On my truck, a '93 F150, the front sway bar is mounted to a crossmember. I'm not sure exactly what's going on here but the cross member likes to tear. The truck holds an alignment well, it doesn't wander, it doesn't do anything to suggest that the frame may be weird. I did put a slightly stronger sway bar on the front than stock.
The crossmember is 0.1" thick, I had planned on taking a piece of flat bar the same thickness, cutting it to fit the same footprint of the crossmember and just welding it wherever they meet. Add in some judicious trimming to allow for swaybar clearance as well as bolt removal and I should be in business. Any thing I should think about when I do this? Any reason to not do this?
First pic is the torn ear. Look in the center of the picture, its the rear-most bolt hole. Second pic is the good crossmember I'm going to straighten and modify.
It looks like the big bar is bent differently than the smaller (original?) one. Is that correct?
It looks like the bar is pushing against the cross member in it's travel. If that is correct repairing the cross member as it is could/would stop the bar's, hence the suspension's, movement. If the bar is "correct" for the application then cutting more of a relief so the bar could freely move might be better.
But first, I would verify the correct bar for the application. Then check if things are mounted correctly, then put the suspension through it's full range of motion to verify the bar is fouling on the cross member.
Also, if all is correct will the bar hit where the cross member is mounted if the cross member is relieved further?
The bar is a kind of 3 dimensional z shape, the unmounted crossmember doesn'treally show that. The two bars have the same bends, in the same directions.
There is something hitting underneath, but it's from the most recent alignment and didn't show up before then.
I was also looking at trimming the crossmember as well, the suspension has a tremendous amount of movement even in park. I cant remember if I've checked full suspension movement
That cracking may be due to flex from the steering box.
In reply to bentwrench :
How so? Is that a normal thing with '90s F series?
The vans of that time period sometimes snap the mounting bolts for the steering box
In reply to spandak :
Good to know. Not sure what I could check there other than the bolts, but I'll poke around.
I see a shiny spot on the sway bar in the assembled photo. The cross member needs to be relieved far enough that the bar never contacts it, then reinforce.
Two things come to mind, are the swaybar end link the correct length (short or long) and style (binding?), and how do the control arm bushing look?
Paul
In reply to Donebrokeit :
I'm fairly sure that Ford didn't have short or long end links, they were just one size. I've only ever seen one type referenced, and in person I've never seen a difference. I'll verify if I can, but they are obsolete/NLA parts now so it might be difficult.
The twin I-beam bushings are all new. The radius arm bushing is probably reaching the end of its life.
So, thoughts on this.
First pic is what I'm going to trim. Second pic, the blue lines on the inside are going to be gussets/ribs/whatever you'd like to call them to return strength from what I trimmed. The one on the left will be roughly a V-shape to clear the sway bar. Third pic is just a reference to show I'll need to trim a bit of the leading edge in order to get the flat bar to lay flat against the bolt holes.
