#50's radius arms and coil springs installed!

[robroy]

This weekend I installed #50's radius arms and springs. I haven't torqued anything yet (most of the bolts are pretty loose in fact) since I don't want to accidentally get the suspension in a bind before it's fully put together.

Nice new bushings from D.C.



I used white grease because I thought it wouldn't be as hard on the rubber parts, but it probably doesn't really matter.



The finish turned out good on the parts. They were sandblasted, then had Rust Bullet brushed on, then sanded and wiped clean, then had a decorate coat of RustOleum black rattlecan paint. I'm really not proud of the final step there, but because the main air compressor I'd been using broke down, I didn't have enough air pressure to spray the Black Shell product (and I didn't want to brush on the finish coat). Oh well!



It has hard to get this top bolt to line up with the frame. I wound up having to grind some material off the end of the bolt to make it tapered, then hammer it through the hole. Good thing it's a grade eight bolt!



Here's how it looks at the moment:



Where ever I needed to replace the pinch nuts I used Nordlocks in combination with regular, grade eight nuts and bolts.



-Robroy

[td]

looks good robroy, if she's gonna be a driver such as mine is don't worry about it. just drive the wheels of her and enjoy it!!!!

[kaptnkaos]

Yer doin' a great job RobRoy ... keep up the good work and keep them pics comin'...

KaptnKA S

[robroy]

Hey Td and KaptnKA S, thanks for your posts!

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out and I'm learning a lot, thanks to all the great advice I've received here.

I'm just now heading to the hardware store to buy some hooks for the bed of my work truck; I need to tie down #50's new engine so it doesn't come crashing forward if I need to do an emergency stop at 70MPH! A 620 pound engine could give me a real headache if it decided to keep on going at 70MPH instead of stopping like the rest of the truck.

Td, I think you're right about not worrying about the details too much on a driver. Almost everything I'm concerned about will be totally buried under body panels and invisible once the truck's put together. But I still like to "Gold plate" everything as well as I can.

Thanks!
-Robroy

[1971ford]

looks good! where did you get the coil springs from? thanks

[fordman]

are those top spring holders from a dent side? i've never seen any like that on a bump.

[1971ford]

are those top spring holders from a dent side? i've never seen any like that on a bump.

i forgot to mention that too. the bump ones ive seen are rucked in the coil tower deal. ive never seen anything that goes on the side like that

[robroy]

looks good! where did you get the coil springs from? thanks

Hey thanks Ryan! Those are Moog 8646 springs, and I got them from Rockauto.com. They're a near perfect fit! They fit heavy F250's and '350s (high GVW trucks).

are those top spring holders from a dent side? i've never seen any like that on a bump.

Hey Fordman! Nope, as far as I know those are stock. Everything looked extremely original when I disassembled it, like it had never been taken apart before.

i forgot to mention that too. the bump ones ive seen are rucked in the coil tower deal. ive never seen anything that goes on the side like that

I think it could have something to do with the heavy suspension on this truck--it has the same suspension as F350's, since it's an 8,100lb GVW model.

At least I'm certain that the springs are different for lighter F250's (and naturally F100's).

-Robroy

[bumpside]

robroy,

Nice work ! keep the pic's comming. Very

[robroy]

Thanks Bumpside!

[fordman]

ok thats why they looked different to me then. i haven't seen anything above a regualr frontend. the f250 i have had a 3000 pound front end and it looked just like a f100 spring tower.