cutting housing?

[whitneyj]

I picked up a d50 from a leaf sprung F-something-50 and was looking for a little guidance here. I'm going to stick to my ext. ford radius arms, they work well for me, I've got them, and want a fairly quick turn around on this axle swap. Problem I've run into is the D/s spring perch:

It almost butts right of to the inner C. Anyone know how much I can cut off of the spring perch to weld my wedges on?

 

[whitneyj]

Does anyone have any ideas what I may be able to do vs. the radius arm wegdes? I'm not experienced enough to build my own 3 link, so that's out of the question. I don't really want to convert to leaves up front, but I may have too. . .

 

[foxwar71]

I dont know how wide the wedges are and how much room is needed to mount them, but you can easily trim off that mount. I plan on hacking off about 2" of my hp60 and then welding the housing to the tube. if the wedges are over 3" wide where they mount to the tube, i dont think ull have enough room even with a trimmed perch. might have to get creative and tie it into the center section or something.

 

[Jump This]

I know I've seen threads regarding cutting off that part of the houseing.
Don't know where though......Google?

 

[whitneyj]

Yeah, I've checked that, and nothing really applied to the D50. The 3/4 ton hpd44 and chevy's spring perch was just extended from the housing, not really part of it. . .I'll try and find pictures of what I'm talking about here in a bit. I've decided to not use the Ford wedge design, it'll be just to much of a pain. Instead I'll be buying either ballistic or ruffstuff radius arm brackets and building a set. Going to be spending the money set aside for the traction bar and noew crossmembers on this. . . crap. . .

I'll still need to cut the housing to fit the brackets, but I also won't be cutting the housing square all the way around. I really like triangulating the radius arms, so I'll be angling the brackets inward and will be cutting the housing to match that. I'm wondering if I cut the housing flush with the radius arm brackets and burn everything to the tubes AND to the brackets if that would be enough.

 

[Goatman]

Doesn't look to me that you're going to hurt anything grinding off those perches. As long as the housing around the axle tube stays intact, removing the perches won't effect a thing.

Go for it.

 

[whitneyj]

I had more of the idea to remove some of the actually housing. I changed my plans alittle and decided to not use the Ford wedges, and use Ballistic's radius/coil bracket. But there still isn't enough room, especially since I will be triangulating the arms, I'll be angling the brackets inboard. Does anyone know if the housing is cast iron or steel? I'd feel more comfortable welding to cast steel than iron, if I had to weld the brackets to the housing. . . Or how much of the housing would be deemed "safe" to cut off?