1984 F-250 XLT 2wd -> 4wd?

Hey everyone! I bought a barn find a few months ago, after years of building courage to ask the owner about it. She's a 1984 F-250 XLT, with the 6.9 IDI diesel, and 4speed granny geared manual. Manual bullnoses have been a dream car of mine since I was 6 or 7, so i wanna do cool stuff with her.
Over the process of me and my buddies rebuilding her and restoring her, the idea of converting her to 4x4 so we can lift her has come up, however im not sure what all that entails. She has a 4x4 light on her dash, but no front diff. Ive heard that she has the connections already put in, it just needs the front diff but I'm not the most experienced mechanic, and am in a little bit over my head. (Its a miracle I even got her to run again, shes been sitting for years and I have almost no idea what im doing)
If anyone knows about conversions, or specifically what i need to look for/do, please help me out! Thank you!

Welcome!  Glad you joined.  

That sounds like a neat barn find.  Glad you got it and got it running.  Hope you'll post some pics - and you can find out how to do that in Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's in the menu.

Speaking of the menu, we have a map at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map and we could add you with a city/state or zip.

I don't know what all it takes to convert a 2wd F250 to 4wd, but I do know you need a different transmission as well as a transfer case.  Or, said differently, you need a 4wd transmission 'cause the transfer case bolt to the transmission and a 2wd tranny doesn't have a place for the tcase.  And that's on top of the front axle which you obviously need.

I think Shaun/Salans7 has/is doing that, so hopefully he'll be along to answer the question.

Welcome!  

I'm not certain what you mean "she has the connections already put in"

With a T-19 gearbox it would need a 4x4 tailshaft, adapter and transfer case before the rear driveshaft.
There would be a second stick to shift the transfer case 2H- neutral - 4H-4Lo

If that's indeed the case an '84 would be equipped with a D44HD or D50  IFS axle...... but that might not be the best choice if you're starting from scratch.

It would help a lot to see some pic of the gearbox, steering and front suspension from underneath the truck.

Let's see what others suggest, and perhaps start a new topic in the main forum.

Yes, we need to have a new topic in the main section.  And, we need to know a lot more about what you want to do with the truck.

I started the process of doing that with an F-150. I bought a donor truck that had all the goodies I needed. I removed everything from the donor truck and after many hours of drilling out big fat rivets on both the donor and target truck I started installing new stuff. The F-150 4x4 had wider rear springs and dual shock towers. The Pivot brackets on the 4x4 are lower so they also needed to be changed. Most of this will not apply to your conversion but just giving you an idea of the labor involved in converting to a 4x4. In the end I bought a F-250 4x4 donor truck and just swapped the cab and bed over. I wish I had just done that from the beginning. Your best bet is to buy a donor truck anyway for the 4x4 drivetrain so why not just swap the cab and bed? When I did the cab swap, I left the entire front end intact and just picked the whole assembly up and sat it on the new f-250 frame. While I was at it I replaced all the old cab mounts with new poly .  While you have the cab and bed off the frame it is a real good time to replace fuel and brake lines . You probably need a new fuel tank so that is super easy with bed off. It seems like a huge task to remove a cab but it really isn't. Find a beat up rusty 4x4 and put your pretty parts on it! You wont have to worry about "DANG WE NEEDED THAT PART TOO!" because you will have everything you need!

quick off top of my head list of stuff needed...
Front Axle (with matching gear ratio to your rear axle)
Front Drive Shaft
4x4 Transmission
Transfer Case
Transfer case shifter
Rear Drive Shaft
All of the front suspension components will have to be swapped

Ahh, okay. Where should I make a new thread? I'd tried doing it on my phone but couldn't figure it out again, so I'm using a computer instead. Once theres a proper thread for the conversation I can go into depth about the modifications we're planning

Just go to the main section and click New Topic. https://www.garysgaragemahal.com/

On a desktop go to the main forum page by clicking 'Bullnose Forum' at the top of bottom of this thread, or clicking the truck logo at the top of any page.

On the main page, at the top of the list on the left is 'New Topic's with a little green splotch.
Click there to start a new thread in the main forum or open the 'Projects' folder and do the same to make a thread in the projects heading.

If you're trying this on an Android phone I suggest long holding the Bullnose Forum and opening the main page in the browser.
It seems that when I post a new thread or a reply to one my phone automatically opens it in a new tab