Intro: My first Ford truck love, ended up being (over) four trucks made into one. I originally answered an add for a myers snow plow, only to find out it was still attached to most of the truck when I went to pick it up. Long story made short, major upgrades including a custom dump body. Broke the frame behind the cab, replaced with a modified frame then about a year later, it got wrecked. Not my fault, I was pissed.

15 years have passed and I moved away from the snow country. I lucked into my "new to me" 77 F250 High Boy, 400ci, C6 auto, NP205, Dana 60 rear and 44 front that a friend was selling.

The plan is to make it a street legal mud runner. The down side is that I'm not 25 anymore (not old enough to retire either) and I don't have a garage. In the past 15 years there are many improvements to the technology used now and I'm hoping everyone here can help me along. This will be interesting. The goal is a 36 month build and make it better than another "Non Ford" mud truck I had, which literally came apart on the trails.

The questioning shall commence.

 

Not a big fan of blocks and I've been looking into the flip shackles. I found these but I'm having trouble getting the necessary measurements due to the bushings are destroyed. But I'm going to give it a try. they seem to be beefier than others I've seen.

Anyone have an opinion on these?

 

Can I ask where you found those? I orginally was going to shackle flip, but then figured I needed a body lift to clear the flip with the orginal shackle. So I had enough lif after putting on body lift. They look super nice, should just need one that works with a 2 1/2'' spring.

 

They look like they are from Ruff Stuff. Also, Chevy uses a 2 1/2 wide spring.

 

I'm going to give y'all a heads up, I'm the product of un treated ADHD when it goes over half a century. I'll appologise now for my brain fart moments when I just ramble on. Basicly, th emind runs so fast, nothing else can keep up, especially when I get excited.

That is correct, Ruffstuff. I looked at the Sky kit which is bolt in and looks like you use the original shackles, but I think I'll get a little more flex with the un-stamped shackles and can choose the thickness I need. I'm thinking it wil lbe a little easier on the main spring.

On the down side, I plan, at the end of the build, to make it a 4 link triangulated suspension but the cost will be more than twice what I paid for the truck, so that will be at the end of the build.

 

Oh happy days. I was working on the engine a week or so ago, new plugs, degrease and inspection. The fuel is about a year old so it runs real bad but that's allright, it only has a few gallons in it and I plan to remove the tank from behind the seat anyway.

Unfortunately, I learned two things: The carb is shot and was leaking gas all over the place. the other was that I hate the AC unit, factory unit. So out it came. Last Saturday, the Wife and I were having our "Date" day and I dragged her to the U-Pull It yard in Savannah just scoping out for the Grocery Getter and if they had any Dentside fords. Lo and behold, there set a 76 F-150. Standard Tranny and no AC. Today I went down and spent two hours pulling the parts I need which is the dash plate, the pedals and all the clutch linkage, heater box with controls and every other part for it and cut out the part of the firewall I need for the new heater box.

WooHoo, just like Christmas. Knocked a bunch of parts off my list. Next week I'm going to the yards and see if I can find the Dodge Diesel 5 speed - NV4500 Tranny. I'm feeling lucky.

 

Narrative: Going to the yards for now is out. The other day, I was trying to run out all the bad fuel (in the yard, fortunately) and blew out one of the rear brake cylinders. Debated if I want to repair it or go with disc brakes.

Today I started to move it into the concrete driveway so I could pull the rear end apart, I'm going with the disc brake conversion. It was running lousy and half way up the driveway, it finally ran out of fuel. F means full but apparently E does not mean enough. Oh well.

16 oz of "SeaFoam" Fuel treatment and ten gallons of 0% ethanol 94 octane, the beast actually ran better, but not close enough. I checked the fuel tank behind the eat, no leaks. That is a good thing since the tank got bumped down on the list.

Tomorrow is the Hunny Do list so I won't get any work done on it until late in the day. I'll post pix of what I find.

 

I've been following a thread "77 crew cab Cummings build" by 77_crew and he has some great ideas. I'm going to build my front spring front hangers in a similar design to his, it looks rock solid. Today a friend offered to do all the welding for me as long as I cut all the pieces and assemble them. That puts a new welder way back on the list to just before boxing in the frame. As for now, the top of the list is the front lift, build the front and rear hangers and get the springs rebuilt at a shop I know in Savannah GA. Once I see where that goes, I'm getting two sets of the flips, mentioned earlier, for the rear springs. I'm going to build the 4 link triangulated for the rear, set it up to support installing a 4 link in the front in the future and maintain using the leafs until I can get the coil overs. As long as I get the geometry right on the links and have long enough shackles, it should work.

I like the King Coil Overs, they seem to be pretty durable. Anyone got an opinion on them? Just a reminder, I need this to be (eventually) street legal, even if just barely.

 

Tore into the rear end to try to figure out what it is.

The tag is as follows:
4 10 D6TA GFB
603717 12 L S

The ring gear has:
2 21 77 DANA 30360 B3D99X 41 10

The "B" might be an 8 and the "1" may be a :, hard to read.

If I'm correct, it is a limited slip D-60 with 4:10 ratio but when I looked inside, it looks like a regular non-slip axle, something seems to be missing.

 

Me and my team built an SAE baja car and used King shocks, the shocks are just as good (if not better) then Fox. They are all machined and anodized aluminum and are totally rebuild-able. The down side is that they are not cheap, but you can call King and tell them how much travel you want, the amount of pre-load you want, your desired ride height, etc. They will then build the coil over how you want it. The coil overs are also very tune-able.

Here is our car with King coil-overs

 

Thanks for the input fordcrzymike , I didn't know they would do that. I just thought you found one with capabilities that are close enough to what you need then fabricate the mounts to get it to work. This works out real good for me.

BTW, Nice rig, looks like a lot of fun.

 

This is my lucky day. I just bought some Solid Axle Industries iron covers for both the D44 front and D60 rear for $150.80, both shipped. That's half price.

After a closer look at the rear axle, yup, it is limited slip. There is a little slop in the spider gears but the ring looks pretty good, not much wear at all so I think I should get a little more time off the ring and pinion. I'm going hunting for a deal for the spider gears and clutch paks and see if I can't freshen it up for now. Then I have to get back to work on the heater issue, there is a huge hole in the firewall now and the leaking Carb. That should keep me busy for a few weeks.

Then on to building the parts for the front suspension. I may have a lead on a 79 F250 4x4 steering box. You know how it goes, grab the parts when they are available weather you are ready for them or not, cause they may not be there when you are ready. a "butt pain" show stopper I want to avoid.

 

that is an open rear end

 

Yea looks open carrier for sure

 

I thought the same thing, but after searching for a while, the open rear is tapered on the opposite side of the ring gear, this one, the "Trac lok" is square.
The confusing part was the pix in the Dana manual for rebuilding this axle, showed a shaft between the axle gears that the spider gear shaft went through, but this one didn't have it, The exploded view of the Trac Lok carrier looks exactly like mine.

That's right, I found the info after the post. I should have kept looking a little longer the first time.