OBS F250 slow adventure build

amgvr4

Adventurer
U-bolt flip done

I spent some time working on the Dana 60 today. The only parts that have showed up in the mail so far are the u-bolt flip plates from WFO concepts so thats what I tackled today.

First I had to cut off the factory mounts for the sway bar on the drivers side and the u-bolt/steering stabilizer/ track bar mount on the passenger side.





Next I needed to notch the webbing under the drivers side spring pad so the inbord u-bolt would sit properly as it will have a tendency to slide outward and put extra stress on the bolt.

I started by drilling a 3/16" pilot hole and progressively worked up to 5/8" to fit the bolt

7/16" drill

5/8" drill

I then used a cut off wheel to open the hole into a notch

And ther she be as perty as you please






My tires will be here next Monday so I have a week to get some other items taken care of before I can really dive into putting the axle in the truck. I am going to start with removing the cat and replacing it with a section of 4" straight pipe as well as shifting the exhaust over as far as I can to make room for a rear track bar to keep axle wrap to a minimum after the rear shackle flip. After that I need to clean everything under the truck to remove all the dirt and grease so I have a nice place to work once I have everything. Stay tuned.....
 
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amgvr4

Adventurer
Obs f250 stock height with 37" military tires mounted

Lots of progress this week. The tires showed up early so I had to buckle down and get the wheels bead blasted and painted. I only have four wheels at the moment so I am looking for #5 to get the spare mounted up.

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To my surprise they actually fit on a sock height f250! The front bumper needs to be trimmed and the fronts rub on the trailing edge of the springs at full lock but other than that they fit surprisingly well.

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The difference between a 30" and a 36" tall tire. The truck is an even 3" taller at all four corners now.

I will probably run them on the truck as is for the next week while I wait for the rest of my parts to show up. That's when the real fun begins!
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
After swapping the tires on I took it for a test drive and was pleasantly surprised with how well it rode. After seeing how much weight it took to get these balanced I was preparing myself for some vibrations, however there were none. I didn't take it on the freeway so we will see if it is good there but up to 50 mph it was great. They were also much quieter than I had anticipated. The MTRs I had on my pathfinder were noisy, but I didn't mind cause they were such great tires in every other way. I found a little dirt hill to test them on and they were great. The truck climbed right up a steep 40" tall embankment like nothing. I also got a chance to check the departure angle and the bumper design paid off. No contact at all. The final surprise was how little they seem to affect the drivability of the truck. I was expecting to have to start using first gear to get going from a stand still, however second is still fine and there really is no noticeable loss in power that I can tell. So far so good.




I am really happy with the ground clearance and departure angle. The lowest point under the truck is the transfer case skid @16" and the departure angle is 36*


 

amgvr4

Adventurer
Looks like my dana 60 swap got a little bit more interesting. I started planing this project in January and my original goal was to use '05+ superduty coil springs and spring buckets and adapt them to my balljoint d60 with custom radius arms. I got in contact with Clint at battlement fabrications and his advice was to use the much more common coils and buckets from obs broncos and f150s. I wanted to have Clint make my radius arms but I took too long and it appears that when he moved to Florida his business didn't keep going without him. During the summer I changed my mind and picked up a set of sd leafs and intended to make a shackle reversal kit with the minimum requires lift to fit my 37" MTRs.

Fast forward to last week and I started mocking up the steering parts. I ordered chevy one ton TRE tie rods and planned on flipping them to the top of the knuckle for a little more clearance. Turns out the steering now interferes with the leafs and I couldn't come up with a way to rectify the situation without more work than I wanted to put into a leaf front end. After having the 37s on for a week now I have also gotten annoyed by the tire rubbing on the leafs at full lock. These trucks have a bad enough turning radius already, I don't want to loose any more.

So more hours of google searching and I was back to the original plan of radius arms. I ordered up another round of parts and should have them all by Wednesday, and if work is slow enough I might take Thursday and Friday off to hammer out the majority of the work. The plan is Johnny joints at the frame, 2" .250 wall main tube, TMR 3" bushings at the axle, 1.5" .250 wall top tube and 3/4" rod ends. I got ballistic fab radius arm mounts with spring pads and I will use 4" lift springs from a obs bronco to start. If those are too soft I'll go with some lift springs for f250 2wd. I will probably reuse the stock shock mount and make some coil buckets. I thought about using factory coil buckets from an obs 2wd but I don't want to have to drill them out of a truck a pull-a-part.

As far as the tires go I am pretty happy with them on the truck. They have a little vibration at freeway speeds some times but are not bad at all considering what they are. I love how much they have lowered my rmps above 60mph. I used to be at 2100rpm @60 and 2600ish @70. Now it is more like 1700 and 2100 respectively. I am almost through my first full tank of fuel on the tires so I will have mpg #s by tomorrow. So far it seems about the same or maybe a little less than with the 265/75/16s.

Here are some pictures of the steering so far

72644BE1-23FC-41A5-8ED6-CA3027C8AE0D.jpg





 

IdaSHO

IDACAMPER
So how were you expecting to run the tie rod ends on the top? Did you have the knuckles reworked, or are you using bushings?
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
I have bushings that have the correct taper in them. I would have had to ream the knuckles out anyway so I figured bushings were cheaper and I could flip the tie rods to the top and gain some clearance. There is very little info out there about what parts to order when using the TRE ends on these Fords that I finally just took a shot in the dark and it turns out the drag link would have to connect on the other side of the spring for this setup to have had a chance of working. Hence the decision to ditch the leafs and go radius arms, problem solved.

