I have a 93' F-150 with a 4.9l and a crappy foreign 5 spd. I want to convert it to 4 wheel drive and would like advice on the basic componets that I should consider. I will say this, I want a straight axle up front, a 351w(fuel injected) and a better manny tranny. What would be easier (cheaper) to do, leafs or coils up front? What's a good front and rear axle to consider? (My rear is shot) What's a good tranny and transfer case to consider? Any hints and tricks or other things that I should consider? This truck has an excellent body and frame, it's just that it has 257,598 miles on it. It's wore out and I want to play with the big boys!!! Any help would be helpful. Thanx

Jaymz

 

We need more info, what are you gonna be doing with this truck for lifts and tires, mostly street driven or off road? What kind of off road, mud, rocks, trails where you need articulation...? The best transfer case that will easily bolt up is the borg warner 13-56, and you need the linkages with it. Mate that to a ZF 5 speed (it has granny low and OD). You can swap the rear 8.8 to a full floating sterling 10.25". The TTBs are a direct bolt in swap, very very easy and cheap. They are decent units, and offer better articulation than a solid axle. A solid axle conversion is going to cost you some bucks. If I were you, i'd buy an F-250 supercab (supercabs have HD front ends), or just an HD. You can use the rear end, and bolt in the front TTB. You'd have to remove the radius arms and coil spring perch and bolt on the F-250's leaf spring perch and shock mounts. It's not to hard. I'm actually selling a heavy duty 88 F-250 with the full floating rear axle and HD front end (110k mi). It's a D50 with the stronger brakes and hubs. The engine needs to be rebuilt soon (within the next year) but other then that it's in good shape. Has a 351 with the bw 13-56 transfer case. The 4x4 has hardly ever been used and is in A-1 shape. It has an 8600 GVWR. Pics in my gallery and a more indept description is the classified ad I placed on this site, the link to the classifieds is on the right. This setup will give you one heck of an off roader, and if you buy a donor truck, you'll save many headaches and keep some dough in your wallet. I'm looking at getting around 2500-3000 for this truck, but we can talk. The solid axle swap from fabritech or fabtech (can never remember) is somewhere around $5,000. With a donor truck, you get everything you need in one place and any spare parts you need. You can get a rebuild ZF 5 speed for about 1,000-1500 bucks. You can't buy all those misc parts, and axles for cheaper then that. Just the minor things like a driveshaft, the brake lines, shock mounts, transfer case linkage and shifter, brakes and knuckles, are worth having a donor. You can even take some of the parts off the donor and sell them to make your money back. The engine, hood, fenders, bed, tailgate, seats, console, radio, headlights, brake lights, turn signals, all worth some money to bring your conversion cost back down to pennies.

BTW it may be a mazda tranny, but mazda is made by ford if you didn't know.


Primary rig is Green Thunder:
95' F-150 XLT 4x4, 302, 5 spd, MSD 6A, Flowmaster American Thunder Exhaust, Sunroof, Clear corners w/ Diamond headlights, CD player with 2 10" subs and some 32" BFG Muds .

Check out my Gallery for a look-see.

Then theres:
99' Mustang GT 4.6L
88' F-250 Heavyduty 4x4 351/c6
95' Mercury Cougar 4.6L V-8
80' E-350 300/6 with a
3 spd column shifter. Weighs around 7,000lbs w. 65mph top speed, who wants to race me!

 

Well, I would have to say I would be driving it on the street 95% of the time, maybe some weekend fun, nothing too serious though. I think the TTB would be the way to go in the front, easy and $cheap$ and most important effective for the majority of my travels. Tell me more about the ZF 5 speed and the 1356 BW. What models do you mostly find them in? F-250 and F-350's? I'm going to be looking for a donor truck soon, as I thought that was the way to go also. For tires, I could see 32" or 33" X 11.5 or 12.5(not too sure about the width yet) And I would definitly want a suspension lift, probly 2" to 4". I've rebuild a couple motors before and I always work on my own stuff(as well as other's also) but this is my first "big" project and I want to do it right. Thank you for the info!!!!!!

 

Oh jesus, then you just need F-150 parts. You don't need a solid axle and you dont need the 250 parts. By the way you said it, I thought you wanted some beefy parts, but you dont need them that beefy. Your 8.8 is good to do the job, they can take 37s and the front f-150 TTB will do fine up to 36s or maybe 37s, so the F-150 is fine for you. The borg warner 13-56 came in all F-150s,250s,350s from 87-88 or so, until 96 on the 250s and 97 on the 250s. I don't knwo if the newer style trucks use it or not. You want a manually shifted one. The ZF conversion, I don't know about, but they are on a hand full of F-150s and all 250s-350s. Get one from a gas powered truck, there were two versions, the disiel one you don't want because the gear ratios are different. Check out "fords ttb, whats wrong with it?" in the 87-96 forum and the 4x4 forum i made when I was trying to do a 4x4 conversion myself.


