me a whole lot, as he bought it a couple of years ago from the person that did all the work on it. A 4by conversion is on my wish list for a later date, but I'm going to have to learn more about my truck, so I can talk like I know something. I have seen some info. regarding this type of (2 to 4by) conversion here on this forum, not sure how technical it will be, may have to take it to a shop.
Gtex, you're right, I came to the right place. I will take your advice and start hunting the bone yards for the 67-79 disc set up and all associated parts. But for the time being I need to get my leaky master cylinder fixed. I ordered a F 350 master cyl after a buddy said it would hook right up and give me better response in braking, I'm picking it up today. I'll let you all know if it works out. Mudinman, thanks for the info on lifts, I installed a 3" Rancho on my son's Cherokee that we built together, I think Rancho makes a good product. I'll look into the Rancho 2". As far as tires, I need to look into rims before tires. I'd like to find some "Outlaw" style Alcoa's or similar, but not sure if there's anything out there that's rugged looking (not too pretty) for the 8 luggers. Willowbilly, I'll check the door panels as you suggested to see whether mine is a Canadian conversion, never would have even thought of this. Average F, I will definately look into the open knuckle 44 or 60 fronts, can you tell me where to find more info regarding these? I agree with you on the body lift, I've heard you can run into some problems, besides I'm not looking to get airborne, just a little higher stance and clearance. My 360 (according to the guy I bought it from) has approx. 20K mi on it and it runs very strong (no leaks) and moves this 4000+ lb truck pretty quickly (not Lamborghini fast) but I didn't pay $210,000 dollars for it either. but I think electronic ignition will help and possibly a aftermarket intake manifold with high end carb. I will look into the D.U.I. HEI ignition you suggested, but man I really need to do more research on all of your suggestions, looks like I have a lot to learn. I'm used to working on little race cars, I just finished a 1976 BMW 2002, that eats all these Hondas out here in San Diego.
Fellas, much thanks again and hopefully I will be talking to you more as I delve into this new frontier, OLD FORD TRUCKS!

 

Congrats on the CREW!

Welcome to the family

I have a 67' crew 2wd and converting it to a 4wd I am of course going to "sky" it. Here is where you can get alot of info.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/FordCrewCab61-79/

Cant wait to see some pics.. here are some pics etc of mine.

http://www.geocities.com/crewcab1985/

 

Whoa!

If you've got a 3 speed overdrive automatic transmission, you definitley need to do some investigating to see what hardware you have. As far as I know, they never put a 3 speed OD auto in a 69 F Series (67-79 for that matter). I don't know of any that would mate to a 360 motor, without an adapter of sorts.

Sounds like you should dig around in there, get some photos and descriptions of parts and report back.

4x2 to 4x4 conversions are not typical. Usually, one would find a 4x4 donor truck and move over all of the good parts from the 4x2. It's a heck of a project.

 

That's what I was looking at too, Gtex.
But I was thinking more along the lines of an O/D unit behing the tranny.

 

Zakt,
Thanks for the welcome, I checked your Crew at your gallery, (SWEET) I think your's is a little cleaner than mine, but it's close. I'll have to post pictures. I appreciate the info. and look forward to hearing what you do to yours, I need all the ideas and help I can get. By the way, have you ever heard of swapping to a F 350 master brake cylinder to get better braking?

 

Gtex,
Just from reading some of your threads and the ingo you give, I trust your knowledge level. As I stated, I am unfamiliar with what is on my truck and until my service manual comes, pretty stupid as this is my first truck. I just bought the truck and haven't had a chance to really get underneath and check stuff out. I have been waiting till my manual comes, so that I can have some idea of what I am looking at. I am quite sure once I start looking at things and have an idea of what parts have been swapped for what, I will have plenty more questions for you guys. Did you happen to look at Zakt's reply to me above? I'm going to have to talk with him to find out how he is going to do the 2 to 4 conversion on his C/C. I did see a website that showed a step by step process for this exact conversion, however it was not for a C/C it was for I believe a 60's something F 150. I will have to track it down again and let you guys check it out to get your input. Again I appreciate your helpfulness, if I had known the FORD TRUCK community was like this, I would have bought a truck a long time ago : )

 

If you find someone who has converted a 2wd to a 4x4 without swapping out the frame, I would be interested in hearing about it. It would require major surgery to pull off. If I was going to tackle such a task I think I would fabricate a 4 bar of some sort and use coil springs.
If you intend to swap to disc brakes on the 2wd, it is a pretty straight foreward swap from a 79 or earlier disc brake F-250. I would find the ones with the single piston calipers as replacement parts are much cheaper. Just remember you have to use the disc brake master cylinder and you should use the proportioning valve too but I know one guy who didn't and he says his work fine.
I am pretty sure all the crew cabs 72 and older were made in Canada at the same plant.

 

This conversion probably has bneen done, anything can be done. But, I don't think it's the easiest , financially or in terms of the amount of work. You'd have to manufacture a lot of custom parts.

 

I have on my web page under the tech articles (4) 2wd to 4wd conversion articles I found in Four Wheeler... very interesting articles.

I have a donor 85' F350 4x4 crew and will be robing everything off it. I have thought about putting the 67 body on the 85 but the frame is different length so would half to cut... the 67 frame is 165" long and the 85 is 172" long... That means converting the 67 frame and all over to 4wd. I had the 85' before the 67' so have 12" springs in the rear and 10" springs in the front (thats some cash ) so will use those again. I know Ive heard the 2wd vrs the 4wd frames are different width. My 2wd if you notice in the picture on my web page has the metal piece under the bumper (that is where the leaf hangers attach to on the 4wd) mine measures also what a 4wd width is not a 2wd. So I wonder if 67' was the same frame as a 4wd??? Which means the frame width from the 67 to 85 is 3" different, I believe the 2wd was suppose to be 6" different?

And the thoughts keep rolling

 

The 67-72 2wd have the narrower frame. I think it is only two inches difference on the 70s models, not sure of the 80s. I think the easiest way may be to find a 67-early 77 4x4 frame and just graft on the front section. Then convert to either the 2wd power steering box or the 77 1/2-79 4x4 box. I think Keith has a tech article on doing the p/s swap.