2WD to 4WD Straight axle Conversion Questions

Hey Y'all, gotta question. Ive got my 1992 F350 XLT 2WD, its got dual I beam front suspension. I want to convert her to 4WD straight front axle. Any ideas? I am not going to just buy a new truck, I will do what I need to get her 4WD, this truck means everything to me. I just have no clue where to start. If yall could lend me a hand that would be Awesome Sauce!

I'd suggest going to junkyard and finding a truck your body style that come factory 4x4.....cut the entire frame clip off behind suspension and weld it to your stock frame....just an idea

Look for late 70's f350. Grab the whole Dana 60 with the radius arms, all steering components, box, coil springs, and driveshafts. You can use your factory radius arm brackets and coil spring buckets without any mods. If you find the whole truck, get the trans and transfer case also

Cool guys, thanks for the advice! Couple more questions, for a straight axle front end, wouldn't it be leaf spring suspension? and I have a brand new trans in my truck, is there a way to mount the transfer case to my new trans?

Yes, a straight axle in a Ford will have leaf springs. The TTBs are actually a D50. You would need to take the tail cone off, get the appropriate t-case adapter, and swap the output shaft to a 4wd version to convert your trans.

i apologize, your right. what we were doing was grabbing the high pinion dana 60 out of the f350's but using the suspension out of the f150's and bronco's. the mounting pads for the radius arms bushings were easy to make, simple v-shaped plate welded to the tube

Man you guys rock! Thanks! It really doesn't seem that far fetched anymore, fortunately there is a fairly good selection of these trucks being parted out. Would the transfer case mounting be changed if it was an auto or manual trans?

Also Dragn, would you possibly have a picture I could use as reference? Im having a hard time picturing it in my head, im still somewhat new to truck suspension and 4X4.

Cross members should be the same, might have to move it forward or backward.

This is what the bushings look like for the radius arms


borrowed this pic, you can see the bushings towards the bottom of the 44 how they clamshell around the tube with the v-shaped or diamond shaped mounting pad. We've done two dana 60's that way. first one we cut the mounts off the 44, 2nd one we made our own.

this is one of my workers bronco, its still a dana 44 but you can kind of see on the drivers side what the mount looks like. hope all this helps