'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[SSLance]

I know it sucks having to cut all that stuff off that you worked so hard on Sean, but I think you'll like this revision a WHOLE lot better once it's all in place.

[Sbeck09]

Yeah now that I'm seeing the new setup come together I'm excited to see it completed and I'm definitely liking it all better. This was something that probably did need to happen anyway.

Speaking of that, yesterday I moved the motor mounts up to the frame which allowed me to cut out my V1 cross member. Poor truck looked so naked without a front suspension. I was able to roughly test fit the new subframe.



Yes it hangs lower, but is still an inch higher than the lowest point of the frame. The control arm mounting holes are 1/2" higher than before for better roll center at ride height. WAY more clearance around the oil pan now. I did cut the plates so they extend to the inside of the frame. I am going to use that to help with eliminating flexing of the frame rail under load after this is in. There is a plan.

If I had started with this, I would have mounted the engine about an inch lower, but I'm not changing all that now since I'm happy with how the drive train is placed. It's already almost 2" lower than stock anyway and I'm not about to redo the headers/exhaust again.

I'll do my prep work on the bottom of the frame this evening and get ready to really mount everything in. The control arms were painted yesterday and will be fully cured Tuesday afternoon. I'm so excited to see them assembled! Still trying to find a solution for my tie-rod adjusters. I might make a super simple version just for install purposes out of nuts and tube.

[WallaceMFG]

Wow, this looks great! It was a setback, but I agree it is much better now.

For tie rod adjusters, ridetech makes some nice billet ones, we have some on our Chevelle. I would look on their site if you know what thread you have to work with, or they can probably make some if you know what you need.

[Sbeck09]

For tie rod adjusters, ridetech makes some nice billet ones, we have some on our Chevelle. I would look on their site if you know what thread you have to work with, or they can probably make some if you know what you need.

They were one of the first I looked at. ridetech has treated me so well and sold me off-catalog parts 4 times already so I'd love to give them the business. Unfortunately, they had nothing close that I saw. Maximum Motorsports has a kit that is closer, but still not quite long enough. I'm gonna ask the machine shop down the street if they can knock it out for a reasonable price. It's just a 1" dia, 11" long aluminum rod with 9/16-18 RH on one end and 5/8-18 LH on the other. How hard can it be?

For now you guys will get to see what happens when I resort to Shade Tree Engineering to keep things moving.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

How will your steering linkage look? Also what is the width between your lower control arm mounts ? New revision looks great!

[Sbeck09]

How will your steering linkage look? Also what is the width between your lower control arm mounts ? New revision looks great!

Just like any other power steering rack with the standard inner tie rods and the Female adjuster sleeve connecting to a heim at the spindle (same layout as I had before with all new components now). Basically a straight line like any bump steer kit. The sleeve allows really easy toe adjustment.

Width of the inner pivots is 24.25" on center.

Glad you guys like this setup too! I bet it looks so good on the ground with everything fitting properly this time. I'm hoping to see that by the end of the week since I have a work trip early next week. I'd like to be able to start on the cage this weekend before I leave.

[Sbeck09]

False alarm boys! I just mocked up the entire lower section. Oh. My. God. I'm soooooo freakin happy with the results and this is SUPER rough on positioning. All I did was assemble the arms and eyeball it in the frame with it all supported by the ATV jack.



Would you believe that it works?! I mean I do, but still...4th time is the charm apparently.



On that note we are clear to measure carefully and install everything permanently. This truck is gonna hurt some feelings in the corners, I just know it! The only issue I found is the little steering limiter built into my steering arms, but that's ok because I can whack that off with the grinder real quick. These racks are internally limited anyway unlike the stock steering of the A bodies.

The reason I say false alarm is because I still can't do math. My tie-rod adjusters don't need to be 11". I just need about 7". I'm sure someone has that with the threads I stated above. I'll look at some Foxbody angle kits since those cars use the same tie-rods.

LET'S GOOOOOO!

[WallaceMFG]

This might be what you need. Only thing they do not list is the total length, but I'm sure one call to MM will get that answer.

https://www.maximummotorsports.com/B...tyle-P452.aspx

I almost bought this setup when I had the SN95 arms on my Rustang before scrapping that and going back to Fox parts. They are enough longer that they might get you what you need. You could also swap the inner tire rods for ones from an SN95, they are quite a bit longer than the Fox ones. But they are metric thread so you'd have to get a outer tie rod to match.

[Sbeck09]

Totally forgot about the SN95 rods threading right in since the base rack is physically identical. According to Flaming River (love all the data they share) the SN95 tie-rods are 1.5" longer per side. That is definitely an improvement, but if those MM adjusters are close to 7 inches I'll just go that route for simplicity. I was actually planning to call them shortly to see if they would say how long those are. I also found some from a drift angle kit that look nice and long as well. I bet I'll find a solution here in a day or so. Worst case, Flaming River will do a custom length set of tie-rods. I just don't like having wear parts that are custom made.

[Sbeck09]

I did a bunch of calling about the bump steer kits and the longest adjuster I can find is 6". I could do 6.5", but I'm not comfortable with less than that. I thought about buying different tie-rods, which would work, but I have to buy the adjusters anyway so that's $150-200 no matter what and the tie-rods are another $50. I'll just see if the local machine shop can knock out the adjusters for a fair price first.

I whipped up some dummy adjusters real quick with scrap tube and 2 nuts (thank you Amazon for 24hr delivery on special threads) so I can work on making the rack mount and hold the spindles straight. Totally works for this, but I would never consider driving with these. I'm not even sure I want to set it on the ground with something so minimal.



