Nothing Special Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Replace the cab, maybe even with a Bullnose, and keep the driveline? Overall the goal is to end up with a crew cab short box daily driver. If it turns out I don't have the skills to restore the cab the plan will be to find an easier way to the same end. So Bullnose or OBS will depend on what solid cab I can find. And I'll only try to go farther across that bridge if I get to it. Crew cab and full bed is a lot of truck! Do you have space for the cab, bed and chassis?.... It'll be tight, but I hope so! The entire truck won't fit in my garage, but hopefully I'll be able to get the parts I'm working on in there and bring the rest up to the cabin to wait their turn, because... While piecemeal sounds great from the start, the reality is you end up working around things all the time and it ends up being 5x the project you wanted, budgeted and have time for DAMHIK... With the chassis fully exposed you can get to all of it. Needle scale the inside corners, nooks and crannies. It's WAY easier to run brake and fuel lines. You can get to the rearmost spring hangers where they fit in the pocket. You can get to the radiator support horns. You can get to the cab mounts beneath your feet. You can tip up the bed and clear the debris out of the mount channels, then wax-oil them all the way across You can easily weld in cab corners and that brace at the back of the cab. ... I didn't go into the detail, but that's the plan. Remove the cab so I can fit it in the garage and restore it. Getting the cab off will involve removing the bed and at least most of the front clip, so pull the rest of the clip and the drive train so I can restore the chassis. Put the cab back on the chassis so I can fit the new engine/transmission in. (Yes, the cab may have to move once or twice in that process) Get the front clip fit around the engine, and get it restored. Restore or replace the bed. And that's why I BOUGHT the trailer rather than borrow a friend's. Lots of moving big parts back and forth from the cabin through that process. I continue to be underwhelmed by the towing abilities of my Dodge. The 6.7L Cummins isn't the problem. It's great! And I don't think the trans is either (although it did need a rebuild at ~130K, which used to be good life but now seems on the low side). But the computer just doesn't seem to be happy when I tow. Yesterday I towed Oswald home from my folk's cabin. All was great on the 2-lane county roads until I got out to US highway 8. That's still a 2-lane, but it's straighter, flatter and has more traffic. It got up to speed easily enough, but then wouldn't upshift from 4th gear (it's a 6 speed). The torque converter clutch didn't seem to be locking either (lots of engine speed change as I was on and off the accelerator without the corresponding vehicle speed change). No check engine light either. Then after stopping for fuel it would upshift all the way to 6th, but would hunt between 5th and 6th a lot. I could deal with that by manually locking it out of 6th, so that was livable. But this truck sure reminds me of why I hate automatic transmissions! (next post on the Dodge) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 I ran air bags in my '95 F-150 and really liked them. After I had down-sized from my '85 F-250HD to the F-150 I got a slide-in camper. If I'd've known I was getting the camper I'd've got another F-250. but to work with what I had I got the lightest slide-in camper I could find and put air bags on the truck. That set-up worked really well for quite a few years. Some may remember that Big Blue had extra heavy rear springs and rode horribly. I pulled two leaves out and improved the ride significantly. But I lost the ability to hook a trailer up and not sag a bunch. Now with the air bags I have the best of both worlds. The other day Steve/FoxFord33 and I took Big Blue & the heavy car-hauler trailer to get a Mercury Mountaineer. Got the Mountaineer loaded a bit too far forward but it wouldn't roll back on the trailer as it was stuck in Park. So I just added a bit more air and we were level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelplate Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Some may remember that Big Blue had extra heavy rear springs and rode horribly. I pulled two leaves out and improved the ride significantly. But I lost the ability to hook a trailer up and not sag a bunch. Now with the air bags I have the best of both worlds. The other day Steve/FoxFord33 and I took Big Blue & the heavy car-hauler trailer to get a Mercury Mountaineer. Got the Mountaineer loaded a bit too far forward but it wouldn't roll back on the trailer as it was stuck in Park. So I just added a bit more air and we were level. I would definitely consider stock springs and bags if this was going to be a permanent arrangement, but the plan is that this won't be my towing rig forever. This is a daily driver and road trip vehicle for the most part and I've only been using it for towing lately because I've started a side business of parting out vehicles and reselling engines and stuff. Taking loads of the resulting scrap to the junkyard has felt sketchy with the Bronco, and these springs will mitigate at least part of that. One of the things I'm running the side business for is my camper build project. The other is to eventually afford a towing rig/dump truck and bigger trailer (related to my backhoe side business plan). Once I get the bigger truck, I won't need to tow with the bronco anymore and I can continue tuning it for optimal road trip comfort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 I would definitely consider stock springs and bags if this was going to be a permanent arrangement, but the plan is that this won't be my towing rig forever. This is a daily driver and road trip vehicle for the most part and I've only been using it for towing lately because I've started a side business of parting out vehicles and reselling engines and stuff. Taking loads of the resulting scrap to the junkyard has felt sketchy with the Bronco, and these springs will mitigate at least part of that. One of the things I'm running the side business for is my camper build project. The other is to eventually afford a towing rig/dump truck and bigger trailer (related to my backhoe side business plan). Once I get the bigger truck, I won't need to tow with the bronco anymore and I can continue tuning it for optimal road trip comfort. I found this when I was under my F-250 today... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 I found this when I was under my F-250 today... I've found a few E7TA-FA's in the MPC, but most are obviously not that one. However there is the TUBE ASSY. (FUEL RETURN RESERVOIR) or TUBE ASSY, (FUEL SUPPLY FRONT). So, what is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 I've found a few E7TA-FA's in the MPC, but most are obviously not that one. However there is the TUBE ASSY. (FUEL RETURN RESERVOIR) or TUBE ASSY, (FUEL SUPPLY FRONT). So, what is it? Hellooooo It's a 4x4 F-250 leaf spring pack. I can be very non-sequitur, but it seemed relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelplate Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Hellooooo It's a 4x4 F-250 leaf spring pack. I can be very non-sequitur, but it seemed relevant. Mine had an E7 number on them too, I think. I wonder if it's the same, since the donor truck was 2wd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Mine had an E7 number on them too, I think. I wonder if it's the same, since the donor truck was 2wd. Would depend on the FA suffix, as all rear spring packs use the same basic part number. I'm not certain if the spring would be the same. 250's (4wd) got a block, and the 350's got a bigger block) because the front springs were a positive, rather than a negative arch, like found with the 250 TTB. We got pretty deep into this when I was convincing Gary to do a D60 RSK for Big Blue to have a better ride and tighter turning radius. There are obviously multiple threads about that adventure. It seems to have worked out! 💡 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 18 Author Share Posted June 18 Would depend on the FA suffix, as all rear spring packs use the same basic part number. I'm not certain if the spring would be the same. 250's (4wd) got a block, and the 350's got a bigger block) because the front springs were a positive, rather than a negative arch, like found with the 250 TTB. We got pretty deep into this when I was convincing Gary to do a D60 RSK for Big Blue to have a better ride and tighter turning radius. There are obviously multiple threads about that adventure. It seems to have worked out! 💡 Yes, it certainly has worked out. And my wife and our teeth thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Yes, it certainly has worked out. And my wife and our teeth thank you. So, Gary... Would you think a 2wd 250 would have the same spring, just without the block? I posted my door tag so you can see the spring code. Obviously, my phone orientation is a bit off. 🙃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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