looking to make a jig to make a 4"~ish drop axle from the f100 single axle. Anyone have any tech to help? thanks in advance guys.
I would usually be the very last one to say this but... if you're going to try to reshape an F1 or F100 axle with the typical jig made from tubing, I-beam and a 20 ton jack... just buy one from Sid at droppedaxles.com I tried to do this. Studied everyone's jig here on the HAMB and anyplace else I could find. What it comes down to is that an F1 axle is one big chunk of metal to move and you are not really bending it to achieve the drop. Study the pics on Sid's site and you'll see it's pretty much a big taffy pull to get the proper drop. I completely wrecked an axle and did a small amount of damage to my jig in the attempt. It will be reworked and used only for car axles. I'll step up and say I may be completely wrong here, but I'm pretty damn confident I did all of my homework and still came out behind on the deal. Would have been time and money ahead if I had just ordered an axle from Sid in the first place. If you're still interested I'll try to dig out pics of the jig and axle to give you a starting point.
I have one in my 53 he was at the swap meet a couple years ago and I got one from him while had the axle out I had new main leaf made with reversed eyes and the centering eye put in it and the front is def on the ground now.
Weather you buy a droped axle or flip it you will have to deal with "bump steer" so you might want to read this and see how Todd did ours. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=531700
Plus Sid mags all the axles for cracks and makes the king pin holes all back to stock... he don't just throw it in a jig and stretch it!
Try this link http://www.roadsters.com/axles/ I bought an axle from Dave Mann for my 52 Ford pick up. Chances are he will have a spare axle there at his shop cheap and will do the drop to your spec's. You can keep your stock axle if you ever need it again and you only pay the shipping one way. I'm very happy with the quality job, he does great work.
My f100 is on air bags so I flipped the stock single axle and centered it, put in a camaro power steering box and switched it over to cross steer.
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