A-arm suspension

Looking for all the places that might sell A-arm suspension conversions.

So far I have:
Chirs Alston
Fatman Fabrications
No Limit Engineering
Heidts Hot Rod Shop
Rb's Obsolete Automotive
Bobs F100 Parts
Chassis Engineering

Bound to be more lets here them.

get it running and racing first.

dfree383 wrote:get it running and racing first.

Just go with me here for a little bit! I'm just searching for parts and pieces. I don't really want to spend the money for drop beams down the road if I can swap it over to a A-arm.

Edit: Besides I am trying to save money right now and I'm not going to start on the front suspension until it's running. It's nice not having to jack the front of the truck up to slide under it.

why do you need drop beams ??? So its in the air for a few seasons. Get focused on getting it together !!!!

I am!! All I am waiting on is cylinder heads basicly. Just have to save some more money before I can bring them home. List of things to do before the truck moves under it's own power.

Cylinder heads
camshaft / lifters
Headers
Converter
driveshaft
Shifter
carburator
Things is needs to have a chance to make it down the track.

Rear laddar bar
Replace the mini spool for a full spool
ditch the 28 spline axles
roll cage
brake lines

Things that make it look cool

Lower the front to match the rear
Hood
Paint
Things that make it faster
Convert front suspension

your truck should already have 31 spline axles.

dfree383 wrote:your truck should already have 31 spline axles.

Nope! LOL good ole 28 splines. The 31 splines that was in the 1979 F150 Lariat Camper Special was long gone. Probably 27-28 years ago. I swapped the unknown 3.05 gear 9" that came in the truck out with the axle I had in my 79. The pin or something is getting a little loose there is a fair amount of play. Street driving is hard on a mini spool.

dfree383 wrote:Get focused on getting it together !!!!

Yeah, don't pull a "Northwest outlaw" on us....

If you want a-arm IFS and are keeping the stock frame, I'd be looking at popping on a front clip from something else. Like an Aerostar or late model 2wd Explorer or something.... Early Dakota maybe?

Don't fall into the trap of doing a back-half, then later a strut front half, and leaving it all connected with a heavy-ass pickup frame in the middle!

That thought has crossed my mind also. I'm not going to do a strut suspension unless it's something like dougs. Not enough stroke in a strut for a truck of this size unless it's also 4-link. Might just stick with the ladder bar / leaf springs.

jones wrote:Looking for all the places that might sell A-arm suspension conversions.

So far I have:
Chirs Alston
Fatman Fabrications
No Limit Engineering
Heidts Hot Rod Shop
Rb's Obsolete Automotive
Bobs F100 Parts
Chassis Engineering

Bound to be more lets here them.

The problem with your list of shops to get an A-arm suspension kit from is it's a mix of drag racing & street rod suppliers. You need to choose if it's going to be a "drag truck" or a "street rod" before making your choice on which vendor to buy from.

If it's going to be a drag truck, throw out any of the "street rod" suppliers that's kit uses the Alden/Eagle nitrogen charged shocks (or similar). Go with a kit that uses one of the adjustable valving real "drag use" shocks on the market. And go with kits that use solid all metal rod-ends for the A-arm bushings, & the coil over shock bushings. A second choice for the A-arm bushings would be a greased metal-to metal sleeve bushing setup, a greased sleeved bronze bushing setup, or the hard plastic/hard urethane bushing setup.


If it's going to be a street rod truck, throw out any of the "drag racing" suppliers that's kit uses any kind of a solid all metal pivot joint on the components (for the A-arms, the coil over shock bushings, the sway bar joints, etc, etc). You want rubber or a soft squishy urethane compound (something flexible) for these joints. Some say that the Alden/Eagle nitrogen charged crap is supposed to be great for street rod use because of the smooth ride the nitrogen gives. But they will be useless in most any application once the seal farts & looses the nitrogen charge.

I want it all drag race. I am just trying to see if anyone else knows of more places to look for this type of stuff. I'm sure there has to be a company out there that sells these parts at a resonable price.
I don't see how they are charging as much for these parts when you compare these prices to CM Mustang K-members ans CM lower control arms.

When I had the Ranger, I wanted to build a strut-ish frontend, that used the factory I beam mount locations as the pivots. Basically, I wanted to replace the I beam and radius arm with tubing and use a Strange strut or maybe a Fox spindle & strut. Only major drawback besides price, was the fact you'd more than likely have to stay with the factory steering setup because a rack would cause all sorts of bumpsteer issues.

Ya, I'm not going to go through that again. I tried to do a conversion like that on the 79 but after taking a long hard look at the geometry the bump steer wasn't safe.

jones wrote:I want it all drag race. I am just trying to see if anyone else knows of more places to look for this type of stuff. I'm sure there has to be a company out there that sells these parts at a resonable price.

Jones,

If you're willing to lay down the $$, you can go the route I did and spring for the AJE set-up.

http://www.ajeracing.com/
(you'll have to call them as it's not on their website)

It's a pricy kit, as you may already know,..... but it comes with a complete Aerospace or Willwood brake kit, struts, springs, spindles, steering rack, steering shaft, steering knuckles and of course the K-Member that is made of either Chrome Moly or Mild Steel. (your choice)

It's priced around $3500 (give or take a few hundred according to what options you want)

I know it's a considerable amount of money, but if you take into consideration what your getting in the kit, it's not too bad. Plus,... it's a direct bolt end after you remove your factory stuff and cut out the OE engine cradle. It allows you to compete in racing classes that designate stock frame rails front-to-rear.

BigBlockRanger wrote:
Don't fall into the trap of doing a back-half, then later a strut front half, and leaving it all connected with a heavy-ass pickup frame in the middle!

Mine seems to work just fine. I don't know if you saw my thread as to how much my truck weighs, but it's LESS than 3000 lbs, with driver, full tank of fuel, and race ready. Don't seem like much of a trap to me. If I can make it to Mission B.C. this year, it's very possible I could be looking at my first pass in the 8's. Nice dig though. I did what I could afford to do on a next to nothing budget, and it works. As good as or better than most.

Josh, the most cost effective way to do it is just like mine. If you want all of my pics, just LMK. If you were closer, I'd help ya.








Doug...

heh heh I hoped you wouldn't read this thread. lmao

I just meant that if you go into a project knowing you want to front half and back half, skip the truck frame and lay down a couple of 2x3's and do it right the first time.

Doug, your truck is an evolutionary project like many people's projects are. Nothing wrong with that, but on a new build, it seems silly to saw off the front of the truck, then saw off the back and keep a short hunk of stock frame.