Thanks for you help jay, you provided us with the knowledge to do the mod.

I love to do my own work cause then I know what everything does and what happens. I guess I just like to learn and I wish there was more mods like the end links to do to the truck to make it handle like a dream.

 

I remeber someone sayting that you could purchase shortened, front an rear endlinks from somewhere. Does anyone recall or know where that place is?

 

You can get the front ones from pep boys, that what I did. but the rear ones are hard to find units so its was easier to just weld them together.

Any exhaust shop, or machanic should be able to cut them and weld them in a matter of minutes.

 

WrongdayJ,

Thanks for the help. Like RTKILLA said, we were steered in the right direction by you and we appreciate it a lot.

Tim

 

You can find various front link lengths at energy suspension or prothane.

You will not be able to find the rear ones except at SoCal Speedshop. I have Hotchkis Springs and hotckis sold me the rears but they will not sell them unless you can prove you have their springs.

 

Hmmm.

I wonder why that is?

(Maybe because THEY KNOW that once people feel how good the stockers feel with the shortened end-links, they probably won't buy the Hotchkis bars)

Makes me angry just thinking about it.

Eibach is another company that chaps my hide. They simply will not tell you what the rate of their springs is (though it is easy to calculate/test). Every other company, including Ford themselves, happily does. But for some reason, they don't. Here's the juicy part- their 'sport springs' are almost EXACTLY the same rate as a stock spring with one coil lopped off. I know- I tested them both on a coil spring tester. There were some very minor differences, but the average rate and overall peak rate at 1" compression intervals throughout the active compression length were quite similar. I didn't test the Hotchkis springs, but they feel quite a bit stiffer than a cut stocker. So there may be value there. . .to someone that requires a spring THAT stiff.

But that's just my observations. I think there are alot of people making alot of money because the consumer doesn't know and probably doesn't want to know any better. I have made it my mission in life (at least hobby-wise) to identify these kinds of things and try to stop it through helping others understand the RIP-OFFS that are out there.

I have no problem paying for quality, or performance, but to flat out STEAL MONEY from people (either by misrepresenting the facts, or by omission of the facts) just to sell them parts is wrong. and I have the data to prove it.

Sorry- I'm rambling. . .

 

WrongwayJ,

Your efforts are appreciated!

Thanks again.

 

J,

Be careful when you imply that a someone is stealing money when selling a product.

Spike

 

Ok.

Perhaps my words were a bit harsh. It is something that I feel very strongly about, though.
I should have pointed out though that the vendors of these products are not the true problem. They are simply making the products available to the market. Sometimes the vendors themselves don't know what is going on. They aren't the experts (although they really should be), they just know what the manufacturer tells them. Kind of like the speed shop that sells a kid with an otherwise stock 5.0L Mustang a 75mm throttle body or an Edelbrock Victor manifold and tells him it'll make power up to 9,000 RPM. True- these products, when used correctly with the right supporting equipment, will do what the vendor said. In reality the kid bolts the stuff on, blindly following the vendor or magazine article and then loses power and/or blows his engine trying to hit that magic 9000 RPM. Who won, the vendor did. He got his money- plus the future business of the kid who will end up needing more parts now. The manufacturer can hide behind the legalities, but look at the sales pitch- Direct O.E. replacement manifold. Hmmm. What does that imply? I'm not trying to hack at all vendors. Just the unethical SOB's just trying to make money. That goes for the maunfacturers, too. Like the guys who sell 150-160° thermostats and say that'll help you make more power. Outrageous!!!
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: I know of some exhaust companies (which will remain nameless in this posting) who send 'training' salesmen out to the outlet vendors and 'train' the vendors on how to sell their product. My brother was the manager for a Mienike muffler store in Idaho and let me in on the injustices perpatrated by these guys. To say some of the things they do is outright fraud. The only thing saving their rotten carcases is the fact that we don't have a way to measure the efficiency of an air pulse through an exhaust assembly. I am sure that once this ability becomes available, there will be some companies eating alot of crow.

Sorry to the ethical vendors and/or manufacturers who may have been offended by my words. You all make an honest living and truly care about your customers. Jay Lincoln and Factory Tech come to mind first and foremost as examples of good, honest folks. Spike_Engineering is another. I hope ya'll understand where I'm coming from on this topic.


Later,

 

Hotchkis springs and shortened end-links going on tonight! Can't wait to test the results.

 

With what shocks?

 

Link to energy suspension's page to assist in further clarifying front the sway bar end link issue. A how-to if you will.

http://www.energysuspension.com/endl.html

 

I've yet to try my new links out but the beast should be on the ground by this weekend and rolling around atleast a little, so I hope to find out how much better these handle now.

I was thinking about the rear bar and it wouldn't be that hard to convert the stock sway bar into a system that would use the same end links as the front to we could better fine tune the suspension over time with more or less sleves. I'm going to weld somthing up and see how it works out, I'll take some pics for you opinions.

 

i had my links cut down, and now it seems, and i can see the rub marks, there the stabalizer bar now hits the chassic due to it being closer to it..

originally i cut my stock bumpstops, but i may have to go to a poly set for more integrity, there also seems to be only 4 inches of travel, from bumpstop to axle tube, it looks like it is sitting right but does this sound right??

jim

 

L in Detriot-

You shouldn't really be hitting the bump stops. Although, you might if you dropped your rear more than about 3". Make sure that your rear shackle extends straight up from the leaf spring eye to the hangar. You don't want this shackle to tilt forward or backward very much as this will effect your spring rate. If you did drop your L more than 3", then new shortened bump stops should be in your immediate future. Think about good shocks, too. The LAST thing you want is to settle into a roughly paved turn riding on the outer bump stop. This creates a very unstable mechanical condition which leads to violent spinning, and consequent soiling of your shorts. . .not to mention potentially trashing your vehicle.

Once you get the bump stops, the next thing to check is that with the new axle travel that you don't rub the tires when hitting bumps or turning hard. Blowing a rear tire in a 60 mph turn is bad news brother.

Hope this info helps. . .