New to FTE. I have a 1968 F-350 I just acquired. 360, 4 speed, was a fire truck. It has a "Napco" divorced 4x4 case and obviously added front axle. Does anyone out there know anything about this product? It all works just fine, I'm just concerned about what happens when I need parts like brake shoes or universal joints. The truck only has 10,000 miles.

 

you have a very rare beast. It could very well be one of a kind. The only information i could find about these is from napco4x4.org, they should hook you up.

 

NAPCO did all the conversions for GM trucks in the 50s and I think early 60s before they started making 4x4s in the factory. They were basically a mod shop. I was not aware that they fabbed their own parts though. It could be that they just re-tagged a part or had it made under their name. In other words the t-case may be more common than you think. Anyone else heard if NAPCO made their own T-cases?

 

I was doing a little research on this and it looks like Rockwell did a lot of the drivetrain parts for NAPCO. There is a guy that has a website for obsolete stuff like this called Neals truck parts. Might try to check him out for ideas and parts if you need them.

 

The transfer case on your truck is a spicer model 23 or 24, it just has a napco tag on it. I beleive that the front axle is a modified gm 10 bolt, but i am not sure. Napco was eventually obsorbed into the dana corporation.

 

The front axle should not be a modified 10 bolt. NAPCO built very tough conversions that in most cases cost as much as the truck they went under. They actually did build all thier own parts with the exception of T-cases which were dana or rockwell. The front axles typically utilized parts that were made by the truck manufacturer that the axle was to go under (like a rear differential and brake drums) . NAPCO built most of the 4x4 conversions for chevy, ford and stude till the late fifties and competed with marmon herrington for the 1 ton and up 4x4 market until the early 70's. I restored a 59 chev 3100 NAPCO 4x4, I'm still very impressed with how well it was built. Your front axle may use Rzeppa joints or U-joints, I'm not sure, but they should be plenty tough for anything you want to do with the truck. If you do break one you can get one made for around $600. My 59 has Rzeppas and they are very tough as I ran the truck through it's paces when it was a beater farm hauler and before I new how much it was worth. There is very good NAPCO info on the net I believe "napco owners group" is the name of the site that has a wealth of info and a mailing list full of NAPCO guru's. good luck.

 

Avg, that is good info. Thanks. One of the only Chev trucks I'd ever admit to wanting would be a '55-'59 Chev NAPCO 4x4.

 

Thanks for the Help, Folks. I've connected with the Napco owners group. Great news! My truck may be very rare! Most Napcos were GM vehicles.