Pardon my ignorance... but why do people do the CV swap? Is this something I should be looking into for my 79 F100?

I'm in sponge mode lol. Trying to absorb as much info as possible.

 

 

Been reading about these things for years, but it still takes me a few minutes every time to remember we're talking about the Crown Victoria front suspension swap and not CV joints in a driveshaft!
The other night I got it within seconds. This time I made it all the way through monkey's very good description, thinking how could a driveshaft change make so much difference(!) before I realized what we were talking about. Again...

I'm sure I'll get better at it. But I'm sure too that it will continue to catch me off guard as well.

Thanks for asking about it Dageon!

Paul

 

Ditto to what monkey said, and for my truck a completely modern drive train as I'm also using the engine, trans and rear end from the donor car I bought. The engine mounts to the front suspension assembly so it's a very easy install.

On the flip side some folks don't like losing the stock ride height of a truck, to each their own...Pat

 

That's like saying why's the sky good? Why's ***** good? Really?

 

We did it to lower the truck, get better steering, ride, brakes and because I just wanted to. lol

Drives awesome. We started with an F250 so to lower it, we were looking at changing a crap load of stuff anyway. Killed lots of birds with one stone.

 

Personally I don't see a reason, I like the original look an handling of the f100's , but everyone differs on there on reasons

 

I have a 76 F-100 long bed that rides almost as good as my Lexus Ls430 on my 4 miles of dirt road. I think the swap is pointless to get a better ride. If you want a car, get a car.

 

I get why people do it. It's an 'upgrade' in every respect, but it's probably not in the works for me. The truck rides great as is, and handles like a truck should. Anyone who claims the CV swap makes their truck handle like a sports car is deluding themselves.

 

I've seen no one say it handles like a sports car, but it is an improved ride. It rides more like a modern truck, and your idea of what a truck should ride like is certainly different from mine.

 

I could see it being easier to bag it if you went with a CV swap

 

There is a spectrum of modifications people do to their trucks and what they think of as upgrades. Some go farther than others. What I don't always understand is when there is contention between members over upgrade x because they would never do that to their truck.

Hell, if it floats your boat I say go for it. I wouldn't personally do the crown vic swap but I appreciate when I see one that's well done. Also it's a pretty durn inexpensive way to modernize a classic truck.

To the OP, I think you have to carefully think about any modification you do to your vehicle and go in eyes wide open as to what it will mean from a time, skill, cost and labor commitment--and that you really want to do it--especially for some of the more involved upgrades.

You could always start smaller and modernize some aspect of your truck to see if you have the gumption to take on something larger. Or, you might be like one of the posters here and you were already looking to lower your truck, upgrade the brakes, ignition, fuel system...etc, etc In which case the CV swap might be a no brainer for you.

What I can say is, this forum is one of the best in terms of knowledgeable members to ask or search the archives for their posts. Good luck with your future upgrades!

 

Yeah, it's totally subjective. Our twin i-beams are the "truck that rides like a car," but that was back when cars rode like boats heh

 

Thanks for all the info guys. I think for now I'm looking at getting her on the road before anything else, but wasn't sure why people did the mod.

 

"Upgrade" is subjective. Somewhere along the line, millennials we're quite wrongly taught that "newer is better!" In which perfectly awesome, powerful, easy easy easy to maintain and EXTREMELY dependable factory engines should be removed and replaced with trouble prone, complex and expensive to maintain plastic and aluminum engines, miles of wiring, in tank pumps, sensors, solenoids, switches, ECMs, ECUs, requiring THOUSANDS of dollars worth of scanners, code readers laptops etc to maintain. That's not an "upgrade", that is an extremely expensive step backwards.......you will never ever pull an LS, gen 3 hemi, coyote, Cummins or 4bt out of a field 4o-50 years from now, pour fresh gas and a battery at it and be driving it the same afternoon. And you definitely will need more than 3 wrenches and a screwdriver to maintain them. My 42 year old 351 , 300,000 miles starts and runs in any weather, sees SEVERE abuse near daily, idlei smooth and can pull a house down with a mild cam, intake and carb mods. Sure, my mpg sucks, but it's a no brainier trade off for check engine codes, failing sensors, injectors throttle bodies computers etc......to each his own. I've seen LS engines and modern IFS suspensions installed in 50 year old muscle cars and trucks and they looked and ran really well, and I have also seen them spanked on the dragstrip by a junk, iron headed big block yanked from a junkyard....choice is up to you. Suspension "upgrades" are no different than the "swaps" and "gotta have a leveling kit!" Crowd.