Primary rig is Green Thunder:
95' F-150 XLT 4x4, 302, 5 spd, MSD 6A, Flowmaster American Thunder Exhaust, Sunroof, Clear corners w/ Diamond headlights, CD player with 2 10" subs and some 32" BFG Muds .

Check out my Gallery for a look-see.

Then theres:
99' Mustang GT 4.6L
88' F-250 Heavyduty 4x4 351/c6
95' Mercury Cougar 4.6L V-8
80' E-350 300/6 with a
3 spd column shifter. Weighs around 7,000lbs w. 65mph top speed, who wants to race me!

 

All right, thanks alot, you been really helpful. Hopefully I'll have some pics soon of a semi-finished truck. Thanks!!

 

If you need anymore help...feel free to e-mail me at Greenthunder2195(No Email Addresses In Posts!) and i'll be glad to help.


Primary rig is Green Thunder:
95' F-150 XLT 4x4, 302, 5 spd, MSD 6A, Flowmaster American Thunder Exhaust, Sunroof, Clear corners w/ Diamond headlights, CD player with 2 10" subs and some 32" BFG Muds .

That's it for mods now, saving for a Stang. Check out my Gallery for a look-see.

 

i too am looking at some offroading weekend fun. i think most of my questions have been answered here already. i just want to do dome moderate weekend stuff. im looking at some new offroad shocks. i noticed that the rear only has leaf springs.is this ok?i wan to beef up the tires a little to but i dont have the $$$ for a suspension left yet.at least i dont hink so.what are they going for these days.and i heard the best way to convert to a 4x4 form a 4x2 is to buy a 4x4 and take the front axle or something?wait here is the advice i got and maybe it'll help some other ppl.


2x4 to 4x4 for '80 to '96 F-100/150's

By: Dan MacDonald



The most asked question I get asked about the conversions is "Was is hard to do?" Well, depends what you call hard. If you are pretty good with a socket and ratchet, it should be no prob. I might add, if you do have access to any pneumatic tools...that would greatly speed up the process with the stubborn nuts and bolts. OK...the conversion in a nut shell.

To start, its all 100% bolt up. Except for the hole you have to cut in the floor for the shifter. All you do is pull tires off, then the shocks, the springs with a long extension and a (I think) 1 1/4 socket. Then you take off the pivot bolt on one side and undo the radius arm nut (1 1/4 socket) and take the one side off. Then do the same to the other. The new axle is a little harder to manhandle because of the shear weight. The dang thing is heavy! You will need 2 jacks and some good friends! I really can't remember the way I put it back in so you will have to see what works good for you. I would get the radius arms in first and get the nut started. Don't tighten it till you get the pivot bolts in....gives you a little more movement. (On a side note I would suggest getting eccentric radius arm bushings...makes aligning the thing better....one major draw back to the TTB...you can pick em up at any NAPA or other reputable parts store) But once you get it in you can drive on it till you get your transfer case worked out. Steering will bolt right up and it should give you about a 1 to 2 inch lift on the front.

On to the rear.....I am going to make a suggestion that I didn't do that will save lots of headaches. You will need to get the factory blocks that go between the axle and the springs to level the back end to the front. But what I didn't do is swap out the springs and spring brackets......bad move...if you ever want to get a suspension lift it makes it complicated. (The 4x4 springs are a little wider than the 2x4 springs in the rear. So that is why you will have to knock off the rivets with a torch or an air hamer....or even grind em if you are brave enough, and put the new ones on with grade 8 bolts....should just bolt right up.)

The rear driveshaft needs to be shortened some to make room for the transfercase but a good drive shaft shop should be able to tell you how to measure the distance you need. Then with that they can shorten it for a fairly reasonable price.

The transfer case...the hardest part of the conversion. OK...well what I did is that I liked my c-6 that I had and I wanted to still use it. So I pulled the tranny and talked to a local tranny shop about it and he said that he could swap out the output shaft to a shorter one and also put the adapter (transfer case end cone that can be picked up at the dealer.) that the T-case bolts up to on the tranny. OR you can find a tranny/T-case combo too. BUT I would suggest that the shop do it, unless that you have experience rebuilding, because you have to totally disassemble the tranny to swap the output shaft and install the T-case adapter. Have em look at it to make sure that your tranny is in good working order too while you have it out and apart. (IF you don't already..and if you even have a C-6...i would strongly suggest the B&M Street and strip shift kit....really lights it up and its really easy to install)

You will also need to swap out the cross member to make room for the front drive shaft. But its as easy as unbolting one and bolting the other up.

