AIM or DJM I-beams; which is better?

[427blackpearl]

i took some pics this weekend, i've just not got the hang of the posting of pics . i will get my brother to help this week

[427blackpearl]

i got the pics now

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll10 ... 1208838122

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll10 ... 1208838192

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll10 ... 1208838244

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll10 ... 1208838315

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll10 ... 1208838354

[seattle67]

Excellent pictures, thanks for posting them.

[seattle67]

Please do! I know there has been a lot written up on this modification already, but the more details the better. I have pretty well convinced myself that I will be doing this in the near future.

Thanks!

By the way, fantastic before and after shots. Thanks for taking the time to do that.

[kilog55]

yeah too bad i have the FOM rear springs but i can still flip the front rear shackle and get a nice 4-5" drop

[convincor]

69timemachine, looks great.. Can't wait to see once front is done.
Something to keep in mind, Summit will match anyone's advertized price, and they do free shipping..

[kilog55]

those are the ones summit has. the new ones anyways for $566 so they more then likely will not price match since they are a different PN. but they sold em for years beforehand so they should be just fine

[69timemachine]

Thanks convincor. It'll look better though when it gets the fresh paint; the same color of course. I wonder how DJM is getting away with producing a single part number now? Maybe they supply all beams with the small kingpins and include two sets of kingpin bushings? A set of thin bushings for the early trucks and thick bushings for the late trucks? I don't know, that's just my personal guess. It would make sense why the beams are higher now. Anyone who finds out, please let us all know. Here's a question that's been on my mind: why does no one produce drop spindles for twin I-beam suspensions? They work fine on independent front suspensions, why not on I-beams? If they produced some 2 inch drop spindles, you could get like 5 inches of drop when combined with drop beams. It would work as long as your beams don't start getting too low to the ground, right? Am I forgetting something?

On my rear suspension drop, the only other thing I needed besides the drop shocks were a set of overload snubbers such as Energy Suspension #9-9102R or other types, your choice. I just ordered them and will install them when they come in. The factory snubbers are about two inches thick. When you do the rear drop, you only have about three inches of travel before you bottom on them (at least that's what I had). Without the rear shocks installed, if I jumped on the rear bumper, it would barely start to hit the factory snubbers. I figure the thinner snubbers should give an extra inch or so of space. Having shocks installed would help too! <LOL> The good thing about doing the hanger & shackle drop as opposed to the axle flip drop is that you shouldn't have to C-notch the frame. I seriously didn't want to modify my frame because that's something you can't change back once it's done. I helped a friend C-notch his brand-X truck, and it's fine as long as you do it right. It just wasn't something I wanted to do to my truck. To each his own, right?

[convincor]

I bought DJM beams and had to return them. The king pin bore was .008-.010 over size from factory specs. I know a few others in this forum have had the same problem and have to find either expensive or extremely creative ways to fix the problem. I even called DJM and they told me to just crank down the king pin retaining pin to hold it in place. Wrong answer..

Which spindle and king pin set did you have???
There is a .010 over size king pin set listed in aftermarket listings.

I wonder how DJM is getting away with producing a single part number now? Maybe they supply all beams with the small kingpins and include two sets of kingpin bushings? A set of thin bushings for the early trucks and thick bushings for the late trucks? I don't know, that's just my personal guess. It would make sense why the beams are higher now. Anyone who finds out, please let us all know.

I'm wondering the same. Is the problem like above encountered when using the earlier kingpins? maybe they figure it's OK to be loose on the beam as long as it's tight at the spindle??

Guess I'll see what happens when the time comes.

[trickf100]

I have 77 f150 beams in my truck. The oversize king pins are only available for the 65-72 f100's. I went to every auto parts store and called summit, DJM, the truck shops in the area. Every place gave the same answer.
A search will show that there are others that have had the same problem. One guy is machining and installing sleeves in his beams himself. I don't know if this was just an unluck of the draw thing but I am not going to risk my life using suspension components with tolerances that are way out of spec.
DJM's customer service techs are pretty much useless. Before ordering the rear drop they told me the shackles would work with the flex-o-matic rear shackle just fine. Wrong. And then they told me that the slop in the king pin was fine and to just run the anchor pin in to hold the king pin in tight. Wrong.
I am not trying to talk any one out of the beams because I know that many have used them without problems but inform everyone that if they do order them to mic the king pin bore of the DJM beam and there original beam to make sure they don't have the same problem I did. Also get a second opinion from whatever DJM's tech's say.

[convincor]

they list a .010 over here but no detailed info. "E And Ce Models Only"
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductList ... g+Pin+Bolt

[trickf100]

Well that sure would have saved a lot of headaches about a month ago. I wonder what the E and Ce models thing means though. Oh well, I think the long bed will look better stock height and the short bed will be the ultra low cruizer.

[convincor]

yea, not sure on the E and Ce ??
Would be nice if they had listed dimensions.

[69timemachine]

My DJM beams arrived yesterday, so I pulled them out of the box and measured them with my digital caliper. Both ends of the kingpin bores on both beams measured .865 inch. The 67-74 kingpins should be .8592 inch, so that leaves a tolerance of .0058 inch. I set my caliper to that to see what it looked like and it's not even a sheet of paper; you can barely even see it. So I'm thinking things should be fine as far as not having slop goes. I won't be doing the actual install for a couple weeks, but I'll keep everyone informed if any problems should arise.

My new polyurethane rear overload snubbers also arrived and I installed them. I now have roughly four inches of travel between the snubbers and axle tubes. I was jumping on the rear bumper and had to really get some bounce going (without the shocks) before it would contact. I installed my new DJM shocks and the rear feels good & firm now. I doubt if it will ever come close to touching the snubbers, at least not without a load in the bed. After all, this thing is going to be a street truck; not an offroader.

[69timemachine]

Well, I finished the installation of my DJM drop beams tonight. No major surprises to report; just a few little things.

For some odd reason on the passenger's side, the lockwasher for the kingpin retainer bolt would deform and start rolling out from under the nut before I would even reach the specified torque. So I ditched the lockwashers and nuts for nylock nuts. Problem solved.

My '74 disc brake spindles would touch the kingpin retainer bolts when the wheels were cut all the way, leaving a 1/4" gap between the spindle bumpstop and the beam. Since I had about 7/16" of threads sticking out past the nut, I simply trimmed off about 3/16" off the end of the bolt with the die grinder cutoff wheel. Problem solved.

When installing the tie rod extenders to my '74 disc spindles, the diameter of the extender was slightly larger than the machined area on the spindle. There was an unmachined ridge on the spindle that wouldn't allow the extender to sit flush with "no gaps", which is a major no-no according to the extenders' directions. I simply took my right-angle die grinder with a coarse sanding disc and machined some of that ridge off of the spindle, allowing the extender to sit flush. It was about a two-minute fix per side. Problem solved.

Other than that, it went well. I didn't even have to use any shims for the passenger's spindle, and only two for the driver's spindle. The beams seem to be of pretty good quality so far. I'll be sure to post if any problems should arise.