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Ok, 2 projects left, to call both the Superduty suspension upgrade, and the aluminum bed upgrade complete on the F250. #1, we need a front sway bar, and that means we need to replace the old drop-tracbar bracket with a 'stock' one. So, enter one new bracket from Sky's Offroad Design:  painted...  ...and installed!  Tracbar angle looks decent, and it means weve now got room to reinstall the swaybar  ...and done! This was the last piece of the puzzle, that now completes the SD suspension swap. Moving on, the final thing i needed to do to finish the utility/dump bed conversion, was to make & install some mud flaps. I welded a piece of 1" angle iron to the bed, and then whipped up a simple mud flap using some scraps i had laying around in the garage:   Nothing left to do now, but drive! Ok first off, having a backup camera on the diesel is a game changer:  Tomorrow we leave for the ECBR, so i was doing my pre-trip inspection of the trucks & trailer
That's when i saw it. A broken main leaf!  No time to delay, so i tore into it right away. This doesnt look like it broke yesterday.  Spring pack out  ...and the broken main removed  Fortunately i saved the leafs from the '90 bronco i bought (that tub is now gray, and on my frame). They were built super dumb, but the mains looked good, and the PO had replaced the bushings shortly before i bought his project  I broke that pack down plus mine, wire wheeled all the leafs, and put that main into my pack:  ...and reinstalled!  ...all done and ready to go!  ...and all loaded up on the trailer!  This will be the true test of the SD spring upgrade on the diesel. First impressions are that the rear springs are going to carry the weight just fine; with the bronco on the trailer behind me im just starting to engage the helper springs  We'll find out how well it tows tomorrow! While the rear was apart and i was waiting on swaybar bushings, i decided to inspect the rear brakes  Shoes & wheel cylinders looks good, but theres still an issue
Somehow the parking brake lever got up on top of the rear shoe. Explains why the rear shoes were loose; theres no way the brakes would self-adjust like this. Since the linings are still in good shape i rolled the welder over and made a small weld on top of the shoe so the arm cant slip up there again.  This will work for now,and ill replace the shoes & the lever arm sometime later in the summer. Moving on, the rear swaybar is now reinstalled...  ...which means we can move on to the exhaust
  ...and with that done, there was nothing left to do, but put eh tires on, and set it back on all fours once more!    Took it for a test drive, and the ride is night & day better. Its amazing how much smoother it is now, it just soaks up the bumps on the highway. Theres still a few things to do (like get a new upper tracbar mount), and i need to get the tracbar adjusted and re-center the wheel, but thats about it. Got it done just in time for the East Coast Bronco Roundup next week! This is where we left off  I went to put the passenger side spring in, but i have some clearance issues:   No time to delay, so i cut the tailpipe off and kept moving  Lots of room now  Driver side spring in  With both springs in, i moved the jackstands from the frame to the axle. The springs flatten out nicely, looks like im still going to need my 4" block to keep the rider height similar  This pic reminds me i forgot to check the pinion angle, but from here it looks good! Today or tomorrow im going to adjust the brakes and them get some fresh paint on the hubs, that way monday i can put my rear sway bar on (bushings slated to arrive today). I also ordered some stainless 45º elbows so i can hopefully get the tailpipe rerouted to clear the springs. We'll see how that goes Monday/Tuesday. Getting close! Cant help myself. Love the new stance!  Still running my drop tracbar bracket from my 20 something year old 6" lift kit. The bar angle looks good...  ...but theres a problem. The truck is now so low that the tracbar bracket is hitting the sway bar!  Not much i can do, but to remove the sway bar for now  Im going to have to source a stock tracbar bracket, but i doubt theres time to find one before we leave for the East Coast Bronco Roundup in two weeks, so for now the sway bar will have to stay off. ...And since i had to turn the truck around, i went for a quick spin around the block. All i can say is wow! What a difference in how it rides compared to before. Cant wait to see how it handles once the rear springs and swaybars are back on. So, nothing left to do now, but start tearing into the rear!  Rear swaybar has joined the front  Dont worry, the rear bar will be going right back on, with all new bushings. Axle unbolted, 4" blocks removed:  ...and the springs are coming out! Thankfully i had replaced all 4 hangars a few years back, so none of the bolts were seized yet  Thought this was interesting. The arch between both packs is similar, but its pretty obvious the new ones are a wee bit heavier!  ...and where we're at for the day.  Calling it here for the day. The next move is to drill out the front hangars (the SD springs use an 18mm bolt as opposed to the older trucks' 5/8" bolt). From there it should be as simple as just bolting it all together. We'll see soon enough! My shackles came, and that means one thing....the front suspension can finally go back together! V codes getting installed:  One new set of Bilstein 5100s:  ...and done!  