I saw this project done one time and they cut the inner piece of the frame off the donor truck and welded it on the new truck. That took care of the "Y" piece you had to fabricate.
Just a thought for those that use this thread in the future.

Of course this is the ideal time to do the reverse shackle swap.

 

That is an option. I wanted to stay away from that route, along with secioning out the crossmember as I didnt want to mess with the structural integrity of the truck.

 

I'm planning on the RSK, Superduty springs, and a Dana 60 when I do mine.

Although before the 4wd conversion I will be swapping in my ZF5. That's more important to me than 4wd right now as I don't want to buy a expensive upgraded auto in the future. Now that my Stage I's are almost in I'm hoping my transmission will last. It's a Ford Reman with only 15k on it so it should hold up. Got a shift kit in it to help.

 

I had to edit.. Come to find out, the races were removed from the hubs prior to my purchase.. I just didnt catch it.. Got that problem taken care of!

• Brake rotors from a D-50 can be used on a D-60. Clearances and diameters are identical!
• All outer and inner components inside the D-50 are interchangable with a D-60
• Lock outs match up just fine!

I will get some pics tomorrow, as it was pretty dark in the shop tonight. Most of my work on the truck has to wait until late at night as its getting pretty hot here during the day (113 degrees), and working in a shop without AC is painful! LOL!

 

I was trolling the other sections of the forum, and came across this..

I am going to flip this box design, drill through straight through it, and mount my front shackle to it! I will weld the open box piece to my frame on the inside of the frame, which will also take up the space that i was going to use shims.. I am amazed I never considered this! Much better and more stable then my Y-Bar piece I spent so long working on!

The 4-wheel drive project is done except for this last button up, but I wanted to tighten things up a little more then what I came up with! That Y-Bar would have worked, but I am not so certain the load of the truck, plus the amount of weight I put on it, combined with the stress of some of the terrain I go through, that it would hold up without a concern. So yes, I have scrapped that design, and going with this, just flipped downward! Much stouter design!

 

FYI: I got into the shop finally today, wanted to get started on buttoning up the hubs. I had bought the races I needed for the hubs, and came across some interesting challenges, along with irritating the auto parts people! LOL!

The inner races fit just fine, all is good there! Wheel bearing works in it very smoothly! The outer races however.. parts screw up! Here's the deal...

The 4-wheel drive donation is from a 97 F-250 D-50, going onto a 94 F-350 Dually. The hubs i got to swap out for the 4-wheel drive dually, are D-60's off of a 89. Head swimming yet? LOL!

Anyhow, the outer races fit into the hub fine, and came with a new bearing (all from autozone). The problem, new bearing is way too small diameter to go over the spindle.

Went back to Autozone, with both sets of hubs, races, bearings.. Yeah, we are going to test parts before i drive all the way back home! So after standing in line for 40 minutes waiting my turn, got up to the counter and unloaded my parts. I got some little gal who had a horrified look on her face and tried to get one of her coworkers to take me, LOL! I explained the problem, again! I already used the online site to find most of my parts, but the outer races dont have specs or pics online! So she brings out the 89 F-350 outer bearing and race, and again, wrong part! So we try to bring up the part number for the 97.. No luck! Did you know that they only sell a complete hub, not the bearing or race for that year? Its a factory sealed hub! Eww.. I am not buying into that.. I get my money back and head out the door!

I go shopping again on line, and thank god I decided to go to Napa.. Talk about more specific parts listings and info! They carry the outer races, and in a variety of sizes! Prices arent bad either!

Now I am not giving props or feedback, but from what I have found, here are the parts numbers for those pesky D-60 1-Ton Dually hubs...

AutoZone
Inner Race: 382A
Outer Race: None listed
Inner Wheel Bearing: 387A
Outer Wheel Bearing: SET38
Hub Seal: 415960

NAPA
Inner Race: PGB P382A
Outer Race: BRG LM104911
Inner Wheel Bearing: PGB P387A
Outer Wheel Bearing: PGB PLM104949
Hub Seal: NOS 24017

Now these will be the same parts numbers for models between 1987-1997. Napa specifically states that these parts are identical for D-50 axles and D-60 axles. Keep this list somewhere! You never know! LOL

 

Do you have any pics of how "boxed" the front frame rail for the shackle?

 

Woo.. this one has been dug up! Congrats! LOL!

Let me see what I can do on getting some pics. I know after I finished it up, I was onto the electrical for the PS install. I will get some put up!

 

Are the holes for the rear spring mount the same between the 2wd and 4wd frames or do you have to drill new holes? I looks like the rear leaf spring mount will bolt up once you take the 2wd piece off of the frame right?

I want to get mine all set up before I do the conversion so all I have to do is put the springs in place and bolt them up when i get a Dana 60 for the front. (Mine's still 2wd).

I just want the spring/shackle mounts in place before hand, although I'll probably put the RSK in front. Also is the upper shock mount different?

 

The holes for the spring mounts, on the rear share 2 of the 4 same bolt holes on the front section of the mount, IIRC.. I will look back through my notes too! I think if you can pull the shackle off of your donor truck, you could line it up along with your current one, and mark the holes.

For those shocks, yes the upper mount is different!

You will have to drill new holes for that one! Thankfully they are the easier ones to do!

 

Did you get pictures of your final front spring mount? I want to see how it turned out if you did it like that picture you used from someone elses.

 

I am doing something similar right now. I am using an f250 leaf springs and mounts. An 1989 dana 60 axle. I am replacing the 460 for a 92 cummins engine. Hopefuly it will be worth it. I loved my truck as a 2wd hopefully I will love it more as a 4wd. Matt

 

Matt.. You really will! It will sweeten that pot somethin nice!

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...&ref=fbx_album

If cannot see check my profile.

 

I have a 89 f150 that i would like to do this to. I have a 89 250 to use. Why didn't you just weld the two frame together? Is that crazy, or a ok option?