Hi all! Being my second post and 1st question - I guess I should introduce myself...

Name's Steve - I'm 27 and live in Southern California. I guess you could say I'm a ford guy. I've got 5 ford trucks currently (2001 Expedition, 1976 Crew Cab F-250, 1973 F-250 Camper Special, 1989 Ranger - Race truck and 1938 Pickup - hot rod), but my inventiry is always changing...

Onto my question...
I just acuired what I am told is a 1976 F-250 crew cab (didn't come with title and I have no way of being sure the door tag is corect). The body/trim, etc. look right for a 76 though, so I am going with it.
I plan on converting this thing to 4wd.

The truck came with "everything to convert it" supposedly... As many of you can probably guess - this is most likely not the case. After looking over the parts he gave me it seems I have most everything but front shackles. This brings up my main question which is - are the frames different from 2wd to 4wd? The "4wd" parts I have include tranny - which looks to be 2wd (could be for divorced transfer case), T-case, axles and cut up frame with leafs still attached. The hacked up frame rials look to have been modified for steering box, etc. which makes me think they came from a 2wd that had been converted to 4wd. Could this be the case?

I'm sure I will have many more questions to come after this, but it looks like I have found the right place to get some straight answers. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Welcome to the site

Vin#.

The Vin# is stamped into the Top of the frame rail passenger side between the rad support and firewall and again under the cab same area of frame.

Due to the major requirements for doing such a swap

I always tell people: "If you want a 4x4...just BUY a 4x4".

Btw, Thanks for putting the Topic in the title.

No need for 'new member' though..we can see your post count

 

vin # is on the frame in the front of these things? Is that something they started after 73? Because in my 72 and my 73 it was only under the foot area of the passanger. Maybe it just had enough rust to be lost on the other 2...
I will have to look for this one tonight.

As for the swap - If I could find a 4x4 I would buy it, but I've only seen 2 crew cab 4x4's in my area and they were fully restored and listed for $14k and $22k - and the latter was a long bed = no go for me.

I know I could go on ebay and pay through the nose to have one shipped from the midwest, but why - when I found this one for $600 delivered with all axles, etc. in the bed.

Plus I know my way around the shop well enough to handle this. I just need to familiarize myself with these trucks a bit more.

Can anybody tell me if there was truely a difference in frame on these things from 2wd to 4wd?
I have heard the highboys, etc. had a different frame in the rear (won't fit the rear pankake fuel tank), but was that just the rear of the frame???

Thanks again.

 

I'll scan a picture of what I have for you.

 

cool - thank you. Any and all help.input is appreciated.

 

Please post exactly which frames you wish to see.


ie: 1976 4x2 CC vs 1976 CC 4x4

EDIT:

1973- 77 1/2 F250 4x4 Frame



1974 F100/F350 4x2 Frame

 

thanks for the help.

I'm not positive on years as I am not sure what the 4wd donor parts came off of. It was more of a "what are the frame differences between 2wd and 4wd in general" type of question. But, seeing what you have posted I guess that is a pretty vague question.

The area where I am most concerned is the front spring hangers, seeing as that seems to be the piece(s) I am missing.

What you've posted there does clarify is somewhat for me. It looks like the front spring hanger is a bolt-on (rivited on in stock form), cross memeber type assembly?
Is this the case?

I guess it's time for me to hit a wrecking yard and do some research/parts hunting.

 

Sounds like you need suspension steering illustrations more than a frame pic.

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

 

thank you - that blowup clarified things a bit, but also confused me a bit more...

Looking at the blowup for the 76-79 F-250 4wd - it looks like the front portion of the frames on the 4wds may have been boxed??? If not, how does that front spring hanger bolt on, as it is a U shaped bracket?

I have seen a 70's 4wd F-___ parked near my house a few times. Next time I see it I think I'm gonna have to go take some reference photos.

 

 

As far as year goes...a quick way to get an estimate is from the taillights....theres a year of DOT approval on them...now of course this assumes that the whole bed or tailights haven't been used from something else but chances are they're original.

It sounds like the previous owner was planning to cut then join the 4wd front section to the 2wd frame....I know there was a difference at one time between 2wd and 4wd frame widths which could pose a problem to that style of conversion.

If your set on converting to 4wd then I would just fab everything up that you need for the 4wd...ie...Axle, Steering, T case and all that....then just have custom driveshafts made for the front and rear. It would be a fair ammount of work and you'd have to def make sure you got the measurments right...but in the long run I think its be a better way to go.
-Chris

PS Pics always help!

 

he wasn't planning on cutting the frame and welding the front section on. I can tell that by the way the he hacked the frame pieces I got...

The custom work doesn't bother me. If I can make a tube frame race truck, I can convert this thing to 4wd...
I had planned on custom fab for this project, but I was tryin to find out what I could just "bolt on" - if anything.

As soon as I figure out how to post pics on here I will do it. I don't see and "add attachment" type button below, so I'm guessing all pics have to be hosted somewhere else? If so I may not post pics.

To get a basic idea - a pic of my truck is 1/2 way down page 3 of this thread
- *crap* - just noticed I can't even paste a link into this thread.
No pics for now I guess - until I figure out how to use this board some more.

If you are REALLY interested in seeing the truck, along with some other REALLY cool trucks - you can go to www.desertrides.com and check out my thread called "Old Skool Ford Guys" in the "talk" forum. Truck is on page 3. It's a decent thread - talks about my idea for making custon fiberglass fenders and hood for these trucks...

 

Hahah...so youre the guy selling the Camper Shell on craigslist then huh? http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/pts/317407791.html

If you click the "Go advanced" button you can insert links and pics. Whatever you decide on doin...its gonna be some work...are you gonna be making it a desert runner? If so and if its got I beams...I would keep it beam...wayyyyy more travel for those whoops which ='s a smoother ride. Basically what are you plannin on doing with it?
-Chris

 

2wd frames are different than 4wd frames. Also 73-77 F-250 frames are different than 77.5-79 F-250 frames. The frame section you have with the axle attached could be a 73-77 F-250 frame section with a 77.5-79 F-250 power assisted steering gear box. The 73-77 F-250 all had the same manual steering gear box but the trucks with power steering had a slave cylinder on the axle. 73-75 F-250s had drum brakes in the front axle 76-77 had disk brakes with a low pinion 77.5-79 had high pinion front disks. Maybe the best thing you can do right now is post some pics of what you got in your gallery so we can figure out what you really have so far.

 

Not to get off topic but....I just look at that craigslist ad and theres a short bed regular cab with dual tanks...I didnt think that was possible?