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ford question?

brian wafer

brian wafer

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a friend bought a 1995 f150 has lift blocks in rear not quit sure how high they are.in the front there is a 2inch shim under coil spring,which probably almost doubles in hieght because off the way the suspension is made. one coil spring was broke so he order new ones, heavy duty ones for his engine size.we install the new coils springs now truck looks almost level like he wants it. the problem is he can,t get his aligment right. top ball joints are max out.anybody ever play with the twin i beam suspension ,who knows a cheap and reliable way off correcting his problem,or maybe links too ford forums where we could see what others are doing. thanks ! brian
 
you need drop brackets for the front arms. thay drop the piviont point for the arms to keep them close to stock angles.

and if it was me i would swap in a 78-79 dana 44 front solid axle and radius arm close to bolt in .

link to some brackets i never seen or used them but you decide if you want them.

http://www.jackit.com/ford/axle_pivot_brckts.htm

if going this far i would recomend a full lift kit so you know its all 100% correct.
 
you can buy the adjustable top ball joint pivot do hickey that should make it better.
 
thanks for the quick answer i going too email jackit too know which brackets would work best,and let my friend decide what he wants.did you ever do buesness with that company.
 
i guess the aligment shop said it was max out, the ball joint. and they still need alot more.probably the jackit bracket would be cheapest.unless there some kind off speacial adapter?
 
I used to have a 90 Bronco and looked at the straight axle conversion. To really do it right it is not cheap at all. I had a 6" lift kit from Rancho on mine that came with everything, kept the existing twin I-beam suspension, and alignment was no problem, just expensive to do a lot. The drop brackets for the front arms are not too bad and can help but for the money, I'd go with those pivot brackets. As a side note, a front straight axle is the ultimate for durability but I do have to say that for off-road comfort, the I-beam really eats up the bumps and provides for a much more comfy ride. I would blast down dirt roads at high speeds while my buddy would crawl along in his K10 with his teeth rattling and his back screaming. Now with my Blazer we both drive like old ladies to preserve our tender backsides.
 
brian wafer said:
i guess the aligment shop said it was max out, the ball joint. and they still need alot more.probably the jackit bracket would be cheapest.unless there some kind off speacial adapter?
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The only company that had the cam that would adjust far enough out for my pickup was SuperLift. So you might have to get one from them. Its damned hard to keep the TTB in good alignment. Also, because of the suspension setup, 2" of coil spacer only gets you about 1 1/4" of lift. Are you sure that spacer isn't the factory one? Post up a pic?

I recently lifted mine. Got the alignment within the past few months.
 
Ditto on keeping the TTB aligned. I damn near had to align my Bronco after every single good wheeling trip. You pay for that comfort. I could have sworn though that my Rancho kit had a pretty good cam in it for the camber adjustment.
 
Desert Rat said:
Ditto on keeping the TTB aligned. I damn near had to align my Bronco after every single good wheeling trip. You pay for that comfort. I could have sworn though that my Rancho kit had a pretty good cam in it for the camber adjustment.
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Rancho does make a decent one. But SuperLift has the most extreme degree cam. Somethin' like 3.5 degrees, or somethin' like that.
 
the spacer is the only way i can see they lifted the front end,there are rear blocks that are at least 2 too 3 inch,didn,t really check the rear notice the blocks that all. the old coil spring that wasn,t broke was at least 1 too 1 1/2 inch shorter,thought it was sage probably the original coils springs ,he just bought the truck and the guy that sold it had bought it that way. it was low in the front end before we put the new coil spring,now it looks good and level he has 33 inch tires, now too show you guys a picture is going to be something else, got a camra but no clue how too do it!girl friend always said she would show me but !!!
 
brian wafer said:
the spacer is the only way i can see they lifted the front end,there are rear blocks that are at least 2 too 3 inch,didn,t really check the rear notice the blocks that all. the old coil spring that wasn,t broke was at least 1 too 1 1/2 inch shorter,thought it was sage probably the original coils springs ,he just bought the truck and the guy that sold it had bought it that way. it was low in the front end before we put the new coil spring,now it looks good and level he has 33 inch tires, now too show you guys a picture is going to be something else, got a camra but no clue how too do it!girl friend always said she would show me but !!!
Click to expand...


If the alignment place can't get it aligned, try taking the coil spacer out. Tell the girlfriend to show you how to take pics, and upload them, so we can check it out, and tell you exactly what's goin' on.
 
brian wafer said:
the spacer is the only way i can see they lifted the front end,there are rear blocks that are at least 2 too 3 inch,didn,t really check the rear notice the blocks that all. the old coil spring that wasn,t broke was at least 1 too 1 1/2 inch shorter,thought it was sage probably the original coils springs ,he just bought the truck and the guy that sold it had bought it that way. it was low in the front end before we put the new coil spring,now it looks good and level he has 33 inch tires, now too show you guys a picture is going to be something else, got a camra but no clue how too do it!girl friend always said she would show me but !!!
Click to expand...

One thing to keep in mind is that lots of the pickups come high in the back for a reason. Once you load them up, you are now ass low if they start level. I have this issue right now with my Blazer. Empty it looks perfect but once I load up for a camping and wheeling trip, I am sitting in a recliner. I had an ORD zero rate in but like an idiot pulled it out and fabbed up a thinner zero rate to level the truck. I am going to be putting the zero rate back in so that when I get all my gear loaded, I am still sitting reasonably level. I think now though due to the fact that so many pickups don't ever see dirt, the big auto makers just sell them level and let the customer figure out how to level it if they actually carry stuff in the back. Seems all the older pickups though are butt high.
 
th_PICT0129.jpg
th_PICT0130.jpg
here is a picture off the shim and his truck hope this works! first time for everything.
 
I think if I had an atomic microscope for my old eyes I could see it better. You might want to link to a free hosting site that has a high res pic.
 
I looked at some other TTB pics and it looked to me like they all had a spacer, but the sizes varied. There has to be at least a small spacer to get the spring up off the arm because the end of the arm rises where the camber bolt goes through. But, many of the other pics had a much smaller spacer under the spring than that one so maybe they put a larger spacer in there. For example:

picture.php
 
its got a 2 1/2 block in rear ,and the front shim is about 2inches. i think i will give jackit a call for there lowering bracket kit,should give more aligment.
 
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