Coil over conversion

[mrbigtanker]

Coilovers front and rear done.

Low? well second lowest static dropped 521.

Comfort? better than torsions and leafs all day.

Handling? I can say running 15x11 doesnt allow me to give an opinion.

But if it wasnt for that this thing would handle amazing.

But my over all experience is every penny was worth it. Cruising on the freeway at 85mph is the most comfortable thing ever. "Until i bottom out the frame lol".

Waste of money? Not at all worth every penny.2017-12-10_01-48-39 by Carlos Ortiz, on Flickr2017-12-10_01-47-57 by Carlos Ortiz, on Flickr

 

What front is that a hardbody.

[konig209]

What front is that a hardbody.

Its a mash of 720,d21,521 and more. Only 2 people know how to do it. Jim from top jimmy motorsports in tracy ca and a dude in mexico.

 

Jim completed my ball joint conversion earlier this year. Its amazing to have a proper setup. Total cost with parts fab and labor is about $2500 or so. I dont have an exact price due to he also added straightening the front end after my crash.

 

I can provide the info if needed.

[wayno]

Its a mash of 720,d21,521 and more. Only 2 people know how to do it. Jim from top jimmy motorsports in tracy ca and a dude in mexico.

 

Jim completed my ball joint conversion earlier this year. Its amazing to have a proper setup. Total cost with parts fab and labor is about $2500 or so. I dont have an exact price due to he also added straightening the front end after my crash.

 

I can provide the info if needed.

 

Make that 3 people as I have had a ball joint front end on my 521 since 2005, I even have power steering, but I didn't flip the 720 upper control arm as my work truck is not lowered.

All they are are 620/720 lower control arms or one can use the hardbody LCA with the pressed in balljoints, 620 LCA disc brake bushings, I have 620 tension rods but it appears you used 521 tension rods, lengthened(3/4") 720 upper control arms, and the disc brakes you want in between the ball joints, I have 1990 V6 hardbody dual piston calipers, but the 1985 720 disc brakes are popular, I had everything used or I bought it cheap as I could as I didn't have that much money to throw at it, I also still use the torsion bars.

I didn't have to make any changes to the shock towers as I am using stock shocks also, I likely have less than $300.00 into mine including the Hardbody disc brake assemblies I bought from Yello620 for as I recall $175.00 used, I was using 620/early 720 disc brakes at first as that is what I had.

But I had to figure out everything to make it drive correctly myself as I did this on my own without forums(2005) as I didn't even have a computer back then, Mike K came over and looked at how I did it, I don't recall how he found out, maybe he came to look at how I did the power steering, that was a long time ago.

The key to making this work is the upper control arm connection, the stock 521 UCA mount bolts are not big enough, if I had it to do all over again I would drill the mount holes out to except a 720 mount bolts, I had it aligned and the guy at the shop said I had everything within 2 degrees, it drove great, it corners like a race car when empty, but most of that has to do with the rear suspension, as I can haul loads on my truck.

 

 

I am actually retiring this frame this winter, it was never meant to have power steering and it has taken it toll on the driver side front frame.

[konig209]

Tension rods have been replace with 720 rods now

Key part like you said is setting up the geometry. Its not simply lets bolt this up and itll work.

[wayno]

I could not get the 720 tension rods to fit, the shaft was just too big, I could barely get the 620 tension rods in there.

What really counted on my stock 521 frame using the stock UCA mounts is that the 720 UCAs needed to be reversed so the 720 UCA had the offset towards the rear, as yours was done it appears that you just flipped them although you may have completely new mounts, mine had to be reversed, meaning I put the left UCA on right and the right on the left so the upper ball joint would be back far enough to set up the castor properly.

I don't know if you had the lengthen your upper control arms as you may have a completely new UCA mount that is farther out or it may be adjustable with slotted horizontal holes, that would make it a lot easier to deal with all around.

[mklotz70]

I know the HB guys have been telling me that the HB 4x4 UCA's are a bit longer than the 2wd versions.  I'm not sure about the offset, but that maybe get things a lot closer.  The stock HB/720 LCA is still going to push each side out over an inch.  If I remember right from when I measured every version of ball joint LCA's out there, they were all the same length....they just switched from bolt on joint to press in.  I'd love to know if I'm wrong.....it was a long time ago. lol

[wayno]

I recall seeing UCAs with the ball joints centered in the arm, but now I don't remember what they were on, I am thinking 4wd trucks, but I don't think they had them on 720 4wd trucks, at least my 1980 4wd had the same UCAs as the 2wd trucks.

If the HB 4wd UCAs are at least 5/8ths longer it might work, depends on where the ball joint is on the control arm, the 720 arm reversed is perfect offset to the rear, the castor adjustment is almost dead on, at first I was trying to shim the arms to get the ball joint back to the proper castor, but the bolts kept breaking as they were getting bent when I tightened them down because of the UCA mount shaft being so angled, I finally figured out to reverse the arms and it drove perfect.

But everyone reading this has to remember that we are talking about mounting this stuff on 521 frames, and I will repeat again, the UCA mount blots on 521 trucks are TOO SMALL, they should be drilled out to the 720 mount bolt size, being I have never done this myself I don't know for sure it can be done as I have never really looked that close at the nuts/metal inside the shock tower too see if there is enough metal to be able too drill them out and thread them to the larger size bolt.