coil springing a D60 front

[6.9poweredscout]

do the coils, take lots of pictures.. quick slacking you bum!

 

[LCAM-01XA]

'05+ super duty front axle assembly is all you need(for the most part ). let me try and find you some info.

Ahem, should have said "for the least part" - there is rear axle (dually too), wheels, and God forbid the unit bearings up front are in less than stellar condition...

I'd get some tubing, heim joints and plate steel, build a 4 link set up. Smooth flexibility and the threaded heim joints make alignment a breeze. I do agree, the 66-79 1/2 ton 4x4 front end is among the best factory engineered design out there. The old I beam radius arms make the newer superduty ones look quite odd and the short stamped steel ones from 80-96 are wimpy. My '74 F100 with a 4" Rancho lift and poly bushings rode great. I do believe that the tv adds boasting independent front ends was ridiculous, solid axles all the way.

Aye, I had a lifted '70s mudslinger as well, and yes she rode great (4" and polys, like yours). Problem is to do that is a ton of work, time or resources for which at this time I simply don't have. I was hoping for a cheap and easy way to avoid the mess in the very front of the frame, but as I suspected such a way does not exist. I need to have the D60 under there ASAP by any (safe) (and cheap) means possible so I can move on to other projects. Extensive fabwork like a 4-link is completely out of the question this season, maybe next summer tho...

do the coils, take lots of pictures.. quick slacking you bum!

Oh I see how you are, you want a quinea pig, don't you - ain't happening this year, the most involved it may get is an RSK, if I even bother with that... And I wish I was slacking, I haven't even had time to pull the steering linkage off that thing yet to see if it's any good (please Lord let it be usable! )

 

[dizdak]

4 link is a good set up.. my mud truck is 4linked and rides real nice even in the mud.. i used 1.5" sch80 for my link bars and 1.25" heim joints...

 

[LCAM-01XA]

The more I'm looking at this mess, the more I'm leaning towards a quick RSK with Sky's shackle hangers for under the cab. Possibly crossover steering, cause I hate drop pitman arms with a passion. Which brings the following 2 questions:

1) factory leafs have the military wrap, it doesn't look like that will clear a shackle in place of the normal hanger - chop the wrap section off with a high-speed wheel?

2) what is the difference between SRW and DRW as far as center link (knuckle to knuckle) goes? Motorcraft shows them to be different (at least in part #), every aftermarket manufacturer lists one part only...

 

[6.9poweredscout]

I couldn't see why the wrap wouldn't fit.....? I couldn't see 4x4 350 center links being different srw to drw.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

My springs do not have the one leaf wrapped tightly around the other, rather there is consistent 1/2" gap between the two all around the eye for the bushing. The radius of the resulting loop of the lower leaf is 2", while the factory shackles can only accommodate a spring eye of 1-7/8" radius. Thus the edge of the wall on the flat side of the shackle hits the lower leaf's wrap loop before the shackle bolt holes line up with the bushing inner sleeve.

As for the center links, I have no idea *** the difference is either, about the only thing I can come up with is if the factory DRW axles have a steering damper that has one end bolt thru an eye in the center link, much like how a Jeep Cherokee has it, as opposed to using a clamp-on bracket... All a guess at this point, as I'm yet to find pics of the actual parts (God I hate this "representative image only" BS).

 

[dgr]

LCAM,
I think you maybe misunderstanding the wristed setup. It puts a pivot just behind the C section of the front of ONE of the radius arms. It basically eliminates the gigantic sway bar made up of the two radius arms and the front axle tube. When you do want that sway bar effect, you just pin it in place. When you want the flex, you pull the pin.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Aye, I was misunderstanding it, but not how you think - I was thinking of attaching the arms to the axle with solid connections, like how it's done on halftons with the arms bolted to the TTB without any bushings at all. That would have been a bad idea with a monobeam front while the wristed arm was pinned... As long as there is some bushing between the arms and the axle it should be fine tho.

