Bullnose Fords

Keith1138

Keith1138

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Location
Harrisburg NC
Here in about a month I will be helping pull a ford 300 i6 out of one truck and putting it into another 86 Ford F150. This is a bare bones hunting truck. Any tips or tricks?


We are also contemplating doing a leaf spring SAS on the front with a dana 44 out of a 95 dodge.
 
Keith1138 said:
Here in about a month I will be helping pull a ford 300 i6 out of one truck and putting it into another 86 Ford F150. This is a bare bones hunting truck. Any tips or tricks?


We are also contemplating doing a leaf spring SAS on the front with a dana 44 out of a 95 dodge.
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Are they the same year? Both 300 trucks? Ford made a lot of changes from 80-86 under the hood. The wiring changed about every two years. I've owned several bullnose trucks. My 86 had an o2 sensor and a tps sensor on the carburetor. Most of the changes were emissions related. I've swapped every one I've had to a 70s vac advance distributor and 70s duraspark box.

As far as the axle goes. Why do a leaf spring swap when your truck has coils and the dodge axle was set up for coils? Just fab up some mounts for the ford radius arms to mount to the dodge axle.
 
Hurdt299 said:
Are they the same year? Both 300 trucks? Ford made a lot of changes from 80-86 under the hood. The wiring changed about every two years. I've owned several bullnose trucks. My 86 had an o2 sensor and a tps sensor on the carburetor. Most of the changes were emissions related. I've swapped every one I've had to a 70s vac advance distributor and 70s duraspark box.

As far as the axle goes. Why do a leaf spring swap when your truck has coils and the dodge axle was set up for coils? Just fab up some mounts for the ford radius arms to mount to the dodge axle.
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The one in the f250 is supposedly from an 86 originally before it was rebuilt. Our plan is to use the carb, manifold, fuel pump, generator, power steering and distributor off of the f150 which is also an 86.

The f250 is an unfished project truck that had a 300 rebuilt and put in it. The guy never got drive shafts or the clutch linkage installed. My uncle wants to keep the f150 because of the welded winch bumpers and custom bed he has on it.

The reason for going to leafs is because I'm pretty sure the coil perches will not align with the coil buckets on the truck. Also everything I read says you can't simply reuse the radius arms from the dana 44ttb
 
Keith1138 said:
The reason for going to leafs is because I'm pretty sure the coil perches will not align with the coil buckets on the truck. Also everything I read says you can't simply reuse the radius arms from the dana 44ttb
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Probably not followed by most deffinately not. The amount of fab will leave you cutting most everything off and starting over. The Ford coil towers and the Dodge coil pads would come closer to working out the box. The radius arms would just suck trying to reuse them. Next will be the Y-link steering on the Ford vs the more traditional set ups. The pitman arm is pretty standard. The frame is also gracious on the Ford's in providing a lot of area to outboard the mounts. I personally would avoid slinging them directly under the frame for height reasons. The rail is also not going to be straight. So your front and rear mount is gonna need off setting on the frame.


Now having said all that.....I would highly consider the coils with a completely fabricated radius arms for a daily.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Probably not followed by most deffinately not. The amount of fab will leave you cutting most everything off and starting over. The Ford coil towers and the Dodge coil pads would come closer to working out the box. The radius arms would just suck trying to reuse them. Next will be the Y-link steering on the Ford vs the more traditional set ups. The pitman arm is pretty standard. The frame is also gracious on the Ford's in providing a lot of area to outboard the mounts. I personally would avoid slinging them directly under the frame for height reasons. The rail is also not going to be straight. So your front and rear mount is gonna need off setting on the frame.


Now having said all that.....I would highly consider the coils with a completely fabricated radius arms for a daily.
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I was originally hoping that they will line up. Then I would be able to take my old radius arm off of my jeep and modify the upper links on them and make some plated gussets for their brackets and for a track bar. As for steering I was hoping either the ford's or the dodges steering would work with slight modification. I will know more and have a better plan once I go down their. I have not looked to see what size coil the dodge runs.
 
If I remember aren’t the front of the frames on TTB F150s accordion shaped for crash mitigation? Makes leafs problematic but not impossible.
 
I've done a sas on a 96 f150, should be very similar to your 86. I used a 44 from a 73-79 f150. It was nearly a bolt in ordeal. Ended up using the radius arms and brackets from the 70s truck because they were longer. IIRC part of the holes were in the frame for the radius arm brackets. It was an easy swap
 
ghost said:
Why swap the front out if it's just a hunting truck? The D44 TTB is a decent axle if your aren't putting 44 boggers on it......
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It's a stupid amount of work for just hunting.

