So my girlfriend and I fell in love with a pickup truck and bought it this last week. After driving it and giving it the what do we want to do with it go round I need some advice... It is a 1966 Dodge D100. The two issues we want to address first are the ride height and the ride feel. Is it possible to soften the ride on a straight axle like this? She would like to feel a bit more like a car than a truck in other words. And are there any tricks to lowering it about 3inches? Thanks in advance
its an old truck, unless you clip it, its going to drive like a truck, forever. easy way to drop it and soften it some, pull apart the leaf packs and take out every other leaf, will drop it and soften the ride some.
Another trick is while you have the spring pack apart debur and radius the ends of the leaves, then add teflon strips beteen the leaves. You can buy the teflon material at about any spring house. You can drop the rear 3-4" (give or take) by moving the rear end to the top of the springs.
I'm not sure Sid drops that model of axle but you can give him a call and see if he does, that would get the front end down some. lower profile but not so short so they look funny front tires will bring it down a bit and if you are just going to use it as a cruise tires with a lower ply rating will soften the ride. I'm not sure if that truck has the right width frame to be a candidate for a Crown Vic front suspension swap but that is also a possibility to think about. It would have to have the frame rails real close to the same distance apart as F100's of the same era.
Something else that may be acceptable if IRS is what one is thinking about is to contact ELpolacko about a Dakota front end for it. Steve makes some jam up chit and his dakota stuff is real sharp.
True P-n-B That would also be the best way to go but I never assume that a guy has deep pockets. Another one could be the Jag XJ6 suspension that is really catching on but may be on the narrow side for the Dodge. GatorRacer it's how much work you want to put into it or how much you plan to spend that determines which way you go. A dropped axle and front springs that are reworked a bit to make them ride smoother and drop the front end a bit in te process is going to be mostly a unbolt and bolt back kind of deal. A custom front end will probably cost as much as the truck did to begin with and swapping in a different front suspension involves quite a bit of work most of the time. Here is one thread on here about swapping a crown Vic crossmember into F100 trucks but it will give you some idea of what it involves. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255247
In the old days we'd start by "detuning" the spring pack. Removing some leaves is a trial and error fashion. It will lower the truck some and usually make it ride much better. Will it get it low enough or smooth enough for you? Damn if I know. It is an old truck. I'm an old truck fan and not a streetrod fan so I am prejudiced. I've clipped a few old Fords. I'm kind a torn but a truck is a truck. If you want a Cadillac buy one.
48, I always assume that everyone has deep pockets, mine are so shallow and there is so much out there I figure anyone else must have what I don't. Tommy, I am with you friend. I love the feel of an old truck. Maybe not an old truck that is wore slap out but the general tuck feel is comfortable to me. I know a pretty funny story about a real rough riding old truck that we bought in the early '90s. Maybe not totally appropriate for the board but the gist of it is that we were going down a concrete highway and the missus got all jiggly.
Easy solution..........buy her one of those memory foam cushions the sell on TV that go under your butt. If that fails, you need a new GF. As was mentioned, it is a truck and an old truck to boot. It didn't ride like a car when it was new, and age has stiffened up things a lot, probably. The cheap fix is to free up the springs so they work against each other a little easier. When they start rusting they stop sliding the way they are supposed to. Taking them apart and grinding them smooth, then adding teflon strips or even wheel bearing grease will help. As for lowering, a dropped axle is one way, but you will have other issues to contend with, like maybe tie rod clearance, so that is something you need to take into consideration. Don
Gator Racer, I have seen a really straight forward, simple and easy setup at a car show once. Basically it boils down to this: remove all the spring leafs in the pack except for the one with the eyes on it. The single leaf sole purpose is to locate the axle. Then there was a air bag that "suspended" the car/truck. It looked something like this minus all the spring packs:
First off thanks for the good advice so far. I would say the pockets are closer to empty than full but there is a little room for some parts. We will start by taking the spring packs apart and giving them some love and lube. Now that just sounds dirty. Next stupid question is will leafs springs still give you any suspension if they turn into a "W" for lack of better description. The leafs that are in it now are pretty close to flat already. I would say the maybe raise up 3 inches or so. Just curious because my gut tells me to get any drop the leafs will be nearly flat or even bowed the other way.
The picture is a helper bag on the rear.If you pull all the leafs except the main, the leaf spring will eventually break. Also, you will have BAD axle wrap.
Doesn't that basic frame have a lot in common with the 72-93 D/W series? Maybe you could retrofit something from them or made for them?
You can actually restack them so that they do bow in the opposite diirection; take a look at a '71 blazer the original springs were bowed backwward. A solution that no one has mentioned probably because you need to have some idea what you are doing is to move the axle to the top of the spring just like you would do in the rear to get it to drop a few inches. Sometimes you end up notching the frame for axle clearance but that is also a doable solution. It requires some welding on the axle to be done correctly. Before you do anything with it take pcitures of the drag link, you want the geometry to remain the same to avoid bump steer. I am making the assumption that the dodge has a drag link here so if it doesn't you may have to bend the steering arm.
The Jalopy Journal
