F-SuperDutys were made from 1987 or 1988 to 1997. the 97 was a hold over year for the F350 and F_SuperDuty trucks, the F150 and F250 light duty were redesigned for that year. and to muddy the waters even more, there was also a F250 "heavy duty"
that is why we usually tell people with full size 97 F250 and F350 trucks to ask for 96 parts to make sure they get the right parts, as parts store computers will give parts for the 250 light duty instead.

 

The prior years ignition switches were a metal and plastic sandwich
They get loose and can start fire
Google 1991 Ford F150 ignition switch to see a picture of that style
The newer style than yours is round

 

Yup, i must have replaced over 100 of the old two part switches on the 87 to 91 trucks.
some multiple times per truck.
I think NAPA got their switches from the same manufacturer as Ford, because they both were junk.

 

I did find this link, helpful in explaining it.

https://www.autosafety.org/ford-ignition-switch-fires/

I don't know if it's good or not, but it seems my '97 F-SuperDuty has the new and improved switch!

Alan - knows he f#@$'d up the column...

 

This piece totally makes sense to me, Tom. Here's why. I have to set my truck to be an F-350 or an F-450, but even though some parts stores include the F-450, there wasn't one in '97, AFAIK.

Often the F-350 parts will work, but depends. I have quite a number of differences between an F-350 and an F-SuperDuty. For starters the wheelbase is 156", it's loooonnnnnnngggggg...

Seems to me the production in Mexico must have just continued for an extra year. Interesting piece of trivia...the dually pickup bed
for the '92-'96 F-350 Dually looks like it would fit on the back of my truck, as the 2 fuel tanks are on the correct side, but the bed would
need to be extended. I've pondered making it into a stretch pickup, but it seems like a waste of time as my flatbed weighs, 7550 lbs.
empty. I'm hoping that this will be a reliable truck for me to move my machines up to my new shop.

 

350 bed may work or not. Like the F SuperDuty, the F350 cab chassis dually trucks could be ordered for short 8 foot long body, or a looooong 12 foot+ body frame length

 

Ok, don't laugh at me, but this is how I thought about going about it.

You're correct, and I measured my frame and could cut about 2' off the frame rails.

That still leaves me about 2' short with the F-350 dually bed. I would center that over the rear wheels.
The F-350 dually bed is kinda kewl in that it has 2 fuel doors, one on the front of the dually fender and
one on the rear of the dually fender. I currently have those in the side of my flatbed.

So I figure I need the front to be behind the cab in order to look correct. The F-350 front should match
perfectly to my standard cab, AFAIK. So, with that in mind I would cut about 1' behind the front of the bed
and add in about 2' between the front and rear.

Although it would be *slightly* more maneuverable, I don't see a huge gain over the flatbed, and the flatbed
has the rack on top which allows me to strap things down to.

The other thing I thought about doing was to remove the tool boxes mounted on the bed so that I could haul
logs to cut on my sawmill, but I would be better suited with a trailer. My pintle receiver on the rear has been
beefed up and has a 7-pin RV adapter for the wiring. One of my 7 wires is set up to charge a battery on the
trailer. I have never used it, and have always charged the battery on the trailer separately.

Like many of my machines, I bought the truck cheap, but had to do some work over the years as it had a blown
exhaust gasket since I bought it about 15 years ago. In 15 years I have only driven this truck about 3k-4k miles.
And I have fixed the gasket and warped exhaust heads last year...(common Ford issue on the 7.5L).

In the end I decided that I should leave it as-is and sell it after I move my stuff and get a 4WD pickup, which
would make more sense for my property. A smaller pickup with a trailer for occasional use would be more idea..
And this is a massive amount of re-wiring, re-routing, re-mounting lights, et al...for what?

With that said, I continue this love/hate relationship with this truck...

Alan

 

a pickup bed will work with modifications. the frame on your truck is 33 inches wide, the frame on a pickup is 36 inches. so to put the pickup bed on your truck you would need to either fabricate new mounts, or drill different mount holes in the bed.
since my truck was set up for an 8 foot bed, i simply fabricated new perches for the pickup bed to bolt to and all body lines were perfect.
i also converted to 4 wheel drive cause i had availability to all the parts from a burned up 86 F350 with only 5000 miles on it. so in essence i now have a 88 F350 diesel 4X4, but it left the factory as a F-SuperDuty diesel short frame.
and i hear you on the love hate relationship. in the first 4 years i owned it i put $11,000 into it on top of the $19,000 cost.
but it has made me over $200,000 between snow plowing, and as an escort vehicle when i ran the heavy equipment escort service.
it currently sits with a little over 496,000 miles on it and the engine has never been opened up.
i am halfway through a restoration on it, waiting for weather to get a little warmer to pull the cab, re gasket the engine, and than drop the new cab on it.

 

Tom,

Here's the thing...I would rather have a smaller 4WD pickup, to use for the same purpose, towing/hauling equipment and machines to my shop.

I like the 7.3L Powerstrokes, so would probably look for a similar year F-250 HD 4WD with a diesel.

I currently have about $5k-$6k into mine. I have hauled 6,000-6,500 lbs on the flatbed. It has the big 11,000 lb. axle.

