77 F150 Motor Swap

[DieselCowboy]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll get pictures of the swap once it starts. All I got done so far is painting the valve covers. And that's probably the last thing I should've done. It's just so hard to do stuff with no help.

Brad, you said something about the cylinders being caviatated or something like that. My question is...what's that mean? haha. I'm a newbie when it comes to diesels.

Another question I have is; what are the cons of the 7.3 IDI? I've heard they're incredibly reliable, up to the 400k - 500k mark. I know it's no powerhouse, but everything else seems too good to be true. I just want to know what the catch is.

 

[84TD]

Is my 77 250 frame the same? I didnt put it in there but I can take pics, what do you want to see?

 

[towtruckdave]

Easier to swap tailshafts on the ZF then go divorced transfercase???

Unless I'm wrong here, to do that you need to swap out the main shaft of the transmission not just swap tailshaft housings. That means completely tearing down the ZF transmission. Am I missing something here?

The easiest would be to find a 4x4 ZF for an IDI. Then just do a little grinding for the shift linkage clearance. Then bolt up the married NP205.

But since he already has the 2wd ZF the divorced set up would be pretty simple. Mount the divorced crossmember, mount up the shifter and linkage/s and then have 3 driveshaft made up for it.




If I remember correctly it bolts up. But the tailshaft housing needs to be ground down some for the transfercase shift linkage to clear ( or maybe it was for a shift rail to clear? ) . The NP205 is also much narrower then the newer transfercases. So be prepared to fabricate a new transmission crossmember. Or modify one to work.

Yep, Unless you are a trans guy, you are crazy to try to convert a 2wd zf to 4wd. It is a heck of a job.

 

[DieselCowboy]

I think I broke my hand last night, so this project may be derailed for a while. At least until the swelling goes down.

Remember kids, don't punch telephone poles...

 

[GOOSE]

Have you ever heard Butthead say "Settle down Beavis."

Hope your hand heals soon

 

[DieselCowboy]

I've never heard that, haha. I'll keep in mind next time I get a little too drunk and angry. Thanks though. I guess I have a little more time for research now, haha

 

[seawalkersee]

I have one in my 84 Bronco. Your frame will be fine...Why not body swap? Now, there were two different styles of radiator. One was like a light duty rad and I BET the one in your 77 is the same or larger than the factory light duty one. The second (and most used) was the larger one. I have a large one in mine and had to cut the bottom out of the core support and drop it 6" and reweld it back.

The tranny you could try to sell and get one for a 4x... You can not swap just the rear over like has been said before, it needs to be a 4x or divorced case.

SWS

 

[DieselCowboy]

Welp, good news, hand isn't broke. It's just swollen a little bit now, still pretty painful, though. Now I just need to remember where I put my ambition...

I think I'm going to just try to find a 4x4 ZF5.

I'm working on buying a highboy frame at the moment. I have an 89 F250 with a pretty much junk frame. My plan was to rob it of the axles and whatever else I could use. I'm hoping I could get away with using the driveshafts, too, but that'd be too good to be true. I'd rather have the 3.55s anyhow as the truck will eventually be a DD and they're still low enough to pull stuff with, too. Then with my F150 frame, I'll slap the 89 body on it somehow and sell it. I'm figuring since the IDI is an 89, the more parts I can use from my F250, the easier the swap will be. I hope I'm right....

I've also scrapped the idea of swapping my 89 interior, too. I'm a big fan of the 80's-90's ***** red interior, but I think it'd just look goofy in that truck. I'll just make a guage cluster out of diamond plate and guages from auto meter or something like that. I'll figure it out when it comes time for it.

 

[seawalkersee]

Your drive shaft lengths will not be that far off. Just put the t-case in and build forward. Mine is perfect on the drive shafts. If I were you, I would just throw a tranny in and drive it 'till I could line up a good ZF. In fact, that is what I am doing now. I have a NP435 in it (which with 33s and 3.50 gears SUCKS) and will keep driving it till I can get a ZF.

SWS

 

[DieselCowboy]

I'll probably just run the 2wd ZF for now. I don't take the truck off road or anything like that. The truck is too clean to beat up. I'll just run it like that, until winter when I take it off the road.