Believe it or not I'm running the springs, spring seats and control arms from the Ford I robbed the axle and tranny from. The springs are pretty burly (Rancho 4" lift coils out of a '74 ford 4x4), but i figure with the added weight of the V8 and NP435 as well as the axle itself along with the 38's, the front should move alright. I'm cutting about a foot and a half off the end of the stock swingarms and sleaving it with 2 1/4" DOM with a bend in it that turns up towards the frame. The arms will mount the frame on 1" rod ends at the point where my old torsion bar mounts used to be (about 1/2 way under the cab). The panhard bar will be moved from the front to the top of the axle and be bent so it meets the frame just behid the spring seat and sits outobard of the frame about 6 inches. So far it looks like the stock IFS steering box can stay just as it is. Right now the axle is hanging from the coils, but my links haven't been welded in yet. Doesn't look like it's going to happen this weekend either since the truck's outside and its supposed to pour all the way up to monday around here. I'll post some pix for u in a couple weeks when the front axle and suspension is in place the way i want it. This weekend looks like It'll be for fabricating brackets to be welded in next weekend and may be taking my DOM to the exhaust shop so they'll bend it for me.
