Does anyone know if the 67-72 drum brake spindle bolt on steer arms are different for long bed and short bed pick ups? I would think they would be different for correct Ackerman angle required for the difference in wheel base, but Ford could have just split the difference and ran identical parts on both.

 

Good question.




It looks like there is no difference between short or long wheel base.

 

Thanks Tomahawk! It sure does appear to be the case. I guess it's time to measure and see where it should be on a short bed.

 

I would bet Ford did not want to add another part number and called it close for both.

 

Maybe so. I really need to measure for myself, especially since I doubt there would have been enough Ackerman regardless.

I'm in the process of whittling up a new set of arms from ductile iron and have gotten to the point where I need to determine where to put the tapered tie rod hole, that's when the question had occurred to me if Ford paid much attention to Ackerman .

 

While I'm sure the engineers factored in ackerman, they didn't worry too much about the changes wheelbase made. Ask anyone who ever owned a 70s-80s Econoline. If you did a U-turn in a parking lot, the front tires squealed and left black marks. In fact a lot of cars do.

 

You cannot go by this 'generic' parts catalog pic, because it also applies to F250's. How many F250's came w/a short bed?

The R/L steering arms are the same: 1965/70 F100/250 2WD .. Long/short wheelbases make absolutely no difference.

Depending on the I-Beams cast ID number, 1971/72's might use the same arms.

 

How curious.

Not that it will be much help to many as I have AIM beams, but I'll report back when I get a chance to measure.

 

I ended up just making the new steer arms with an identical amount of Ackerman as I was worried I would run out of toe adjustment.

In the process I got to thinking about the steering geometry in general with lowering beams. The spacers provided by either airbagit or DJM drop the mount position down so the tie rods won't interfere with the radius arms, but for correct steering geometry shouldn't this be a recipe for bumpsteer?

 

I can't say for sure but I do have a dentside running DJM beams and adapters with no bumpsteer issues.

 

Hey Jon Richard...what's the quality of those aim drop beams

 

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Build quality is great, build accuracy however is adequate at best.
Camber on my beams as shipped was positive beyond specifications, with a *1 differential from side to side.
The side of the springs contacted the beams where the radius arm mount holes were drilled a tad too far outboard.

The excessive positive camber allowed me to lower the front 4" which is good, but the camber difference from side to side is enough to make her pull to the right a little, and airbagit couldn't explain why there is too much camber or a difference. I must say that I am unsure if I got the spindles mixed up and if that would explain why but I still need to swap them and re check camber.

I ended up running shorter custom coils atop a set of coil adjusters meant for offroad applications to set the lower coil seat higher to avoid the springs contacting the beams.

My opinion is they'll do the job if you diligently measure and are prepared to spend more time and money to get it to align and function properly. I can weld and fabricate and an IFS would be no problem, but I wanted to preserve the original attitude of my Ranger. I believe the greatest problem with twin I beam is the steering and not the beams themselves.

In the end I am driving it, but I purchased a second set of unwelded and undrilled beams and intend to build my own jig. I don't have DJM's to compare to but I still strongly believe AIM's are better constructed. If the alignment came out better with no coil contact I would be singing their praises from on high.

 

You did a nice work around on that front end. Good Job!

 

Thank you sir, but I'm far from finished. I plan to finish the other set of beams for the alignment I'm after, and replace the urathane bushings with Johnny joints- same for the radius arms. I have a '78 sway bar mounted upside down with aftermarket links meant for the rear of an Audi. I'm also actively modeling the front suspension on my computer to hopefully convert the steering.

Way over invested in twin I beam but she'll be unique.