Front end leans

Suspension, steering, brakes, wheels & tires

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stink bear
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Front end leans

Post by stink bear »

After putting on 2 different sets of coil springs, my truck leans toward the drivers side.
I've read that the passenger side should be heavier and from the factory the passenger side had a taller and stiffer spring. If that is true I would think that with matched coils the truck would lean toward the pax side.
Both sets of springs I installed were aftermarket with lift. I'm now wondering if my truck might actually be heavier on the drivers side. I measured the latest springs before I put them in, I saw a difference of about 3/16" and put the taller one on the pax side. I measured about a half of an inch difference in compressed height, not real big but noticeable.
Anyone else run into this?
Anyone found a good solution for leveling the front end?
I'm thinking of swapping the springs side to side to see if that helps. If not I'm thinking about some kind of shim under the spring pad of the side that sits low.
Truck is a 1972 F100 short bed 4x4 / 240/6 cyl / Dana 21, current springs are Skyjacker 172S.
Thanks.
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jimmy828
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Re: Front end leans

Post by jimmy828 »

What kind of shape are the cab mounts in. That might make a little difference if they are starting to cave in.
stink bear
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Re: Front end leans

Post by stink bear »

Cab mounts are definitely bad, and I plan on installing new ones. I will take a look at the mounts and see if they are more caved in on one side than the other, I'm pretty sure there's a difference in the spring length though. Also I don't remember the truck leaning to one side with the original springs. I will also measure the spring length again when I get a chance.
Thanks.
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jimmy828
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Re: Front end leans

Post by jimmy828 »

I read some where on the great innerweb that the longer spring goes on passenger side due to the engine being off center in frame. Engine is more to the right of frame .I installed new front springs from Moog but before i installed them i measured the length and both were the same. I went ahead and installed them and figured i'll deal with when i get truck on road.
stink bear
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Re: Front end leans

Post by stink bear »

I'm with you on the engine being off center from the frame, I read the same thing.
I went out and did some more measuring today and looked at the cab mounts. The driver's side forward cab mount is rusted out to the point that the bushing is sticking up into the mount. It's hard to measure the height of the springs because of the way they go into the mounts so I tried measuring from the top of the spring mounts to the axle, it looks real close.
I think you may have hit the nail right on the head with the cab mount idea. It sure looked like the difference was in the suspension but now I'm thinking it wasn't, maybe an optical illusion. Anyway I think I'll leave the suspension alone until I get the cab mounts repaired and the new bushings in. Then I'll see what it looks like.
Thanks for the help!
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