Where do I start? 1996 F-SUPERDUTY 10 lug

[powerstrokekid]

Honestly I didn’t know there was a category for this truck but it’s the main reason I haven’t finished a ranger project yet. I’d really like to make a build thread about it before all the pictures get lost or something. Also it’s out here on the forums where people from all over can see it, maybe even my kids one day. I absolutely love reading people’s build threads so I hope you enjoy mine. Thanks for reading. Here is my 1996 f-superduty which a lot of people don’t seem to know exist. It’s basically an f-450 but ford called it a f-superduty. They only came cab and chassis and the wheel bases and frames weren’t the same as a the other trucks so you couldn’t put a pickup bed on them. They only came with 7.3 or 460 and were 2wd unless you can find a rare 4wd conversion one. I bought it as my first truck back in 2012. It was a service truck for a local construction company its whole life with 340k miles on it at the time of purchase. The truck has a 7.3 powerstroke, e4od, Dana 80 rear axle

this is pretty much what it looked like when I bought it except I immediately tinted the windows and made some stacks for it with the addition of a TS chip. Eventually my grandpa convinced me to put 19.5 wheels on it from a Chevy. This requires having the hub bore machined larger on the wheels.

I drove the truck for several years, eventually the torque converter in the e4od went bad and that’s when I decided to zf5 swap it. I swapped it late 2014 I believe. Here’s a few pictures I found, that was awhile ago.

I made a custom crossmember for the zf5 using square tube and poly bushings from Barnes 4wd

Around that same time I did a homemade e-fuel/fuel bowl delete on the engine. I also rebuilt the stock turbo with a wicked wheel gen 2 and homemade EBPV delete buy tig welding up the turbo pedestal.

so I drove the truck all winter 2014/15 and in the spring I thought it would be a good idea to take my truck and coworker from Europe to the local drag strip since he had never been. Well that didn’t end well.

Basically this was a turning point as I had always wanted to turn the truck into a pickup. I decided to tear the truck apart.

next I shortened the frame to single cab long bed wheel base. I think it’s around 137”. For reference the truck currently had a 12’ bed on it so a lot of frame had to be take out. I did it right behind the cab in the straight section. Cut it on a 45 and then fish plated The inside.

welded in a rear crossmember

Then sandblasted and painted the frame.

and then it sat…..for over 3 years.. in this time I started a tdi ranger build, bought a house, got married and had a kid. I felt like I was never gonna finish it. That’s when I sold off the ranger stuff and drug the truck home.

I built some traction bars for it using poly bushings and square tube and made my own brackets.

I tore the front end apart to finish the front half of the frame.

At some point I made a gooseneck hitch

I think at this point we are in 2018. The truck looked like this and say that way for a little while

then in 2019 I started doing body work and painted the cab.

Then it sat like this for awhile

In 2020 I parted out a Jetta and was gonna start a tdi swap ranger again and then my wife convinced me to sell everything and finish the dually finally. So I did. I’m thankful for her. I started reassembling things with new parts.

I redid my fuel system

new one piece driveshaft. 1410 joints 4” tube.

Retinted the windows

At this point it has been so long I just wanted to drive it some before winter so I just drove it like this for the next month before they salted the roads.

way lighter than it used to be.

after winter, in 2021 I started doing body work on the bed and painted it. I also installed new stacks and a fuel tank tool box combo giving me 1,000 miles of range.

So here we are, 2021 and the truck is “done” the nicest it would ever look. I’m gonna stop this post here and 2021- current I’ll add onto later because the truck gets big changes.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Holy hell.

 

[snoranger]

Nice.
We have a ‘97 F-Superduty spade truck at work. (Used to dig up and relocate trees.) It’s a 460, 5spd, Quigley conversion 4x4, and it only has 10K miles on it.

 

[ericbphoto]

I love it.

 

[Josh B]

Awesome man, lots of great work.
I just have one question, what kind of mileage does it get

 

[ericbphoto]

Awesome man, lots of great work.
I just have one question, what kind of mileage does it get

Smiles and smiles and smiles

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

This was my 96. 7.3 F350 F-superduty 4x4. I wish i still had it, It was a very good truck. had over 500k on it. I rebuilt the auto, painted the bed and did a bunch of work to it. I never got to work it much. Since it didn't have a crane on it it wasn't as useful as my topkick.

