radius arm drop bracket

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:33 pm

Nobody, I was wondering how many bolts you had holding your radius arm bracket in to the frame of your BII?

I am trying to think of a way to fab up some drop brackets to fix my bowing spring problem.....

Post by **Nobody** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:42 pm

I used 4 bolts in the OEM holes. I still haven't gotten around to building a crossmember between the two drop brackets

Your springs are bowing because the spring pad is tilted. So your options are a longer radius arm drop bracket(NOT), or shim up the the spring pad and level it back out(or build a new spring pad). Or you could just run it. What application are your springs from?

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:24 pm

Your springs are bowing because the spring pad is tilted.

exactly, the springs are 4" superflex for a 79 bronco.....which is the suspension that is under it.

I have been drawing out the way the radius arm reacts to the spring and bucket and I have come up with a few options......run the drop bracket like you said and I do not want to do, extend.....don't realy want to do that either, or live with it.

what I have been thinking is to not drop the bracket as far instead of 3-4" just maybe just 2"

what I am looking at is that the arms are almost completely extended so I have a hard time thinking it will flex that well. so just making new buckets is something I don't want to do, I would rather make it right the first time. what would you do?

FatMan · Post by **FatMan** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:05 pm

look's like you already have radius arm drop bracket. did you mean you wanted to remove them?

the coil's are probably to stiff due to the massive weight loss you truck experienced. im guessing about 800+ pounds.. i was worried about this when i was debating on which coils i was gonna run. sometime i think i should have gone with the wildhorse 5.5" but i have'nt been able to see how the duff 3.5" coils perform yet.

pull that bad boy up on a stump and stretch those coils out. they should settle a little. i would probably just leave it until i see how much they settle. if they did'nt settle much shimming the perches would be my choice if you decide to fix it.

Post by **Nobody** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:02 pm

Yep, if it really bothers you, shimming the perches would be my choice. The stock drop brackets themselves are too much. I get hung up from time to time.

I hope your spring rate isn't too much. And most springs will soften up quite a bit after some wheeling.

marinebroncoii · Post by **marinebroncoii** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:25 pm

I would just make new spring pads that would bolt onto the radius arms. You don't want to lose the clearance by dropping the radius arms. i had the F250 axle and had to weld on my own wedges so I just put them on at the angle I needed to make the axle sit right and then I made my own mounts that use a large bolt to hold the spring down, like the stock B2 setup only bigger, and the mounts compensated for the angle. If you want to lift the rear to match you can get some front leaf mounts off almost any truck (I used chevy half tons) and use them as rear mounts. Instead of holding the shackle at the top of your frame it would hold it at the bottom or the chevy ones hold it about 2 inches below. You can also use extended shackles (the chevy drop shackles or home made like 4x4junkie or I did. It changes the angle of the pinion a little but is a cheap way to get some lift and with the shackles some more flex. I also used chevy half ton springs to get the hieght I have.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:59 am

compared to the other coils for FS bronco's the super flex are the softest coils out there. the problem I am really haveing is that the arms are pointing down causing the lower bucket to be at lik a 6-7degree angle.......I did some talking and research and I think I have come up with a solution. I am going to shim the bottom perch with some rear 3degree shims, run a second retainer on the coil tower, and use a small fabed drop bracket like 1" drop instead of 3". the way to fix the problem right is to get the drop bracket, but I do not want to loose 3" of ground clearence so I think a combo of the 3 options will probably be the best bet other then to build custom radius arms.

Post by **Nobody** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:17 am

I would really really advise against any kind of drop bracket. On mall cruiser, fine whatever, but on a wheeler, you will get hung up on what you have now. I would run extended radius arms before using a drop bracket.

On the perch, you could probably use some channel iron, bolted to the radius arm. Then cut the sides at the angle you need and weld the coil perch to that. Something along those lines anyway. The idea being that it's one solid piece.

BC Bronco's has some offset doughnut bushings that should help.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:27 am

I hadn't seen those yet......but it looks like they might workfor what I want. I was talking to a guy over at fullsizebronco and he pointed me to a link that you can get the 7* shims from but I think some pinion shims cut and drilled would work well just welded to the bottom of the perch. if I run those bushings do you think it would be ok to trim the bottom of the radius arm bracket to stop the binding from the retaining washer on the bushing when the axle drops?

Post by **Nobody** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:30 am

I think you should run it first. The radius arms really don't move as much as you expect.

marinebroncoii · Post by **marinebroncoii** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:25 pm

why not just play with some 3/16" stock and fab up some coil mounts that are angled. You could make the mount itself square with one part that bolted to the radius arms and then another layer that sits level, then just weld sides onto it that stick up past the top level to hold the spring center and then bolt the spring retaining cup into the top layer (weld nuts on the underside before you put it together). Not sure if you are picturing it the same as I am, can't really explain it.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 5:42 pm

I oredered the shims about 5 min's ago. I will let ya'll know how they work out when they get here.

Warlock489 · Post by **Warlock489** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:53 pm

Jeffs Bronco Graveyard has 2, 4 and 7 degree bushings that compensate for a lift. They are only $45 and include the C-bushings, trac bar bushings and strut arm bushings

http://broncograveyard.com/products/cat/18/114

I'm going to get them and probibly cut 3 inches out of the bottom of my radius arm bracket. (BTW it has been modified since this picture)

marinebroncoii · Post by **marinebroncoii** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:08 pm

That is a good way to kill the ground clearance you gain from a lift, and I wouldn't trust that metal, I'd cut those shapes out and weld it with at least 3/16 but probably 1/4 stock instead of metal that can be bent into shape that easy. Even with those bushing the spring will sit funny. They don't change the angle of the radius arms, so the spring will sit the same way, they are made to twist the axle itself back into position to make the ball joints plumb. The bushing that Nobody mentioned would help a little on the angle of the radius arms, but shiming the stock spring cups or making new ones is the only thing that will make the spring sit right without dropping the radius arm mounts down and losing clearance.

foxfan · Post by **foxfan** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:21 am

why don't you guys just make some extended arms w/ hiems?