F150 SAS

[milehighf150]

Alright so i am drawing up my plan of attack for a straight axle swap in my 86 f150 4x4, and have a few questions. i would post this in the Axles/Suspension/Tires section but can't because I'm a underage.
Anyway, the truck as it sits right now has a rough country 6" lift with the radius arm drop brackets not extended radius arms. So far the plan is to get the axle out of a late 70's f150 with coils up front, which leads to my first ? Will the coil and shock mounts on the axle line up with the stock brackets that came on my truck?
Now to radius arms! alright i know i am going to have to use the arms off of the straight axle, but will i have to find extended arms out of a straight axle lift kit, or can i buy drop brackets for them?
Alright now for the fun part about all this. i have one other goal to accomplish with this swap. 9"s OF SUSPENSION LIFT! skyjacker sells the 9" coil springs separate from their lift for the 78 F150. if i am able to use those coils will i have to get the radius arms/brackets for a 9" lift kit?
Thanks for any and all help!!
Wes

 

[Roughshod]

No, the coil buckets on your '86 do not line up with the '78-'79 D44 axles coil mounts. The frames on the '70's trucks were narrower than the frame on your '86. That is not to say that you can't use them; this can be overcome with some angled wedges under the axle coil cups, but it's still not ideal. Most people doing this swap prefer removing the stock '86 coil buckets and using the older style coil buckets instead, and they move the coil bucket centerline forward an inch or two on the frame. This give you a better selection of coils to choose from, and it gets rid of the stud mount style shocks you have now.

As for radius arms, there are just a bunch of different ways you could go there. There are companies that sell extensions for the stock arms if you want to go that way, and a lot of people then plate the arms after they've been extended to strengthen them. If it were mine I don't think I'd use a kits radius arm mounts. Instead I think I'd make another cross member to mount them to, which would allow you to inboard the mounts a little, which will give you better turning radius when using straight radius arms like the stock ones.

Here, read this thread. I'll warn you, it's MASSIVE, like 80 pages, but it will answer any and all questions you have about this SAS, as well as a bunch of questions that you haven't even thought of yet. You didn't even mention the two biggest issues that people run into with this swap, which are steering and track bar mounts and that makes me believe that you have a lot more research to do.