I agree no cutting of coils. If you want to lower check with someone like Eaton Springs tell them "year/make/model/accessories" and tell them you are looking to lower the truck they can custom make you a set of springs to OEM specs that will lower said vehicle.

Only thing is going from memory I believe 1.5" is the lowest you can drop before you will encounter alignment problems. Could run into it a bit sooner though especially on a kingpin truck as I don't know a whole lot about them when it comes to lowering.

I didn't mean to get this thread on a tangent by mentioning the lowering thing. I just mentioned it because that seems to be the main reason for frontend swapping.

Well people need to know. it can cause unneeded headaches.

For us kingpin truck guys yes that is the "best" (only) way to do the lowering.
But I have seen it posted the later year trucks had better front disc brakes?
I don't see how but if you need the spindle on out to match the lowering beams then that is the only way to go.

I would like to get my truck a little lower, looks like a 4x4 now and it is stock using used springs F/R so don't know why?
But when the new pins wear out I will look for the later parts and do a lowering beam swap.
Dave ----

One thing that is easy to forget when assembly a project. Before tightening any of the frontend pieces/bushings, you need to put the weight of the normal vehicle with the engine installed, on the ground, on the wheels and tires, before tightening the front suspension pieces. On these trucks that would not be much, just the center pivot bushings and the radius arm bushings. And of course sway bar bushings if you have those.

Unless you upgrade to the Polyurethane bushings then it doesn't matter as they are free moving bushings unlike the old rubber bushings.

I have poly in the front when I rebuilt it but rubber out back.
I did not know that about the poly bushings.
I still have to nut & bolt the whole truck before it is put on the road as I dont remember what is and is not tighten now.
Dave ----

So this thread went off the rails

Anyways, I searched the forum threads for "lowering 1980 f100" and I didn't find many direct posts, but I did seem some users that had done so.

I was wondering if anyone here remembered any threads that had thorough and accurate information on such a task. If any does remember can they share the thread?

Not sure what you are looking for. It's a pure unbolt and bolt back in operation. Of course what you bolt in should be in good shape. I would use new pivot bushings and radius arm bushings. You might as well wait if the swapped in frontend needs balljoints. It would probably be better for it to be bolted to the frame to hold it in place while you press the balljoints out. Or once you bolted it in place you could drive it to a shop and let them do it.

Yep the polyurethane bushings you have to remove the rubber from your old shells and grease them so they are not physically attached to the shell or the pivot pin so they basically can move freely. Unlike rubber bushings where the bushing is vulcanized to the center pivot bushing as well as the outter shell then you have the teeth in the center pivot bushing that is supposed to bite and lock the bushing in place.

I just put mine together bolted it down torqued as close to spec as possible and then let it ride.

I posted in this thread what you have to do to lower the kingpin front suspension trucks.
In short if you have the small kingpins then DJM sells drop beams for the front & hanger kit for the rear. You will have to know the kingpin size for this.
or
You buy a complete ball joint front suspension like Franklin posted, buy the DJM beams to work with the ball joint parts and swap everything over to the drop beams and bolt into your truck.
I have an 81 kingpin truck so I know what you have to do as I looked into this.

Dave, he has kingpins in his truck now so he would need to buy the complete suspension for a ball joint truck and the drop beams and swap the parts around as needed.

I know you have to remove the rubber but keep the outer & inner shells. I soaked the bushings in old gas for a few hours then put flame to them and burned the rubber out. Worked really good, little clean up with wire brush, paint and they were ready for the poly bushings.
Never gave much thought to how they move over the rubber ones.
Dave ----

Have you ever used the drill bit method for removing old bushings from the shells? You take a fairly good size drill bit like 3/8 or so and you run it in reverse put it near the edge of the inner pin and let the drill bit walk around it will pull the pin out. Do the same with the rubber between the shell and it will walk the rubber out quick and easy.

I have heard of the drill bit trick but I had the old gas.
I hung the 2 beam assy. from the rafters in to 2 tin cans and let them soak.
Beside who doesn't like playing with fire LOL
Dave ----

I didn't go to all that trouble. I put a jack under my I beam pulled the pivot pin bolt out and lowered the jack just enough to get to the bushing did the bushing then jacked the I beam back up into place. Took me about 10 minutes to do both sides vs a complete disassembly of the I beams.

It was already out so was no trouble.
I was going to use the parts truck front suspension, has it cleaned painted and installed then found my wheels didn't fit.
Found yiy can't swap hubs or spindles because of the kingpin size.
So out it came cleaned, new kingpins and why I was going to use the other, new bushings other reason for the other, paint and installed.

It would have been nice to just drop the pivots drill out the rubber etc and be done I had to do it the hard way.
Dave - - - -