You can “say”/post all you want about putting the d/s on the p/s and vise versa. But when it comes to “flipping the I-beam, meaning the top is now the bottom; it will not line back up with the pivot brackets, period. Here is a diagram of what I-beams look like once they are flipped. As stated before those pics should be easy for everyone to see that you can't just spin and flip and expect everything to line up. If you look at the other pics of the "flipped" beams you will notice that the beams do line up at the torsion bar buuuttttt, they wind up being on the opposite side at the pivot mounts.
Please show me to be an idiot, and get some pictures posted. If not, I hope no one tries “your” idea and thinking it’s going to be that simple. Simple, meaning just flipping and not bending the beams or some other major work will work.
66ford400, after seeing Ethans brackets I believe he has made the easiest 2wd front lift; don't forget the springs.
The only reason I did the flip was because I had time to let my truck sit around, could not get a clear answer to how it was done, just had a lot of people saying their truck was done that way but couldn't explain how it got that way in great detail or they said they bought it already done.
If you want to do a lift and Ethans brackets look like a way to go. E-mail him. I am sure he wouldn't mind.
As for the above mentioned "tech article". Procrastination is plentiful around here. I have wanted to do a tech article on my 4 wheel disc conversion for the f250 as well. I finished it 2yrs ago. I will write a brief and as detailed a post as I can when I am done and what worked and why; and what didn't. Hopefully, I will at least be able to say I did it.

Robert P.

 

to 66ford and ducth302. tomorrow october 22/23 pine tree festival mudd bogg .2major places to watch trucks from all over fla.ga will be here .alot of them are from south fla.dutch i see you posted your number ill give you a call say monday nite.i'm tied up with the boggs and partying these 2days.i have went ahead purchased 2 cameras so if 66ford sends his address i guess i'll be kind enuogh to send him some pics if he needs to see under and what some flips look like and how high you can go.and they still drive like normal truck not flipped.
this is to my cuz j-bird if you read this UP IN YA . . see ya sunday bring the old ford and lets play

 

oh yeah I THNK FORD ...... go ahead and move brakets and all that you are going to do when you are done send me your address then i'll be glad to send you pics . alittle hint dont forget to move the spacer in your posted pics that you show on top of your i-beam. i have not done as many as i have relying on
diagrams and what might work .ive done it over and over i do know what will work . go to www.stroid.com look at photos of perry fla kelly grade mud bogs
there several places on there look at the blue ford 69/model tell me what you think.

 

