OK guys I have a really hard problem to figure out here. I have a 1972 f-250 camper special that my Dad special ordered in 1971, he ordered it with a 390, c-6, overload rear springs and a dana60 with 4.11 rear end gears. I have reciently done the king pins, shocks, coil springs, and bushings in the front end. The problem I have now is I bounght a set of replacement coil springs from the local parts store that said the springs would work for a 72 f-250 with a GVW of 6900 or less. My truck has a GVW of 7500lbs so I called the ford dealer and talked with a service tech and he assured me that they would work just fine. Well they do work just fine if I wanted to lower my truck 2"!! I looked in their books for over an hour and did not find one listing for a GVW of 7500lbs. So what do I do? I dont want to lift the truck any more than stock height (besides it's only a 2wd and I dont want it to look stupid) Please could someone at least tell me what other springs I can use from out of an other vehicle?

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 08-Aug-02 AT 07:48 PM (EST)]I'd go somehwere that will work with you, or let you look at the spring specifications in the back of a reference book. If you look somewhere on the following thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/dcforum/suspension/1461.html
you'll find a NAPA back-of-the-book specifications table. Now yours are most likely different, but you need to first look up the spring number(s) offered for your year of truck in the front (under "Ford Trucks"), then go to the back and look at the Inner Diameter, Wire Diameter, resting height, loaded height, and Load ratings.

Sticking with the Inner Diameter number, then most closely to the Wire Diameter number, try to find a higher Load and/or Loaded Height number than the spring they gave you. Ideally you'll find the right Load rating for your truck in the Inner Diameter and (very close to the) Wire Guage that your truck is listed for with the weaker spring (those two are for the overall fit).

Make sure you only look up springs that are of the coil-type of the one(s) listed in the book that fit your vehicle (for example: in the NAPA book my coils were the "C" type I believe. I initially made the mistake of cross referencing the "D" type which would not have fit).
Though even then the two "pigtails" are different at either end, so if I had bought some spring with more similar 'pigtails' it most likely would not have bolted in. This is why I used another recommended Ford spring number for the year I was lookign for. Hopefully you'll be able to find other listed numbers for F-250's of that year (did they offer bigger regular-sized trucks (F-350?) back then?).

That's about all the advice I can offer based on my coil-spring upgrading experience.

Best,

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-Aug-02 AT 07:53 PM (EST)]'Aight, buddy, I spent some time looking at some pages for ya.

What I found was that the NAPA book did not list any spring other than the about three springs that fit 1971-1975 F-250's that are under 6900 GVW.
The three:
277-1921
277-1937
277-5182

Now I did some looking around, and I did find this interesting factoid: the '76-'79's use many different springs, and have different load ratings, but they did share the use of the 277-5182 spring.

So what this tells me is that there is a chance that the 1976-1979 trucks that are rated for 6200 to 7800 GVW and the up-to 8100 GVW use the same spring perches on the top and bottoms unless Ford changed those ends for stronger pieces for the more heavy-duty vehicles.

I did not, however, look up the final specs on the springs at the end of the book. But the only way to know if the top and bottom pig-tails are the same designs as what you need will be to look at them. (You do not want the 277-5182 spring, but it does tell us that the newer trucks' coils may fit.)

So you have a chance of getting springs rated for up-to-7800, or up-to-8100 GVW's. You need to take a look at them, or see if there is some cross-comparison to be made between the 1972 F-250 coils and the same year F-350's.

Hope this helps.

(for some reason I wrote down "NAPA 277-3093 may work?" - but there may be two spring numbers you need to look at)

Best,