Yours has came a long way and looks good man!

 

[powerstrokekid]

Awesome man, lots of great work.
I just have one question, what kind of mileage does it get

In that “finished” form it got 16mpg. Currently it gets 12 but A LOT has changed since then.

 

[powerstrokekid]

Awesome man, lots of great work.
I just have one question, what kind of mileage does it get

I forgot to mention I regeared from 4.88 to 3.73

 

[powerstrokekid]

Ok so picking up where I left off the truck is “done” and I start daily driving it spring/summer of 2021. Get to tow with it some and I’m having fun. Here’s a few pics.

so now I’m putting miles on it commuting 2 hours a day and the ride quality is starting to bother me.I finally replace the 18 year old recap tires. Yes 18 years old is what the code on the casings were.The recaps weren’t to terribly old. This helped the ride quality a tiny bit.

Like everything else, I did it myself. I hand dismounted and mounted tires, balanced them with air soft BBs. (This has been very successful with me and all my tires/trucks. )

next added some special mud flaps that my inner child always wanted.

So pics moving into 2022 and the ride is still bothering me, I decided to start making a RSK for the front end

Well it didn’t end up working out because with the stock leaf spring the F-SUPERDUTY uses, it’s actually shorter than a 250/350 spring and there for when going to a reverse shackle design it moved the axle way to far forward. So I threw that in the corner…it will make an appearance again.
In 2022 I didn’t drive it a ton mostly because of fuel prices, that’s when diesel was $5-$6 a gallon. I drove my gas OBS. but also ride quality/ general comfort was still bothering me. While visually this is the truck I dreamed about as a kid it fell short on the enjoyable while driving spectrum. Here’s some pics from ‘22

one thing I hate about most vehicles is the stock steering wheel. It’s the part you interact with the most. I installed a steering wheel I liked which made it much more enjoyable to drive and gave me more room since it sat closer to the dash than the stock one. Continuing with comfort, I moved the cruise control to the dash to keep that.

So In December 2022 I was still driving the dually….in the salt and snow. Which I had never done. Kinda had a F it attitude towards it. So far to try and make it ride better I had put new tires on, taken 5 leafs out PER SIDE! Greased all the leafs and leaf spring hardware. New shocks, played with air pressure in the tires. There really wasn’t anything else to do. I had been thinking these dam 19.5 tires are so stiff i need to get rid of them, but they were the whole look of the truck! I made an add and posted the 19.5 wheels and tires for sale and instantly someone wanted them. I sold them and the truck sat on jack stands. I had nothing to put on the truck and was honestly pretty dam sad about what I had done.

After a few weeks I sourced stock 16” steel wheels for the trucks 10 lug axles. I also got some used metric 35s from a buddy….turns out I was correct, going from the stiff 8r19.5s (measures about 34” tall) to the giant sidewall of the 35s on 16” wheel it made a huge difference in the ride! I was excited for that but man did it look ugly.

Also you’ll notice I was only running outer wheels in the rear because the tires would be touching. You’ll also see the RSK tacked to the frame again. I had a new plan to make the truck ride even better and look better as well. Naturally everything I do is DIY and on a budget. Unfortunately life sometimes doesn’t allow for the extravagant build we want. I couldn’t afford doing a coil spring superduty axle swap so I decided to stay leaf spring. I wanted a Dana 60 but I couldn’t pass up the free axle my buddy offered. It was a leaf spring Dana 50 from a 2001 superduty f-250. 3.73 gear to match my rear Dana 80. It was the right price so I used it. The plan was RSK with 99-04 superduty springs and the Dana 50. I would keep the rear Dana 80 and just lift it. Dually rear, single wheel front

I got the axle cleaned up and started fabbing shackle hangers, new power stop rotors, pads and calipers. And new Mickey Thompson wheels!

