Well, I finally broke down and bit the bullet. My front springs have never been good in the 3 (ish?) years that Ive owned this truck, they have bothered me since day one. Almost negative arch, very spongy, shifting back and forth (on wet pavement you could here them CLUNK when turning the wheel lock to lock as the springs shifted), and generally just gave me an uneasy feeling. During the recent starter swap, I couldn't stop staring at them and asking why I kept putting it off, even knowing it was a potential safety issue. The front suspension on these trucks is fairly foreign territory to me as in the 3 7.3's I have owned over the years, and the small fleet we had on the farm, I never really had any issues ever.

Called ATS and spoke with Jr and he set me up with a set of X codes (as this is what I wanted) and they are en route. The head mechanic at work really tried talking me out of doing the job myself (our spring shop we use for the big rigs would've charged me $120 a side $240 total) for labor, and cost of parts was about the same as ATS after shipping. I'm just not someone who likes other people working on my stuff. If I can avoid it, I will, just hoping that pinching $240 doesn't come back to bite me. Spent all day today mentally preparing for the days and headaches ahead.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions for making this a little easier, I'm all ears. Don't have a lift, but plenty of jacks, jack stands and cribbing. Ive watched the videos and read tons of threads here, as well as the guides in the Tech Folder, seems easy enough (famous last words). I'm hoping this is my last major upgrade or repair on this thing for awhile, as I have gotten the wifes blessing in seeking out a rust free 4 door 7.3, that I can completely go through and make it how I want it, and keep it....hopefully forever. This is our compromise for me not having to go buy a new 6.7. This truck just has too much rust to keep investing a ton of money in, rockers and bed are shot, and finding a decent rust free bed around here runs about the same as a new aluminum flat bed, if not more. I will keep this truck as a winter hauler, it runs too good to get rid of, just the wife doesnt like the lack of cab space, and the lack of luxury (its 26 years old...cmon!). Should be a little cheaper in the end.......right? (insert parts cannon buckzooka here).

 

$240 sounds like a bargain to r&r front springs, but I am pretty sure that I am older than you If you decide to take it on, just plan on it taking longer than you think so your truck isn't down - I think for most DIYers this is an all day Saturday job, the first time anyway. When you are done, you are going to be amazed at the improvement in handling, ride and noise even with the X codes.

 

I set aside an entire week . Got the trusty old death trap jeep to get me to work on Monday.

In all seriousness though, I am ONLY doing this myself so I can look over some other things, and may just do sway bar and end link bushings while I am in there. Front shocks are new-ish so I am leaving that alone. Gotta measure my end links seeings how its a 99, don't want to mistakenly order the e99 stuff or vice versa. However yes, that $240 is a bargain (again through a shop we use ALOT through work, we go through a lot of springs on our site dumps, operators always needing to cram 1 more bucket on kind of thing).

On another note, I spent about 3 hours truck browsing last night on the interwebs, and all I can say is, that I hate what its come to. I'm not desperate for one, however I feel bad for the people who are. This market sucks.

 

You’ve got the right attitude……. Planning, researching, giving yourself plenty of time.
I’ve went through major health issues….. and still - nobody touches my truck but me!

Good Luck….. I’m sure it will go fine👍. Looking forward to the report when you’re done.

 

It's a simple job. the only thing you need to do is spray the u-bolts/ nuts with pb blaster.
Years ago when Ford was still selling the leaf springs, I changed mine out because I thought they might be sagging...not the case but I did all 4 springs on my dually by myself with just a floor jack and bottle jack.
Now-a-days, I wish I did Deaver springs

 

Man ford really put a “you’re going to buy a new truck before you do front springs” amount of blue lock tight on the front bolts 🤣. My poor breaker bar was screaming for its life. Got one side mostly broken loose in some free time I had today, so far not too bad.

Going to only break one side free as I don’t even have the new springs yet…… cmon fedex!

 

Just cut the u-bolts off; they shouldn't be reused anyhow. As for the front and rear bolts and the thread lock compound, a little heat helps a lot, even just a heat gun will make a difference. Those two things will save you some time.

 

Do the new springs come w/ bushings?

 

I believe they are coming with everything, including new bolts, shackles and u bolts. Worst case if they don’t come with bushings I’m planning to buy all new sway bar and link bushings anyways.

edit just double checked and yes the ats kit comes with bushings and everything.

