1990 F350 4x4 7.3 IDI

[n8in8or]

Ok I did a bad thing....and I'm quickly regretting this decision to do a Dana 80 swap. So part of my plan for using this was to make a hub centric ring to adapt the smaller Dodge hub to the larger Ford wheel center. So I got a piece of 5" exhaust and made a ring. I got it nice and tight on the hub so that it needed to be tapped on with a hammer and drift. Then I put a wheel on and drew it on with lug nuts thinking it would scrape any excess powdercoat off the wheel. Yep it did, now I can't get the wheel back off!!! I'm trying to use my porta power in the hand holes of the wheel and it still won't budge. I have a suspicion this is going to get ugly, but before it does I'm going to stop for the night. Oh AND the wheel is hitting the brake drum before it bottoms on the hub, so there's that too. This sucks.

 

[ak diesel driver]

try heating the wheel and putting ice on the hub

 

[n8in8or]

try heating the wheel and putting ice on the hub

I think I'm going to take the wheel/hub/drum assembly off the axle and try to drive it out of the wheel with a block of wood and sledge hammer. My press isn't big enough to fit this unfortunately.

 

[Jaryd]

Sounds to me like a good enough reason to go buy a bigger press. Any reason to get a new toy is a good reason.

 

[n8in8or]

Sounds to me like a good enough reason to go buy a bigger press. Any reason to get a new toy is a good reason.

D'OH!! Another bad influence!!! Curse you Jaryd!!!! I will say though, deep down, I do like the way you think...

 

[n8in8or]

Well my plan actually worked - in a matter of about 5 minutes I had the hub knocked out of the wheel. At first I had a block of pine wood as my striking block and after 5 or so heavy blows it started to split so I switched to Ipe (a South American hardwood) and the first hit knocked it free.



So then I did what I should have done in the first place and measured the rings and then compared them to what I had planned to do. Here is what I had drawn up a couple months ago based on the standard dimensions of Dodge and Ford hubs.



So I measured the rings I made and found that the OD was about .020" larger than it should be. The wall thickness was .070" and I had just assumed at some point that the exhaust pipe was 16 gauge (.063") which would have reduced my OD by .014".....probably not enough, but closer.

 

[n8in8or]

So then I checked how bad the drum and wheel are colliding - it was a lot more than I expected. Here are measurements at 4 points between the wheel hub face and the face of the drum.



I already ordered some 1/4" spacers today knowing I would need to get the wheels spaced away from the drums. Now originally I was thinking I would only need an 1/8" spacer so seeing this much of a collision surprised me.



So I grabbed one of the Dodge wheels and dropped the drum in it to see how much clearance there is. It surprised me how little there was stock, but it is a couple hundred thousandths more than what I will have even with a 1/4" spacer.

 

[n8in8or]

So then I started to think maybe I needed a 1/2" spacer. So I did a stack up to see if I had enough lug length for a 1/2" spacer.



I had just enough for a 1/4" spacer, so i guess that's what I'm going to run - at least to start. I'm not sure if I'll trap too much heat in my drums with the tighter clearance or not.

Knowing I had a path forward I decided to make new rings that would be wide enough to accommodate 2 wheels and a 1/4" spacer. The 3 things together come to .922" so I decided to do 1" wide rings. I got them sized to the hubs tonight. Tomorrow I'll take them to work to grind the OD since my belt sander sucks. I'm taking the pre-installed wheel to work with me to use as a go/no-go gauge.

 

[Will L.]

Wow man, what a pain.

 

[n8in8or]

Wow man, what a pain.

Yup. Do I recommend doing a Dana 80 swap out of a Dodge into a Ford? Nope.

 

[n8in8or]

Success! I spent 45 minutes on the sander at work making the rings fit. So first thing I did when I got home was install those. I applied Blue Loctite to the hub surface before sliding them on - just in case. I don't think they'll slide off, but better safe than sorry.

Before I go too far I need to backup a couple days. One other thing I had to do to adapt the Ford wheels to the Dodge axle was drill a hole throigh the drum and hub to accomodate the pin on the hub surface of the inner wheel. I have no idea what purpose this pin serves but I decided to not cut them off and bastardize things further than I already have.



Then I slid the 1/4" spacers on.



Here's a good shot of the inner wheel installed and the remainder of the hub centric ring showing.