Now for what you've all be waiting for...upper and lower arms and the new cradle are solidly tacked in. WHEW!



So 2 weeks of me overthinking and stressing little things resulted in exactly what I wanted. The 2 biggest things remaining is to come up with a new upper shock mount and make the steering rack mounts. The rest of what it needs is all related to finish welding and adding support plates.

Now to build a roll cage. Never thought I would say this, but compared to building a suspension from scratch, the cage will be a nice break. Haha.

Anyone able to measure the width of a ridetech coilover bearing with standard spacers?

[CamaroAJ]

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Garag...-RH,93591.html

[Sbeck09]

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Garag...-RH,93591.html

Wow that's a great find! Too bad it looks like they discontinued that one

Thanks for sharing. I'll have to look at see if any other circle track suppliers have it.

[CamaroAJ]

Wow that's a great find! Too bad it looks like they discontinued that one

Thanks for sharing. I'll have to look at see if any other circle track suppliers have it.

The part number is listed. Call the company that made it and see if they can make you a set.

[Sbeck09]

The part number is listed. Call the company that made it and see if they can make you a set.

Good tip, we now have a firm solution. I'll share more when it arrives.

[Sbeck09]

Making steady progress!

Last night I got the upper shock mounts tacked back on. I like this setup much better how it ties the A plates into the frame better. I'll still need to add some additional support to feel totally comfortable.



I have to give all the credit to Lance for my sway bar decisions. He provided excellent insight which resulted in what I believe to be optimal placement for my chassis. It's tucked up slightly above the bottom of the new subframe and just in front of the oil pan sump. All located behind the front suspension so no steering interference.



And just to see what all of the components look like together I grabbed a caliper. This is all going to look so awesome once I weld it out and paint everything!



So there you have it. Just about done fabbing the front and onto the cage next. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we are disassembling for final welding and paint.

[Sbeck09]

Didn't have as much time as I wanted to work on the truck this weekend, but I got stuff done so I guess that counts. I have a work trip to fly out for tomorrow morning, but I'll be back in time to do some work Tuesday night.

We left off a couple days ago where I had just test fitted the sway bar. I got worried about tire clearance at full lock so I mocked everything up with the driver's side wheel/tire turned all the way left. This was also my first chance to see how sharp I can turn. I believe this will be fine to start off. If I want more angle later we can revisit the steering arms again.



Miles of room if you look at the rear of the tire vs the splines on the bar. And remember that we won't be adding any additional backspacing with wider wheels. That will all go outboard.

Then I needed to shorten the arms and drill the holes for endlink bolts. So 5" chopped off and 4 holes later I had the perfect result. The second hole is in case I want to try adjusting the bar firmer later. We will try the softest setting first (yes I know we want a stiff bar Lance. lol)



I spent a while looking things over and generally thinking about how best to mount a bar that is trying to twist itself with forces potentially approaching 900+ lbs. Then I happened to see some 1/4" thick angle iron sitting there and it seemed like a reasonable solution.



I'll definitely add some triangle gussets to help, but it's pretty solid even just tacked. I didn't snap a pic, but I have room to go to a thicker bar later if I want. I also made sure that the slotted holes on the mounts slide the bar forward for that as well. It's like a symphony there.

Since I couldn't decide how I wanted to mount the links to the control arms I turned my attention to the steering rack. After looking at a TON of pics online of many different IFS setups with similar racks I decide to use some heavy wall square tube with a "cap" that holds the nut without a wrench. It worked perfectly.



All I need is my new adjusters to show up, but I can now move on while I wait. You may notice that the rack is tilted backwards. That is on purpose. It gave more room for the mounting nut without modifying any structure, better aligned the arms with the spindles, and gave much needed room for routing my oil lines. I got the idea from a bunch of weld on IFS systems that are done that way and I liked it. It also moved my steering shaft 1/2" further from the headers which was nice.



So with that done I started back on the endlink mounts. Literally 2 hours of playing with different ideas later I think I hit one that checks all the boxes. Plenty of range of motion, ease of adjustment/removal, strong enough, and looks good.



It's not super pretty yet, but it's made with 1/4" wall tube and plate with a 1/2" grade 8 bolt. I have seen lesser mounts on aftermarket control arms hold up on many cars.

So with that, every single component on my custom made front suspension system is there. All that is left is disassembly, finish welding, and paint. That will wait until I do the firewall mods and cage since everything is being disassembled, welded fully, and painted at that point. Feels kinda weird already not having to spend most of my brain power on suspension theory. I've always had something to do on it until now, but I'm beyond excited to make progress elsewhere.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Do you have good tire clearance when you turn right at the adjuster sleeve?

[Sbeck09]

Do you have good tire clearance when you turn right at the adjuster sleeve?

Barely clears, but it is crazy close. Luckily these tubes are about 1/8" larger in diameter than my new solid aluminum adjusters will be so I should be ok. I'm going to be watching that very closely. Yet another reason that I wish I had better steering arm options.

[Savage]

I have really enjoyed following along with your thread! This is an awesome build! I appreciate that you have shared your trials and tribulations as you have progressed through the project!

I look forward to seeing track clips of the truck in the future!

[Sbeck09]

I have really enjoyed following along with your thread! This is an awesome build! I appreciate that you have shared your trials and tribulations as you have progressed through the project!

I look forward to seeing track clips of the truck in the future!

Thank you, that means a lot! I hope that people potentially afraid to start an advanced project, in case they screw up, see that it's ok to make a mistake and redo it over again with lessons learned. 4x if you're me. Haha.

I've been working on this thing every evening so updates are coming. I'm just trying to make sure it has good stuff for you guys.