 
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amgvr4

Adventurer
Got a chance to work on the suspension some today. I started the mock up for the radius arms to try and get an idea how I want to run them. I would prefer to inboard the main pivots some to triangulate the axle and allow better flex, but that will require a new trans crossmember so I have a place to mount them. I think I will probably tear out the d50 on Saturday and get started on the front so I can button down some of the final details of the swap. I also got the rear shackles started. The brake press I made has turned out to be an awesome little tool. I bent up the 3/8"x2" flat stock and got the bolt holes and bushing cut outs done. I need to radius the end by the springs, and grind my welding reliefs in tomorrow and then I can tack them together. The rear shackle hangers should be a piece of cake, but I need to figure out what bushings to get for the rear springs to rehab those tired old dogs.

Mocking up the radius arm parts





The rear shackles so far





Here is the knock off of the Swag offroad brake press I made



The 4" super lift springs I scored at pull-a-part for $25
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
I got a lot done today. The first hurdle was just getting the truck on the jack stands. It took over an hour of messing around to get the heights correct and the stands positioned ect. After that joy came the removal of the d50. Man that crap was shot! The shackles, the springs, the u-joints, everything was beat. It's no wonder the truck was to tired feeling. The worst part was the pivot brackets, they have bolts that are almost impossible it get to just under the oil pan. I ended up just cutting the heads off. The only vestiges of the old setup I didn't remove yet are the leaf spring hangers next to the cab mounts. I need to grab the air hammer from work to take care of the steel rivets.

Next I had to remove the last two impediments on the d60 to prepare for the radius arm brackets. The passenger side spring perch was a beast and didn't want to be removed at all. I ended up cutting into the housing a little but ran a weld bead over it to fill it back in. The driver side perch needed to have the casting trimmed back by about an inch. I have seen people use all sorts of methods to do this including bandsaws and torches. In the end I just used a 4.5" angle grinder and carefully cut just to the tube. Then I tacked on the brackets at 4* of caster and started to get an idea of where to mount the coil buckets to achieve the ride height I want. I will need to make the buckets before I can really get an idea of where to mount them. I have no idea how much the springs will compress under the weight of the diesel so I think there will be some trial and error. I also might move the axle forward an inch or so plus trim the front edge of the crossmember to clear the steering better.

The final piece of the puzzle is mounting the main pivots for the radius arms. I would like to inboard them, but that will require making a new trans crossmember and the jury is still out on that.

It all starts.....



The junk is out!




My shackle bushings were shot!


All gone


Cutting the Dana 60 housing



Initial test fit




Steering crossover might hit the crossmember, I will probably need to trim this up



Tacking the brackets on @4* of caster




Checking spring placement





Next up I need to make the coil buckets and figure out if I want to make a new trans crossmember or not. I should hopefully have this wrapped up in a week or two. Stay tuned.
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
Fridays progress

I haven't had a chance to work on the truck much this week, but I did get a few things going. One of the challenges is the front lip on the engine crossmember. It is almost directly in the way of the tie rod and track bar. Some people seem to be able to get away with leaving it alone, but with my TRE flip it has to go. Before I can cut it flush with the underside of the x-member I had to relocate to power steering "cooling" line that sits on the part I need to cut. I had a ps cooler hanging around from a 350z track car from several years ago so I decided to put it to use and actually get some cooling of the fluid instead of just a silly long metal tube. I had to make a bracket for the cooler to sit behind the bumper on the lower core support and rout the hose through the gap between the radiator and the drivers side headlight. The return hose just attaches to the ps pump and I just cut the metal the line from the steering box and flared it so the other hose slips on and clamps in place. I also had to spend a few hours scraping all the dirt/oil caked on the frame and x-member to have nice clean surfaces to weld to later.

I also spent some time welding the radius arm brackets together so I can burn them in tomorrow. I am borrowing a tig welder from a coworker since my little 110v mig won't cut it for 90% of what I need to do on this project. It took some time to get back to making decent tig beads after 13 years without a tig machine. After a few hours I got beads that aren't super pretty but they are nice and strong which is what really counts. I also modified the ballistics fab brackets to make mounting shocks less of a pain. I first drilled new holes for the top bushings on both brackets 1" lower and then cut the rounded ears off flat to give me a good foundation for a shock mount. Saturday I should make some more progress so stay tuned.

The chunk of crossmember that needs to go



The power steering loop I removed



The new ps cooler


Fully welded radius arm brackets



 

amgvr4

Adventurer
Saturday

I spent most of the day working on the truck and made some good progress. Unfortunately it doesn't look like much since several hours was purely mock up. I got the radius arm brackets fully welded to the axle, the tie rod fully welded, the x-member cut and reinforced, and the axle back in position under the truck. At the moment it is located 1.5" forward of factory, but I am not sure if I will keep it there. The next big challenge is to make a decision on weather to inboard the radius arm mounts and make a new trans x-member or not. The good news is if I do it will clear the front driveshaft fine and frame rails fine. I was a little worried that there might be some clearance issues there until tonight. I should get a chance to do some more work tomorrow but it's at the point were I have to spend a lot of time just staring at everything and mentally thinking through what's left and the best order and process to accomplish it all. If I ever do this again it will go much faster that's for sure!

Burned in the axle tube to diff housing


Welded in the TRE inserts. I am so glad to have a tig for this part especially



Cut the x-member down



Welded a 1x2" .187 wall bar to the underside of the part I cut down to add back in a little strength



We're I left it tonight.




Feel free to post up requests for specific pictures if you want them. I know I was constantly searching the web for specific shots to help make decisions leading up to my build. I defiantly want to help other people who are interested in a swap like this as there is so little info out there about how to do it. More progress tomorrow.
 

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