4 wheel drive conversion (cruiser/hauler and NOT a mud bug or rock crawler)

I'm not into stuff going on over at the 4x4 forums, not for me so please don't harsh on her for having two drive axles.
I had a truck... it was a ratrod of sorts, I liked the rust it had, it was natural and the truck wasn't pieced together it was in a graceful decline
I dumped about 6k into her rebilding all the mechanicals
Mike Daley @daly's machine tooled me up a nice 460, I assembled it.
All mechanicals hydraulic and electrical components rebuilt and replaced, even new driveshafts.
When I was done it was essentially a brand new truck with a wore out body.



Wrecked it... put a 3k# pallet of shingles into the back of the cab.




I bought a 76 f250 out of Los Angeles to rebody my 4x4
Got repeatedly hounded about not using it for parts and got grumped off and sold it.
I picked up this ol heap... 76 f250 2 wheel drive with solid floors, bad cab corners, box wasted...
I turned it into a 4x4 with my half ton parts but never got it running.
I got to that "disassembly for fit and finish" part of the build and stuffed it in the garage

pics

looks like good work truck, l would get it running & drive the heck outta it.


Later

next phase

I pulled her out of the garage last winter and have been gearing up to put her back together.
she developed more rust...
The box I had for it was another dissappointment.
It was from what was supoosed to be a rust free straight arizona truck
I bought it off ebay since the pictures looked good and the guy swore up and down it had no rust anywhere.
When I got it it looked like it had been loaded with bowling balls from a a second story window and the cab was in fact rusted out and the doors full of bondo...
i had to scrap everything except the box and fenders and the box was usable for a hauler but not for anything really nice. it wou;ld have looked good with a bedliner and rail caps...


not too bad and definitely useable.. but could be better...



So I decided to take a look around and see what I could find for a body before i got to spending any more money on it.
I found this in Tulsa and just brought it home.
I'm in the process of stripping ol red and am going to take a mulligin on the project for a complete re-do with another truck.
I think I might call the truck mulligin or maybe Mulli or Moll.



As you can see the red truck wasn't really bad especially by ratrod standards
But the catch is that at this point so far I sold $750 in parts off of red and paid $600 for the brown one and spent $260 in gas going after it
If I can get a hunnert bucks out of this cab... by the time I run in the iron I'll be at zero cost
on this improvement



Other benefits besides being totally rust free...
The new truck has dual tanks and factory air....
It's a half ton (cheaper plates)
I had a fun trip going after it...
I'm having a blast parting the other one out
And the new one will get done right
...When I welded in the stub on the red truck i should have bolted on the fenders and lined up the body before welding...
It was straight from a suspension standpoint but required an additional 2" of shim under the radiator support.... dont get in a hurry!
That always bothered me now i have a chance to make it right...

skull said:

looks like good work truck, l would get it running & drive the heck outta it.


Later

Click to expand...

I was intending to. Not to be a gold chainer or diminish the coolness of other rides but i already have an 86 chevy dually for hauling and just bought a 2001 f150 with 186k miles and slappy timing chains and rough idle...

After an overhaul the 2001 is going to be my work truck- good mileage
My 77 ford parts consist of built 460-4 speed- big tires.... It's a thirsty rig.
I was going to build a 300-6 for it but got this 2001 with a 4.6 v8 and overdrive instead
I decided either to throw this together and sell it or start over and do it up like a new truck since I already have all the mechanical stuff to do that.
Engineering is done... reconstruction then...
fit and finish.... fit and finish...almost there...

getting the place cleaned up and selling off junk. Most of my old forebird parts are sold off that freed up about 200sf of the garage
Now that i have a good body i can get rid of the excess ford truck parts.
right now it's operation "make room to work" and "get a job".

next up... the 2001-
4.6 and tranny removal, timing chains, rods and mains seals gaskets and put it back in and troubleshoot those pesky engine codes...
maybe fresh paint in the engine compartment while im at it...
I need that truck for work i have the parts and my dually is getting death wobble in the front end...
I was poking around trying to learn a little about this 4.6 (3.5 BORE X3.5 STROKE) and it looks like you can take a 5.4 (3.5 bore x 4.17 stroke) and get a 3.75 stroke aftermarket crank for about 350 bucks to run the 4.6 crank in the taller 5.4 block with 4.6 pistons to get a nice rod to stroke ratio
From what I've heard 5.4 are gas hogs

i've got a windsor 5.4 with PI heads out in the garage for parts...

So you loaded yer first one with 1-1/2 tons of shingles - huh, well in hindsight that probably wasn't a good idea....

Big brown looks good.

Sam_Fear said:

hindsight...probably wasn't a good idea....

Click to expand...

what.....

I was looking in front....

nah the light was changing and the lady at the red looked fidgety like she was gonna jumpt he green. so i was stopping for the yellow when the truck did that ford thing with the brake grab when the shoes warm up???

Th guy at the lumberyard asked me if wanted a dead pallet laid out in front but it would have left the weight too far to the rear I needed it 2 feet from the front of the bed.
figgured.."I'm only going 2 miles"

i did come up with an idea for a reinforced front panel..


cut out the fornt bed panel and replace it with...
a bolted in sheet of diamond plate aluminum for a front panel topped by 1.5" x 1/4" square aluminum tube bolted under the bed rails through the skins with countersunk machine screws.

