if you're gonna replace the frame, you might be better off to part it out and buy a different truck or use it for a parts truck

 

may have found something.

friend just bought an `86 diesel f250 4x4, and it came with a free parts truck, an `84 diesel f250 2wd.

apparently the donor is "very rough" but we haven't seen it yet, picking it up next week sometime.

Any thoughts? I can weld/grind and am not scared of swapping everything over, you may see in my sig I've done a few conversions in the past.

What am I looking at to convert that f250 to 4wd with my truck as the donor? I'd love to keep it a diesel if I can get the motor to run, which it sounds like.

Here's all I know on the donor -
'84 6.9L two wheel drive, not running though I suspect the engine and injection pump work -- needs new starter, batteries, electrical work, tires, etc.

if I can't get the diesel to run I'd just swap the drivetrain from my 86 into it.

 

Your front end will bolt right into that 2wd 3/4 ton chassis, and you can convert it to 8 lug without too much trouble. You'd definitley need to get some new coils to hold up a 6.9 though.
About the only issue with using your 5.0 drivetrain is that the diesel and 460 trucks run a slightly different engine crossmember, without the cutout for the oil filter on a smallblock. The later production 5.8L trucks solved this by using a half size filter, but a 90 degree adapter or a remote filter setup would be a better setup.

 

sweet that's good to know, and I don't think I'd have a problem finding a junkyard transfer case setup.

 

Your transfer case you have now will work. Through the years all the different model trucks used the same few transfer cases, and they all interchange. The only problem I see is the transmission. A 2wd tranny will not bolt up to a transfer case without the adapter installed on the tranny. I don't know what's involved in converting a 2wd t19(that's the 4 speed that usually came with the early diesels) to accept the transfer case adapter, but if the 2wd diesel is a automatic(c6 is what they came with) I do know to convert a 2wd c6 to accept the transfer case adapter requires tearing the whole tranny down to install the shorter output shaft.

I don't know if you said, but what tranny do you have now in the f150? If it's a t18 4speed, and the 2wd diesel is a 4speed, you may just be able to change the bellhousings and be able to bolt the 4wd t18 behind the diesel and be golden.

There is also may be another option, though it would require a little fab work. I have heard of people using a 2wd tranny, with a divorced 205 transfer case. These transfer cases are mounted separately, and have a little short driveshaft between the tranny and the transfer case. They came this way in 70's f250 pickups, and this is the heavy duty cast iron transfer case with gears. You would have to make a mount for the transfer case, and get custom driveshafts made.

About the frame. I am a little confused on what's going on with the front of the frame on a f150 vs a f250. The front frame rails are different between a f150 4wd and a f250 4wd, since one uses coil springs, and the other uses leaf springs. But a f250 2wd uses coil springs, and I have heard of people converting a f250 2wd into a 4wd. Does that mean a f250 2wd can also be converted to a f150 4wd, I am not sure about that. This is all based on a "bolt in" senario. Of course you can make anything work with a welder and a torch.

If you get to look at the 2wd diesel frame, you can probably tell right away if it will work if you have a good picture of your f150 frame. The 2wd frame sounds like a good candidate if it will work, since they are not usually abused like a 4wd, and possibly not driven in the salt and snow as much either.

 

my truck is an AOD, no idea what the f250 has though.

Another buddy of mine just converted his `86 f250 4wd diesel from a c6/gear venders overdrive/whatever transfer case that truck had, to a manual with a different transfer case, so I could probably use some of his stuff. His c6 was completely smoked though, the trans fluid looked like glitter paint...

Hopefully this pans out and the truck has a good frame/engine, I'd love to just have to do a 4wd conversion/cab swap and be done with it and have a solid truck.

I'm in southern california btw, snow/salt/rust really isn't an issue on any vehicle that lived here

 

I'm not sure why Ford changed the legnth of the beams on the leaf sprung TTB's, but, all of the TIB front ends use the same dimensions and mounting points, so, an F150 TTB will bolt into a 250 or 350 2wd chassis.
The swap would be pretty straight forward using the diesel, just need to find a 4x4 transmission to go with it, and they are reasonably common.

 

Too bad you are in California. I would hit you up about that c6 overdrive unit for my truck.

 

There is an od on ebay in Cali. Might be the same guy.
eBay Motors: Gear vendors GV underdrive overdrive ford F350 7.5 (item 150319792458 end time Jan-13-09 19:20:30 PST)

 

The frames and crossmember are different on F250's and F150 parts will not fit.

 

alright debbie downer.