That's funny, my 76 did that a few months ago. 90 percent of the time the brakes were fine, then out of he blue I could barely stop while backing out of my driveway. My teenage daughter also drives my truck and bronco, so there is a little extra encouragement to keep everything roadworthy.

 

Glad to see you haven't let this thread or your great truck fade into memory.

After switching my 78 CCSB to Hydroboost, I'll NEVER run one of these trucks with a vacuum setup again. It is without question the best upgrade I've done to any vehicle I have ever owned, and that is saying something.

 

^^thanks bud! just been on the back burner, you know how it goes. hydra-boost sounds awesome, I'd like to step up to it someday.

 

Cost me a total of $48. to do the conversion.

 

No intent on Highjacking. OK not sure if it was ever addressed, but I got sticker shock what I called Autofab on just getting the parts to lift my 79 F250 SCSB 2wd 4" so I can clear some 33"x 12.5". All said and done he quoted around $2500 I will convert to 4wd someday as I have a donor coming my way in the near future, but I would like my 33" on now! I am pretty versed on pre-running out a vehicle, having lived in Yucca valley and built several truck during the hayday of Ironman, Scoop Vessels and such. I understand longer travel so on and so on etc. I am not planning to do whoops or fire road drifting or JV or the Hammers. has anyone just build some I hate to say it as I hate bolt on lift kits, but what if I just fab up some spacer brackets, gusset them properly and install a dropped pitman arm, space the swaybar mounts and get longer shocks, brakelines and coils( this should cover the front right) the back is easier even. With the rear steering configuration, is a dropped pitman even possible and is the spline the same on the 2 and 4wd PS gearboxs?

 

Haha hey everytime autofab makes something its going to cost 3x more then what it should cost. They think all their stuff is the shiz. Now no offense to them because they do spend the time making parts that we can just buy and they know their stuff really well. I have a lot of close friends that know everyone that works their so just want to be clear that im not bashing them. But yes they are way overpriced in my honest opinion. Now if you want give Ben a call at National Spring here in San Diego. 619 258 2724. He can get you some answers or if you want to PM me I can hook you up with my college buddy who designs parts for all kinds of applications. He just had a part debut at Sema for use on al 2009-present Raptors and f150s. Really good guy. Daily driver is a 72 2wd that he is converting to a 4x4 at some point. Just did a frame off all himself.

 

Any help is appreciated, hook us up, love to see what he can offer me. i am all for saving time, and if he is alraedy thinking this more power to him. I just can't see spending that much money for that much lift. It's not as if I am swapping to reservoired dual rate CO's or other exotic hardware. If spaced the beams would not need lengthening, although the radius arm could use a lengthen unless I use funky drop brackets.

 

1st - This should be in another thread and not Jason's build thread.

Next - what you want can be done. You just have to have the brains to do it. There is a reason autofab gets what they do for parts - they have the machinery & know-how to do it right, & turn around & hand you something you can bolt on.

If you know all about "pre-runnering" then you'd know the bending of the beams is for camber correction & how to do it yourself. or what to ask someone with the skills/tools to do.
The other way to gain the lift is to lower the pivot point of the beams. You still need lift coils or to lower the stock coils in relation to the frame, or have a spacer. I will not go into depth on this here as if you cannot figure out how this should be done - you simply should not be doing it for the safety of those driving around you.

I will say this - if you're not doing anything "major" with the truck, then drop backets can hold up. They still see a TON of leverage/forces acting on them though so they need to be very well designed if you go this route.


Getting off my soap box now.

 

