Hi all,
I'm going to take a look at a supposed "Highboy" this afternoon and want to know what to check for to make sure it's a true High boy and also to cover any known iisues the 77's have. I'm pretty familiar with the late 70's ford since I had a 78 bronce but refresh my memory.

Also the truck used to have a plow on it and it's an automatic what should I check for with the front suspension and tranny?

Thanks guys hopefully I'll be an owner of a FORD again!!!!

 

77 is an "odd" year because they made High Boy style trucks then switched to the Lo Boy trucks midyear. If it's a High Boy, it will have power assist steering with a hydraulic ram on the steering tierod. It will also have a divorced transfer case. A bunch of other differences, but those are the easiest to spot in a hurry.

 

i've seen some of these that the frame is rotted away on plow trucks depending on how much salt theyve been exposed to.

 

check for broken front springs
also, if it is a 77 it will have a 351M or 400 (No M) motor in it
76 will have an fe unless it has been changed
just make sure trans doesnt slip- c6 should be ok
also, most hiboys did not have automatics but some did and may have a married transfer case
if it came with a snowplow package it may have a low pinion d60 front axle or a d44; a lowboy should have a high pinion d60 with regular power steering

 

Having had a '76 & a '77 I know them well.. Check that the power steering is working, the springs are not cracked, the transfer case shifts alright, hubs work. The frames also have a tendency to rust out....Good luck

 

I agree with chilly250. I have a 77 F250 Highboy, the only other way to
tell is that it should have a in cab gas tank. The early 77's had a narrow
frame so you could not use a standard 19 gallon rear tank.

Glenn

 

You might find that there's no tank behind the seats, (even in a true Highboy)but you will see some evidence of the old mounting tabs for them, even in the late '77 trucks. I guess they had body tubs with the mounts already fabbed in that were used even after the tanks were relocated.
I haven't measured mine, but I've been told that you can't fit the 19 gallon tank between the frame rails at the rear of the bed on a Highboy due to the frame width, but I'm not positive on that one.
I've got a 23 gallon tank on each side of the bed, mounted forward of the rear wheels. They hang down just a little bit past the lower edge of the body, but not so much that they're vunerable or akward-looking.
I've got a spare under the bed at the rear now, and I don't know if my bed was original equipment, but I've got 3 (!) fuel doors on the left side of the bed. The 3rd door is behind the wheelwell, and if you open it up and look inside, there's no filler tube, and you can see the spare and my rear shock.
I guess I could put a small tank where the spare is if I wanted to mount the tire up in the bed, but it already hurts bad enough when I go to the gas station!!!
Good luck with your (new???) truck! Cameron

1977 F250 400 (X2)
1999 Buell X1 Lightning

 

Both my '76 & '77 highboys have the tank behind the seat, but the '77 has a bed with a blanked-off filler door in the back and the '76's bed is smooth (no filler door).

To be perfectly honest about it they both get between 9 to 12 mpg depending on the conditions and I never drove them far enough to need a second tank, cause I'd need a frickin bank loan to pay for the gas....

 

I've been in Seattle for most of the last 6 months, but last week I went down to Northern CA and got a nasty surprise at the gas pumps! Granted, I was on a road trip, and not shopping for the best gas prices, but the mid-grade/89 octane stuff was averaging about $2.70 a gallon, and the good stuff was around $2.85 or so. How crazy is that???
I've been trying to ride my motorcycle as much as I can, 'cause otherwise I'd be spending as much on gas monthly as I pay for groceries!
Our trucks never got good gas mileage, and they were never supposed to. It hurts bad when I fill up 46 gallons worth, but it does kind of make me chuckle a little when I'm filling up next to someone driving a new $50k Hummer, and I realize he's getting about the same mileage I am! Cameron

1977 F250 400 (X2)
1999 Buell X1 Lightning

 

That hurts.....

Hey, I love my old truck, it is like part of the family, but the only time that I drive it any distance is when I occassionally take it out on the highway to get it hot and let the gaskets expand. I'll take my old gas-hog Ford over a $50K Hummer any day, and of course the $850.00 per month payment for the next 60 months that comes with the Hummer.

 

Let's see I could drive my old Ford 300 miles per day and still be ahead of the Hummer payment....then there would be the back specialists...

 

On my 77' high boy I have a 400, C-6 combo with a divorced transfercase, so having a automatic doesnot imply that it would have a married T-case. I also have the "power assist" steering and I hate it!! Its not that it really steers all that bad, and as of yet all I had to do was replace a hose, butttt it seems slow in steering and I dont like that when I've got it on the 5th wheel. I have the gas tank behind the seat and blocked off filler doors on the bed. It has a Dana 70 in the rear with 4:10 gears which I would guess has to be fairly common with a 400 and a auto.

 

Hater....That is the same drive train as my '77.

A bit of weird Ford trivia if you look in a Ford repair manual your truck will be listed as having a Dana 60 rear. Well it turns out that towards the end of the production run of the 77 highboys, and before they started the run 77 1/2 lowboys in late April. Ford ran out of Dana 60's with the narrow perches and used Dana 70's they had lying around. The 77 1/2's have a different width spring width and require different perches.

The later of the 77 highboys were strange trucks, they had a false fuel filler in the back of the bed and a Dana 70 rear, with a 44HD in the front.

 

my 75 has a false door on the back of the bed. it had been puttied over at one point but on the inside of the bedside the door was there. i put a 76 bed on the truck and the false door is there and not puttied over. the bed that i took off was the original bed as far as i know.

 

My '76 has no false door, and my '77 does. I have seen a '76 with a false door, and your '75 was built with a false door....Confusing?

When these trucks were built it was a different time. There was about 100 different options on the option list and in a lot of cases they just used what they had available. It was before TQM, on-time delivery, etc.....

My best friend bought an early 80's Chevy pick up new off the lot and it had a Chevy emblem on the grille with a GMC emblem on the back. He thought it was cool and told the dealer to leave it that way.