Mustang II question

[55chevrolet]

I purchased a welder series MII crossmember for my truck project. One of the steps that it says to do is take a measurement off your old axle placement. This will be where you will want your spindle to be. My problem is that I am starting with a bare frame. My old frame has an 80's Pickup IFS on it. (trying to sell it and many people are asking how easy it would be to change it to MII). Does anyone have a MII crossmember on there truck that wants to share how far down the crossmember drops from the bottom of the frame to the spindle mount? also, how high the top a-arm mount is from the top of the frame?

This is a 55 Second series chevy pickup.

[Root2812]

What you can do is set your truck to your desired ride height using jack stands, leave the fenders on and roll your desired wheel into the fender opening so that the are where you will want them to be. When everything is looking how you want it, get a long dowl or round bar and lay it through the wheels. The bar will roll to the bottom of the rim and center itself. Use a plumb bob line to transfer the center of the bar to your frame and mark it. That will tell you where your axle centerline should be. After that take the wheel you want and measure its diameter. The diameter divided by 2 will give you the height of the center of the spindle.

Naturally you will have to use geometry and measure your new spindles to get the cross member where it needs to be.

[Dustin_918]

Starting with a bare frame is the hardest way to start with a Welder Series in my opinion. I just finished installing mine on my bare 51 frame. I love constructing the crossmember and the extra labor it takes to figure it out but I have removed mine 3 times now to get it perfect. There is a ton of math to work into the construction, if your an intelligent person you can figure it out pretty quickly. I based my centerline of my axle off of Heidts instructions of 18 1/8th from the center of the front spring shackle hole. When I assembled my front end on the truck the front wheels were 1-5/8 inch to far forward. My truck is bagged and sitting as low as it gets with the running boards on the ground so I want the wheels to fit perfect in the fenderwell. If it was just lowered it may not have been as noticeable. So my advice is to assemble your front end with the cab from day one to make sure you hit it perfect in the fenderwell to prevent having to cut it loose like I did. If you decide to install it first without the front clip installed only tack it in just in case you have to make adjustments.

[55chevrolet]

Well crap...looks like its still gonna take math and such...maybe ill stop by a friends house and cheat off his truck. He has the heidts kit and his sits where I want mine to
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[Dustin_918]

If you have a friend that has one installed that would be your best bet to take a camera and take tons of pictures and tons of measurements. The nice thing about the heidts is that they have already trimmed the upper shock towers to fit the frame, with the welder series being a cut to fit kit it takes a ton more time. I would measure how high his upper mounts are welded on the frame, measure the length of the left and right sides and that will help you out the most. If I would have had someone to get those measurements off of I would have definitely been all over theirs for measurements.

[tmoble]

What Dustin said. I'd be all over that thing with a tape, notebook and camera. Measure from the front cab mount if your frame is already been modified.

[mr48chev]

I think if you measure back 18-1/8 inches from the center of the front spring perch bolt or where it would be you will be pretty close to the center line of the axle/spindle.

Here is the link to all of the Heidt's instructions. Some of them may be Heidt's only but most of the basic measurements and instructions should work. http://www.heidts.com/instruction_manuals.html
Scroll down the page to Crossmembers and then to the correct one and open and save the page. It's good reference to have when you have a "universal" kit to work with.

[55chevrolet]

Well, I have the basic geometry setup. But, I started with welding this crossmember down 2 inces closer to the ground, but when I put a control arm up there, brought it up to where i thought would be full flex with it fully aired out (will be sitting back on the ground) It hit the frame. I think it needs to drop another inch. Now, If it was in the correct location in the first place, and I drop in another inch, that will in turn raise the truck another inch. Now we all know that we don't want that. But, if it isn't where its suppose to be and I leave it, then it will be 1 inch lower than I want it to be. So, maybe saturday after work, I will swing by his house and take the measurements that I need.