As for the hole in the floor....you will need to have another 4x4 near by to measure...that is what i did.....go small and if you have to you can widen the hole bigger....measure twice and cut once!!!!!!! You will need to take the seat out and drill 4 holes to start the jig saw. Its really not as hard as it sounds.

The linkage is pretty much straight forward. What else...... what I did and further added that stock look, is that I got the 4x4 light to work in my dash! Ford put the 4x4 dash light filter in there even in the 2x4's, soo all you have to do is get the wire and light socket out of a truck and pull the dash and connect it to a positive and then hook it up to the T-cases terminal. All the switch does it that is grounds out the terminal when you are in 4WD. Its real simple and people will love it!!! Also lets you know exactly how many axles you are using! Makes you look good.

Hum...well, all I guess that is left is to make sure that the t-case and the axle are in good shape. You have 3 main bearings in the spindle of the Dana 44. The outer, the inner wheel bearings and then there is another on the shaft its self by the u-joint.....that is the one that got me in trouble. I blew that one and it started blowing my hubs out. It centers the shaft in the hub and without that working right, it wobbles and goes to making spaghetti out of an $80 pair of Warren premiums! BUT I have to complement Warren in backing up their product because I have a bran spanking new pair they sent me to replace the ones that broke.....Now that is customer service! Also make sure you change the gear oil and other basic things like ball joints, and R & P's. ALSO....almost forgot a biggie! Make sure your axle ratios are the same! If you have, lets say 3.08 (which I have and may make a suggestion.....i would believe with the conversion you will be doing, a nice new set of (at least) 4.10's would be lots better!) gears in the rear.....the front needs to be the same. Or you will really test the strength of your drivetrain.

I might have left out some stuff but you should get the general picture. If you do decide to do the conversion, you will be pleasantly surprised on the performance you will gain. Get a good set of mud tires and you are on your way to driving across those tricky ponds that have been laughing at you all this time!


Dan "Mudinford" MacDonald

 

I suggest you make another post about this, it's a separate question so it's best if we have another topic for it so other people can look it up and find it in the furture. I'd suggest that you scan around here, I personally have two posts called "fords ttb, whats wrong with it" in the 87-96 forum and 4x4 forum that will give you everything you need to know. They are from a few months ago so you're going to have to search for it.


Primary rig is Green Thunder:
95' F-150 XLT 4x4, 302, 5 spd, MSD 6A, Flowmaster American Thunder Exhaust, Sunroof, Clear corners w/ Diamond headlights, CD player with 2 10" subs and some 32" BFG Muds .

That's it for mods now, saving for a Stang. Check out my Gallery for a look-see.

 

 

I have been thinking of converting my 1997 F-350 crewcab dually into a 4wd. using a TTB from a F-250HD and then just get F-350 4wd rotors.

the F-250HD uses a leafspring suspension, but I was thinking of building a F-150 style coil spring setup, using the stock 2wd springs, and strut arms.

then adding in the T-case and driveline stuff later.

anybody try this?

 

The F-350 dually uses a solid front axle on the 4x4 for strength, the F-250's will be a little on the weak side. The F-250HD does use the same rotors and hubs as the F-350 I believe. Does your F-350 2wd use an I-beam setup? If so, you can put the F-250HD in there(available on any F-250 with a 8600 GVWR, all supercabs have the HD front). There are a lot of posts on this around this site so use the search feature and find some, I personally have talked to people about this 10 times so the information is out there. This isn't as easy of a task for the F-350s, so unless you are really good and familiar with all the F-250-350 setups, I'd be looking at buying a 4x4 instead. I myself, would not put an F-250 front end in an F-350. Ford's got a solid axle on the F-350 for a reason, strength, and with the F-250s front, you're going backwards and won't be able to load it up like you would be able to with a solid axle. The F-250HD is simply a dana 44 with dana 60 axles and hubs, aka dana 50. So it's not that much stronger than what is on an F-150. Sell that thing and get a 4x4 if you want it bad enough. You could convert the F-350 to a solid axle dana 60, but dana 60s are VERY expensive.



Primary rig is Green Thunder:
95' F-150 XLT 4x4, 302, 5 spd, MSD 6A, Flowmaster Exhaust, Sunroof, Clear corners w/ Diamond headlights, CD player with 2 10" subs and some 32" BFG Muds .

Thats it for now, saving for a stang. Check out my Gallery for a look-see.


Justin