Hello again, so here are my plans for this van/RV build if you happened to catch/not my greetings post here’s a quick rundown. I recently inherited a 1976 dodge b300 Van with a 440 and an RV HAB on what would be the flat bed. The van is running and everything is in working order, a little back story off-roading is my hobby in short, I would like my RV to be able to kind of go where my Tacoma does so that I can set a nice base camp while I wheel around kind of overlanding with a base camp. I read those years back there was a company called Pathfinder that converted these old B300 vans from 2x4 to 4x4 there was another company Quigley that also did the same thing. As pathfinder has gone out of business, I actually reached out to Quigley to see if they still sold old 4x4 conversion kits/parts or if they could give me a build out list and I could gather the parts on my own. Quigley shot me down in a pretty rude fashion so now I am looking around for a van guru who might be able to help me convert this van/Rv from a 2x4 to 4x4. I can do the fabrication work and welding I just need to know what front axle to buy or pull from a donor vehicle. I do intend to lift the rig 3-4 inches so that I can clear 33 AT’s so here is the base line questions.
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What front axel and suspensions can I pull from, knowing the Van has a short front end resorting to leaf springs present a challenge so sticking with coil overs would be the intended route especially considering the Van already has coils.
1A) I have heard pathfinder used a Dana44 I will use that if I can find one if not ill probably go with a Dana 60, however are there van/truck axel specific? -
considering the van is 2x4 I will need a transfer case noting the rig has a 440 from what i have read i have a 727 4 speed auto trans, what transfercase would I need.
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with this conversion I am assuming I will need to have a custom front drive shaft made unless there is a donor vehicle I can pull from.
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Considering this conversion is from IFS to a solid axel I assume I will also need the steering linkages that come with the donor vehicles axel.
That is about all I can think of for now outside of the lift kit and repower that I have planned for the future. I know the conversion will cost but considering as how the van was free building on this rig is pretty much my investment. Thank you all for reading sorry for the long post any and all information or guidance is much appreciated.