OH! The Irony! or The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

[luvmy40]

I busted a spring on the driver's side front strut of my F150 last week. Gotta luv Ohio pot holes!

 

Now the front end of this truck has always been quite a bit lower than rear and I thought it looked kind of silly. I did a little couch surfing and discovered there is a thriving industry in supplying "Leveling Kits" for the F series trucks. I wasn't about to tear the front end apart just to add the leveling blocks, but since the struts had to be replaced anyway, I decided to add the 1-1/2" leveling kit in the process.

 

I went with AutoZone's LS, OEM spec loaded struts and ordered the leveling pucks from Amazon. Me and a buddy from work did the install yesterday afternoon. I'm glad I had help! That was quite the little job.

 

Here's the ironic part;

 

After the new parts and modification, the rear end is exactly 1-1/2" lower than the front.

 

Rear end lift kit? I sure do not want to tear that front end apart again!

[SpencerPJ]

Might as well do rear shocks why you are at it, you'll be happy you did.

Don't feel bad, I had crazy stupid knocking sound coming from my 05 YukonXL last week, would have swore a rod. Turned out a alternator. Never heard that kind of sound from an alternator. Of course, the expensive 160 amp. At least I wasn't on the ground.

[RDawson]

Might as well do rear shocks why you are at it, you'll be happy you did.

Don't feel bad, I had crazy stupid knocking sound coming from my 05 YukonXL last week, would have swore a rod. Turned out a alternator. Never heard that kind of sound from an alternator. Of course, the expensive 160 amp. At least I wasn't on the ground.

 

Funny you mention that, guy at work was recently telling me his F150 locked up after shutting it off. I popped the belt off and it fired right up. AC compressor locked up and the belt wouldn't let the starter turn it. Ran into the same thing with the local Sheriff dept on a cruiser years ago but it was the alternator locked. They brought it to me for a new engine, very surprised to get it back the same day and the much lower bill.

[Patch]

I've experienced the rear bearings blow out of the altimeters with bad rebuilds (china parts)

We know that the compressors seize up from being low on freon or use of the wrong type.

We know that engines stall after starting in cold weather from bad oil.

 

But a Ford showing signs of weakness and fatigue? Never heard that before!

[CaseyJ955]

The year F150 makes a difference, live axles are a whole lot easier to work with but I'll assume yours is newer. if it's been around awhile the rears are probably sagging a bit, especially if you use it like a truck.

 

I've been a Ford guy forever, and the leveling kits are a reality from Rangers all the way up the F series range, or used to be. I got a kit for my Ranger that was 2" rear and 4" up front, it sat just about right after that. Since that nosedive does effect front end geometry you may feel a difference in handling after this, albeit probably inconsequential.

 

There is a slight chance that you may get some driveline vibration, prolly not but it could happen when the drive line angles change with lift. I doubt your lifting enough to worry about that. Make sure you check for vibration on your test drive, get the fronts locked in and see how she feels.

 

For a daily driver I can sure see why leveling it would be preferential. We left our work trucks with the Ford nosedive, when loaded they level out and ride just about as they should.

[RDawson]

I've experienced the rear bearings blow out of the altimeters with bad rebuilds (china parts)

We know that the compressors seize up from being low on freon or use of the wrong type.

We know that engines stall after starting in cold weather from bad oil.

 

But a Ford showing signs of weakness and fatigue? Never heard that before!

 

Hate to bust your bubble but those Ford police cars made me a bunch of $$$$ back in my wrenching days.

An idea on your truck issue is to hang some fuzzy dice and carpet the dash with the high front. :stirthepot:

[BlueSky]

Way back, I put the biggest sway bars on my 70 302 Mustang that I could buy at that time. It came with a 5/8" bar on the front and no bar on the rear. After that it had a serious oversteer. One day going to work I pulled out to pass a car and another car popped up in the oncoming lane so I had to swerve back quickly. The rear broke loose on dry pavement. After fighting the skidding left and right a few times I ended up in a shallow ditch on the right side of the road. I drove out and there was no damage to the car or to me. After that I knew I had to stiffen the front end which I did with 428 Mustang front springs. The front end was raised about 1 1/2". So I took the springs out and hacksawed about 3/4 of a coil off the ends. After that it sat about 1/2" lower than stock which was what i wanted. I took it to the Kmart parking lot on Sunday and drove around in a circle which proved that the handling was neutral. If you drive a car in a circle while holding the steering wheel in the same location if it makes a smaller circle each time around it is oversteering. If it makes a larger circle each time, it's understeering. It works and you don't have to drive fast to test it.

