extended radius arms and transmission crossmember

[jwsewell]

after installing f150 coils and bending the beams it was time to correct the caster. I was at -1.8 degrees caster on both sides with the stock radius arms.

I used 2x2 .250 thick and .250 plate and reused the stock studs and bushings.

Oh, and a lil' diff. than most, I center mounted the radius arms.













I cycled the arms and they clear the trans. pan, exhaust and frame at full bump.

Tomorrow I'll get it on the alignment rack and make sure everything is good then add some gussets to the arms, triangulated braces behind the crossmember to the frame and frame side plates for the crossmember and braces.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Looks good to my eye, not that says much. I was going to suggest some upgrades but you got to that in the last bit of your post.
Nice welds too.

Richard

 

[jwsewell]

Yesterday I got the side plates for the cross member welded on and bolted to the frame. Also added .250 plate gussets to the radius arms.









The alignment was next Caster went from - 1.8 degrees RF & LF to + 7.6 on RF and + 3.9 on LF. I slotted the through bolt hole on the bottom of the LF radius arm and welded the washer 360 degrees and got LF caster to + 6.7!!! Cross caster is .9 with RF leading!



The truck drives great. Very stable with very little body roll, (even without sway bars). F150 coil springs are not stiff at all in my opinion, but I do have a 5.0L.

I have a slight pull to the right. Well push actually since it is caused by the rear axle not being perfectly parallel to the vehicle center line.

Rear toe is -.4 on LR and +.2 on RR.

I need to adjust the thrust angle. Back at it tomorrow.

 

[jwsewell]

Looks good to my eye, not that says much. I was going to suggest some upgrades but you got to that in the last bit of your post.
Nice welds too.

Richard

Thanks. I don't know about nice welds but they will hold better than bubble gum would I suppose. Lol

 

[scotts90ranger]

I need to do that REALLY BAD! I can't push the radius arms to the center like that because of the front driveshaft, but still, the silly thing is I think I have enough material to do everything, just not the time

 

[jwsewell]

I was able to bend the drivers side beam on the truck with heat and a harbor freight porta-power and some chain. I can adjust the eccentric to get positive or negative camber.

Not so lucky on the passenger side beam.
I had to heat and bend it off the truck with a 20 ton press.

Sitting here at the shop on my day off waiting for a single upper ball joint. Damn threads stripped out when removing them.


Hoping to get it back together and aligned in the next few hours........

 

[Divh]

And some flex shots after

 

[jwsewell]

I have a few "poser" flex shots I can post. Can't figure out how to link photobucket pics on my Ipad, I'll do it as soon as I get back to my laptop.


Well I got that sumbitch aligned finally.

Camber - RF 0.3 degrees LF 0.3 degrees (I can go more positive or negative if I choose)

Caster - RF 7.9 degrees LF 7.4 degrees

Toe - .20 degrees

 

[jwsewell]

here is pic of the passengers side beam bent for camber



Poser flex shots.
Still need to address my shock issue. The only thing I have done is add 3 inch extensions to the front shocks so they are not fully extended at ride height.








A pic of the 5.0

 

[jwsewell]

this is a pic of the camber after bending the passenger beam. with the eccentric at the same location that was giving me 1.7 degrees positive camber.


I was pretty sure I screwed up but I was able to adjust the eccentric to get the desired camber

here are a couple of before and after pics that can be compared to show the actual bend in the passengers beam. The bend in drivers beam is the same in both pics.

Before


After


What the truck used to look like, (and no the body was no were as straight as it appears in this pic. LOL )

 

[Divh]

boy thought it would stuff more then that

 

[jwsewell]

boy thought it would stuff more then that

Yeah, I kinda did too. Lol. It's all good I prefer to go at a quicker pace than trail riding.

The front springs are pretty stiff. I like the ride, every bit as sporty feeling if not more so than when it was lowered. The ride isn't overly harsh by any means.