I have an 84 TTB setup. MY buddy has an old 78 or 79 F150 he wants to sell me. That should have a coil spring front dana 44 and NP205 transfer case right? If so--will that front end mount under my truck? How hard will it be to convert?

 

The biggest thing to remember when doing this is to measure & remeasure everything that mounts to the truck. Make sure that the spring mounts & radius arms are the same length & will bolt in.

 

do a search in here. this has been covered several times with lots of opinions.

 

http://ntwonline.com/ntw0799/pages/conversion.html



1985 F-150/351Ho/c6/4wd~94,000 miles
1979 F-150extcab4x4/460/c6/6inchlift w/60rear44frnt (250 axles and spings)
37 inch boggers

 

It will not bolt right up. I have tried and failed in that aspect. Ill tell you why it wont work and what can be done to make it work.
Problem no one....the Panhard bar (For those who don't know....the bar that stabilizes the axle on the horizontal plain. Since the axle has coils, it can move in all 3 dimensions. The radius arms keep it from moving back and forth and the Panhard bar covers the left to right movement.) It has a bracket that doubles as a shock mount. The prob is that there is not a good spot to mount the bracket flat where you need it on the frame. The gearbox interferes as well as the steering linkage. the only way i have seen this done it to fab a bracket that mounts on to the engine cross member. And that brings us to #2
#2...the engine cross member. You will have to run a min of 6" of lift to clear the stock crosmember. That pumpkin and beam will become real friendly if you don't.
#3....The coil towers. The earlier model trucks had narrower springs than the 80's/90's TTBs. SO the springs will not mount in the stock Spring buckets. You will have to swap them if you plain on fabing something your self.
Other than that it will work fine. Radius arms are not a prob to bolt up and the axle it the correct width. I would strongly suggest if you plain on doing this to consider saving some $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (Notice the amount of $) and get the kit i got. It should be in the mail next week so they told me at Fabritech. Its costly (all in all i dropped about $2500 for it) but it is easy and would be done right. I would trust that better than anything i could weld. I can hook you up to a source for cheep rear leafs. $300 better than 4WP. If you have any questions at all....e-mail me @ Mud-n-ford86(No Email Addresses In Posts!). I am doing the kit as soon as i rebuild my engine. I will let every one know how it went...might even write a tech article on it.

[link:www.setstr8.com/|Here is the link directly for Fabritech]
You can see some trucks that have the kit installed.

Dan "Mudinford" MacDonald

Rather be pushing a Ford than driving a Chevy.

Like A Rock......In Water!

 

Or you could do what I'm thinking about, custom 9" front axle, custom engine crossmember, and leaf springs, with only ~3" of lift, sounds like big bucks, but I'm going to build most of the custom parts myself, spring mounts and other small stuff will probably just be sourced from something else(Maybe a F350,) the only stuff I'll have to have made will be the springs and axles, the housing, I'll build myself.
Evan MacDonald
82 F100 FlareSide 2wd
HD 300-6 9.5:1 CR
Clifford 270H cam
Hedman Hedder
SBC valved 66 240 head
Headlight Relays - Delanty Style
NP435(6.69 low)
3.55 Geared ARB'd 9"
31x10.50/15 Cooper Discoverer LT's