Going from X-code to V-code, the front end has gone down 1.25". Subtle, but i do like the look! Everything in the front end is still loose; tomorrow ill go back through and torque everything down, and then we can turn it around and start on the rear suspension! So the F250 has been sitting idle...  ...because i made a tragic error. The PMF shackle doesnt fit in Sky's shackle hangar!  It might look like its close, but its not. The upper bushing is too big, and it uses a 3/4" bolt instead of 5/8". Dont know how i missed that, but i did. So i ordered the stubby shackles from Sky since i know they will work, as thats how i did it on the 90 bronco. You can see how much different they are in size in this pic:  Not sure how i goofed on that one, but i did. Hopefully the shackles get here soon. In the meantime, ive turned my attention to the green bronco, and its cracked striker bolt:  When i removed the striker, the captured nut & plate fell from behind. Seems the cracks started at the spot welds 
I ended up cutting a pretty big hole in the sheetmetal to get all of the cracks removed  New patch panel made, with captured nut plate all cleaned up and ready to be reinstalled.  I dont have a pic of it apparently, but rather than spot weld it to the back of the patch panel in two places like ford did, i fully welded it. It also seems i was in the zone and didnt snap any pics during the process, so heres the finished product:
For now the tire carrier is off the truck. I have some other issues i have to deal with. #1, this shot striker bushing:  ...which caused some heavy wear on the latch jaws:  ...all of which was probably caused by this pin/bushing being shot:  ...so ive got a few more things to deal with. Parts on order, so we'll come back to this one at a later date. all 4 leaf springs are done being rebuilt again. This time fully coated in graphite paint, and the steel shims from the excursion leafs are in the rear pack now instead of the plastic ones i made  Brought the truck around, and snapped the very last pic before i rip the suspension apart again  It already has a PMF 2.25" Superduty Shackle Reversal kit on it. This time around im replacing the original spring hangar on the frame rail with Sky's low clearance one:  Yesterday i got the driver side bracket on the frame:  Today its raining, so maybe tomorrow i can get the passenger side bracket swapped. I thought this was interesting- shows the difference between the X code leafs im removing, and the V codes im installing   The X code has almost a full inch more arch to it, and both leafs are 1/8" thicker in the middle & 1/16" thicker at the ends. So this pretty much confirms what everyone on the internet says, that the front end should go down ~1" and the ride should be nice & soft. We'll find out soon enough. One of my front shocks is shot, so i ordered a pair of Bilsteins which should get here tomorrow. Hopefully the weatherman is wrong, and i get some dry days here so i can get the front-end done and get it turned around so i can tear into the rear. Just a couple weeks to go before the East Coast Bronco Roundup, so i gotta get this thing done! Oh yeah, this is cool too. I tossed the X codes into the rear of the DD bronco and brought em to work, because a coworker bought em off me. I had some issues closing the tailgate though. Check this out:  Gotta hurry up and get the red one done, because it looks like the green one needs some sheet metal repaired asap!
Any job worth doing, is worth doing twice! Or something like that. I bought a couple cans of Slip Plate (which is graphite paint), so i disassembled the springs and repainted them. Ive also decided to use the steel shims from the Excursion packs, so they got painted too:
If i have time this weekend im going to start assembling them. I also have to get the 4th pack apart & painted. Going to try to get that done so i can hopefully start the front spring swap monday. Theres been lots of rain in the forecast, and theres more coming so we'll see how this all goes. So im starting the suspension upgrade. From top to bottom: rear Excursion (G code) rear Superduty (B code) front Superduty (V code)  ...and a set of the correct helper springs  I also bought a set of Sky's low clearance shackle hangars & their adjustable tracbar.  Springs coming apart:  ...and after some wire wheeling and paint
i bought a whole bunch of new anti-friction pads from Dorman, because most all of them were shot Amazon.com  Ford used these plastic shims between the leafs, but all of mine were broken except for one  Fortunately Speedway sells it in a roll, which i already had from rebuilding the leafs in the '90, so i made some new ones  ...and now ive got the rear springs all back together!  I added the 2 lower leafs from the Excursion pack to the B codes, hopefully itll work out well  I goofed on the front leafs, the new center pins i ordered have a shoulder thats too long for a 2-leaf pack. Also apparently the local spring shop closed their doors so i had to order another set online, which i wont get until probably Friday. So i guess its going to be another week until i can swap the front springs. |
