help? DIY front suspension set up?

[Cribby]

hello, My first post here, I am new to the whole handling movement. I have built a couple 12 second drag cars (nothing too impressive, but i do everything on a really low budget), but never one for taking a corner. I am interested in designing my own front suspension for a project that i am planning. and by designing I mean, taking oem parts that are readily available and mounting them on my frame. until i can afford to upgrade those parts with better parts for more adjust-ability.

so i guess i should tell you about my project? I came across a pretty decent deal on a 1990 ford f-250 2wd, 460/5speed. cab and chassis truck. now I know what your thinking, "what the hell? you want to make that handle?". I just want it to be on par with some of the low to mid range protouring cars. not looking for anything to mop up porsches, and top dollar camaro builds. just something to take to the autox, and bomb around on the mountain roads. the truck will be getting gutted ( shooting for 3000#'s) and shortened up a lot. looking for a 112"-124" wheel base, still not sure what i will do yet on that front.

the truck has the twin beam ifs. I am not a fan of this set up, never have been. But how would you guys approach this? ditching the beams, and running say crown victoria uca's and lca's with a coilover? all i want is double wishbone ifs, that i run a coil over over with. I cannot afford a custom front clip. i cant afford to run big ass brakes right now. I want everything to be done with stock parts that i can get from a junk yard. Are there any threads that have done a similar thing? not on a f-250, but anything really. i am actively searching, but have yet to find what i am looking for.

how should i go about mounting the a arms? what car do you think i should use as a doner?

thanks a bunch,
Cribby

[bryant]

i would get the whole crown vic front clip. i dont know about the 90 truck frame but the 60-70s truck frames are the same width as the crown vic frame.
take the whole crown vic clip, and rack and pinion. lots of info about this swap on the ford truck forums. i would suggest getting an explorer rear diff for the truck. it will give you a lighter weight differential, with disk brakes. they can be found with limited slip. good gear ratios for performance and are 31 spline axles. the other option i would suggest for the rear end is to take a 05 or newer mustang rear end and its suspension and adapt it into the truck frame. its a 3 link suspension that would really deliver great performance.

[MonzaRacer]

Another point is that many of the GM b car race cars use crown vice lower control arms(older) versions, so you COULD invariably install pretty much everything off a Bcar is spindles, work up control arms maybe from race parts, this would also allow relatively easy bolt on of Kore 3 brake adapters and use brake parts from or up grade parts for a C5 C6 Vette up front. I have several guys using big Ford brakes and having so may caliper/rotor/pad issues. Not sure why but several have completely dumped big Ford brake completely.
If width of front end is odd ball simply having center link split and lengthened is basically just machine work(one I saw actually got it threaded and had bigadjuster nut in middle. He could set total toe with center link OR tie rod adjusters. And ran double jam nuts on center link. VERY odd looking but he loves it. He has a rod set that touches wheel lips, one for his turning toe out set up, and one for road toe in set up. He runs about .8 deg toe out on track and car will TURN hard. His issue was getting it back to raod setting without lots of hassle.
He knows one full tune moves wheels out X far and his steering wheel is still straight. He also found enough parts to set up Grand Cherokee fast ratio box up, since Lee went out of business. As far as I know Seepdway can source CV control arms with GM ball joint. Since dumping my 84 Caprice project I don't have information handy.

[Motorcitydak]

If you are bold enough, you could build just about everything yourself! I ended up using c5/c6 corvette knuckles and hubs, built everything else myself. Yes, OEM parts are good but they are never really optimal for exactly what you are doing. If you can weld, and really trust what you are doing, you can build your own control arms, steering components and suspension mounting locations. It ends up pretty easy actually is if you do everything yourself, pretty cheap too

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/20150515_160101_zpskayscizw-1.jpg (http://s57.photobucket.com/user/motorcitydak/media/20150515_160101_zpskayscizw.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/20150515_130411_zpsmdqjqyvn-1.jpg (http://s57.photobucket.com/user/motorcitydak/media/20150515_130411_zpsmdqjqyvn.jpg.html)

The big challenge will be actually figuring out where to put the suspension mounting points and getting good camber gain with minimal bump steer, etc....but if you are not going for the ultimate handling machine, those little details will be less important

