I have an '85 F150, red with white in the middle, supercab long bed, 4x2 302EFI AOD.

What I plan on doing is making it four wheel drive, keeping it automatic with overdrive"?", lifting it more (Has a 4" Rough Country Lift now) by upgrading the coil springs with skyjacker's 6" lift coils,and using the 6" lift brackets on the truck now. (Rough Country's brackets are the same for 4 and 6" lifts they sell; so using the lower holes, it corrects the the wheels) while I am putting the Dana 44 front end in the truck. Daul Shock option I want but don't know if its worth it.

After lifting and axleing, I want to bolt up 15" Mickey Thompson Classic Locks with 35" Pro-Comp Extreme Mud Terrains. wheels and tread as wide as legally possible, finishing the truck off with Bushwacker cut-out flares painted red.

What do you'll think other than the price? ( I plan on this being a life long project)

 

You are probably going to have to change the gearing with those large tires and overdrive.

Are you planning to get a new or used tranny for the 4x4 change or getting your tranny you have now changed around.

 

If I can (Haven't looked yet if I can) bolt on a t-case on my current tranny then bolt back on my overdrive, thats what I want to do. Like I said, I don't really know anything about what I'm doing yet. I plan on buying a parts truck with everything else I need; like a good un-modified steering colium, captain seats, 4x4, power options, ect... I plan on just doing what ever OE is on other 4x4 trucks. As far as gearing goes, I really don't know what to do with that; I know the higher the ratio (4:10) makes kills highway miles, but stop and go traffic will benifit, right? and the lower, the opisite... I don't know what I would be looking for or what could tell me what I have now in the rear end. I have a Ford 8.8 rear end and a Dana 44 from a 1995 F150 (Told it will work by many peaple) to be installed soon. The Drive train to come later when I get more money saved up.

Also another question I have are about the daul shock options, what are advanteges and dis's to having this option. I know I need new shock/spring towers to add dual shocks, but I will have it all apart anyways and would put different ones in while I am poping new spring in. I aim to have this truck off road somethimes, but nothing hard core and mostly a daily driver.

Thanks, sorry for the rather large post.

 

Your overdrive is made into the tranny. And your tranny will have to be tore down and modified to fit the transfer case you get. The output shaft of the tranny has to be changed.

So the easiest solution would be to get a donor truck and change the tranny and the transfer case, and it will all bolt together. Just make sure you get a truck that has a 300, 302 or 351w.

Make sure the gears in the Dana 44 you have match the rearend ratio you have in the truck now.

4.10 gears are probably what you are going to want if you put 35's on it and keep the overdrive. Anything lower, and the truck is going to bog and be slow, and will never go into overdrive except on the interstate, and even then, you might find yourself downshifting up hills. The 35's are large in diameter and the lift will put the truck up high in the wind, so that's going to take a lot of power from the 302, so you will need to let it wind up a little bit with the 4.10 gearing. You could make the gearing a later project and just try it out with the stock gearing first.

I am not sure what the advantage is of the dual shocks. I know the factory used them in a "handling package" with a rear sway bar also.

 

Yeah, I was planning on a donor truck for parts and to see what goes where before I got started. There is a cone looking object after my tranny, if the overdrive is in the tranny, whats that for?

Just a thought: Are the 1980-1991 Fords F150s the same as far as 4x4 goes? reason I ask is because I was thinking about taking the serpentene belt drive from a 302 truck and putting it all on mine, rather then buying all new pulleys, aternators, ps, ect.... it would get expensive new. just a thought though.

Thanks for the help and advice so far.

 

If you change to a serpentine belt, you have to change the fan and the waterpump, and all the brackets too. The waterpump turns backwards compared to a v-belt system. I would not bother with it myself.

I don't know what the cone object is, but if you have a AOD, that is a Automatic OverDrive, and the 4 speeds of the tranny are inside it.