Howdy...First time poster here.

Last summer, I purchased a surplus vehicle from my employer. The truck is a 1990 FORD F-250 Single-cab, 2WD, 351W, 3-speed automatic (no overdrive). 8' long box, dual gas tank. If this might shed some light on it, here's the first part of the vin (excluding the production digits):

2FTHF25HXLC

It's rear GVW is 8600 lbs if that helps.

I got somewhat of a deal on the thing because I had access to the maintenance records prior to my decision to purchase it for 1500 $ (Canadian funds). It had extremely low kilometers on it. (46000 km- and not a turnover). It spent the first two years of its life (late 89-91) hauling scaffolding in a refinery. From 1991 until 2003, it was used only as a pool vehicle to shuttle office workers from office building to office building on a plant site. (Never taken off site; never even registered for that matter).

When I bought it, I gave it a tune-up, new alternator, and a new battery. Since she was never registered in her lifetime, Alberta registries insisted on an out-of-province inspection before they would allow me to register it. She passed with flying colours.

Suffice it to say that I was extremely happy with my purchase. Aside from a few dings in the body, and a pretty carbon'ed-up engine (that 500 km's of highway driving made short work of), I had myself a pretty decent pickup for cheap.

She's pretty stock. No options. Power nothing. Like I care though - she's a manly truck. A beasty truck. I do however, have some plans for her due to some of her shortcomings. These being:

(1) It's 2WD only. A 4x4 is good to have.
(2) I don't like the 3-speed auto tranny. I would much prefer a 4 or 5 speed manual.

When the truck was orignally purchased by the oil company that I bought it from, they didn't buy it "off the lot." Rather, they had a deal with Ford to supply them fleet vehicles. They wouldn't buy just normal ones either - Suncor spec'ed them out to the "T" as to what options they wanted.

With that in mind, the rear axle isn't like most F250's. It looks more like the kind you see on F350's. (You know...the kind that stick out 4-5 inches from the center hole in the tire. Put it this way - I can get into the box quite easily by using the rear axle as a step. Perhaps this is a full-floating (integral carrier) rear axle assembly that I've heard of? (Can anyone tell me how I could find out?....And if it has limited slip?) Pardon my ignorance, but this is my first truck.

My questions are as follows:

(1) What would be involved in upgrading this thing to a 4x4?
(2) Since it's only a 2WD and therefore has only twin I-beam front axles with coil springs and telescoping shock absorbers, does this mean that all that stuff would have to go and be replaced with Independent Front Suspension (IFS) and front leaf springs instead of coils?
(3) What's the best choice of manual transmission to replace the 3-speed auto? Moreover, what would be the best way to procure such a transmission? Scrap yard? If so, what models and years would work?
(4) What's the best choice of transfer case for this application and where can I get it?
(5) If I do indeed have a full-floating rear axle, would I have to get rid of it and replace with a semi-floating?
(6) Would I have to do anything special for the ***-end? ie) Space the rear axle from the leaf springs to equalize the height, or would she be high enough in the back? (She rides pretty high already BTW...LT235 85R16's, and cuz of the F350-style rear axle). Lots of ground clearance.
(7) Any other considerations? Am I on crack for wanting to do this?

As you can tell, I'm pretty new to this stuff, so again - please forgive my ignorance.

Any information at all would be great.

Thanks!

-Cam

 

Tons of threads on this, use the search function

 

look for deels on a 4x4 donor rig w/ a 351 stick. i got mine for 700. you can steel the front suspention, t-case, driveshafts and a;; the things you need for hundrets less then to buy it all yourself. as for trans. get a zf 5 speed if your on budget. if not get the nv 6 speed. but thats my advive, and what i did. it worked out great. good luck. and have fun.