More common swap is just the simple 79 ford straight axle swap as it's MUCH easier

Checkout FullSizeBronco for TONS of info on how to make that happen
 
ghost said:
Why swap the front out if it's just a hunting truck? The D44 TTB is a decent axle if your aren't putting 44 boggers on it......
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Lunch box and 35 inch tires work very well.
 
ghost said:
Why swap the front out if it's just a hunting truck? The D44 TTB is a decent axle if your aren't putting 44 boggers on it......
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Hunting/swamping truck. I believe it's already on 35s. Some of the roads after a good rain would flood my Xj out. The sugar sand and water eat through the center ujoint and bushings on it. He already has a blown up dodge with a dana 44 in the front. That's where the idea of the dodge 44 comes from and it's also the right gear ration.

Ideally a bolt in would be easier from a 79 or other solid axle
 
Keith1138 said:
Hunting/swamping truck. I believe it's already on 35s. Some of the roads after a good rain would flood my Xj out. The sugar sand and water eat through the center ujoint and bushings on it. He already has a blown up dodge with a dana 44 in the front. That's where the idea of the dodge 44 comes from and it's also the right gear ration.

Ideally a bolt in would be easier from a 79 or other solid axle
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So the point of the swap is less moving parts and to be more serviceable?
 
ghost said:
So the point of the swap is less moving parts and to be more serviceable?
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Exactly. Ideally I would want to do sas swap with long arms.
 
As for the engines swap goes. My plan is to label every hose and connecter I undo and take a picture of where it goes. Would it be easier to pull the engine with trans or disconnect them in the truck.
 
Keith1138 said:
Here in about a month I will be helping pull a ford 300 i6 out of one truck and putting it into another 86 Ford F150. This is a bare bones hunting truck. Any tips or tricks?


We are also contemplating doing a leaf spring SAS on the front with a dana 44 out of a 95 dodge.
Click to expand...
I've got an 8 lug dana 44 with 4.10 gears that I'll sell you. It's low pinion, drivers drop, and has no brackets on it. Would be better than the dodge disco style axle, and you could pillage the rear f250 axle and reuse the wheels.

It has flat top knuckles and I've got all the parts. It would give you the option of staying coil springs, or doing leaf spring. Pm me if your interested.
 
fun fact:

f250s came with leaf sprung TTB front suspenion.

its not the swap i'd go with.... but if you need more options or some where to source Ford front leaf spring parts.
 
fordwheelinman said:
I've got an 8 lug dana 44 with 4.10 gears that I'll sell you. It's low pinion, drivers drop, and has no brackets on it. Would be better than the dodge disco style axle, and you could pillage the rear f250 axle and reuse the wheels.

It has flat top knuckles and I've got all the parts. It would give you the option of staying coil springs, or doing leaf spring. Pm me if your interested.
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Thanks for the offer. We have decided to hold off on the axle swap until we can link it or get a bolt in swap off of a already straight axle truck.
 
Well today I put in about 4 hours. After figuring what wiring was important I started dissambling. This truck has already been hot wired to bypass everything but the key. Zero sensors plugged in and connected. Literally only thing attached was the bare minimum to make it run. Hardest part was removing the radiator support because of the clamp on threaded inserts braking. Second hardest thing was untangling the wiring harness and getting it zip tied out of the way.

In the morning I have to disconnect the clutch, starter, and exhuast. I already have the majority of the trans bolts broke loose. I didn't feel like crawling in the sand in the dark. I'm going to try to leave the trans in place when I pull the motor. I ended up spending most of the time standing on the sway bar in front of the fan to be able to reach everything.

Tomorrow my goal is to get this motor out and the donor truck to this point.
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After a few busy days my uncles truck runs. I still need to install the radiator and front clip. The new to him engine has a small oil leak from the oil pan due to a bolt being stripped out so that is going to get drilled and tapped later. We ended up having to ditch the mechanical fan due to differences on the water pump pulleys and the old pulley being rusted to the old water pump. So it's getting duel 16inch efan setup.

Pulling the engine out of the donor truck was easier since it was missing the front grill and the radiator support being rusted. I decided the saw saw was the best course of action instead of undoing 30 tinny fasteners that would probably break and free spin.

Overall it was a very easy ordeal. Except it took 3hrs to get the new engine linned up and in. But after it finnaly slid into place 30 minutes later she was running. Ps engine hoists on sand suck.
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