1994 Cummins Flatbed 2wd to 4wd Swap

fnoff · Dec 29, 2025

Long story short I stumbled across this second gen on marketplace in Wyoming as a roller that had previously been started as a 4wd swap. Randomly decided to ship it to Ohio last year and decided to finally start working on it. The plan is clean up all the previous 4wd hack job ****, drop a 12 valve I have in it, nv4500 and flatbed/ paint. Easier said than done but going to try to keep the thread updated so I can look back on it. Here’s a picture of when it arrived in Ohio.

fnoff · Dec 29, 2025

Really the only thing I trust that the previous guy did was the coil bucket placement. I cut everything else off and just decided to start working on it. Been off work so decided to tack up a cross member and track bar mount while I wait for my WFO long arm kit to come in. Today I just did some random body work because I had time.

McBastard79 · Dec 30, 2025

Following

fnoff · Dec 30, 2025

Nothing crazy today just did some more body work. Sheet metal is actually spotless just some poor previous dent repair.

McBastard79 · Dec 30, 2025

Cool projects in the background?

TRINDU · Jan 2, 2026

Thats a lot of work, to put **** axles in.

Shouldve done Super Duty axles when you had the chance. Now your best option is Ford BJ60 knuckles out. 00-02 axle wouldve gained you 3rd+ gen brakes all around.

fnoff · Jan 2, 2026

TRINDU said:
Thats a lot of work, to put **** axles in.

Shouldve done Super Duty axles when you had the chance. Now your best option is Ford BJ60 knuckles out. 00-02 axle wouldve gained you 3rd+ gen brakes all around.

Definitely not going to argue that a Superduty set would be superior but I already had these axles and for a truck that’s mainly going to be on pavement didn’t see the need to go that crazy on it. These 2nd gen 60s have been around a while I’m sure it will be fine. That being said I’ll be running 98.5 HD steering, eliminating the CAD and running TTB Dana 50 outer spindles for manual lockouts as I already have all that **** laying around. Trying not to let this project snowball out of control. Gotta draw the line somewhere lol

fnoff · Jan 2, 2026

Cut the factory brackets off and mocked up the long arm kit. Everything is just tacked in. Finished the majority of the body work while I was waiting around too. Hopefully before I go back to work on Monday I can get the axle pulled and weld all this **** up/ get the axle on stands.

Lister9 · Jan 3, 2026

fnoff said:
Trying not to let this project snowball out of control. Gotta draw the line somewhere lol

The inability to do this right here is the reason so many projects die as half finished yard art- guys swing for the fence and strike out. Take the path of least resistance to a runner then upgrade what you actually need.

fnoff · Jan 3, 2026

Made some more progress today. Yanked the front axle and welded up the crossmember/ long arm mounts. Re welded the coil buckets the best I could but kept fighting whatever he welded it with. Over head welds on the crossmember weren’t my best but good enough for a 30 year old dodge. Tomorrow is my last free day so might try to weld the links up and disassemble the ttb axle for the hub swap. We’ll see.

fnoff · Jan 4, 2026

Tig welded the link ends and stripped the hubs and spindles off the ttb Dana 50. Waiting on some parts but will probably re drill the spindles at some point this week. Little rusty on the tig welding lol. Back to work tomorrow :homer:

Alexis700 · Jan 11, 2026

Very clean fab work , nothing wrong with that dana 60 with the ford locking hubs on there. :beer:

fnoff · Jan 18, 2026

Weather has been **** around here so not much going on but that gives me some shop time so I can’t complain. If anyone gives a **** I’m going to post a bunch of pictures below on using TTB Dana 50 parts to get manual hubs on a dodge dana 60. I believe this only works for 94-97 axles but I could be wrong. I had most of this **** laying around which is why I went this route.

Parts list:
Ford TTB Dana 50
-Outer spindles
-Hubs

Dodge Dana 60
-Factory calipers/ pads
-Factory knuckles
-Both inner axle shafts

The outer stub shafts are out of late 80s ford Dana 60s with the snap ring groove. The rotors are 79-94 F350s. Axle u joints are 1480s (stock dodge). The ford ttb spindles are drilled for a 5 bolt pattern so I welded the holes and slow cooled them in sand. After that I redrilled them to fit the dodge 4 bolt pattern. Spindles press fit in the dodge knuckles no problem. Pretty straight forward swap. This info is already out there but I’m just passing it along. Pretty low budget to get manual lockouts on a factory 2nd gen 60. Pretty much all Dana 60 seals and wheel bearings work with ttb outer parts since they’re the same as a 60. TTB stub shafts will not work since they take a weird u joints. As far as the CAD system goes I just bought a kit online that locks the slider in the fixed position. I think it was like $80. Some guys just slide the snap ring in the factory system I believe. ALSO, when re assembling, the axle shaft endplay seemed a bit excessive almost to the point of where the spindle seal would not be seated if it moved around. To solve that I took the factory ttb lock out hubs and cut about a 3/16” spacer off the splined part of the hub and put it in between the snap ring and lockout. This still gives me endplay but not enough to let the stub shafts slide out of the seal if that makes sense. Some guys don’t weld the holes on the spindles and just redrill them for the 4 bolt pattern but I was already in there, and I wanted an excuse to use my new to me Bridgeport :flipoff2:

