I am the original owner of a 97 F150 2wd, I am considering making my truck a 4x4 by adding a solid axle to the front end, and of course a transfere case. Has anyone ever heard of a kit or conversion mod available to use to try to make it as simple as possible. Looking for manual locking hubs and transfere case.
Thanks

 

The only company out there making a kit for what you want is Fabritech. I would reccommend staying away from them. Their workmanship is shotty at best. Parts I've seen off the kits aren't braced correctly and some parts have even been drilled or built incorrectly. Aside from that they're very expensive.

Here is what their Stage I kit offers:
This is the basic kit with only the suspension bracket components, contents include: Custom coil spring towers and coil base mounts, shock mounts, control arms with related bracketry, C-bushing wraps, track-bar with bracketry, all steering components & mounting hardware.
Cost is $2195

Stage II offers:
Stage II includes all of the contents of the stage I plus all of the addition suspension components that would come in a traditional suspension kit: Front coils, 6" 80-96 Rear leafs with adapter brackets, Block kit, Brake hoses, ect...
Cost is $3295

Both of these were their 10" kits

Still no axle in either kit, you get to buy that separate. You can buy axles from them, but they want $1200 for a 78/79 D44 open diff with 3.54 gears. I just built an identical axle for less than $300 which included the purchase of the axle. You can also buy a used housing with an open diff and 3.54 gears with no axle shafts , knuckles, spindles, rotors, hubs, etc for $400. Heck I bought my entire axle complete with everything on it for $150 and I could have paid less if I had done some more shopping around, but I was pressed for time. 9" axles I know they carry but I couldn't find a price on them. As I recall setup the same as the above axle they wanted in excess of $600 with stock drum brakes. I got my 31 spline 9" with a mini spool, 3.54 gears, and a brand new disk brake setup for roughly a little over $300. IMO they are a flat out rip off.

If you REALLY want to do this to your truck be prepared to drop a good amount of money, but you can do it for alot less than Fabritech. This will be to put it to a stock 4x4 setup, then it would simply be a case of adding a solid axle lift. I'm not 100% sure if the tailshaft housing on the F150 trannys is removable, but even if they are they would most likely require the output shaft replaced with one from a 4x4 trans anyway requiring major surgery. Basically if you want to run a married tcase you'll need to change out your trans. to a 4x4 unit. Then find a married tcase. One other option you could do is to find a divorced D24 or NP205 tcase used on late 60s/early 70s and mid-late 70s F250s respectively. Prepare to spend upwards of $250 for that due to their rarity since they're getting older. This will require a short driveshaft between the trans and tcase, but will allow you to keep your factory 2wd trans and will let you run equal length driveshafts. You will need to build a separate crossmember for the tcase going this route. After you get that sorted out you can move onto the front axle. The easiest way to do this would be to get the entire front suspension off of a 77-79 F150 or 78/79 bronco. You will use the stock radius arm mounts and will make a crossmember out of them. Now on Rangers the F150 arms are positioned perfectly to use the radius arm mount as the transmission mount as well. I'm not 100% sure if this would work with the F150. If it doesn't measure out right you'll just have a 2nd corssmember in there which is no big deal. You can reuse your stock coil buckets, or you can use the coil buckets from the donor truck. You will use the track bar mount from the donor truck and you will have to lengthen and brace it for the amount of lift you're going to run. You can use the stock 4x4 coils and trac bar (may require some tweaking). You will want to make sure you get 78/79 steering as 77 and older used the crappy Y steering. Once thats done you're onto brakes and driveshafts for the front. Since the new front axle is a 5x5.5" pattern and your rear axle is a 5x135mm pattern it would be adventageous to swap that out. You could use a 9" axle in its place, but it doesn't have a provision for a VSS sensor or tone ring. You could make it work but it would require machine work to be done on the ring gear. It would be best to get an 8.8 from 95/96 F150 or Bronco. This will be a strong enough axle and will have the VSS gear on it as well as the correct 5x5.5" bolt pattern. The rear is as simple as springs, blocks, driveshaft, and brake lines.

Bottom line this can be done for not a TON of money. Though you need to be good at fabrication as you're putting your own life and the others on the road at risk so make sure you're dang good at it. If your parts fail and you get in an accident your insurance will most likely drop you pretty quick, unless you get the truck inspected by them prior. You should be able to do this whole thing for somewhere around $1000 if you can fab yourself.

 

I've seen this topic come up before, not necessarily here but it doesn't matter. The short answer is if you want a 4x4, it's going to be easier and probably cheaper in the long run to just buy another truck. If you've already got a 4x2 that you're happy with, then keep it as your daily driver and buy a 4x4 for fooling around in the woods. It's not worth trashing your perfectly good 4x2 pickup.

 

Thanks guy's for the reply's, they were very thourough, and I really appreaciate it. I have contemplated both suggestions, making my truck a 4x4, and just buying another on. Powerstroke, oyu seem very knowlegable in the subject, if I do atempt it, it will be the method you described, go out and find the stuff, and figure it out. Thenry, your suggestion is probably the most logical one, I just have an emotional bond to my old truck and thought I could build it better than you if you bought it with the factoy installed front axle. Thanks again for the suggestions, I will keep you posted. Ken