Truck looks great!

Lovin it. Very interested in the new wheel and tire combo. You said they was 17'' What width and brand are they? Im guessing 9" What kind of tires are those. Are they a 35x12.50 or 315/70/17. Just curious New wheels and tires for my highboy have been on my mine lately and I want to go 17s and there is very few pics online to check out.

Wheels are Pro Comp Alloys - Series 1069, 17x9 Polished finish. They have 4.75" backspace and drivers side does rub on full right turn.
P/N PXA 1069-7982 from 4wheelparts.

Tires are MasterCraft Courser MXT, 35x12.50 R17.
Overall diameter is 34.76"
Load Range E
Max Load 3,195lbs

I've only gotten up to about 55mph briefly a few times and driven a grand total of abut 5 miles on them so I can't comment on highway speed and tire noise yet.

These wheels and tires are temporarily on this truck. Once I get my crew cab on the road these wheels and tires will go on it.

Thanks For the info!

Sweet score on that truck. But did I understand you correctly? Is this truck going to most likely a "parts truck"? Please tell me that I misunderstood you. That truck is too nice to be a parts truck.

When I say parts truck I mean it as a source for knickknack parts that are either missing from my crew cab or to swap onto the crew cab, in return for something in not as nice condition that is on the crew cab.

This truck is an automatic transmission 4x4.
My crew cab is a manual transmission 4x4.

I want the crew cab to be an automatic transmission, so I will pull the automatic transmission, torque converter, brake pedal assembly, steering column, radiator, lines for the radiator to transmission, transmission cooler, flex plate, kick down linkage and drive shaft out of this truck.

I'll pull all the necessary stuff off the crew cab to make this 73 into a manual transmission truck.

I need mirrors and the the emergency brake pedal assembly which the crew cab does not have. Rather than have to stop in the middle of the effort to get the crew cab on the road, it will work out better to have this truck for parts immediately available. I went to the junkyard Friday looking for parts and there wasn't a single dent or bump in the yard. Too many times in the past I've unloaded parts only to need them down the road and having to pay a premium to acquire them when I already had them on hand for less.

I'll swap rear bumpers between trucks and anything else that I like better into the crew cab.

When I'm done, both this and the crew cab will be roadworthy vehicles. (maybe minus the mirrors unless I acquire one's I like. I know that this truck is far too nice to not stay on the road and I'm actually fond of it. I wouldn't mind keeping it, but my daughter who it would be for doesn't want a manual transmission. I may hang onto it for a father sons restoration project.

I'm with you on what you're saying. With my trucks, the 79 gets the newest, nicest and bestest stuff first. Good stuff gets handed down to the 78. Same from 78 to 77. More or less...

Why do you like the automatic for the crew cab?

Ok maddog I understand. But fwiw if I'm correct on this, and if I'm not someone here will correct me on this. But Ii do believe that your crew cab has a married transfer case where as your 73 has a divorced transfer case. So what you're planning won't be a simple swap. And in doing that swap between those two trucks would mean a trip to a driveline shop for new custom drive shafts for those two trucks.

They are both NP205 divorced transfer case F-250's so I'm good on that front.

I spent a few months simply getting familiar enough with these trucks to know what I needed to make this as seamless as possible. Lots of time reading, searching for trucks across the western states and occasionally checking out trucks in person until this 73 came up for sale in LA.

Other bonus is the 73 has cruise control and power assist steering that I could swap onto the crew cab.

I like the automatic because I've had enough manual transmission cars to know that I prefer driving autos, especially in So Cal traffic.

I have to think less and don't have to spend as much time actively participating in the driving experience. This keeps my right hand free from having to shift a lot so I can enjoy a soda while driving down the road without having to quickly put it down to shift gears. :)

It opens up the middle seat hump so that someone can actually sit in it. It's somewhat limited with the manual shifter.

I want my wife and kids to feel comfortable enough to drive the crew cab and none of them drive stick.

I have my Mustang, which is a 4 speed manual transmission when I need to satisfy the urge to drive a stick. :-X22

Good points. I was in California traffic last week and the first thing I thought was I wouldn't want to drive my truck in this!

I pulled the automatic transmission out of the 73 and sent it out for a rebuild so that I can install it in the crew cab.

4 speed manual transmission is going in this truck.

Prior to the swap I finally washed the truck. It's pretty easy to see what wasn't done yet in this pic.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4299/...d77ee1f7_z.jpg

I'll post up more progress on the swap soon.

Since all I had was a bed full of parts in my 75 crew where the a 4 speed manual setup came from, the post that Bullitt390 did on Converting from Automatic to Manual, some pics and explanation... was very helpful with figuring out what pieces I needed for the clutch assembly to work properly.

I ordered new knickknack parts from Dennis Carpenter:

Clutch Lever Housing Boot

Clutch Pedal Rod Floor Seal

Clutch Release Idler Lever Bushing

Clutch Pedal Spring Insulator


Of course I didn't know that I need those exact things until I had pulled everything together and figured out what was missing/broken.


First thing I did was remove the steering columns out of both trucks.

That wasn't too painful.

When I went to remove the automatic transmission I tried to do so w/o removing the crossmember that goes under the transmission bellhousing.

I was under a time crunch of trying to get the trans pulled out and into the shop for a rebuild while I was on vacation. Sadly, I ended up literally having to stop with the transmission supported on the trans jack and only four bolts left to remove so that I could take off the crossmember. It sat that way until we got back from vacation. Within an hour of getting back to work on the truck I had the transmission removed.

Installing the NP435 wasn't too hard.

One thing most people aren't very clear about when they do this type of swap is that the rear transmission cross member has to be relocated.

In all it took me about an hour from start to finish to remove all 4 rivets.

I found the best technique was cut thru the rivet heads
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4409/...4a5342ed_z.jpg

and grind them so they were flush with the frame:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4422/...ea9f2339_z.jpg

I then used a drill bit to drill into the rivet:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4371/...8de1f27b_z.jpg


I expanded the hole a bit with a step bit:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...e602518b_z.jpg

Then used a punch and hammer to drive the rivets thru the frame:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...b294ab1e_z.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4371/...13562bb2_z.jpg


I timed myself to see how long the last 2 took me.

Next to last one took right around 11 minutes, start to finish.

My last rivet took 6 minutes and 29 seconds to complete.

I was too busy working against the clock to stop for any more pictures.

I had to use the step bit to enlarge the frame holes to fit the grade 8 bolts. I also had to drill two new holes (one per side) in the perch for them to be properly bolted to the frame. The holes that were already in the perches just did not line up to the frame holes, so the perches got a new hole on the front of each one.

I used 7/16-14x2 bolts, with locknuts and washers.

Hope this level of details helps those looking to do this in the future.

With the manual transmission installed and the truck generally running OK on the manual fuel pump I hooked the electric fuel pump back up and did some test driving. I had the shop do a once over to make sure I had the clutch adjusted properly and that there were no major obstacles that I'd overlooked for it to be road worthy.

There was residual crud in the line with the electric fuel pump that was causing a the truck to run lean and cut out. After unclogging the carb jets and installing new fuel filters it is running fantastic.

I took it down to a neighbors property to take her some firewood over the weekend and spent a few minutes in 4wd with my son helping me find a good line thru the rocky, dry canyon. Didn't think to take any pics.

I'm in need of a FE Flywheel Housing Inspection Cover. P/N C3AZ-6366-A for my NP435. NPD here in CA actually has one of their's in stock but its $60. Yikes. If anyone in So Cal has a lead on one or a MT parts truck shoot me a PM please.