I have a 68 f100 2wd and I’m doing a frame up rebuild. I was reading through the flip article out of curiosity and saw your response:
“I can't install a body lift as I have the truck with the steering box close to the firewall. All the kits say they will not work with this. Where would I be able to get a spindle kit? I have looked and found none.”
The reason the 4wd kit works is the steering is in front of the I-beam
My own plan is to do the 3” body lift to relocate the cab tank to the passenger side under the bed (new tank). The fill tube will remain in its stock location but drop straight down though the floor and 90 to the passenger’s side above the frame. I have dual tanks and want to keep the fuel carrying capacity. As this will be a road hauler, mostly pulling cars on a trailer and get parts and materials I don’t need lift for bigger tires. I am also creating a rear hatch on the back of the cab so that I can have a removable rear seat pod for my kids. I described the idea in a previous post I think it was “Air lift??”, just think sleeper back with windows. When the rear seat is not on the truck will look just like any other f100 with only a small seam that follows the factory lines around the back wall of the cab.
When I looked for the lift kit I found the same thing you did about the steering. As I had already made the conversion awhile back from manual to power steering I learned a few things. I had to cut and weld the donor shaft since it was to long I still have the original column for stock (cause you never know). The plan is to change the angle of the column as it passes through the firewall. The more modern trucks use telescoping columns to reduce shock and there are after market sources for column universal knuckles and rag joints to allow for modifications. I was thinking one option maybe picking up a tilt column from a Junkyard ford Van of the same period and cutting the firewall to adjust the shaft to a comfortable position. The thing about a Van is that column is really packed in there if anything you’d be relaxing the angle on it. Another option is to pick up the aftermarket shaft and refit the whole she-bang. You don’t need to be afraid to mess with the geometry of the column it is under a lot less stress then the suspension. I read this thread wondering if by flip you might be moving the steering forward of the I-beams which would allow for just extending the column shaft. So the old one I saved would have found a use.
Also I have to look in my stored files from when I had the fabrication co up and running but the nylon block material they sell in the 200 buck kits shouldn’t cost that much in rod form uncut. I have seen too comments elsewhere that hockey pucks ar not a good option because over time they break down. Seems to me that at $1 Puck and the fact that they are of the same grade material the originals were made from they are a viable option. As far as compression problems: a simple piece of thin walled pipe which the puck just fits snuggly into would help to retain height and reduce fractures in the rubber. For a 3” lift that works out to $36 plus 12 bolts and the tubing. The bed Pucks would probably hold up a hell of a lot longer then the cab too. I will hunt out my stock info on the plastic and nylon rod stock too. If I bought one 10’ rod of nylon for $100 I could do four trucks and 100 bucks is an off the top of m head number I think it’s a bit cheaper. Hell for all that that matters you could just make a set of 3” pipe sections with a washer welded top and bottom for bolt alignment but it might transfer too much vibration to the body from the frame.
Maybe other could comment on this as I am a fabricator and there may be simpler approaches to that problem.

John

 

66ford400 just thought i would get back to you about mayo and yes i do hang out there some .i've got several good friends over there i work with.post up your adress for some reason this want let us post e-mails.if you dont want people to know your phone #when i send you the pics to show you that SWAPPING I-BEAMS AND PUTTING THEM RIGHT BACK IN THE SAME BRAKETS THEY CAME OUT OF WILL WORK.YOU DONT WANT BE TRYING TO PUT THEM BY THE SHOCKS AS
AND REDRILLING AND ALL THAT . i will put my phone # with them. no one i know has ever had to do this .i'll make sure that i send good pics so you can see for yourself .i'm still leaning about computures and i don't no how to post on the net for now. i'll be busy for you and the dutch 302 he seems to a real cool dude.sounds like he got plenty of parts . wish i would have knwon this earlier.
any way till monday TIME TO PARTY AND SLING SOME MUDD.

 

ahh I couldnt resist this thread! Well, Im with I_Thnk_Ford, I dont think its possible to do the i-beam flip without any major mod's. I really want to see fordman100's pictures if he ever gets them uploaded, just to see exactly what he did. Well, I still have the CAD drawings of my brackets, if anyone would want me to send them to them I would. These brackets I made are for a 4" lift, I put 4" rancho coils on the front that were suppose to be used for a f150. I guess if you wanted a 3" lift you could just take a inch off my CAD drawings. I got mine lasercut because I did not have a jig saw, or a band saw, and they were cut out of 3/16" plate, then butt welded to the old brackets. I must warn you though, my steering is bad, only because I need a new rag joint, kingpins, and I need to correct my caster since I added this 4" lift. To correct this caster I bought 10.5" radius arm extensions that weld on to your old arms, take my stock radius arm bracket off my truck, bring it back on the frame so it fits the new extensions and if I need to put some square tube between it and the frame if my caster is not correct with just bracket to frame, and I possibly may get auto-fabs drag link. Im in the middle of my caster job right now but here are some old pictures of the brackets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s201/f1004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s201/f1003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s201/f1002.jpg

 

Hey Ethan,
Lowering the radius bracket is what you want to do. You want to bring the center lines back, between the pivot bracket and the radius arm bracket.
Where did you get the extensions?

Robert P.

