My 96 F250 Powerstroke aka Tiny Dancer

[bfdiesel]

Found your axles . http://westslope.craigslist.org/cto/3684784244.html

1968 RPM vs 2273 RPM with true 35's for 3.55's vs 4.10's at 75 MPH. Since most 35's aren't actually 35's you will be over 2k with either ratio at 75 MPH. How bad is your fuel mileage at 75 MPH now? As far as how tall of tires you can run bftank has h1's with military tires on his f350. He has reversed the shackle on the front and it went up about 3", but his rear is stock.

Put a kingpin or ball joint 60 in the front stick with 4.10's for now so all you need is a front axle and if you still want 3.55's down the road use it as an excuse to get lockers as well .

 

[redthies]

My '97 has 3.55s and 35" Toyos (34.5"?) and it is a perfect combo with the 7.3 auto. I can cruise comfortably at 75 (as said above) at right around 2000 rpm.

My new Dodge 12 valve also has 3.55s and cruises comfortably at 65 in 5th gear. I'm still on the fence on how it will be on long trips, but with a huge camper on it and towing the Rubicon, maybe 65 is plenty fast.

 

[Milo902]

Well thanks to all for the suggestions. I think I would probably be ok w/ 4.10's or 3.55's. For a quick test I headed out of boulder towards superior, there is a nice grade pulling out of boulder, maybe 3-4% or so, and even with the camper on it, my stock powerstroke is pretty happy pulling from 1500 rpm on. With a few light power mods that may happen down the road, I imagine it would be even better at these low revs.

I had to swing by the salvage yard Saturday to pick up the radius arms and coil buckets I was going to use, and ended up buying a 3.55 D60/10.25 set. I couldn't bring them home as I didn't have my truck with me so I just paid with the intention of coming back this weekend. As I have the attention span of a 6 year old, I quickly went back on that plan, I find out wednesday (after their boss is back in town) if I can get my money back on the set. I think they will as I haven't even picked them up yet and they didn't have to do any work pulling the axles.

If that plan succeeds, I will most likely be buying Shiryas F/R 4.10 axles/wheels/tires etc. when he pulls them off his truck. That way I could do a garage refresh on his axles, throw in 3.73 gears (what I needed all along), possibly a locker, and swap it all under my truck in a weekend. It will be a little more upfront to buy all his parts, but I could probably just sell off my rear axle and wheels/tires afterwards. My reasoning for wanting to get Shiryas' set instead of the JY set is they are coming off a running vehicle and I assume should be in better overall condition thus requiring less work.

In the meantime I have radius arms and coil buckets in my garage, I may just have to buy a bronco to put them on.

 

[Milo902]

Found your axles . http://westslope.craigslist.org/cto/3684784244.html

1968 RPM vs 2273 RPM with true 35's for 3.55's vs 4.10's at 75 MPH. Since most 35's aren't actually 35's you will be over 2k with either ratio at 75 MPH. How bad is your fuel mileage at 75 MPH now? As far as how tall of tires you can run bftank has h1's with military tires on his f350. He has reversed the shackle on the front and it went up about 3", but his rear is stock.

Put a kingpin or ball joint 60 in the front stick with 4.10's for now so all you need is a front axle and if you still want 3.55's down the road use it as an excuse to get lockers as well .

Unfortunately I believe that truck is a D44 in the front.

 

[xSoFx]

I cannot believe the cost of JY parts in your area, I live in Iowa and I could go to the salvage yard right now and pick up a D60 for less than $200.

 

[Milo902]

I cannot believe the cost of JY parts in your area, I live in Iowa and I could go to the salvage yard right now and pick up a D60 for less than $200.

Thats a steal! I usually drive through Iowa about twice a year while heading back home to Michigan, next time I may just have to pick up a few D60's and bring them back to Colorado to sell.

 

[IdaSHO]

EVERY D50 rig deserves a D60 swap. PERIOD


I just finished up with mine on my '96 Powerstroke.

Picked up a complete, low mileage '86 F350 SRW for $1000

Grabbed all the junk I needed for the front axle swap.
As well as a few other items, liek a good brake controller, brush guard, etc

Sold the rear axle for $250
Sold the rest of the truck for $500
Sold a few other bits for $200

And have less than $250 in the axle after going through it hub to hub.
being low mileage, and a kingpin axle, it needed VERY little. U-joints and seals is all it really needed. Even the tie-rods are in great shape.
I repainted it packed the bearings with fresh synthetic grease, filled the diff with synthetic gear oil, and treated it to new calipers and brake lines.


And 100x better than that POS D50

 

[bftank]

:clapsmile:clapsmile:clapsmile:clapsmile well done, and in complete agreeance.

