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It was probably 20 or more years ago when I got a pair of disc brake I beams and spindles out of a junkyard for my 65 F250. Hopefully I had enough sense to get them from another F250! ... but now I'm not too sure. At the time I may have thought they were the same as the 1/2 ton trucks.
What I have is a casting number D6TA-9-EA-12 to carry the left wheel and a D6TA-8-EA-9 for the right.
This page wasn't scanned straight by whoever did it years ago so I had to grab some above and below the entry for yours but this is what I was referencing. 1973-1979 Truck Parts Catalog. The casting drops the 300 portion of the number.
I just noticed a difference between my stock 65 F250 beams and the late 70's disc brake beams I want to install. My stock 65 beams have a mount for a hook type thing that limits how far the suspension can extend. No such mount exists on the disc brake beams.
So what limits the suspension extension on the late 70's trucks? The shock absorber?
I posted the same question on the late 70's sub forum.
1965 had the hooks on the I-beams to limit travel which kept the front springs from falling out of the tower. For 1966 through 1971 before serial number L80,001 they instead went to a bracket that holds the top coil of each of the front springs to the spring tower. These retainers are very rare.
C6TZ-5B300-F - RETAINER - FRONT SPRING MOUNTING - Upper
Then for 1971 after serial M00,001 they used a few different retainers depending on a few factors like 2WD or 4x4, year, series, GVWR and other details.
Since you likely aren't changing your springs or towers that pictured retainer would be what I'd suspect would be correct for your truck.
My 1966 I-beams are not even drilled for the bolts that hold on the limit hooks so they revised it to not include those.
Here's a picture of the lower retainer for 1966.
C6TZ-5B300-E - RETAINER - FRONT SPRING MOUNTING - Lower
Well that's got my head spinning in about 15 different directions!
I had an old beater of a Baja Bug that had the rear suspension hammered out so bad it used to over extend and rip the threaded eye off my Bilsteins. Limiting travel with the shocks is not a good idea. Side note, eventually the frame horns broke on that poor thing. I bottomed out for the last time and it never came back up .....
One direction I'm looking at is will the disc brake spindles fit my 65 beams. That answer would be yes, but they'd be loose in the vertical. I'm just using a steel rule for rudimentary measurement but it looks like there'd be an 1/8" or less of gap. A spacer off my lathe?
Search eBay for part number C6TZ-3111-B just to see what the kit includes. The king pin kits come with thin shims to use as required. You'd just be using a thicker shim if I catch your drift. I can't imagine that would be a problem.
I've been YouTubin' and saw someone using shims. Plan A at the moment.
Before he broke into the big time Robby Gordon used to race a 65 Ford Truck in the local desert races, but really, it was a cab on a very sophisticated chassis. Spectating at the races was one of the places where the Baja Bug used to get regular abuse.
Disc spindles on 65 beams are a no-go because the kingpins are different dia's. .860 on the 65 and a very robust 1.050 on the disc spindles. Rats.
Plan B is finding a way to mount the stock hooks on the disc beam that doesn't require welding on the beam. All I can think of is a pair of short threaded holes centered on the bottom of the beam. Then I can weld a plate to my existing hook that bolts up to them. Might work. I'm still thinking.
Suspension fully extended, "on the hook", and the shock is already 3/4" short. Wrong shocks? Could be .... Who knows?
The other thing is with the hook off the shock only drops another 1/4" before the dried up and rotten bushings on the radius rod get in the way. There's almost no tension on the spring at this point and I'm gonna quit worrying about this. I don't I need no stinkin' hook. As long as radius rod is still attached that spring ain't goin' no where. I just need an inch longer shock.
I gotta admit I've never seen radius arm bushings that far gone. I think those are outside of the useable specification! Mine were in much better shape when I got my truck and I've since replaced them with NOS bushings. By the way, there are two different part number suffixes for both bushings (insulators).
INSULATOR - FRONT RADIUS ARM - Outer - 1 3/16" long C5TZ-3B203-B/C5TZ-3B203-D 2
INSULATOR - FRONT RADIUS ARM - Inner - 2 3/8" long C5TZ-3B203-C/C5TZ-3B203-E 2
The B/C bushings that I've had in hand are a significantly harder rubber than the D/E bushings made by Harris, who was a common rubber parts manufacturer back in the day. I can tell by looking at them the B/C is a less grainy, smoother rubber and is harder durometer. Anyway, once installed the radius arm with new bushings won't want to drop nearly as much as with the older bushings and yours barely count as that...