I took it out for a test drive and it did something it never did before, it flexed! The springs were nice and soft.
so right about this time is February 19th 2023 and my buddy and I decided we would be heading south on a quest to buy some OBS beds with this truck On March 3rd…..there was a lot of work to do. No brake lines, no rear lift, no shocks and because I was cheap and lazy I didn’t change the ball joints. And it was undriveable. (I did at least replace all steering components)

DIY EVERYTHING
We got the truck done just in time, now all the front end parts are new. Ball joints, u joints, all steering components, wheel bearings,brake lines, brakes even the springs are new. New shocks all around, not what I wanted but what I could afford. I also took more leafs out of the rear. It’s down to the main 3 leaf pack now. With that being said we took off for North Carolina with 120 gallons of diesel on board and the truck had never rode better. It was so good. It was like a completely different truck. I was so happy.
We also took the stacks out so we didn’t go deaf. Here are some pics from the trip.

we went about 1200 miles in 2 days on a completely new front end held to the truck with brackets I welded together. Man it felt good. And it was an awesome trip with my buddy!
at this point I’m really happy with how the truck is riding but I still wanted it to be dually. The problem was this truck uses a super rare bolt pattern and wheel spacers aren’t readily available. I found a place that would make custom ones but they were over $500 a piece. $1k for wheel spacers didn’t sit well with me or my budget. I have heard it a million times, your duals can’t touch, they will rub and blow out! Well I have also heard story’s of pipeline welding rigs purposely having their duals touch so they wouldn’t pack with mud. They also claimed thousands of trouble free miles. I figured what do I have to lose? Blow out one of these worn out used tires? So I went to put them on. They aren’t just touching, they’re squeezed together. There was just enough thread to get the nuts started and then i slowly tightened them down in pattern to everything was torqued down.

I was happy, it looked much better as a dually again instead of just having outers, although it did slightly make the rear end of the truck ride a little stiffer but it’s still very good. So I took the dual stacks out for the trip and put a single back hoping it would be quieter. It wasn’t.

I’m gonna end this section here, but wait! There’s more!

 

[ericbphoto]

Nice. I like the IH emblem under the hood.

 

[powerstrokekid]

What is this? Part 3? So it’s April 15 2023 and I have been daily driving the truck. I put a few thousand miles on and still no issues with the duals. I have done a lot of highway driving and some towing. They don’t seem to be getting hot either. I check after I stop. Trucks still riding great.

I’m on my way back home from working out of town when the transmission starts to get loud right as I’m to my exit. When the light turns green I can’t get it in gear. I fiddle with it and get going but still hard to shift. I drive straight to the part store to get some fluid. It’s pouring out. I thought a seal had gone bad, everything is soaked and it’s pouring out as I fill it with fluid. Eventually I said the hell with it and drove the rest of the way home. I just assumed a seal between the transmission and the driveline brake had gone bad but also because it was low on fluid and making noise I figured the transmission was toast. So I go ahead and pull the transmission out to have it rebuilt.That’s when I noticed the whole case is cracked in half….

At this point I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to put a $1k used zf5 in the truck, I didn’t want to buy a core and have one rebuilt for a total of around $2500. The other obvious option is a zf6 until you realize people want $3500 for a USED 20 YEAR OLD TRANSMISSION. So I decided to put a 4spd in it like an IDI has. It would have a more useful 1st and reverse gear for me towing me it would keep the rpms up for towing as well. There’s some down sides but I did a 4spd swap in my gas obs and was very happy with it. Also 4spds are cheap. I found one in Michigan and my buddy and I went to get it.

Guy I got transmission from (tan truck is mine)

Np435 and np205 for $200! And my buddy had a diesel 4spd bell housing. Easy peazy! After some miscellaneous stuff I’ll be back on the road in no time! WRONG. After cleaning the bell housing in the parts washer and repairing a stripped mounting bolt hole I discovered a crack. Still not a terrible deal annoying. I had a friend weld it up.

I had to modify the zf5 clutch fork to hold the 4spd throwout bearing.