 

[Milo902]

Wow, that's an awesome price for a D60 swap, looking very nice!

 

[Milo902]

Well I haven't done any real work to the truck in a few weeks other than change the oil. I foolishly chose to run synthetic, and my go-to gallons of Valvoline were out of stock, $175 later I had 15 quarts of Mobil-1 and a new oil filter. I need to adjust my standards for fluid changes when dealing with a vehicle this size...

A few weeks ago someone sideswiped my 4runner while it was parked out in front of my house. Luckily he was nice enough to leave a note, its a good thing because I probably wouldn't have noticed for a few days as I don't drive it very often. The damage was completely cosmetic, but a few thousand dollars worth none the less. I was literally just about to sell it to a friend, but after getting a nice fat check from the accident, I decided to keep it around while I'm working on my truck so I have another vehicle to drive. Feeling flush with cash, I started on one of my favorite evening activities, scouring cragslist for things I don't need.



The plan up until now was to do the right thing, keep my truck simple and reliable, and get a good ol' leaf sprung D60 under the front, some super duty springs, big fat tires, and call it a day. That was apparently too easy, and I found myself last friday night up in Loveland loading a set of axles into the bed of my truck. What is it they say about a fool and his money?

Temptation got the better of me, and I picked up an 06 D60 front and 08 10.5 rear axle. The front was complete including brakes, locking hubs, sway bar, tie rods and drag link, track bar and bracket, drive shaft, coils and coil buckets, the rear included parking brake lines, springs, hangers and the rear 1/2 of the drive shaft. They also came w/ a set of 18" wheels and tires and all the little nuts and bolts people tend to throw away. Apparently they guy I bought them from had big plans for a 4x4 van conversion, but when his 6.0 powerstroke started acting up on him he quickly traded it in on an '11 crew cab power stroke.



First thing I noticed about the front is how beefy it is! The tie rods and brakes absolutely dwarf what is on my D50. They are also extremely heavy, it took three of us well over an hour to get them in the back of my truck. We used a fairly large cherry picker to maneuver them, but the immense weight of the D60 required someone to stand on the back of the engine hoist while lifting or it would tip forward. :Wow1:

Pulling away with the back of my truck squatting and clutch chattering reminded me that I have absolutely no way of getting these axles out of my truck. :sombrero:

I know the suspension was changed in '08, anyone here know the differences? Hopefully I having different year axles isn't too much of a headache, but hell, it's already going to be a frankenstein truck.

-Trevor

 

[IdaSHO]

A coil sprung sprung front axle swap is far from a bolt-in.

Ive read about such a swap, but is isnt all that easy.


If I were you, Id sell those axles and go back to plan A. But thats me. I simply do not see the payoff for such an extensive swap.

 

[Milo902]

While I have a tendency to jump in without testing the waters, I've done my research on the coil sprung front and this purchase was not made blindly. We all have a different idea of bolt in, but it's pretty close to it with the help of a few conversion parts as far as complete suspension swaps go. It should be considerably less fabrication than adapting coils to a leaf sprung D50.

Cary Towery at CT performance has been doing these swaps for a few years and offerers the parts and expertise to get the newer axles under an OBS. For reference, Cary is the man behind adapting SKY's RSK kit to work with super duty springs, and is pretty well regarded when it comes to OBS suspension. Like many modifications we make to our vehicles, there isn't a payoff in objective terms, but to me I believe the headache will be worth it. Besides, I like challenges and getting my knuckles a bit bloody. I'll go through some of the advantages/disadvantages of such a swap in a later post, but for now it's off to work so I can continue to afford my hobbies.

-Trevor

 

[bftank]

glad i subscribed to this thread. looking forward to progress pics! i wouldnt mind putting one of those under my excursion.

 

[onemanarmy]

EVERY D50 rig deserves a D60 swap. PERIOD


I just finished up with mine on my '96 Powerstroke.

Picked up a complete, low mileage '86 F350 SRW for $1000


Grabbed all the junk I needed for the front axle swap.
As well as a few other items, liek a good brake controller, brush guard, etc

Sold the rear axle for $250
Sold the rest of the truck for $500
Sold a few other bits for $200

And have less than $250 in the axle after going through it hub to hub.
being low mileage, and a kingpin axle, it needed VERY little. U-joints and seals is all it really needed. Even the tie-rods are in great shape.
I repainted it packed the bearings with fresh synthetic grease, filled the diff with synthetic gear oil, and treated it to new calipers and brake lines.


And 100x better than that POS D50

You got a complete, running and driving F350 4WD for $1000? and then you took it apart?

 

[bftank]

not seeing that it was runnning and driving in there onemanarmy, just complete. off and on i will see crewcabs on clist with a blown motor or trans for $1k. definitely possible.