And it has a GVWR of 15,500...so there's a glaring difference in new trucks which have GVWR ratings over 20,000 lbs. Brakes have gotten better,
hauling has, suspensions, etc...you know the story well I'm sure.

Not sure how much I could get, but if I could get $7500 for it, I'd think about doing it. Otherwise, I just put gas in it when I haul. It hurts when you
get 8 mpg...It's made a couple dozen trips for me so far to fetch machines from aucitons, craigslist, Ebay, etc...but it works best when seller has
a forklift. I have turned deals down where the seller didn't.

If I could find a nice IDL, I'd go for the non-turbo. Those older '91 4WDs were pretty cool. But the 7.3L Powerstoke seems to have a better rep.

What do you think about best in class Ford F-Series? I would put a cap at about $10k. My other options would be Toyota 2.7L 4WD 2005-2016,
or try to drop a TB4 Cummins into a GM. They had an adapter in the step vans to adapt the TB4 to a GM trans. Personally I like the Perkins over
the Cummins and John Deer. I have all 3 in lifts. When Trump was in office I didn't think twice about taking the flatbed on a 3 hour fetch, one way.
But now that it's $6.50/gal out west, I can't do that off the cuff...My daily driver is a 1st gen Toyota Tacoma 2.4L 2WD, it can only carry about 1,000
lbs., so it's limited. I think a 10,000 lb. trailer would be more than adequate once I get my equipment moved. My Tacoma is a tin can, but it's
reliable...it does the 3 hour drive to my new shop often in the past 5 years...

 

I just saw this nested in there, but is that 88 a typo? I suspect you mean a 98 as an F-SuperDuty didn't exist in 88 AFAIK.

A pickup would get up my driveway easier, though. This is the new encroachment and driveway up to the shop. The shop is up to the left. I think
an F-250 HD 4WD could pull a 10,000 lb. trailer up there no problem. What do you think? I can get the flatbed up there with about 3500 lbs.




The shop. You can kinda see the home foundation, it's tarped awaiting the log home. The idea here is to drive the flatbed into the shop with machines on it,
or set them inside with my forklift. I have a 4,000 lb. gantry that will span across the flatbed inside the shop. It's 40' long and there's a 2nd similar door
so that I can drive the flatbed and/or trailer down and around the home basement, back up and out the driveway it came in on. I think the flatbed could do
it empty on it's own. Not sure about a trailer. I do think the F250 HD 4WD w/7.3L Powerstroke could do it with a 10,000 lb. trailer. The lakeside (rear) is steep
also.

 

no, it was not a typo, the F-SuperDuty was 87 to 97.
98 was a strange year for ford trucks.
you could get a F-150 and F-250, but they were the light duty trucks only. technically there were no F-350 and F-SuperDutys.
but there ARE a few around that were not sold in 97, and were tagged as 98's.
in 99 ford came out with the Super Duty line of trucks with the 250, 350, 450, and 550's

 

So if your's an IDL ??? I thought it wasn't until the '92 model that they put the 7.3L Powerstroke in it. Maybe I'm wrong.

Yes, and that was the end of the F-SuperDuty.

I'm going to try and get the column out today.

 

my truck has a 7.3 IDI with a bank s turbo on since it was almost new.
power wise it is about even with an early powerstroke .
fue mileage is not much better than your 460. when new and diesel was up over 60 cetane, i was getting 19-21 mpg on long trips.
now that diesel is only around 40 cetane i am down around 11-13 mpg.

 

That has been a concern of mine over the years as I ponder getting something else. The Tacoma I mentioned above is a 4cyl, so it
doesn't really have the towing capability that I would like. My current 2WD Tacoma gets 25mpg with 15" wheels (upgraded from 14"
that was installed OEM). However, I have a concern with gas, and don't have any EVs, just older vintage stuff. I feel diesel is going
to have to be around for a lot longer than gas.

I'm about 400 miles round trip to my new shop. I'm $325 in my flatbed and would be $240 at 11 mpg, and $275 to buy diesel.
NOTE: we pay about $7.50/gal

I did consider a Ram with a Cummins, but those guys are sure proud of the ones that are not rotting off their frames. Although everyone
who tows loves them, I would rather take my chances with an IDL/Powerstroke. From what I have read, with the banks on it like you're
truck pretty much makes it equivalent to a Powerstroke, right? There was a '91 short bed with a winch and almost new tires, asking $10k
and it sat for several months...that's what I would like, something fun to drive and capable of pulling a 10k trailer. Are those short beds
capable of pulling 10k? Ok, I need to get down to the yard and start tearing out that column...

Alan - seems I can never make sense out of replacing the flatbed...that 7.5L 460 is a beast...

 

yea, a properly tuned pre 94 diesel with turbo is about equal in power to a powerstroke.
mine has a little over 496,000 miles on it and has never been opened up . only routine maintenance.
i would not hesitate to drive it cross sountry anb back, if the cab was not falling off it.
i have a new cab and engine gaskets for it once it warms up a bit. back of frame and bed are already done, just needs under can forward of frame treated and repainted, new cab, and new gaskets on engine..