 

If you end up like me when I put in the x spring front leafs get ready to put taller blocks in the back to bring it up to level.

I had to put five inch blocks in after doing the x codes up front.

Actually, I just replaced the rear leafs because one was broken, and was wishing I'd just done a heavier leaf in the back to level it instead of taller blocks.

Doing the leafs isn't terrible, but does require creative use of force to get everything put back together.

I tried to pay someone to do the rear leafs, two mechanics said no, one said $1200 labor, so I had to do it myself.

 

So. Just out of curiosity... how do you know if your front springs need to be replaced if nothing broken?

I had a rear leaf broken in 2019 and replaced those but always wondered if fronts would be make it drive better. Not "bad" now but I did a lot of steering work on it to get it where it is now. The steering was terrible when I got it. But it has always driven like a log truck and i thought that is par for the course. Never driven anyone else's.
same for brakes. Not sure what... "normal" even though very little miles on them kinda feel weak. Caulked that up to heavy truck and smaller brakes.

 

In my case it was kind of a combination of things. Most of the steering components had been replaced, all the way to the steering box (has a blue top in it), ball joints and hubs are good, but was still getting some weird tired wear. The biggest indicator for me besides the SUPER spongy feeling (hitting a rough bridge transition at 70mph sometimes felt like a jesus take the wheel moment), was the clunking or slapping of the leafs shifting when I would turn the wheel on wet pavement either stopped or moving at very low speeds. The springs would shift 1/4" to 1/2" almost, and they shouldn't. Even after a half assed attempt with some cheapo spring clips I had slapped on to try and buy me time, it broke those. Generally just visibly inspecting them (ill snap some pictures today) and how much negative arch there is will tell you a lot.

 

A couple years ago I had factory front and rear stick springs still on my e99 f350 drw 4x4. Had a lower rear crack so replaced them with set from ats. Great company and great product. Replaced everything with them as well. Boy I could really tell how weak the fronts were after that. I called the local Ford dealer and asked if they had oem fronts. They said based on my vin, mine used the same as all the drw's up to some year, don't remember. I was told they were the stronger ones on a drw, maybe a camper package,, don't remember. I know the oem rears didnt have over load leafs. Ford dealer said they had 6 left in some warehouse in Kansas city. Ordered them along with all new hardware. Paid to have them installed, they were worse then the old oem that came off. Found out that even though the sticker and painted p/n # on them said they were correct, that they were possibly excursion front leaf springs instead. Probably the reason they were sitting in that warehouse all this time. Called ats and ordered an add a leaf kit. That add a leaf kit didn't fit correctly and actually had to cut the ends down. I paid the same place to install them, they made several calls to ats to figure out what needed to be done. Turned into a large bill. Not sure if it was an e99 thing or the excursion spring thing but glad I paid someone else. That extra leaf made a massive difference for the better. Added the rancho 9000 shocks so I could adjust valving for empty or loaded. I really like them. I should've just bought new front leaf springs from ats rather then ford. I say all this as I hadn't heard if x spring code. What is the x spring rated for lbs?

 

I'm glad you posted this as I really need some front leaf springs on my 00, they are sagging pretty bad, enough that my 33" tires rub the wheel liner when turning and the leaf spring bushings are shot. I was contemplating on just installing used junk yard leafs from a "lower mileage" truck with new bushings and hardware. Although the truck rides good IMO the sagging springs and rubbing makes me want to install new springs instead of installing used springs that might have the same problem.

I'll be following along and see how you like the new springs and I expect to see plenty of pics in your journey to installing them

 

Well as usual fedex is slacking, so no idea when they will be here. I’ll take plenty of pics of me tearing down the passenger side, as I have the driver side all broken loose, basically just have to remove the last thread on the nuts and pull it out.

This is probably a very simple job on a non rust belt truck.

Tomorrow I need to figure out what size the sway bar bushing bolt sizes because I’m not running the ones that I miraculously got out back in. Shockingly my end link and sway bar bushings don’t look TOO bad, but I may still figure out which kit I need from energy suspension and do those too.

edit to add— Off the top of my head, I think the factory X code is rated for 600lb more per side, so 1200 more total. (Just pulling that out of thin air). ATS has another set that’s a 3 leaf setup rated for even more, probably better for a plow setup.

The 2 leaf x code I ordered is rated at 2630.
The 3 leaf is 3950.