I spent the greater portion of the morning pulling the front I-Beams from a 77 F250 to put under my 67 F100 at the local pick and pull recycler. I am pretty happy with my haul. I got every thing from the passenger side tire to the driver side tire plus the power steering box plus a nice brake booster and steering pump and I6 pump bracket and plenty of extra bolts for $200. Best part was that the donor was still on 4 tires and the steering was quite tight. Well enough with the gloating, sorry.

While I was there I found an E250 van with a front sway bar. I noticed that there seemed to be an extra bracket where the radius arm connected to the I beam on each side to mount the sway bar. Can I use the van sway bar on my pickup if I pull the I beams and get the radius arm brackets as well as the frame brackets? It would be a lot easier to put those brackets on before I put the I beams in.

What is the best place to get suspension bushings and ball joints? Are 4x4 ball joints the same as 2x4 ball joints?

I passed up a lot of good looking van power brake boosters for one out of an 87 F250 but it sure looked like they were identicle?

Thanks for the help!

 

Seems you are missing an important tool in your box, the tape measure. If you will measure the frame rails as well as other parts you will find they measure differently between the E and F series.
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In the cool still quiet of night, you can hear chevies rusting away.

 

Good point, BUT... Most sway bar bushings can adjust back and forth a little on the straight part of the bar. I wonder how different the van is. So oughtsix may still luck out. And I agree, often the tape measure is one of your best weapons in the battle to save money and make a better truck.

Here's a salvage yard Hellwig (I think) system in mine:
http://www.clubfte.com/users/mlf72f250/SwayBar/photogallery.html

--Matt


1972 F250 Custom Sport Camper Special 4x2 360 2v C6 3.73
Soon to have a 104" wheelbase as part of a Broncification project
My FTE Website -- http://www.clubfte.com/users/mlf72f250/index.html
My Galleries -- https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaygallery.php?userid=1108

 

Yes! Your are correct! I had 60lbs of tools, 2 milk crates lined with rags for hardware and parts, a pair of HF gloves, a six pack of coke in the cooler all packed on a big wheel hand truck but NO TAPE MEASURER. I had everything I needed to pull every piece of the front end, steering and brakes. It is hard to think of everything. I will add the tape measurer and knee pads to the junk yard kit.

I plan on going back with a tape measurer and will report what I find. It looked very promising but after I pulled all the other pieces I didn't have enough energy left to pull the bar and see if it measured up.

I plan on replacing the I-Beam bushings and radius arm bushings. The ball joints seem to be integrated into the tie rod and connecting rod? Is this correct? Are they replaceable?


After examining my booty I discovered I have twin cylinder calipers. I assume this is the heavy duty front end that would have also come on the F350? The pads are almost new and the discs are flat and shiny. (Sorry for the gloat).

 

Well, I spent my lunch hour taking measurements at the junk yard. Here is what I came up with.

67 - 78 pickup front frame rail width 34"
67 - 72 pickup rear frame rail width 34"
72 - 78 pickup rear frame rail width 37 1/2"
67 - 78 pickup radius arm / I beam bolt to bolt 41"


77 van frame rail width 41"
77 van radius arm / I beam bolt to bolt 46"

Conclusion - a van sway bar will not work on a pickup.

I did find a fresh arival f250 with a sway bar that they quoted $20 for. Another Saturday morning project.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 01-Oct-02 AT 11:44 PM (EST)]You're doing some great homework.
Thanks for posting it.

Here are a few dimensions for my Hellwig sway bar:
The location where the end-links attatch to the axle is right inbetween the spring and the spot where the radius/strut arm bolts on. The CL to CL dimension for my sway bar end-link holes is 37.5"
The arm length is 14.5"
The bar diameter is 1-1/8"



1972 F250 Custom Sport Camper Special 4x2 360 2v C6 3.73
Soon to have a 104" wheelbase as part of a Broncification project
My FTE Website -- http://www.clubfte.com/users/mlf72f250/index.html
My Galleries -- https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaygallery.php?userid=1108