corey5988

I'd been updating my intro thread with my project, but thought this would be a better place. A bit of background I bought the truck advertised as having the battery tip over and spill acid, ruining the vacuum hoses. Upon looking it over I knew it possibly had tranny issues. It also had several bodywork issues (trashed tailgate, taillight, several dents and a hole in the cab, for I assume a CB. The guy said it was a former border guard truck. It has just a hair over 50k miles and is a SWB 5.4 manual T-case truck.

The day after I got it home I replaced all the vacuum lines/fittings and got a new Deka battery. The battery fixed what I thought was a bum passenger side window motor. I also changed the oil. When doing the I saw no evidence of oil leaks. When checking the tranny fluid and adding to it I realized my tranny leak was actually the dipstick tube pulled out. I placed it back in it spot and added fluid. Hoping that I had caught it before it got too bad, but the PO had apparently ran it low for a while, until it starting limping.

I called my tranny guy and got a quote to rebuild the tranny for $750 if I bring just the tranny. After some research I decided to do a zf5 swap from a f250/350.

And as of today I went to the junkyard and picked up a drivers side mirror cover, passenger taillight, and a section of bed floor to use for a filler plate (when taking the liner out I found a hole cut for some sort of equipment). I also located the brake/Clutch pedal assembly for the zf5 swap. They're taking it out tomorrow.

And here's my original link if I missed anything.

https://www.f150forum.com/f6/new-tru...tech-s-242314/

corey5988

Here's a pic from the ad.

BlackThundah

I was reading in your other thread, but it looks like this is going to be your main now. Sounds like its going to be a pretty cool build. Can't wait to see how the manual tranny turns out. Also I wouldn't do a sas just for 315s. I'd just stick with a typical ifs suspension lift and put some lockers in it. Just imo though. You can get a zone for 1200 which is a true 6'' lift and run those 315s all day long.

corey5988

Yeah the IFS is going to stay as bad as I hate IFS. My main points with SAS were reliability and being easier to work on. The IFS on these actually seem better than were I came from though.

corey5988

I got the pedal assemblies switched out this evening. For those looking to do this swap seperate the brake booster and master cylinder and pull the booster out. When removing the auto brake pedal I left them together and just unbolted it from the firewall and slid it all forward. I got it out like this, but it was tight. The manual pedal assembly would not go in like this. After completely removing the booster it slid in like butter. A couple of notes....the sound deadening will need trimmed up to fit the pedal bracket tight up to the firewall (mainly in the clutch master cylinder area). The brake rod stud thingy is on the opposite side of the pedal on the manual. For this I simply flipped the sensor that goes there and rerouted the wires out of the way. Also there are two bolts at the top of the bracket. I was unable to use the left one due the speed nut orientation. I'm sure it could have been flipped, but I already had the bracket in place and felt that a bolt and four nuts would be plenty secure.

So now that the techs out of the way the manual assembly bracket was cast aluminum, not sheet metal like the other. And also like all pedals mine were rusted. I sanded them down, primered them, and painted black. The foot pads were dry and cracked quite a bit when removing for paint. I'll try to find sone stockish rubber covers. Not much, but here's a pic.

corey5988

I dropped my flywheel off today to get resurfaced and will be picking it back up Friday. I also got my clutch master cylinder in and will be tossing it in tonight.

corey5988

Been a bit. I picked up the flywheel. I also got the T-case seperated from the tranny last night and have two bellhousing bolts to take out and I should be able to drop the tranny. I'm also going today to pickup these set of wheels. Not bad for $125, I think. Said they have no damage, just need polished up.

sportster07

This truck has so much potential, can't wait to see it done. Seems hard to find a 5.4 4x4 regular cab which is what I was looking for when I first started looking for one of these trucks.

A 2.5 inch level with 315's and no wheel spacers will rub a bit but not too bad, if I were building my truck again I would have went with a 4 inch rough country. I love the stuffed look but a 4 inch lift doesn't look big and has zero rub issues and plus it's a true suspension lift and not just a level.

Nice truck though good luck can't wait to see it done.

corey5988

Thanks. The wheels I’m picking up this evening, I’m unsure of the offset/backspacing, but I’m sure they’re more aggressive than stock. I’m not sure exactly what lift I’m going to run. I’ve seen some say with the ZF tranny you have to run a body lift for clearance and some say you don’t. I’m going to attempt it without first, because I’m not a big fan of body lifts. If I can get by without a body lift I’ll run a 2” rear shackle and depending on if I use a ZF5 or ZF6 (see my suspension thread in the 97-03 section) will determine how I lift the front, but I’ll lift to level it with the shackles.

corey5988

Here's the hunk I just pulled out from the truck.



Got the freshly surfaced flywheel bolted up.



And the massive new rims. With a polish they'll be like new. Super happy for what I spent.