Torsion BARS

[Expeditionary]

7700 Bars OR standard Expy bars... where can I buy them?
If I can get em from a junkyard i will, but what kind of trucks can I get the 7700s out of?

 

[Thermo]

Expeditionary, the 7700 torsion bars were only put on the F-150's with the heavy duty package. You will be able to spot these a mile away as they will have 7 lug wheels (yes, 7). Not many of them out there, but they are there. You can always go to the dealership and get the torsion bars there, but that is the expensive way to get the parts.

As for the standard torsion bars, these can be gotten out of any F-150 (except for the SuperCrew trucks, they use a shorter torsion bar) and any non-air ride Expy. The air ride Expy's use a weaker torsion bar which will lead to the front end of the truck riding low unless you have the air bags to help support the weight (oh wait, you removed the air bags).

 

[Expeditionary]

Expeditionary, the 7700 torsion bars were only put on the F-150's with the heavy duty package. You will be able to spot these a mile away as they will have 7 lug wheels (yes, 7). Not many of them out there, but they are there. You can always go to the dealership and get the torsion bars there, but that is the expensive way to get the parts.

As for the standard torsion bars, these can be gotten out of any F-150 (except for the SuperCrew trucks, they use a shorter torsion bar) and any non-air ride Expy. The air ride Expy's use a weaker torsion bar which will lead to the front end of the truck riding low unless you have the air bags to help support the weight (oh wait, you removed the air bags).

thats why i have coilovers in the front.
they're supposed to lift as much as the bags would and they work pretty well, but my front end sits lower than my buds that has his Tbars cranked and a spacer aswell, so thats why I want either standard tbars or 7700.
Since ill be off roading more once i get my 35s on and the BL I dont want to chance those things cracking under pressure

 

[99 Expy]

I would think you could find a decent set at the junk yard. If you swap them out, I would highly recommend changing out your lower control arm bushings before they go bad. When I changed mine, I tried and tried, but could not get the torsion bars out of the control arm, they were rusted in very good. Just a heads up if you want to do it while changing them out.

 

[Expeditionary]

I would think you could find a decent set at the junk yard. If you swap them out, I would highly recommend changing out your lower control arm bushings before they go bad. When I changed mine, I tried and tried, but could not get the torsion bars out of the control arm, they were rusted in very good. Just a heads up if you want to do it while changing them out.

ill look into it... i gotta do everything on a budget so i just have to see how much time and $ itlll cost

 

[Expeditionary]

one more question.... does anyone know about what these will run me? I really want to do this to the truck?

 

[BakerEdition]

control arms

I was reading up on this a few weeks ago because my upper control arm bushings have some cracks in them...and 85k....from what I read it was cheaper just to buy the whole control arm with the bushing already in them. If you go to ebay parts they have where you can just buy a pair of control arms or the whole front steering suspension.....Now if someone here has done them...please weigh in on this...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1997...:Expedition&hash=item2eb7ad804c#ht_1094wt_882

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Uppe...:Expedition&hash=item1c191fb31a#ht_1474wt_927

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUSP...:Expedition&hash=item563f0b94dd#ht_2302wt_927

 

[Thermo]

Expeditionary, to get a set of used torsion bars through a junk yard, plan on spending about $100 for the pair. If you go to Ford, plan on spending about $200 a bar. Now, this all depends on what bar you get. If you go to www.fordparts.com, you can input your vehicle information and then search on "torsion bar". That will show you all the options. I did my truck and the bars run from $100 to $160 based on whether it has load leveling or not. The F-150 bars for the 7700 model (from a 2001 F-150 7700) run between $100 and $145. I am not sure what the exact differences are between the different codes, but that might be something to inquire about.

Keep in mind that if you start talking to the dealership, there are 2 different trucks that are the same thing. You have the F-250 LD (light duty) which was from 97-99 (as I recall) and then Ford changed the name to the F-150 HD (7700) in 2000. So, something to keep in mind.

 

[rburch]

Would the early F250 light duty with our body style have these also?

Baker im looking at doing this front suspension in a month or two. Plan on doing a write up on it.

 

[Thermo]

Rburch, as I mentioned in my above comment, yes, the F-250 light duty has torsion bars like our trucks. Later on they became renamed to F-150 heavy duty. Same truck, different name. The only quirk you need to be aware of is the crew cabs actually use a slightly shorter torsion bar than the rest of the F-150's. So, as long as you watch out for that, you should be golden.

 

[rburch]

Yeah i see that now! I miss understood what you said in the second part.

 

[Expeditionary]

I was reading up on this a few weeks ago because my upper control arm bushings have some cracks in them...and 85k....from what I read it was cheaper just to buy the whole control arm with the bushing already in them. If you go to ebay parts they have where you can just buy a pair of control arms or the whole front steering suspension.....Now if someone here has done them...please weigh in on this...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1997...:Expedition&hash=item2eb7ad804c#ht_1094wt_882

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Uppe...:Expedition&hash=item1c191fb31a#ht_1474wt_927

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUSP...:Expedition&hash=item563f0b94dd#ht_2302wt_927

thanks for jacking my thread bro.... lol

 

[BakerEdition]

So what size torsion bars are on the 1st Gens? whats the purpose of going to a bigger bar...Height?

 

[Expeditionary]

yup... i have air ride bars which are weaker than regular expy bars. The heavier bars I.E. 7700 LBS bars are much stronger than a standard bar and it can result in lifting the front of the truck like a 3" lift on the front instead of a 2" or 2.5" lift wit ha torsion twist.

 

[Thermo]

THe heavier torsion bars are meant to handle more weight without drooping as much. BUt, if you put the heavier bars on a normal truck, this will actually cause the truck to sit slightly higher since the bars are not carrying as much weight. The down side to this is you also get a stiffer ride. I don't worry about it as it is a truck, not a passenger car and I am after a truck ride. But, some people want the best ride possible. So, this mod is not necessarily for everyone.

 

[Expeditionary]

agreed. I modified my coil springs from the ones in the kit to a much heavier, thicker, and stiffer coil that gives the same ride height but i can load up the trunk full of stuff and put the 400lbs tongue of the boat on the hitch and it'll sag about 1" maybe less... but it makes it not ride like the expedition was designed to ride like. Between that and the Tbars being cranked with coil-overs it makes the truck feel like a huge bronco rather than a stock expy

 

[BakerEdition]

THe heavier torsion bars are meant to handle more weight without drooping as much. BUt, if you put the heavier bars on a normal truck, this will actually cause the truck to sit slightly higher since the bars are not carrying as much weight. The down side to this is you also get a stiffer ride. I don't worry about it as it is a truck, not a passenger car and I am after a truck ride. But, some people want the best ride possible. So, this mod is not necessarily for everyone.

Everyone has told me that my truck sits higher than others and I have seen it myself...the other thing is I have 17" chrome wheels and on the standard Expos they have 16...these bigger torsion bars does anyone know what they measure in diameter...

 

[Expeditionary]

you may have them as part of the police package. Also eddie bauers came with 17s like mine.
Idk what they measure. People also dont know that 4wd expeditions sit 2-3" higher than 2wd expys