Thanks for the inspiration chaserT. No I am not all savy as to prerunning but from providing actual race support (Donated my DD for chase duty even)back in the day and bending my own shockhoops, cages and A arms etc. I am versed enough to build and get back from where ever. I am now am getting older and want to play when I have a break from all the OT I put in instead of cutting welding and grinding. Unfortunately i do not have access like I use to, to all the cool fab tools and machines I was privy to in the 80's. I still do some things and actually built most of the suspension on my 95 PSD C-350 Centurion as there was not much support from vendors when I was constructing it. I post on the thread because it was the only pertinent one I saw and figured it would not only revive it, but contribute to. My questions were in search of others that performed similar feats and would want to share. I am not a huge proponent of the lowered brackets on a 2 or 4wd, but I need to get some idea of what lift height makes sense for my use and these would at least get up and running as a testbed. Bending the beams will not do w\hat I want with widening as well. If I am going to to that and do it properly I would make this a dedicated playtoy, when in fact I need a DD that is super dependable and can do trailer duty a few times a year. If it was dedicated the trailering would be out the door as it would require CO's bump stops maybe some bypasses, and a MANY leafed rear pack and close to the same in dampening, plus long travel trailing arms, maybe J bars and off course cage and engine brace etc. That's to do it right. That's exactly what I don't want. I want stupid simple, but family safe simple foremost. I will probably do the drop beam brackets that sandwich the existing ones and gusset accordingly. I will probably get a set lengthen the radius arms at least 12" so as to not need to use a drop bracket longer than the stock ones.(This should be prep work for when I install the d60 from the donor), as I plan on staying with front coils as apposed to leafs as I do not plan on towing over 4000lbs. and am going to swap the 460 to something smaller and fuel inject in the future, so front wight should go down some. I think this would be the most cost effective, and I will make sure the shocks( I am thinking a set of reservoired Kings or Racerunners per side). Out back I was thinking of doing away with the helper springs and doing a rear shackle hanger replacement and flip( which would yield about 3-4" of lift without a block and level things off. For towing I have some super stout leaf spring perches that we use in desert racing , that relocated the centering pin, and allows the shocks to be mounted directly to the perch. I use them so I can mount an airbag for towing. Some example mind you a man with a plenty of harbor freight grinders and aluminum oxide disk can accomplish much!
95 Centurion except for the ORU front shackle reversal, every mount hoopf/r front bumper rear, bumper /rollpan combo step etc built by me.

My second Bronco, had drop brackets too. Fabbed all the suspension and cage was bought though, made the f/r bumpers. I glasses and modified the hood bubble, you could stand on it( I did).

My newest Bronco, finishing the custom LowPro winch bumper and modifying stock bumper as an overlay. Done now.

Heavy duty spring perches I use to mount the airbags atop of, bought these, fabbing the bag craddle to mount to perch.

 

Problem is what you want is not made readily...

It's either autofab or full custom. Unfortunately no one else makes any "kits" or anything for these trucks

You want a setup for a dependable DD? Either shell out the $$ to go autofab & KNOW it's done right, or bend your own beams, or make drop brackets. That's about it - simple as that.

Any of the above can be done well, just depends on who you know, what tools/skills you have or how much you care to spend.

There are also guys here who have flipped the i-beam upside down and say all is fine & works well, I just don't personally see how the geometry could work well. Then again we are talking i-beams here so "geometry" isn't much to begin with.

Personally if you just want 33's I'd say try um on stock & see how close you are. I know they'll be fine in the rear & pretty close to fine in the front. A set of the autofab, zero flare front fiberglass fenders (they have a wider wheel opening) will make them fit, but that's $$ being spent again. Much less than the lift kit though if you know a painter to match them to your truck.

Worse case scenario I'd say maybe do a 1-2" drop bracket for the beam mount, a coil spacer (under the coil - these are easy to fab) and then extend the radius arms like you plan (to keep cost down re-use the stock rad arm bracket & just move it back).
I'm not really a fan of drop brackets either, but you're saying the other options won't work for you or you don't want to pay for them...
A well thought out and well built drop bracket will be plenty safe for a street driven DD and even light duty off road. Especially if it's a minimal amount of drop vs. 4-6".

You also mention widening above but I can't make out if you want it or don't. If you want to widen the front end custom fab work is your only choice.

I've seen TONS of custom beams & even a drop bracket setup on these trucks. Heck, I've got pictures of some veeeery nice beams I could show you. Problem is the beams alone coast about that $2500 you were unhappy with to have fabbed up.


As for adding to/reviving the thread - this is (was???) a build thread for a guys personal truck. Not sure how a different suspension talk (that he is not doing to his truck) will build on it. It just sidetracks it. Not trying to be a dick, but I think we should take this topic to a new thread or add on to one of the other "how to lift a 2wd" type threads that are here. I'm more than happy to discuss, but the more we post here the more sideways this build thread gets.

 

Back on topic!
First off awesome truck! This is the direction I will be heading as well. Light off road, maybe chase, but able to be easily driven on the street.

I Picked up a 75 F150 for 200 bucks! It's green and white and I even snagged some rear glass (but that's a story for my own thread)
But your build definitely gives me some inspiration and answers some questions I had.

Keep up the good work!

 

Finished mine a while back but did not change brakelines. wondering if you swapped to SS flexlines and if so did you custom make or vendor buy. I need to know if these are available or if I have to hit the speed shop and make my own? we need more updates on your build

 

Do you still have the truck? Do you or anyone you know have a used autofab lift for sale? Thanks

 

Sold the truck 3 yrs ago. Building a similar truck but much updated.

 

Nice, looks to be in good shape