Slick 60's

Already sandblasted and painted my 65 front end parts, but now we want to put disc brakes on soooo the question is...should I go from spindles out or go the complete front end..help is needed

My son just finished the disc brake swap on our 66. the original plan was to use all the parts off the 78 donor. As we had the front clip off we noticed the frame had taken a hard lick at some point. We then decided to just swap from the spindles out. We knew the 66 I beams were straight while the 78 beams were suspect. Just my two cents!

I second.
I was going to swap the front I-beams from a donor '76 that rode and drove perfectly, until we looked really close at them. One was bent more than the other, and it looked like a post-factory I-beam alignment.
Besides, after 40+ years, any trouble you may have to go through to change the king pins now will save you much more trouble later on.
It is the king pins that always make the I-beam swap more attractive, so changing the king pins now will keep the overall job simpler by getting it done now when the truck is apart, and will avoid unknown issues that only show up after you have swapped the I-beams over.
It was a much easier job in the long run, too.

Thinking along the same lines as you guys, cause the donor has a good bit of damage to the right front, still drives but not sure about it...changed the 65 kingpins out a few months ago but have not put any miles on them, so we know we're good there..

Don't forget the steering stops are different on the spindles, you could overextend the steering possibly leading to steering box problems.
Your new kingpins may be the wrong size too.

http://www.fordification.com/tech/Ibeamsspindles.htm

From what I've seen you use the kingpins for the org. truck...maybe wrong, now comes question 2 if we change out the PS gear box what should we save and use??

tbritt wrote:From what I've seen you use the kingpins for the org. truck...maybe wrong, now comes question 2 if we change out the PS gear box what should we save and use??

Do you already have power steering? If you use the 78 box use 78 steering linkage. If you use a 1971 or earlier box you will have to grind down the steering arms on the 78 spindles becasue they are thicker and the 66 tie rods won't have enough length for the nut and cotter pin.

Hey tbritt.

You are right, use the kingpins for the year of the axle, 1965 is unique.
The cutout for the cross bolt is almost in the middle of the king pin.

For power sateering, usr the steering column or shorten yours.

Also use the the draglink and tie rod.


Ricky.

We did change out the bushings on both the I beams and the radius arms, but we used stock rubber replacements. The kingpins sets are available with nylon or bronze bushings the bronze bushings have to be reamed to size after being pressed in, The nylon bushings do not have to be reamed so you can do the swap without the special reamer. Bronze or plastic really a no brainer pay a little extra now or replace the plastic sooner.

For the spindles and king pins, I got lucky. The '76 donor truck had king pins stuck in the I-beams, but not in the spindles. It took 20,000 lbs plus on a hydraulic ram to get them out! The bronze bushings were fine, though, to the point that brand new replacement king pins slid right in with no play at all.
I used '66 king pins. They are 1/8 inch shorter overall, but that is 1/16th on the top and on the bottom, so the difference is insignificant.