 

[rembrant88]

I'm with the heim joint rout as well. The one I did on my bronco was a bracket that that bolted onto the front spring pads the same way as the leaf springs would (I did get stronger bolts made just for good luck). They were plenty strong and could be removed at will. Alignment was a breeze because it went off the the original setup. The radius arms were reinforced DOM tube arms.

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/30-Forged-Ultra-Duty-Ballistic-Joint_p_1626.html

I ran these joints all around and they provide good articulation while keeping things more solid than other joints for on road stability. Higher speeds in the ruts were still more bouncy than what I prefered so I later installed a modified heavy drop away sway bar for running on the highway. I wish I could take some pics but I had to sell the axle to make way for the supercharger mods and I got a good price. I'm now running my spare leaf spring dana 60 until I do something similar again down the road.

There are lots of options and any of them will work with some effort. Buying the late coiled axle may be the easiest way besides having to find a matching rear axle as well. I just don't like the bearings on the front of the superdutys. And then I'd want to go through and make some improvements anyway.

 

[towcat]

http://powerstrokenation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5098

http://powerstrokenation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99269

has the builder driven the truck yet? overall the build is impressive but there's one detail that scares me to death. he's got his front caster pitched entirely the wrong way. any speed and he's got instant deathwobble.
I'm surprised a smart guy like you who works around tires and alignments all day long, didn't pick up on that issue immeadiately.

 

[riotwarrior]

LCAM

look through some of the threads here

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45065

This should help your brain cells out some

http://www.projectbronco.com/Technical_Articles/RCdana_60_conversion.htm

It is doable with a later model 60 however it takes some work.

I had a great build saved ON MY OLD PUTER that crashed...DOH and cannot get it booting again...DOH

Anyway good luck A coiled 60 would be nice IMHO

Al

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Rembrand88, that's sort of what I was thinking as well - combine the upper link mounts and lower coil buckets in one assembly and use U-bolts to clamp it in place of the leafs, then base the lower link mounts off them but obviously much lower, when mocked and tacked pull the things off and reinforce as needed, and when all done have one big assembly that contains both link mounts and the lower coil buckets and shock mounts (and trac arm mount on the passenger side), that on top of that does not alter the axle itself in any way. Run the upper links to the Sky brackets under front cab mounts so they're nice and flat at ride height, run the lower links either to brackets welded on my anti-porpoising beams or to the upper links to form A-frame radius arms, move tracbar from its factory axle mount to the new one so its flat, throw on a high steer arm on the passenger side so draglink is also nice and flat... Use of truck does not really justify the expense for the Ballistic heims, poly bushings should give it plenty flex. If doing heims tho 4-link is mandatory, if bushings are used I can get away with the A-frame radius arms like Freebird has on his Sami...

Definitely doable, and not too hard either, just not right in this moment. Then again, no one is stopping me from building the axle mount assemblies and the links slowly over time, actually this is probably a better way to go about it since then I can measure things off the factory axle position so less chance of screw up... Then when all parts are ready assault the truck and do the swap in a day!

Riotwarrior, thanks for the links, lots of good info there. If anything I now have a clear(er) idea how to go about the coils setup... Or at the very least how NOT to do it

 

[rembrant88]

You are right. And if you use poly bushings it would be more stable and prevent sway like most radius arm setups. You could even utilize some track bars at a salvage yard that can be cut and run inside the DOM tubing radius arm, that would be cheap and very heavy. Even with a short wheelbase my rig was very confident on the road with that axle so I would have no problem doing a similar setup later. I'm sure you will figure out something interesting.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

You could even utilize some track bars at a salvage yard that can be cut and run inside the DOM tubing radius arm, that would be cheap and very heavy.

What are you, a mind reader? That's exactly what my evil plans entail. With the exception that I will likely use square tubing instead of DOM - rectangular cross-sections are just easier for me to work with. Plus the bushed ends will get my signature wrap, it's a cheap and easy insurance against unexpected separations and departures.

 

[rembrant88]

. Maybe. Or great minds just think alike.