I never did well restoring... even though that's all I wanted to do to something from the age of 15. Trouble for me is I have no patience for body work, and need to be able to drive my toys asap.

If money hadn't been tight, I would have kept my 95 F350 PSD crewcab and cummins'ed it instead of replacing it with a W250. Really miss the 4 full doors. That PSD treated me okay - minimal problems - although they are expensive to mod. I had a '97 E350 PSD that was a nightmare enginewise Life's too short for complicated diesels.

 

Well one way or another, you are gonna have to work on it. One way, you have a front end to rebuild, the other, a Cummins to swap

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would it be possible to just install a lift or leveling kit instead of fixing the front suspension ? What are good brands that sell like 3 or 4 inch kits

 

The only thing for a little extra height is the Moog severe-duty coil springs. 1-2" depending on how much yours have sagged. The rest of the 2wd suspension would need to be fixed regardless.

It is not hard stuff to work on. Done two of my D250s. I suggest a fullsize floorjack, 6-ton axle stands for height, a c-clamp press for balljoints as the lower arms usually will not unbolt from truck because the bushing through-bolts are seized (although bushing usually okay).

Try not to snap off shock bolts in the lower arms. Lots of lube, and 2 steps forward one step back procedure for loosening seems to help. Or snap them off immediately and use a small pipe wrench from the other side.

Make sure any parts you buy are for the 4000# front end. All cummins D250s have this (even though your door jamb tag probably says 3800#) All the balljoints and TREs are bigger. Coils and shocks are longer. Rockauto has everything for decent prices. I bought the springs local because they were $$$ to ship due to size/weight.

I've seem upper arms badly rusted, and/or cracked. I'm pretty sure they are the same on the light and heavy front ends except for the balljoint. I welded a piece of rebar into one of mine because it was rusted thin and cracked. Seen a buddy of mine collapse his on a bad bounce due to being thin from rust (only a gas truck too).

 

Well shoot. Looks like getting suspension dome in 1 day would be out of my league. How much would a shop charge you think k for it ? Also any info on getting the a/c heat to work

 

How do you figure? First, spend an hour one day figuring out what parts are shot. Pump some grease into the joints... that usually gives you a better clue.

I changed an idler arm in 30 mins one day.

Installed one spring, shock, and a upper control arm bushing in 2-3 hours another day.

A few days later, did the coil and shock on the other side in about an hour.

All on my back in the driveway. Not a big deal. Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

Any idea on were a person with 0 suspension work knowledge could find a video or thread on doing that?

 

You probably wont just find a video for it.... but when it comes down to it its all just nuts and bolts.... a shop would charge an outrageous price no matter what and im sure they wouldnt do it as fast as you would like. If you want to learn baisic mecanics, get a 1st gen and work on it yourself

 

Next week I'll be picking it up I'll post picks and what not when I get it. It's the all blue d250. Real clean body too

 

Well I look forward to seeing the blue beauty.... whenever you have problems just post some pictures of your front end and I'm sure we can all help

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