Then it was time to do the rest. I installed the valve stem extensions. The hoses are high quality and so are the brackets. The only thing I wasn't wild about was when I final tightened the lug nuts the brackets would rotate too, so I had to hold onto them with vice grips in one hand while I cranked the lug nuts to 140 ft-lbs with the other. I would rather have brackets that attach to the axle retaining bolts. But they do look nice and make checking/filling tires infinitely easier.

After that it was time to put everything else on....including a little more dually bling - chrome lug nut covers! I'm plenty pleased with how the new shoes look on her!!

 

[ak diesel driver]

so by being offset from each other they should counteract any imbalance. I wondered how they did that

 

[ak diesel driver]

How much they cost?

 

[n8in8or]

so by being offset from each other they should counteract any imbalance. I wondered how they did that

Precisely

How much they cost?

The were $50. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VRO19Y/?tag=jhdiesel-20

If I was to do it again, I would get shorter ones. I don't remember now what I measured that told me I would need ones this long, but they could be probably half as long and work. I think ideally they wouldn't be curved into an "S" shape.

 

[n8in8or]

I didn't have any time to work on it tonight, but still I couldn't resist rolling it out of the barn and admiring the transformation so far.

 

[79jasper]

So besides having slightly different design, any reason you couldn't just use dodge wheels on the rear?
I've seen some dodge and ford that were pretty similar.

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[n8in8or]

So besides having slightly different design, any reason you couldn't just use dodge wheels on the rear?
I've seen some dodge and ford that were pretty similar.

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That's a fair question. I went with all Ford wheels for a couple reasons:

1. The Ford wheels have a little more offset than the Dodge wheels, so if I choose to go with larger tires in the future, then I already have a little more space available in between the duals because of this. Of course the greater offset is what caused the wheel to collide with the drum, so there's that.....

2. The second reason, and really the more important reason, is that I only want to carry one spare wheel and tire on this thing. If I had the Dodge wheels on the back and the Ford wheels on the front I would have to carry 2 spares because I wouldn't be able to use one in both places due to the different hub sizes - a Dodge spare wheel wouldn't fit on the front of the truck because the axle hub is larger than the wheel and a Ford wheel would be loose on the rear axle hubs and wouldn't be concentric with the axle which would make it potentially go down the road in an egg shape. I suppose I could have carried a Ford wheel with a hub spacer that I could use or not use depending on where the spare was needed.......I hadn't thought of that before. But anyway, that's why I'm running Ford wheels all around.

Oh, I also could have had the front hubs on the axle turned down to the Dodge size, but the hubs are rare-ish (or at least somewhat expensive to replace) so I didn't think it made sense to permanently change a part like that just so I could run Dodge wheels all around. I wouldn't be surprised if some day the truck gets a 10.25 Sterling thrown back under it.

You're right though, the wheels visually aren't that much different and so if I had decided to put the Dodge wheels on the rear and Ford wheel son the front nobody would have ever known.

It would sure be nice if all 3 manufacturers had standardized on the same hub size - must be one of Will's gub'mint conspiracies!!

 

[n8in8or]

So besides having slightly different design, any reason you couldn't just use dodge wheels on the rear?
I've seen some dodge and ford that were pretty similar.

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Oh, I did think of a 3rd benefit in running Ford wheels in all positions: it will allow me to rotate tires easily on the truck. So if I start seeing funny wear on a front tire for example, I can easily swap it with a rear wheel that should be worn more evenly.

 

[79jasper]

I figured rotating/spare were the biggest factor.
I hadn't heard of the D60 dually hub adapter being rare.

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[n8in8or]

Got some good stuff done today. I wasn't able to save the adjusters on the old headlights so I got new headlight assemblies. The bulb retaining rings were much more suitable for LED bulbs so I didn't have to do any modifying. Nice seeing her face on again.



One of the back up lights was burnt out, so I replaced both with a pair of LEDs. I'll eventually do the taillights too, but it isn't necessary or in the budget right now so the old ones stayed.



One of the license plate lights was burnt out as well, so a new pair of those went in.



While I was wiring and lighting I decided to add some markers to the bed. I had put some of these on a trailer and really liked them so I bought a set for this.



I also replaced the door lock actuator, but no pics.

I also reinstalled the windshield visor, which you can see in an earlier pic.

Final dressup thing I did was install new, custom emblems that were a birthday present. I really like them! Unfortunately there was no way to cover all the original emblem holes on the passenger side fender.