[Cribby]

i would get the whole crown vic front clip. i dont know about the 90 truck frame but the 60-70s truck frames are the same width as the crown vic frame.
take the whole crown vic clip, and rack and pinion. lots of info about this swap on the ford truck forums. i would suggest getting an explorer rear diff for the truck. it will give you a lighter weight differential, with disk brakes. they can be found with limited slip. good gear ratios for performance and are 31 spline axles. the other option i would suggest for the rear end is to take a 05 or newer mustang rear end and its suspension and adapt it into the truck frame. its a 3 link suspension that would really deliver great performance.

thanks for the info Bryant. I am currently looking into the crown vic full sub-frame. Just looking for the frame with of the truck, and mounting point width's for the crown vic sub frame. and I was thinking about keeping the stock rear end, just for kicks. because stage 1 is just shortening the frame, and converting the front suspension. eventually i will get more serious with the truck.

[Cribby]

Another point is that many of the GM b car race cars use crown vice lower control arms(older) versions, so you COULD invariably install pretty much everything off a Bcar is spindles, work up control arms maybe from race parts, this would also allow relatively easy bolt on of Kore 3 brake adapters and use brake parts from or up grade parts for a C5 C6 Vette up front. I have several guys using big Ford brakes and having so may caliper/rotor/pad issues. Not sure why but several have completely dumped big Ford brake completely.
If width of front end is odd ball simply having center link split and lengthened is basically just machine work(one I saw actually got it threaded and had bigadjuster nut in middle. He could set total toe with center link OR tie rod adjusters. And ran double jam nuts on center link. VERY odd looking but he loves it. He has a rod set that touches wheel lips, one for his turning toe out set up, and one for road toe in set up. He runs about .8 deg toe out on track and car will TURN hard. His issue was getting it back to raod setting without lots of hassle.
He knows one full tune moves wheels out X far and his steering wheel is still straight. He also found enough parts to set up Grand Cherokee fast ratio box up, since Lee went out of business. As far as I know Seepdway can source CV control arms with GM ball joint. Since dumping my 84 Caprice project I don't have information handy.

MonzaRacer, Thanks for the help, But i am looking on doing this on a budget with readily available junk yard parts for now or fabbing up my own. eventually i will upgrade the parts to proper high performance parts. not looking for anything too exotic.

[Cribby]

If you are bold enough, you could build just about everything yourself! I ended up using c5/c6 corvette knuckles and hubs, built everything else myself. Yes, OEM parts are good but they are never really optimal for exactly what you are doing. If you can weld, and really trust what you are doing, you can build your own control arms, steering components and suspension mounting locations. It ends up pretty easy actually is if you do everything yourself, pretty cheap too

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/20150515_160101_zpskayscizw-1.jpg (http://s57.photobucket.com/user/motorcitydak/media/20150515_160101_zpskayscizw.jpg.html)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/20150515_130411_zpsmdqjqyvn-1.jpg (http://s57.photobucket.com/user/motorcitydak/media/20150515_130411_zpsmdqjqyvn.jpg.html)

The big challenge will be actually figuring out where to put the suspension mounting points and getting good camber gain with minimal bump steer, etc....but if you are not going for the ultimate handling machine, those little details will be less important

Thanks motorcitydak. I would be willing to build everything myself, as i will be getting welded up enough to load it on a trailer and bring it to a pro-welder to have it finished up. I will be scrapping a my old Nissan hard-body this week. So i could save the spindles and such, but with fabbing up a complete custom set up, I am worried about getting my mounting points correct. if I had a how to on how to do it right or a mentor who has done this before, I would be very interested in doing it that way. Still a newbie to fiddling with custom suspension design.

[Cribby]

I do have a set of 3" drop lower control arms for a obs chevy half ton. but not sure on how i can modify them for coilovers or make a coil bucket for the coils.

[Cribby]

I do have a set of 3" drop lower control arms for a obs chevy half ton. but not sure on how i can modify them for coilovers or make a coil bucket for the coils.

My bad, the f-250 already has coils. So maybe i can get my arms work if i make the brackets in the right places? I also have a spare nissan d21 that i am thinking about taking the front end off of. Its getting stripped and crushed anyways. Was thinking about keeping the parts as spares for my daily.