BACK IN THE DAY
The Ford Package: 1983-1986—The Bullnose Era
Ford had debuted a new line of trucks in 1980 and the diesel entered the game right in the middle of that ’80-86 generation. Today, this era of Ford trucks is often called the “Bullnose” for its broad snout. It came in a Standard (base) trim, XL and the fullboat XLT. Body styles ranged from regular-cab longbed, Supercab longbed and, in some years, a crew-cab longbed. “Lariat” was added to the XLT designation in ’85.
In this era you had the choice of two transmissions, the Warner T-19 four-speed or the legendary C-6 automatic three-speed. If you ordered four-wheel drive, it came with a Borgwarner 1345 transfer case. Axles varied by year. To mid-’85 the rear axle was a Dana 61 or 70 axle. In mid-year ’85 the 10.25-inch ring gear Ford Sterling debuted in semi or full-float versions (full-float only on the diesels). F-350 DRWS most often had Dana 70 HD axles but there are DRW Sterling axles out there too. Up front, the Twin I-beam non-driving axles carried the load for 4x2s. The F-250HD 4x4 had a twin traction beam (TTB) Dana 44 as standard with a Dana 50 TTB optional. The F-350 came standard with the stronger Dana 50 TTB. In ’85 the Dana 60 solid front axle was introduced and most F-350s had it. Only two axle ratios were offered for the diesels, 3.55 and 4.10:1. This was to remain the practice all the way through the IDI era.