Let’s face it, with a mortgage, a minivan payment and all the other bills that come with middle-class life, a lot of us simply can’t afford today’s $70,000 trucks. At the same time we desperately need a reliable vehicle to tote our precious cargo to the jobsite, the track, the lake or the trail head. Faced with this predicament, thousands of truck owners turn to the aftermarket to transform their aging workhorses into formidable tow rigs—and we’re no different here at Diesel World. This month, we’re embarking on a journey with a 200,000-mile ’97 F-350. The mission? Make the old body style, crew cab, longbed Ford capable of towing 12,000 pounds with ease, and ensure that it can do it safely and reliably.
During the course of the project we’ll throw the equivalent of $5,000 in parts at the old workhorse in order to bring it up to modern towing standards. In the long run—and even with the purchase price of the truck included—we’ll end up approximately $40,000 ahead of someone who opts for a comparable ’18 F-350 Crew Cab 4x4 XLT. Throughout the build, an air spring system, Class V hitch, heavy-duty transmission cooler, 5-inch exhaust and electric fuel supply system will be added. However, before we get too carried away with those add-ons, we’re kicking things off by replacing the truck’s factory suspension. After 21 years in the Midwest there was more than just a little surface rust on the leaf springs, hangers and shackles, and every bushing had seen better days. After a quick call to SD Truck Springs we had brand-new replacement parts waiting on our doorstep by the end of the week, and we spent that Saturday getting everything installed at Flynn’s Shop in Alexander, Illinois.
WHILE YOU’LL NEVER GET A 7.3L POWER STROKE TO ENJOY MOVING THE KIND OF WEIGHT A MODERN DAY 6.7L POWER STROKE CAN, WE BELIEVE THE 7.3L IS STILL A VIABLE CANDIDATE TO HOOK TO A TRAILER.
While you’ll never get a 7.3L Power Stroke (or a pre-super Duty truck) to enjoy moving the kind of weight a modern day 6.7L Power Stroke can, we believe the 7.3L is still a viable candidate to hook to a trailer, especially a modified 7.3L like ours. It’s been treated to a set of larger injectors, a bigger turbo, an intercooler, a built E4OD and custom tuning, and the tow-ready mods we plan to perform in the months ahead will only make it better. After the truck was positioned aboard a two-post lift at Flynn’s Shop, it was hoisted skyward and its wheels and tires were removed. Then Flynn’s lead technician, Jake Bosie, positioned a 2-ton jack under the rear axle and stuck an impact on the nuts holding the rear U-bolts in place. If the rear axle mounts shown here look odd to you it’s because they’re part of a set of One Up Offroad traction bars. The U-bolts aren’t the factory 5/8-inch diameter units, either, but rather ¾-inch U-bolts from an ’11+ Super Duty application.
With the rear shocks unbolted from their lower mounts on the axle, the axle was lowered and the factory 4-inch blocks were pulled. Then Bosie turned his impact loose on the front and rear spring bolts. The bolts in the rear shackles (which had been replaced in the past) were relatively easy to remove, but the front ones, corroded in place within their respective bushings, put up a bit of a fight.
The rear anti-sway bar was loosened at the frame to get the rear axle to droop as much as possible. While Bosie could’ve opted to try to break the U-bolts loose that wrap around the axle, he knew it would be much easier to replace a bolt rather than a U-bolt (for which we didn’t have spares).
Once the front and rear end of each leaf spring pack was free from its hanger, Bosie lowered them onto the rear axle and then tossed them in the scrap pile. The next item of business was deciding how to get the riveted hangers off the frame: air chisel, die grinder with a cut-off wheel, or torch.
Breaking the front of rear hangers free from the frame required a considerable amount of work with a dead-blow hammer. Then, with the hangers out of the way, the remnants of the rivets were knocked out of the frame via punch and hammer.
Using a paddle wheel, Bosie cleaned up the mounting surfaces along the frame. After that, compressed air was used to remove any leftover debris and we hit each bare spot with two coats of Rustoleum rust reformer, a product that stops rust in its tracks, dries black and doesn’t require a topcoat.
Sourced through SD Truck Springs, our OEM replacement front and rear leaf packs were manufactured by Dayton Parts, the parent company of Stanley Springs, which has been in business since 1922. Aside from the front of rear hangers (which were Automann USA components), the hangers and shackles were produced by Dayton as well. The front leaf spring hangers would be the only factory components we didn’t replace, but unlike the rear hangers they appeared to be 100% structurally sound.
After less than five minutes using the die grinder/cut-off wheel combo, Bosie switched to the torch. Removing the rivets that hold the front of rear spring hangers to the frame proved to be the most timeconsuming task of the entire job. In hindsight, we were lucky the rear spring bolts weren’t seized inside their respective bushings when we removed them. Our luck would run out up front, however, as each spring hanger bolt would have to be cut.