I was up under the bown and the floor is still in factory primer...very little surface rust. some sandblasting, and sanding and it can look as good as the top when it's painted
and the frame isn't pitted up either.

I'm gonna end up with another big block c6 and another 9" rear this one has 2.73 gears.
I'm getting a selection of them im a hoarder lol
2.73 31 spline
3.08 31 spline
3:00 27 spline + 2.73 27 spline chunk
3.73 31 spline
3:42 31 spline

2 460 c-6 2x4
2 460 c-6 4x4
1 390 c6 2x4
used 460 good runner
built 460 10k miles
used 400m runs bad
new 390 never assembled
couple olds 350 diesels with lockup turbo 350's on them
pontiac 400's 1- unassembled needs bored
1- unassembled needs only gaskets bearings and rings
1- assembled ready to run 67 389 with 6x heads and edelbrock performer rpm setup brand new broken in 20 minures with zero miles (going into my dually with a 700r4)
offy dual quad for pontiac (I need carbs for it)
1969 buick 430 with turbo 400
1981 305 chevy 4 speed motor
couple chev truck turbo 400 cores
couple 700r4 to rebuild with low stall and 27 spline input solenoids for lockup in 4,3,2
200r4 to rebuild
allison 4 speed auto with sae#2 bell
extra axles and transfer cases for the 4x4...
2 wheel drive t-19 full synchro
looking for a t-19 from a 4x4 diesel or 460 f350 it's be close ratio and full synchro

yup I'm buried in it.
aint really selling just kinda spare parts... seed parts for the reanimator...

wish I had a 36-38 gmc cab and hood

Now that I'm home alot I want to get setup to build trannies... just a few tools i need...
I also want to make custom headers roll cages and chassis parts.
I've been drawing up different plans to build a low budget but versatile and accurate rim lathe for restoring wheels and cutting out and re welding centers to mod them like stockton does

So why can't I look at the pictures? Says I'm not authorized or not logged in but I am

Charley Davidson said:

So why can't I look at the pictures? Says I'm not authorized or not logged in but I am

Click to expand...

try logging out and logging back in or if you went to this page then had to log in you might be back at the old un logged version of the page saved in your memory try refeshing the browser cache with Ctrl-f5 or just reload the page

Ive got the body off the frame on the 77 supercab. sold the engine and have the frame in the garage getting ready to blow it apart for sandblasting and welding in the 4 wheel drive crossmember

The 2000 f150 4x4 conversion project is warming back up as well.
I'm currently tearing down the dana 44 front axles
Everything is getting media blasted with black grit, etch primed, and painted with some good single stage gloss black

I'm keeping the 8.8 in the rear with the rear disc brakes. I'm redrilling the front hubs to retain the 5x135mm bolt pattern so i can run some welds I have.
otherwise I'd be installing a tone ring and VSS in the bronco 9" and using it in the rear.

I've been trying to figure out how to retain the 4 wheel antilock brakes in the 2000 after i gut the 2 wheel drive suspension and install the 77 bronco front suspension.

Finally figgured it out and it requires no one-off parts

1977 bronco dana 44 front axle
1977 knuckles
1977 spindles
1977 caliper brackets
1994-1996 bronco dana 44 TTB ABS wheel hubs with tone ring (YES! tooth count is correct)
1977 rotors and calipers
1994-1996 bronco ABS sensors

Drill the steering knuckle and spindle to mount the sensors
remove the tone ring from the hubs
remove the 1.09" thick 94-96 bronco rotors
install the 1.20" thick 1977 rotors

install the hub on the spindle, the lockouts, the caliper... Plug the sensors into the 2000 wiring harness and DONE

This is going to be sweet

I also just learned the 1977 f150/bronco calipers have a 73mm piston
And 1973-1978 LTD, Thunderbird etc. calipers have 79mm pistons...

... And they are a bolt in swap on the f150 to improve braking.

I'm going to have a custom graphix company make me up some small "f150 hiboy" decals for the 2000

Dana 44 high pinion solid front axle
Modest lift
divorced transfercase

Scored pair of 1999 landcruiser leather buckets that match my grey interior
they are shaped just like the King Ranch seats but are more comfortable.

Also scored a set of the original forged "Greg Weld" 16" welds

And a pair of $600 stainless 5.4 headers for 100 bucks that need the warped head flanges milled. I'm sure I can make them work.

I'm totally eliminating the 2 wheel drive cross-member in the 2000. the frame is boxed so I'm going to make a simple 2"-3" round tube drop down engine cross member and weld it to some plates that will be backing up the coil spring buckets.

if i'm lucky the stock mounted 2000 Power steering arm will bolt right to the dana 44 bronco tie rod. I might have to bend the pitman arm or modify the tie rod but I'm hoping i won;t have to.

This seemed like a crazy unworkable swap when i first had the idea but after exhaustive research and some careful planning It's looking like it's going to be quite simple.

got my dana 44's stripped and rearranging the garage so i can fire up the furnace to work inside. getting close to getting something done on the 4x4 conversions

I'm still up in the air on if I want to use the bronco coil spring setup or go with leafs.