I'm in the middle of the swap on my 54 and trying to think one step ahead. The stock lower shock mount isn't going to work with the new 3.25 axle tube. The U-bolt holes aren't far enough apart to clear the wider axle and there's not enough room on the bracket to re-drill or elongate the holes. How did everyone else handle this?
Thanks, Ken

 

Sounds like you will need to fabricate a new shock mount plate or use the ones from the donar vehicle you removed the rear end from

 

I ended up cutting all the factory stuff off and installed a four link from TCI.

 

Very nice and clean looking Mitch!

 

I cut the ford mount off and welded them to my plates. I used dakota plates, but would do the same thing with the explorer pieces if you wanted to keep the stock upper mounts.

 

I'm in the middle of this process right now....Here are a couple pics of the progress....
[IMG]<a href="http://s361.photobucket.com/user/bigschott93/media/1953%20F-100/IMG_0515.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo59/bigschott93/1953%20F-100/IMG_0515.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0515.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]
[IMG]<a href="http://s361.photobucket.com/user/bigschott93/media/1953%20F-100/IMG_0694.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo59/bigschott93/1953%20F-100/IMG_0694.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0694.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]
<a href="http://s361.photobucket.com/user/bigschott93/media/1953%20F-100/IMG_0695.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo59/bigschott93/1953%20F-100/IMG_0695.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0695.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s361.photobucket.com/user/bigschott93/media/1953%20F-100/IMG_0702.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo59/bigschott93/1953%20F-100/IMG_0702.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0702.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s361.photobucket.com/user/bigschott93/media/1953%20F-100/IMG_0703.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo59/bigschott93/1953%20F-100/IMG_0703.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0703.jpg"/></a>

I have made mounts that bolt on to the old sway bar mounts that will lower the shocks. I might use the sway bar also... just waiting to see how things work out. I hope this helps.

 

Guys thanks, especially for the pics. Gives me some options I hadn't considered. Based on Big Schott's pics it looks like I can use the 8.8's vertical sway bar brackets for the lower shock mounts and possibly the sway bar too. Thanks again
Ken