I fabricated a transmission and transfer case crossmember using poly bushings.

the np205 worked great to clear my fuel system so I didn’t have to mess with moving all that. I added some lights to the crossmember to add to the theme of the truck.

cut holes in the floor pan.

had custom shift pattern knobs made

Made custom shifters using stainless steel round stock and shifter boots for a 1st gen dodge Cummins. Driveshaft was this much to short SMH

I had a different shop make me a new driveshaft this time because I wasn’t working near the place I had my first one made. They called me and we had an interesting conversation. They informed me that they would have to cut both ends off and start from scratch because my driveshaft was welded together crooked and was out of balance. They said it’s so bad they don’t know how I didn’t break anything. I said it just so happens my transmission cracked in half…..it all makes sense now. I was chasing a vibration since day one of this truck being a pickup. The vibration was never there before. I even took it back to the driveshaft shop and they assured me it wasn’t the driveshaft. Well 2 years on an out of balance driveshaft and I got a zf5 that cracked in half. Annoying.

so anyway I got the new driveshaft in and the truck all put back together and my buddy and I go for a test drive. All is well! It’s working! We celebrate by getting some snacks from the gas station and when we go to leave as soon as I press the clutch in there’s a loud pop. The bell housing cracked again! So back apart again.
Over several weeks I tracked down 2 bell housings. The first one I found was also cracked but it looked better than mine so I bought it as a back up to have welded. Then the next one I drove 400 miles to get! On the plus side it had no cracks and it came with the correct clutch arm. I got it all back together and the throwout bearing is chirping. Thanks a lot China. So I’ll have to pull it apart eventually and change that but I have several thousand miles on it and no issues. Knock on wood. I have towed with it, I have lots of highway miles to work. Honestly I love it.

so since then the truck has rolled over 400k miles! I bought it with 340k. Now here’s the crazy part, on these trucks when they roll over 399,999 it goes back to 300,000

I figured out why I like the new look, it’s because it looks like the pulling trucks I grew up seeing. Narrow dually axle with single wheel front wheels
I added simulators to the rear and it looks much better. Currently 405k miles !

And finally I might be addicted to this hunk of junk so I did a thing.

thanks for reading !

 

[scotts90ranger]

My '97 needs some attention, one of these days... gotta get the $$ situation in place to get injectors and such and do some body work... The ~$3k for injectors, HPOP and tuner are likely out of range for this year... I just rebuilt my ZF5 and it's still making noise so I get to look for a spare, rebuilding was a pain but wouldn't be too bad if I take my time and didn't need it 3 weeks after I dropped it out of the rig

That looks pretty good, I'm not big on the stacks look but it's really pretty tasteful compared to most... Lot of ambitious work went into that.

My odometer is still showing like 355k, it's only worked about 30% of the time over the last handful of years... I think I finally have that sorted now though, I didn't know/remember that 400k thing

 

[powerstrokekid]

My '97 needs some attention, one of these days... gotta get the $$ situation in place to get injectors and such and do some body work... The ~$3k for injectors, HPOP and tuner are likely out of range for this year... I just rebuilt my ZF5 and it's still making noise so I get to look for a spare, rebuilding was a pain but wouldn't be too bad if I take my time and didn't need it 3 weeks after I dropped it out of the rig

That looks pretty good, I'm not big on the stacks look but it's really pretty tasteful compared to most... Lot of ambitious work went into that.

My odometer is still showing like 355k, it's only worked about 30% of the time over the last handful of years... I think I finally have that sorted now though, I didn't know/remember that 400k thing

I hear you on the money thing. This truck has needed injectors since I put it back together. Sitting unstarted for 3.5 years damaged something and the high pressure oil side bleeds off internally over night. I have been starting it with ether ever since lol. (Glow plugs unhooked) also because injectors are bad I started running a waste oil mix for fuel, they say it’s not good on 7.3 injectors but they already need replaced. as far as stacks, I know it’s not everyone’s favorite but it’s what I have always wanted. I actually this week took it out and put a muffler/turn down tip on. I’m just so over the noise. I guess I’m getting old.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Mine is 3" straight piped from the turbo back I think (maybe 4" after the down pipe? I don't remember, was that way when I got it) and exits before the rear tire, it's loud but doesn't seem too bad but being a crew cab it's still a fair amount of pipe...