I recently purchased a 1984 Ford F150 4X4 with 300-6 and 4spd manual trans.

During this vehicle's previous life everything had been improved except for the paint.

I am very happy with the electrical system and most of the parts in it, but i knew there were issues.

First issue was that it would not go into first and second gear as it was when I got it.

By blind luck and the grace of god that issue is solved, and I can not tell you how I did it, or even take credit for doing it.
I give the credit to divine intervention.

I know that the truck originally had lower gears and different axles in the front and rear.

The prior owner said he swapped out the 308's for 351's. (or something to that affect)

The 4WD works fine in the snow and on slick surfaces but bucks like a bull on the pavement.

My suspicion is that the guy that did the work for him did not install the same gears in both axles.

I noticed that the front wheels seem to engage before the rear wheels do, but did not think much about it when I was watching at the time.

I thought that may have been due to the plow (somewhere inside of my mind at the time).

It drives fine on the blacktop in 2WD, except that it seems to need some front end work. (it is a plow truck, so no surprises there.)

I would like to know what the common worn out front end parts are, and how to find out what gears are in this truck or how to otherwise solve the problem.

I would like to know that I can use 4WD without causing excessive wear and chaos in the drive train.

Thank you for all of your assistance.

I really like this truck and think it deserves to be repaired and kept.

Most of the work that was done to it looks great, but there are still some Gremlins that I need to chase out of it to make it reliable and safe enough for my kids.

Semper Fi,
ret_Marine2003

 

Someone here correct me if I am wrong, but my remembrances of 4WD is that you never use it on dry pavement. I haven't had one for a few years but I always thought that was a no no. You might want to jack up the truck and crawl under and do a check to see you have matching gears front and rear. You can check by marking the drive shafts and the wheels and check to see how many revolutions the shaft makes compared to the wheel. If they are the same front and rear then you are good, if they differ then the gears are different ratios. Hope this helps, and someone please let us know about the driving 4WD on dry pavement.

 

I use my 4x4 off and on all year regardless if I need it or not.I can drive mine on payment with no problem,but loose some of my turn radius when 4x4 is engaged.Why is that?I'm runnin 4:10 gears in my F-250.You should check your gears because your truck should run in 4x4 down the pavement with no problems.If the guy that owned it befor probaly took front and rearends off of two different trucks and mostlikely did't check the gear ratios.Check front driveshaft pinion angle

 

You can run a 4x4 on dry pavement, but I would not make a habit of it. When the road is snow covered with patches of dry, it's fine. Even totally dry pavement would be ok, but it doesn't take any effort to move the floor lever to 2wd hi as you are running down the road, and you should do it when you know you don't need it anymore, and definitely do it before any parking lot maneuvers.

The 4x4 is tying all the wheels together. On dry pavement going down the road straight, hopefully all the tires are close to the same diameter, and it does fine. But when trying to turn the front wheels sharp, one front tire moves forward, the other moves to the rear, and they both move different distances. The front differential takes up as much as possible, but it still isn't enough, and you can hear the frame and the driveline creaking and the power steering pump whining as it gets in a bind. If you do this very often, you will eventually break something. Like I said, all you have to do is push the lever back up to 2wd. If you are already in a bind, the lever is not going to move, so you will have to put the tranny in neutral and try to let the truck relax before it will move into 2wd.

To the original poster's question, hopping while turning sharp in 4wd is normal. Hopping while driving straight is not. Look for tags on the rearend and frontend differentials.

 

I suppose I should have made that more clear.

My issue is hopping when going strait and when in contact with dry land.

I did not even try turning.

It was very clear that something is wrong.

 

Hopping while straight is a problem. The easiest way to check your gears is to jack up 1 wheel at a time on each axle. Mark the drive shaft and mark the tire. Rotate the tire 1 revolution and count how many revolutions the driveshaft makes. I forget the math you need to finalize it, but once you have the numbers from doing this, someone else will be able to calcualte it for you.