Econoline to truck front disc brake swap

[cla66icmustang]

Does any one know if you can use a Econoline vans front end and swap it in the same way you would from a 73-79 truck into an earlier model truck. Am I way off or as long as the width and the king pin diameters are the same it should work? THX!!

[fordman]

maybe you can get some answers from these guys abotu the king pins and ibeam lengths. http://econolines.ipbhost.com/index.php

one other thing to consider is the tie rod and draglink fittings on the van spindles.

[snake]

I can't verify this since I've never looked at an Econoline front suspension, but when it was discussed on here previously, the consensus was that the van has front steer (tie rods and steering box in front of the wheels) while our trucks are rear steer (tie rods and steering box behind the wheels). So it won't work - at least not withough swapping sides for the spindles and I am pretty sure that will give you some undesirable geometry.......

[cla66icmustang]

Ya, I didn't realize they were a front steer. A guy was offering me a van for the swap so I haven't actually looked under it yet. THX!!

[snake]

But you know - this got me to thinking a little.......

If a guy wanted to simply replace the steering box with a rack and pinion unit mounted in front of the crossmember, I wonder if the van spindles would work as far as the king pin etc????????

[fordman]

if you did that you woul dhave to use the 4x4 steering column extensions to reach the steering box. no big deal to find them or use them.

[FORDification]

Don't try to reinvent the wheel (pardon the pun). The van setup just plain won't work, and by the time you mickey-mouse around trying to modify things to make it work (and finding out it won't), you could've purchased a full setup from a junkyard.

[cla66icmustang]

Great info! THX everybody! I'll just keep looking for an F250 set-up.