I have some question's

[Salt-Man]

It is both Chevy and Ford related, so if this is not the forum it should be in please move it to the Thread Pirates Forum
OK.. I think that once I finish up my 78 Bronco that I may take this 79 Chevy short bed 4x4 Scottsdale I just bought and build it to do my off road wheeling in, now I believe that it has a NP203 transfer in it, it says lo loc and all on the shifter knob, my question is how hard do you think it would be to take my axles from my 76 F250 4x4 and stick under it, or just the back and swap the front outers to match and use one of my Ford NP205 transfers and build a doubler, its just a thought and I wanted to post something.. we are down to one computer right now so I don't get on as much as I used too, but I still vote every time I'm here. thanks guys... Rick (Salt-Man) ?><L>?

[Ranger429]

Why Rick? From the picture of that Chevy I seen why would you make it a wheeler? It looked like a pretty solid truck.

[Highhorse78]

Yeah what happened to your plans with building up the 76 250? Sounded like you had something going with plans for that build.

[Salt-Man]

I was just thinking out loud and wanted something to post???, basically just talking out my blow hole
and I wasn't saying a wheeling only rig, I like this truck, a lot, I'm just wanting to be able to run it hard in the mud and the muck without breaking it, I still want to drive it on the street, so I was thinking I may want to beef it up a little?

[blythe_mechanic]

are you just trying to convert the np203 to part time, as they make kits for that and there cheap,

i had a 1976 chevy for years, there great trucks, depending on which month your truck was built it may have a dana44 in it now as 1976 1/2 was the beginning of the 10 bolt front ends, but you will find alot of stuff fromm the 44 will fit the 10 bolt outer hub area,

wish i still had the truck , wrecked it , which is how i got the 78 f150 i have now

best mod i ever dd in my old 76 bow tie was build a 383 stroker engine for it the stock 350 was just not enough for me and putting a 454 in makes lots of power but makes the truck heavy in the mud

its the same as us guys here doing a 400m to save weight over a 460 swap for a mud truck

if your concerned about the np203 not holding up, they hold up to alot of abuse there wear spot is the differental at the rear of the transfercase with alows it to be full time

kevin

[Salt-Man]

I am just thinking about making it a little stronger, that's all, not planning on doing anything anytime soon, but I am going to have to do something with all my left over parts so why not use them up and build something I want out of them, I would like to make the truck capable of me driving it to the local Mud Bog pit and running it without worrying about breaking it and being able to drive it home afterwards

[blythe_mechanic]

thats the way i feel, i think a truck needs to be abel to drive to where your going to go wheeling the drive home or work the following day, i'm not big on purpos (sp) built trucks, i want my truck to do what ever i ask of it, its a TRUCK,

well the axels in the 1/2 ton are ok, the 10 bolt axel in my oppion was that trucks down fall in some ways, if it has an automatic trans a heavy duty cooler and tans pan are a must, see if you can get a hd sxel set for the front with the larger axel joint,

if your wide tires will not fit in he wheel wells try toyota wheel, there the same bolt pattern and differny off set,

if it has a 350sb, stroke it, the 454 is to heavy in a mud bog and a restrokek 350 to a 383 has lots of torque or a destroked 400 to a 377 will give you lots of rpm

and for the best rear axel, put a 14 bolt in it for st strength

[RTM]

Don't the chevy t-cases have a different spline count than the fords? 27 chevy and 31 ford? If so mating a ford case to the chevy stuff may not work but I have no experience building doublers.

Maybe you could swap some inards of the chevy 205 over to the ford to get the case to still drop on the drivers side if you used the ford axles?

[redmt79]

I was thinking the Cheby case uses a 10-spline input and a figure 8 bolt pattern. But I am by no means a GM expert...

[Salt-Man]

well what I was doing with this thread was trying to figure out which way I wanted to go?
someone on my local offroad site has a s-10 blazer built up nice with jeep axles and a 8cyl, he uses it as his daily driver/weekend wheeler, he just broke it and now has no way to get to work, I think that has pretty much set my mind on building a strictly off road truck, my other trucks are great for the road, the snow and mild off roading, but I want something I can truley abuse the heck out of and not worry about tearing up my daily driver, and this way I can modify the hell out of it too, so thank you for letting me bounce this off of you guys, sometimes I need that to get my head straight