Gary Lewis Posted May 3, 2019 Author Share Posted May 3, 2019 Did you ever check the crossmember information? You guys can keep your storms out there, past two Fridays have had severe storm warnings, this weekend it moved to Saturday. Bill - I'm not sure how to answer your question. I've looked but I have to translate "crew cab" to a wheelbase, which I think is 168". Then I look at the parts list, which appears to be #14, to see the answer, and I see 2wd and leaf springs, but no "DRW". So, maybe you can take a look. The info is here: Suspension & Steering/Crossmembers. As for the storms, I think Jonathan is sending them, not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 Bill - I'm not sure how to answer your question. I've looked but I have to translate "crew cab" to a wheelbase, which I think is 168". Then I look at the parts list, which appears to be #14, to see the answer, and I see 2wd and leaf springs, but no "DRW". So, maybe you can take a look. The info is here: Suspension & Steering/Crossmembers. As for the storms, I think Jonathan is sending them, not me. That was what I noticed, Darth does not have front leaf springs, rear yes, front has big coils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 That was what I noticed, Darth does not have front leaf springs, rear yes, front has big coils. Did Ford offer the F450(F-SuperDuty) before 1990? Could be why there is mention of leaf springs and 2wd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 Did Ford offer the F450(F-SuperDuty) before 1990? Could be why there is mention of leaf springs and 2wd. 1989 is when the F-super duty came out, had a friend with a roll back wrecker, 6.9L Diesel that seriously needed a couple of cans of compression in it. It was a live axle 2WD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Gary, In reply to your first post. Yes the bump rubbers are very close to an F-250's reverse arch springs. In large part to the TTB's inability to deal with geometry changes and partly because of the way the TTB twists the leaf spring on its bushing and shackles. There was a little discussion about this in the previous 2wd to 4wd F-250 thread. I have no idea what Ford was thinking and Bill refers to it as a crackhead design. Also due to the positions along the lever, the wheel travels quite a bit more that the spring, so 1" of up-travel at the spring is closer to a whopping 2" at the wheel. OK, maybe not enough to get excited about, but it is significantly better than it looks. By the way, that's also why you need to put F-350 springs on an F-250 if you swap to a solid axle. The F-250 springs are a lot stiffer than F-350 springs since they don't flex as much for the same wheel travel. Putting a solid axle under TTB springs gives a really stiff ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Gary, In reply to your first post. Yes the bump rubbers are very close to an F-250's reverse arch springs. In large part to the TTB's inability to deal with geometry changes and partly because of the way the TTB twists the leaf spring on its bushing and shackles. There was a little discussion about this in the previous 2wd to 4wd F-250 thread. I have no idea what Ford was thinking and Bill refers to it as a crackhead design. Also due to the positions along the lever, the wheel travels quite a bit more that the spring, so 1" of up-travel at the spring is closer to a whopping 2" at the wheel. OK, maybe not enough to get excited about, but it is significantly better than it looks. By the way, that's also why you need to put F-350 springs on an F-250 if you swap to a solid axle. The F-250 springs are a lot stiffer than F-350 springs since they don't flex as much for the same wheel travel. Putting a solid axle under TTB springs gives a really stiff ride. How far is it from the pivot point on the opposite side of the cross member to the center of the spring? And how far is is from the centerline of the spring to the centerline of the contact patch? I'm going to measure it tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 How far is it from the pivot point on the opposite side of the cross member to the center of the spring? And how far is is from the centerline of the spring to the centerline of the contact patch? I'm going to measure it tomorrow. The spring is about 60% of the way to the center of the tire, so my 2" was an exaggeration. It's really more like 1 5/8". But the point is that it's not quite as bad as it looks. And my '97 F-250 also has about 1" up-travel at the bump-stops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 How far is it from the pivot point on the opposite side of the cross member to the center of the spring? And how far is is from the centerline of the spring to the centerline of the contact patch? I'm going to measure it tomorrow. The spring is about 60% of the way to the center of the tire, so my 2" was an exaggeration. It's really more like 1 5/8". But the point is that it's not quite as bad as it looks. And my '97 F-250 also has about 1" up-travel at the bump-stops. So 1 5/8" wheel travel before the stop is contacted and maybe another 7/8--1" before it bottoms? It's really no wonder why 250 ball joints get destroyed so quickly. Somebody get Gary a 'new' cross member, D60, RSK and some Superduty springs. Not only will he appreciate the ride quality, the turning radius is greatly improved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 How far is it from the pivot point on the opposite side of the cross member to the center of the spring? And how far is is from the centerline of the spring to the centerline of the contact patch? I'm going to measure it tomorrow. The spring is about 60% of the way to the center of the tire, so my 2" was an exaggeration. It's really more like 1 5/8". But the point is that it's not quite as bad as it looks. And my '97 F-250 also has about 1" up-travel at the bump-stops. And I wonder why Big Blue rides so poorly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 So 1 5/8" wheel travel before the stop is contacted and maybe another 7/8--1" before it bottoms? It's really no wonder why 250 ball joints get destroyed so quickly. Somebody get Gary a 'new' cross member, D60, RSK and some Superduty springs. Not only will he appreciate the ride quality, the turning radius is greatly improved. Hmmmm, how hard is that to do? (Not the cross member, that's a given.) D60 from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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