. Threw new ball joints and everything else while I was in there too obviously. That pretty much wraps up the front axle.

fnoff · Jan 18, 2026

With the axle done I moved onto moving the steering box to the 4wd location. 2nd gen frame rails from 2wd to 4wd are the same so it wasn’t too bad. The 4wd holes are located behind the 2wd holes but on a 2wd frame the holes are not drilled through the inside of the frame…. That being said the previous owner drilled the holes crooked as **** so it kind of left me no choice but to get carried away since I really couldn’t salvage his holes. Kind of hard to explain so I’ll let the pics do the talking. Now that the steering box is done and moved I can move onto welding a few more small things on the front of the frame, prepping it for paint, painting it, installing everything to get the truck back to a roller and getting the cab ready to spray before I yank the motor out of my first gen and freshen that up. We’ll see how motivated I am to keep rolling. My tig welding is definitely a little rusty. I used to be a lot better when I did it all the time but practice makes perfect so whatever.

fnoff · Jan 22, 2026

Probably unnecessary but it’s all torn apart so I added some strength to the coil buckets. Getting ready to prep the frame and cab for paint and get the truck back to a roller. Driver side looks worse- kept hitting my head on the ****ing brake booster :flipoff2:

GLTHFJ60 · Jan 22, 2026

I really like that. It'll keep the area behind the buckets clean too.

fnoff · Jan 27, 2026

Got some stuff done in between plowing and working. Cleaned the underside of the body and got everything stripped off the firewall. Might be the cleanest second gen I’ve ever seen honestly.

Next up I got the front of the frame painted and started assembling the front end. Went to put in my new 2” over stock coils and the truck was 20’ in the air. That’s when I realized when the guy welded the coil buckets on he dropped them about 2” which added to the new coils and totaled like 5” of lift lol. Even with the weight of the drivetrain it would’ve been way too tall. Whatever. Just put the stock coils back in which should be the same as about a 2” lift now.

Lastly, I went back and forth on which way I should’ve welded the long arm brackets on. Obviously I didn’t like the way I chose so instead of cutting them off I just bent up a piece the same dimensions as the bracket, welded them on and trimmed them up to be more aesthetically pleasing. Could’ve just left them but it would have bothered me.

Onto the next task which will probably be painting the cab. Going to suck

fnoff · Feb 16, 2026

Somehow lost track of the plan and started going backwards… pulled the cab off the frame. Just made more sense to me for ease of everything I need to do. Prepping the frame for paint then gonna get the drivetrain ready. I have to pull it out of another truck I have that is beyond saving rust wise. Drivetrain will be a p pump 12 valve, nv4500 and a disc brake Dana 80. More pics once I make a some more progress.

Alexis700 · Mar 4, 2026

Well that escalated. Are you going to do any work to the frame where the c channels overlap at the spring hanger?

They always rust jack bad around here, and then break in half. I plan to pull the hangers, cut out the outer c channel metal , weld in new plate , and weld the seam up. Have some serious rust jacking going on right behind the spring hanger, and the outer c channel in that area is in bad shape on my truck.

fnoff · Mar 4, 2026

Alexis700 said:
Well that escalated. Are you going to do any work to the frame where the c channels overlap at the spring hanger?

They always rust jack bad around here, and then break in half. I plan to pull the hangers, cut out the outer c channel metal , weld in new plate , and weld the seam up. Have some serious rust jacking going on right behind the spring hanger, and the outer c channel in that area is in bad shape on my truck.

Lol. I don’t plan on doing anything there only because I probably won’t drive this in the salt unless I have to. That section of frame was the main reason I did all this bull**** upfront instead of just finding a 4wd frame. In Ohio it’s the same way. They’re all so rotted right there but being from the west coast this frame was literally spotless. If I had to do anything though I would do it just like you said and possibly box the inside section of the frame or plate the outside of that seam section. I guess it would depend on the situation

Alexis700 · Mar 4, 2026

I figured you might just weld up the seams , I always thought the way they made them like that was subpar.

I am going to cut out the flat area right behind the spring hanger , weld in some new 3/16" plate and weld up the seams. Will be stronger than it was originally.

Honestly the frame I have is really nice , all the boxed in areas are mint and the rear is nice other than the overlapped spots. I have had them where the front sway bar fell off because that area rotted right out, and they tend to get real bad under the cab in that boxed area.

fnoff · Mar 4, 2026

Alexis700 said:
I figured you might just weld up the seams , I always thought the way they made them like that was subpar.

