is there any difference in newer i beams?, i know its not a dentside. but his guy has 91 beams on an 84.....what would the reason be?

http://www.customclassictrucks.com/f...bed/index.html

 

that trucks at the supernats every year and its sweet. ive heard somthings difernt about the steering ,tie rods ,center link and all on an 80 and up f series. i would love to be able to run ball joints instead of king pins.

 

since theyre i beams, doesnt that mean that they are kingpins?

 

alright, i found the difference, i would like to see some stock ones side by side to see if you could lowere our trucks with a newer one

DJM Dream Beams

 

I don't really know fullsize beams (aside from out dentsides) - but I do (did is more like it) know 80's/90's ranger beams. Since they are similar in design and timeline to the F-150's - let me ramble for a few and maybe this will make sense.

The beams from 82-97 on the F-150's (rangers were 83-97) were the same shape/fitment for the most part. There were plate/stamped steel beams (83 only on ranger), forged beams (84-88 ranger) and cast beams (89-97 ranger). There will all pretty much bolt into other years if you take the corresponding spindle/upright with them)

Therefore beams from the 91 F-150 will bolt onto the 84. While the 84 beams are forged and therefore stronger than the cast 91 versions (ranger changed from forged to cast in 88/89 - and I think the F-150's were the same), the 91 beams most likely had better brakes. The ball joint setup for the spindle/upright attachment to the beam changed with the change from forged to cast beams as did the caliper attachment. Therefore to get the better brakes off the newer trucks people swap in the complete newer beam assemblies (beam, spindle, rotors/calipers)...

As for the kingpins - nope. The last kingpin beams were in 81/82. These were the 1st run of the un-equal length beam design, so there are an odd duck. The beams went to ball joints in 83 I believe, and they beams have been un-equal length ever since.

 

Yea the newer beams are unequal lengths and they have ball joints. The newer trucks are also front steer instead of rear steer the way our trucks are. So that poses a problem too. I think it would be too much work to try to get the newer beams to work. It would probably be easier to just do the 03-up crown vic (panther platform suspension) swap.

That's just my .02.

I wonder what year escort those mirrors came off of?? Anyone know?

 

yeah - I guess I should have made that more clear in my post - putting newer (1980 or later) beams on our old trucks is a LOT of work. More than it is worth for most people...

 

eBay Motors: FORD Escort Mk1 Mk2 RS2000 Corcel DOOR MIRROR NEW 2x v7 (item 180338694641 end time Mar-27-09 08:24:37 PDT)

 

not sure if those ^ are the same or not, but these are

File:81-85 Ford Escort.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Thanks! I'm gonna look for one at U-Auto-Pull-It when I go. I used to have an escort almost just like that, but mine was baby blue at the bottom below the belt line. It was a 1983 and I had 2 MTX Terminator 15's running off a Linear Power 1502 in it! It would hit like crazy!