Section525 - AWD to 4WD conversion | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Section525 - AWD to 4WD conversion

Well, the project has finally started. I bought everything I needed for the swap and tore into it this weekend. I flew out to AZ last Wednesday to check out the goods, crate them up, and ship them back home to CA.

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Here it is after I picked it up in CA. It's a '99 4R70W with the AA adpater and a elec shift BW1354.

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Here it is all good and cleaned up nearly ready to go in.

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A close up of the bw1354 attached to the AA adapter.

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As always, it's a tight fit getting into the garage. My buddy, Asp84, came out from AZ to oversee (actually do :p ) the swap.

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Here's the '99 4R70W with the '96 BW4404 I took out of the truck next to the new tranny and 1354. Both units were within an inch and a half to being the same length.

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New transmission going back in.

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This is me cutting up a piece of the old BBQ grill on the side of the house. I needed some metal to fab up the new cross member bracket.. brackets.




And as usual... I ran into a few problems. Apparently, AA makes two different length adapters. One 5" (that Stadx2 used) and one 9" (which is what this package came with). Now, this makes things very interesting. The extra 4" pushes the transfer case back close to the gas tank. So close infact, that the shift motor cannot be bolted on. Doh. So, this leads me with only one other option. Mechanical shift 1354. Hee haw.. that's really what I wanted anyways (if I couldn't do what Stadx2 did with the 100% stock like integration).

So I'll be trying to get my hands on one in the next couple days. I had to buy a V6 driveshaft because the V6 transfer cases have smaller u-joint flange dealios than the V8s. Also, the V6 drive shaft will have to be shortened 1.5" to fit. Alec (Asp84) thinks his old 1st gen front driveshaft will fit perfectly with this setup. So he'll FedEx it over tomorrow and we'll see about that.


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So basically, it will look like this but with a nice big shifter sticking up through the floor. I think i'll dig it.

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As you can see, I have plenty of room to rig something up that'll work.



Hopefully, I'll be testing this out at Truckhaven this year. We'll see.


I'll include more pics and a parts list here soon. :cool:
 



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Very nice. Why's the BL coming out?
 



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j602 said:
Very nice. Why's the BL coming out?

Suspensions going in... :cool: (hopefully)
 






section525 said:
Suspensions going in... :cool: (hopefully)

I thought so. :D How much lift?
 












Looks old skool without the console, and the manual shifter.

Someday.... someday....
 






Here's the story.. there's a truck accessories store that owes my company $2k in parts etc.

So this week I am going in to see if they can order the superlift for me. If they can't, I'll go straight for a locker. Otherwise, it's lift then locker. :cool:
 






Nice :cool:
 






Installed my custom tranny crossmember.

The first two pics are of my temp one VS the final. :D

Yes, those are the pieces from my old bbq grille.
 

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Nice work thus far :)
 






Was the crossmember mod only needed because of the 9" AA tailshaft?

Also, must be nice to have the DC u-joint on the front axle, instead of the CV joint BS.
 






V8BoatBuilder said:
Was the crossmember mod only needed because of the 9" AA tailshaft?

Also, must be nice to have the DC u-joint on the front axle, instead of the CV joint BS.

Yeah. Stadx2 was able to just bore out the stock holes on his crossmember.

Here is his:
 

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so with the adapter you said you would have to take the tranny apart to change the adapter. Does it no just bolt onto the tailshaft of the transmission or do you have to change the tailshaft to make the adapter work?
 






The adapter is the new tailshaft of the transmission. The output shaft must be changed in the tranny to mate up to the new V6 transfer case. Apparently it needs to come out from the front of the transmission.
 






OMG... why cant ford make something easy? That is teh adapter for a 31 spline shaft to BW1350 (as it is listed on advance adapters web site right)
 






Yeah.. the 50-8404. I'd use the 50-8405 if I was to do it again. :D
 






section525 said:
Yeah.. the 50-8404. I'd use the 50-8405 if I was to do it again. :D
the 50-8405 is the 5" right? just makin sure.

anyone know for sure what years the wiring harness exists for the electronic t-case the first of these was done with a '98 i believe? I definately want to do this and was looking into getting a '00 5.0 limited.
 






Yup. That's the 5"

I think my '96 even had the wiring harness already there. If you follow stadx2's writeup.. it should be right on for your '00.
 






Ok cool...I'll try and check if the harness is there before I buy it. I checked stadx2's writeup to see where the harness is that I would need but the pics are down. This is just the harness that is located behind the radio bezel on the passenger side? Would it be connected to anything since there probably is no TOD back there? If you got pics of your harness in your truck (since you used a manual shifter) so I know what to look for that would be AWESOME!

Also can you tell if the harness is there by looking under the X near the t-case?
 






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