I am going to cut out the flat area right behind the spring hanger , weld in some new 3/16" plate and weld up the seams. Will be stronger than it was originally.

Honestly the frame I have is really nice , all the boxed in areas are mint and the rear is nice other than the overlapped spots. I have had them where the front sway bar fell off because that area rotted right out, and they tend to get real bad under the cab in that boxed area.

Yeah the design is honestly pretty ****ty. I guess I could have welded the seams.... my luck I would weld it and it would just trap more moisture :laughing:

akguy09 · Mar 13, 2026

Doing a shackle flip on the back or just running as is?

fnoff · Apr 12, 2026

akguy09 said:
Doing a shackle flip on the back or just running as is?

Running as is. I really considered it but decided for what I’m doing with this truck it wasn’t totally necessary

fnoff · Apr 12, 2026

Haven’t been making any crazy strides but have been making some progress none the less.

Drove my 91 in the shop and pulled the Dana 80, p pump 12 valve and nv4500. It looks a lot better in pictures than what it is.

My buddy came over today and helped me start looking into the engine more. I had it built about 8 years ago. Decently mild build, o ringed the head, street cam, studs, valve springs, some pump work. Really nothing crazy. Ran an old school set of compounds on it. It honestly ran really good but it was hazing pretty bad so I had figured I lost a turbo seal but after further inspection it looks like I lost the headgasket in between cylinder 1/2. With that being the case we tore the motor down a lot farther than I wanted to. Anyways will be sending the head, pump and injectors out to get gone through so I can start re assembly. Will probably ditch the compounds in this truck for a smaller single and new arp studs.

Normally don’t like ordering wheels before the trucks built either but with all the Alibaba hype lately I decided to give it a shot. 18x9 simulated forged bead lock wheels. Got 5 wheels with 3 billet center caps. Custom engraved and made out of 6061 aluminum. Total price: $1700. Quality is honestly better than any other wheel I’ve bought. Would be happy to pass along info if anyone wants it.

Lastly, another buddy randomly called me and asked if I wanted a nv5600 he has had laying around … $200. Probably just a core at this point but couldn’t pass it up. Plan is to find a clean d250 club cab truck on my honey moon on the west coast this fall and convert it to 4wd using the rest of my first gen parts. Trans was really the last thing I needed so pretty excited about that. Oh, also picked up an auto 241 I’ll be splitting apart and converting to manual 29 spline for the 2nd gen/ nv4500. Ignore my $50 vice score….nv5600 for scale :flipoff2:

wvracer821 · Apr 12, 2026

I literally cannot comprehend how that thing is so clean.

wvracer821 · Apr 12, 2026

Also, I'd like to know more about the process of getting the wheels. I've got a 95 GMC that is due for tires and is currently rocking old rusty steel wheels.

fnoff · Apr 12, 2026

wvracer821 said:
Also, I'd like to know more about the process of getting the wheels. I've got a 95 GMC that is due for tires and is currently rocking old rusty steel wheels.

It really is just as simple as downloading the Alibaba app and finding a reputable manufacturer… that’s the tricky part. Kind of a crap shoot if you’ve never done it. Lucky for you I did the risky part already lol. As long as you know the wheel parameters it’s pretty straight forward. Go through the design, pay half, get them made, pay the other half and wait. I used PayPal incase anything happened. They do take a long time to get though. Started the process early February and they got delivered to my door yesterday. So if time doesn’t matter I would go for it. Here is the supplier and rep I used. Very very straight forward. Honestly couldn’t say more positive things about my experience. Check his page out.

PAToyota · Apr 15, 2026

fnoff said:
They do take a long time to get though. Started the process early February and they got delivered to my door yesterday. So if time doesn’t matter I would go for it.

Honestly, two and a half months to get something custom made and shipped from the other side of the planet seems pretty reasonable to me.

fnoff · Sunday at 6:15 PM

Been busy focusing on my yard since I’m having my wedding at my house next week lol. Nevertheless, still managing to get some **** knocked off the list.

Doing a disc brake conversion on my Dana 80 (again). Using all 99-06 Gm 2500hd parts this time. Just waiting on the brackets to come in for the axle tubes so I can weld them on.

Also got all my engine parts back from the machine shop. Had my head cleaned and gone through along with a rebuild on the injection pump…. That was a cheap bill

Lastly, had some time to kill today and got sick of looking at this big ass fuel tank on my shop floor so I ran the rear brake line behind the tank, installed it and drilled the sump. Installed and rebuilt the rear springs a while ago too. Decided against a shackle flip just because I didn’t think it was necessary for what I wanna do with this truck.

After my wedding and some of these welding jobs I have going on I hope to get the engine put back together and painted so I can get the chassis done and move onto to painting the body.

1994 Cummins Flatbed 2wd to 4wd Swap

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