[Patch]

Way back, I put the biggest sway bars on my 70 302 Mustang that I could buy at that time. It came with a 5/8" bar on the front and no bar on the rear. After that it had a serious oversteer. One day going to work I pulled out to pass a car and another car popped up in the oncoming lane so I had to swerve back quickly. The rear broke loose on dry pavement. After fighting the skidding left and right a few times I ended up in a shallow ditch on the right side of the road.s a facial egg mask I do believe such an experience is refereed to as? Quite therapeutic for young heavy footed Sterling Moss type drivers I was told;)

 

I drove out and there was no damage to the car or to me. After that I knew I had to stiffen the front end which I did with 428 Mustang front springs. The front end was raised about 1 1/2". So I took the springs out and hacksawed about 3/4 of a coil off the ends. After that it sat about 1/2" lower than stock which was what i wanted. I took it to the Kmart parking lot on Sunday and drove around in a circle which proved that the handling was neutral. If you drive a car in a circle while holding the steering wheel in the same location if it makes a smaller circle each time around it is oversteering. If it makes a larger circle each time, it's understeering. It works and you don't have to drive fast to test it.

 

In my neck of the woods it was common to use Mopar torsion bars fitted to our street rods, large heavy and tempered.

[Sylvester]

I put the 1.5" pucks on the front of my F150 4x4 and it is level now. Never had a problem with the rear. But the 4x4 has its own dynamiccs over the 2x4s.

 

Good post Richard.

 

[luvmy40]

This is an '07 2WD with just over 91K mi. fairly new to me and the only time it will ever be loaded near capacity will be if have to haul The Beast for some reason.

 

It handled just fine with the old struts, even after the spring broke and she handles fine now with no vibration at highway speeds. I'm just getting flashed by oncoming traffic as my headlights are aimed right in their eyes due to the upward angle of attack.

[BlueSky]

Looks like chopping the front springs or adding blocks to the rear will work to level the truck. Ford used blocks above the axle to raise the 4x4s.

[uhfradarwill]

If you drive the truck only on roads with a slight downgrade then it will look and handle normal??

[RSTDdog]

The new springs in front will probably settle downward after a while. Drive it a month or two and see if settles in and down. Other option is your new springs and shocks in front were probably enough to level it relative to your rear springs with 22 years and 91,000 miles on them. I have a Ford Van with the Twin I beam suspension soI am not familiar with the 97 F150 front end or what you have to do to replace front springs and shocks. Some vehicles if you tighten everything with the suspension in full droop (wheels hanging down when its supported by the frame on the lift), Any pivot points with rubber bushings that get tightened in this condition can act like a spring of sorts and add some lift. For pressed-in rubber bushings on an A-arm it can over rotate the bushing when you put the weight back on the suspension. Some vehicles you assemble everything but final torque with the weight on the suspension so everything is in a neutral loaded position when it gets tightened. Obviously helps to have drive on lift for this.

[BlueSky]

I agree with the previous post. If you tightened up the A-arms without weight on the wheels that is very likely to be the problem.

[luvmy40]

The new springs in front will probably settle downward after a while. Drive it a month or two and see if settles in and down. Other option is your new springs and shocks in front were probably enough to level it relative to your rear springs with 22 years and 91,000 miles on them. I have a Ford Van with the Twin I beam suspension soI am not familiar with the 97 F150 front end or what you have to do to replace front springs and shocks. Some vehicles if you tighten everything with the suspension in full droop (wheels hanging down when its supported by the frame on the lift), Any pivot points with rubber bushings that get tightened in this condition can act like a spring of sorts and add some lift. For pressed-in rubber bushings on an A-arm it can over rotate the bushing when you put the weight back on the suspension. Some vehicles you assemble everything but final torque with the weight on the suspension so everything is in a neutral loaded position when it gets tightened. Obviously helps to have drive on lift for this.

 

 

It's an '07, not a '97. Everything was tightened with the lower control arm jacked into loaded position.

 

The front lift is not really visible. I just re aimed the headlights and will leave it alone until I rebuild the rear suspension. Probably next winter.

[snyper316]

Oh NO!! You guys are disgracing Yamaha's by talking Ford tech in the forum![emoji44] Well at least its Ford tough and don't sink LIKE A ROCK! Aka Cheverolet[emoji23][emoji23] My ranger set higher in the back too but it was an 89, so did my 77... But load them up and sat good.. Hell throw a Vstar in the back of a Chevy it sinks like a rock![emoji16] OK that was actually the Venture. My dads Ranger hauled it like a champ.

 

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[luvmy40]

The funniest thing I ever saw was an '83 Venture in the bed of my '96 Ranger. Which is the reason why the No. 1 criteria for my "new" truck was an 8' bed.

[cowpuc]

The funniest thing I ever saw was an '83 Venture in the bed of my '96 Ranger. Which is the reason why the No. 1 criteria for my "new" truck was an 8' bed.

 

's,,, lot's and lot's of 's,,,, we LOVE to laugh too ya know:big-grin-emoticon:

[luvmy40]

Unfortunately, I have no pictures. That Ranger brought a 2000, 600cc Suzuki Katana, a 1983 Suzuki GS850 and My 1983 Yamaha Venture home to me. The Katana was the only one that I could close the tail gate on.