 

http://www.bentandtwisted.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=881&osCsid=f85d2aefa2 c7d87095f98f10ac7ffeb3 thoes are the extensions. The frame goes down a bit when you move the bracket back, but im probably going to be putting the square tube spacer between the bracket and the frame so they get extended, and dropped.

 

Guys, I have been watching these flipping threads. I am waiting to see the pictures of the flipped beam trucks. I remember seeing trucks with flipped beams in the mid 70s, and the left-right switch sounds like what the guys said they did. Geometrically, it works out. But because I was driving a 4wd, I'll confess to not really paying that close of attention. But whichever way is utilized, you have to have the correct caster when you are done. So my question is, does the caster come from the I beam, or from the angle the radius arms hold the beam at ? If there is an easier way to do this......I'm all for it. DF,@ his Dad's

 

I've been wondering that to...we used to bend radius arms for caster on late 80's-90's fords....but I think that was mainly because it's easier to do.....I'm sure the Ibeams could be bent for caster...(and thats another thing....are you just pulling or pushing the wheel forward and back or twisting to change the angle of the kingpin).....I'm just not sure if thats possible when they are already installed(although camber is).....

On the other hand I've seen caster on other cars/trucks adjusted by moving the the upper arm which twists the spindle......I've also adjusted caster by removing shims in front of the radius arm bushing.....which would seem to have more of a push/pull effect....the I beam/kingpin setup is a bit different and I've never done anything except adjust toe and bend the radius arms.

whenever I see custom radius arms I always wonder how they get in the ballpark for caster...I think most of them have a threaded bushing end to allow for some adjustment...so I guess they're just pushing or pulling the axle in a front/back plane

 

I am waiting for the pics too.
Caster stays the same. And is in the beam at the "S" or offset end.
The camber is partly in the beam and the spindle. From what I've been told and will find out when complete is that there is an alignment tool that will bend the curved part of the beam to adjust the camber more. On that note here goes the process up to the point that I am at right now. This is not a tear down build up explanation, just what works and what doesn't and why.
-
Flip the beams. You are only going to flip the I-beam inside the torsion bar. The drivers side torsion bar keeps the same drivers side I-beam. If you swap the I-beams at this point from the torsion bar it originally came from, then the caster will be totally opposite. I painted the beam and the corresponding torsion bar.
The pivot brackets will have to be moved. The drivers’ side is located towards the front. It needs to be moved to the rear, across from the existing passenger side. The passenger side is located towards the rear. It needs to be moved to the front, across from where the old driver side bracket was. (Other than what others have said about the flip and then installing back into original brackets, if this was done:
1) This will make the pivot bracket and beam connection catty wompass.
2) It will through the king pin center line out. I believe the drivers side goes back and inch and the p/s goes forward an inch. Making the truck have a "doggy track" effect.)
Take the king pins out of the beams. Before installing the spindles, you want the spindles installed to where the tie rod now connects from the top down of the spindle and through the torsion bar opening. ( Just swap the driver side spindle with the passenger side) If you have the spindles placed to where the tie rod connection is below the torsion bar opening 1) the camber is going to be way positive.(because there is camber built in the spindle and the I-beam both.) 2) the steering geometry will be to far off and probably cause problems.
Here are two threads that have previous mentions about this subject. If you chose to venture onto these threads, I suggest you also venture to the hyperlinks inside the posts.

thread 1
thread 2

Robert P.

 

Oh one other thing,
If this was meant that the shocks would some how need to be mounted somewhere else, the shock mount are on the torsion bars not the I-beams. They hook up right where they came from.

Robert

 

fabtech makes a set of lift spindles for the 73-79 model, shoot 'em an email and find out about older than that. I'm not sure they go back that far, but I'll keep looking for ya.

 

I've never heard of those spindles...do you have a link......73-79 2wd spindles would work for sure....that just doesn't sound right though.....I can't imagine a lift spindle for a ibeam....

 

I'm with you zsir. But a co-worker came up with an interesting idea. Flip a drop spindle.?

Robert P.