Ford T Case ????s

[3 on the tree]

Ok, flame away. I picked up a 88 F250 4wd, as a work truck. The T case is a BW 1356. Anybody have experience with this unit? Good, bad, things to watch for. The rest of the drive train is 460 FI, ZF 5 speed, Sterling rear, and that weird Ford front axle with exposed shaft on the pass side with a high pinion.

FYI, I looked for a Chebby, but none closer than a 4-5 hour drive. My thanks too all who contribute to my fund of knowledge.

 

[sled_dog]

don't worry about the tcase. Worry about that "weird front axle". Junk....

How many miles? You will almost undoubtedly need balljoints.

 

[sweetk30]

easy to drop the ibeam front. just find a doner 60 and swap it in. spring mounts in same places. and i dont see much go wrong with the tcases in them.

like sled dog said frt end parts mostly b/j's go bad. and if you take it in for a alignment and thay say you need camber kits. dont wast your time. just get a frt end add a leaf kit. most major spring shops have them in kit form with all parts neded. this will bring it back in spec 95% of the time. and wont make it ride much harder as the frt leafs are of tapered design and ride diffrent than are c/k truck leafs.

 

[u2slow]

If it has the larger Dana 50TTB, and you have decent fab skillz, you can try to make your own homebrew solid axle like some others have done over at the dieselstop.

 

[ntsqd]

I've not worked on one or lived with one, but all else being equal the TTB will ride btter than a live axle. About the only weird part of that truck is the leaf springs.
Were it not a work truck I'd suggest a set of radius arms and some coil springs.

I say address any issues it might have and drive it.

 

[3 on the tree]

don't worry about the tcase. Worry about that "weird front axle". Junk....

How many miles? You will almost undoubtedly need balljoints.

The truck has 92K on it. It tracks and drives perfectly straight at 65 mph. The center section does look larger than a D44. Only 2 large leafs up front. I did some checking on the t case. It has an oil pump, driven by the rear output, so it can be flat towed at hiway speeds .

 

[sled_dog]

what happens when you hit a bump? You won't notice bad balljoints driving down the road at 65 and letting go of the wheel, unless they are so bad the alignment is off.

The center section is a "Dana 50". I personally consider TTB to be junk.

 

[atho]

The ttb isn't totally junk, but its not really a good idea. I just "Inherited" my dad's 96 F150 4x4, and to me, the ride is about on par with an IFS GM truck.

the front tires wear weird on this truck. always bald on the outer edge but fine on the inside. new bj, shocks, coils didnt help. alignment didnt either. but it drives fine. just wears the tires weird.

its a good truck otherwise, has the 300 fuel injected L6 with the Mazda 5 speed. gets about 21-23 mpg hwy. but you can bet your ass i've been keeping an eye out for a rusted out F150 4x4 from the late 70's for an SAS.

 

[3 on the tree]

what happens when you hit a bump? You won't notice bad balljoints driving down the road at 65 and letting go of the wheel, unless they are so bad the alignment is off.

The center section is a "Dana 50". I personally consider TTB to be junk.

No jiggles at 35mph, hitting bumps. Why is this front axle "junk" ? The GVW for this rig is 8900 lbs. How do you read Sterling tags to determine the axle ratio????

 

[sled_dog]

the front tires wear weird on this truck. always bald on the outer edge but fine on the inside. new bj, shocks, coils didnt help. alignment didnt either. but it drives fine. just wears the tires weird.

Thats why. The design has a ton of camber change through its range of motion. When you first get the truck, use a lift if you have access to one and lift the truck. Watch the tires do a nice large amount of movement. But driving down the road this means you are riding on different portions of the tire as you are driving along. I always thought one of the purposes of independent suspension was to keep as much of the tire in contact with the road surface as possible at all times. TTB doesn't follow that.

On an trophy truck I can see the advantage. It can allow for a ton of suspension travel, and when camber change isn't a huge issue for you, its great.

There are tons of guys driving TTB rigs for MANY MANY years with little problems, I still just don't see why Ford thought TTB was ever the "better" way.

 

[ntsqd]

snip....
the front tires wear weird on this truck. always bald on the outer edge but fine on the inside. new bj, shocks, coils didnt help. alignment didnt either. but it drives fine. just wears the tires weird.

Either double up on shocks or go to some mono-tube shocks valved for the application. No off the shelf shock has enough damping to work right on a TTB or a TIB for that matter.

 

[kookydoright]

i've never owned a ford so i can't verify it, but my granny always said a ford couldn't pull a limp d!ck out of a bucket of lard.

 

[78Buford]

Did Granny graduate from Harvard or Yale?