Pile of Parts
Posts: 39
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2014 10:06 pm
4WD Diesel KB6
I dunno if everyone likes a little story but here is one. So this truck was my great grandfathers that we used on the farm and my dad remembers using it when he would combine soybeans. He used it and pulled two gravity wagons behind it and said that with the old JD 55 combine it would take all day to fill the truck and the wagons and he would haul them to town in the morning to dump and start over the next day. We bought the truck back in the 50's I believe off of the local gravel pit and just put our name over the old name and put a Midwest dump bed on it and hauled grain with it. It was parked about 25 years ago due to bad brakes and broken leaf spring which had been welded and broke again. But anyway, when I was young my dad and uncle were getting rid of old stuff and took it and another one just like it to auction and sold them. Turns out my neighbor bought it and just pulled it up the road and parked it and never touched it. So it sits outside in town for 10 years and gets both side windows busted out and I buy it back off of him. I put a fuel pump on it, and clean the tank and give it a pull and it fires right up. I drive it around a little bit and park it for another 3 years, in a shed.
So fast forward to a month ago and I finally get my Farmall B done to where I can get workin on this. I had originally planned to just get it running and driving and back to original. After driving my 43 Ford Ton and a half around I really didn't want another big slow truck. So my thoughts were to just swap rear axle for more friendly gears. Well I want better steering and brakes, so what about the front? I don't want IFS and well I decided just to put a driven front axle under the front, thus making it 4wd.
Thing was, what about frame width, spring hangers and what not? Well I took a gamble and just bought a truck before I even measured that had a divorced T-Case so I can use my 2wd tranny and motor that I had rebuilt previously for another project. Well as luck would have it the frames were the exact same width as the '76 Ford F250 4wd that i bought. The Dana 44 bolted right in place of the old solid front axle without any modifications.
The back spring hangers were a little more tricky, my Gpa had welded the old ones on after numerous broken ones so I had to cut them and the old rivets out. I used the springs, and hangers, and axle from the Ford and rolled it under and as luck would have it again, the back hangers bolted right up. Did a little measuring and drilled a few holes and then the front ones bolted up.
And thus thats where I'm at.
I'm currently on the fence about keeping the hoist or not, it sure would be handy but it is going to raise the deck of my bed up higher so I dunno yet how high I want it but its not holding me up yet. My next step is making changes to my engine changing it from side mount to front mount so it will work with my bellhousing and tranny to go in the frame. I'm using a 65 Ford FE 352 and Clark 5 speed tranny. I rebuilt the motor about 4 years ago and had the tranny resealed so after I get the mounts made it should be just a drop in deal. I did a test fit with a same family motor and it will fit and the original steering column will still go in its place. But once I get the motor in I'm gonna see about the steering so I know how to work it. I'd like power steering for sure but dunno if I can make it work with the push/pull style or if I need to go to crossover steering. But yeah, more to come