I am preparing to do the same thing with my 71 4x4 F250. I have a wrecked Lincoln Mark VIII as a donor.

The nice part about his swap is that with a divorced transfer case, I should be able to do the swap more easily.

PLease let us know how the project goes... you may have better ways of doing things than I do, so maybe we can learn from each other.

Regards,

Eric

 

does the mark have a pats system?



im not sure if the way im gonna do it is better or not,,,,,im gonna take either a 2 valve 5.4 or a 4valve 4.6,,,im gonna use a turbo400 trans,,and im not gonna use the stock computor,,,,i will be using the FAST system to control the efi



i will keep updates,,,you do the same,please



rick

 

I think shortbeds rule myself, but I know they can be hard to find. I cut the frame down on my longbed and then finally found a shortbed to put on it. The cutting the frame is easy, its the finding the bed thats hard. As far as racing, a short bed with a good suspension will track and drive as easy as any longbed.

 

The PATS system wasn't used in the Mark VIII until 97, so anything 93-97 should be good if you want the DOHC 4.6.

Keep in mind that you will have to run premium gas on the Mark VIII motors...

regards,

eric

 

Its only been a couple years and the economy has finally lowered the prices of these old trucks to a managable range.

I got my new truck for 700 bucks! it runs,its a 71, its registered and its beautiful!



my plans have changed with the drive train, i dont think i will be doing a fuel injected motor. (for now). the truck was originaly a 6 cylinder truck, it now has a 72 cobrajet block 351C, it has a two barrel carb and heads.

i installed my 03 lightning wheels. the fronts are factory 9.5" wide and the rears have been widdened to 12". i used 1' thick adaptors on the front and 2.5' adaptors on the rear. the bedside needed a little massage on the rears but they fit!


next on the agenda is the steering, manaul steering is alittle rough with these big tires. I have a flamingrivers XL power rack laying around and i think it might work?

im need to lower the truck a few inches, ive seen a thread where a guy fliped the rear spring purches over and it seemed to work fine. im also half tempted to try and bend the front Ibeams. Im having a hard time justifiying a 600 dollar drop beam on a 700 dollar truck. anyone out there tried lowering the front using the redneck way?

any comments or suggestions regarding my truck would be apreciated

 

Nice find. That rig has patina a yard deep. If there aren't any holes, I'd be tempted to shoot clear over the surface rust.

Say, you're running 03 Lightning wheels? Were those 5 on 5.5?? From whom did you buy the adapters? I've got a set of 17s off my 01 SuperCrew laying around and would like a second set of wheels and tires for my 70. Your help would be appreciated!!

A rack n pinion would bind up cuz the short tie rods will swing in a different arc that then I-beams. Do a 03 or newer Crown Vic subframe retrofit. I can't find 'em cheap here in CA and when they are cheap they have over 200K miles on 'em and need a rebuild. There are others in here who have gotten them with low mileage for around $400....I'm jealous of their locale!!!

Another option is to clip the front frame and graft on a passenger car clip (like a big ole LTD or big bodied T-bird) to get the drop. Whaddya think about that? Whip out a measuring tape!!!!

Bending the beams.. yep. The general recommendation is to find a big rig shop and talk to the old timers who are familiar with the process. There's a kid down in SoCal who is all into hot rods and built a jig to heat and draw old axles. He's like 21 on the outside but is an old timer in his head. He's been profiled on Hot Rod TV and has a great future ahead of him.

For the rear, yeah, a front hanger flip of the rear leaf springs will drop a few inches about 4 inches IIRC. That'd be the low-buck way to go.

 

Hey HiHo!

The adapters i got were from a friend of a friend. The cost was $85 each. The bolt pattern for the lightning is 5x135mm, so dang close to 5x5 1/2. Some guys have just drilled out the holes with a 11/16" drill bit and had no problems since the wheel is hub centric and match perfect with what we got. Im not sure if your wheels of the screw are hub centric, but i would bet they are. I dont know what the thickness of the spacer/adaptor you would need for those wheels are, but it is real easy to pull your existing wheels of and measure it.

A crown vic front end would be great. I am in socal and i feel your pain about finding a crown vic in decent shape, for a decent price. If i did do the vic front end i would have to buy new adapters for the front wheels. The cost just keeps adding up anyway i look at it! I think im just gonna bend up these stock Ibeams and look for some factory power steering stuff?? Although im getting used to the manual steering, cancled my gym membership

 

yeah I found out a couple of years ago when I tried to slip the S'Crew wheels on my 73. Dang! So close! Arright.. at least I know they're available so I'll weight my options later.

Well, it's easier to re-drill the axles hubs to get 5x4.5 than finding Bump rotors with 5x4.5. In fact, I don't think they exist due to the hub's snout (I'm talking disc brakes here).

Retrofitting power steering is easy.. Btw, there is a year-split for pitman arms in 71. Later ones have a D2TA cast into the arm which is perfect for the PS retrofit. Find a PS steering box, a bracket and pump for the Cleveland, a couple of hoses, and do it. I had manual steering in my 73 4wd. The big tires and previous owner's tiny steering wheel made driving the thing a total pain. The rig is now wearing the linkages and steering box from a 79 Bronco. MUCH better.

Still got drums in front? Then find yourself a 75-79 Dentside and swap the entire front end.. I-beams, spindles, rotors, calipers, and all. Plus, if ya mess up bending the I-beams then ya got some spares beams with the deal. I robbed a 78 of its front suspension and discs and am prepping them for a spring thrash on my 70. Also grabbed the booster, MC, and lines from a 75 for power brakes.