John, you need to post some pics of your truck in the gallery. You said the axle is longer than the stock one? Did you have problems with the offset on your wheels/ tires? Are you running all the leafs in the springs or what type of lowering springs are you talking about?. Sorry about the questions, but you've been there and done that. Want to tap you for info. LOL....

 

Sorry for the confusion - I meant the axle is thicker, fatter, bigger around, not wider as in track width.

I'll see if I can find some pictures from last summer.

John

 

The front springs are from Mid Fifty also. They are the reversed-eye lowering set.

Put some pictures in my gallery this morning.

John

 

John,
Sorry to be a pain but would you break down what you have done front and rear to get the height your pics show and what if any problems you ran into to get there. What tire and wheel are you running as well. Thanks for the info...

 

Joe - Thanks for the interest. The tires are P235/75R15's on stock Ford wheels, off a 1983 F150 - the donor truck for my engine and trans.

In the front I have a 3" dropped front axle with the "short and smooth" spring stacks, all from Mid Fifty. I then used the billet tie rod drops, also from MF, to get clearance for the tie rod. This winter I changed the front shock mountings, as I had some problem with the shocks bottoming out on hard bumps.The front shock mounts have been raised (top) and lowered (bottom) using the "longer shock mounting kit", also from MF. Front also includes power disk brakes, Toyota power steering box and a Toyota MR2 electric power steering pump. I spent a little money on the front end, but am very pleased with the outcome.

In the back I have a '69 Ford pickup 9" rear end. I put spring pads on the bottom of the housing and mounted it on top of the stock rear spring packs. I bought a bolt-in C-notch kit from "suicidedoors.com", cut the "C" in the frame with my sawzall, and bolted in the reinforcement. I had the frame plates welded in when my new tailpipes were put on.

The only problem I had in the rear was clearance for my tailpipes. I had an exhaust system put in prior to the lowering job, and the muffler-back pipes had to be rerouted. The muffler shop put in new top mounts for the rear shocks further back on the frame, then notched the stock rear shock crossmember so the tail pipes could go over the top of it. The pipes exit right below the tailgate, a license plate width apart (no rear bumper).

I drove the truck a lot last summer and am happy with the handling, except for the shocks bottoming out. I slow down for speed bumps and am cautious at steep driveways, but have never scraped.

The truck is all apart once again as I am putting on a better cab. Hope to have it back together later this spring.

John

 

Great info John. One other question. How many leafs are you running in the front spring cluster?

 

I was just wondering if anyone ran into camber problems with their dropped straight axle. Do the tires wear on the inside or outside more or has it all worked out. My first truck had the stock front axle and it wore the inside of the tires if I remember right.

Also, I saw that John used the MR2 electric power steering pump instead of using an engine driven accessory. I mentioned it as an option to a guy with a flathead....I haven't used it, but I had seen it online before.....Maybe you can shed some light on using that setup...price, ease of install etc.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...-steering.html

 

So, F100 Central, any deals on straight axle dropped axles? I know two people in here who are interested. Email me.

 

imlowr - there are 5 leafs in the spring pack, including the reversed eye main leaf.


F100Central - I paid $150 for a low mileage Toyota MR2 pump from a local foreign parts "recycling" yard. I used the instructions from the JeepEV Project: www.driveev.com/jeepev/photos/

I'm using an 80A self-resetting curcuit breaker and a 75A SPDT relay (can't find the invoice, but I don't remember them being very expensive), bought over the internet. Power to the relay goes through a toggle switch under the dash, so the pump can be turned off without turning off the ignition. I generally turn it off above 15 mph as power steering doesn't seem to be necessary. The effort on the wheel reminds me to turn it back on when needed.

The pump (about the size of a starter motor) is mounted upright on the frame right in front of the steering box. Ideal would be to hide it somewhere else on the frame, maybe that will be a later refinement.

The hoses cost $51 at a local hydraulics shop - we have lots of logging in this area, so hydraulic hoses are a big business. The only complication on the hoses was getting the metric ends that were needed - they came out of Ohio.

I used a remote power steering fluid reservoir out of a Toyota pickup - it is mounted on the firewall above the steering box.

The reason I went this route was because of the 101 brackets that seem to be available/used on 351 Winsdors. I had a terrible time getting my alternator mounted - it was on the driver's side of the motor, and did not want to go through that again with a power steering pump. Plus, it's kind of a cool mod that not very many people have ever seen done.

John

 

Actually we don't get very good pricing on dropped axles. Plus, they're heavy to ship to Ohio and then to the customer. We have good pricing on most things, just not everything. You're best bet is to go straight to CPP on those. I was thinking about trying to make a dropped straight axle that you could adjust the camber on. I need to know if it's a good idea or not though before we have an engineer make a prototype. My 53 had a stock straight axle that was a bit out of wack and made the tires wear on one side. Bending it to get it perfectly aligned seemed like a bad idea. I didn't know of anyone in Ohio that could do it right. I'm sure there are, but finding them is something else.

Please let me know what you all think about a dropped axle with adjustable camber. If people want it, I might try to get it made.

Thanks!

 

John,
If you had to do it again what would you do different?

 

Joe - With the front end what I should have done was take all the sheet metal off before I did all the work. It was a real pain the way I did it.

With the truck itself what I would do different is take a magnet along when I went to buy it. The previous owner had done a wonderful job of covering the rust with Bondo, and I, a starry-eyed senior citizen was smitten with the truck and did not examine it closely enough. Hence, the replace-the-cab project now under way.

John

 

F100Central, if you do develop an axle like that maybe you could develop it to accept newer model spindels with balljoints so you can have Ford disc brakes without having to use special adapters. JT

 

JT76 - Good idea. I'll be looking into that too.

Thanks!

 

Don't know how you could use ball joints on a beam axle? Most big truck repair places can bend an axle to adjust the alignment, they do it all the time. The Ford twin I-beam trucks were notorious for having twisted out of alignment axles from the factory and bending them was the only way to straighten them.