Volare front suspension in a 56 Ford F100 truck

jayvee

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Somewhere along the line, the 56 Ford F100 I have was built with a Volare front suspension. I understand this was a fairly common pracctice years ago. So now, I find myself needing to educate myself to some degree about Volare suspensions! And that, my new friends, is why I am here. I am completely unfamiliar with the topic although (beleive it or not) I did drive a Dodge Aspen as a marked Sheriff's Department squad car back in the late 70's during the "energy crisis" of the day. Can someone point me to an exploded diagram of the suspension? I am looking to replace tie rods, idler arm, pitman arm, shocks, etc. Any advice about bushings, brand preference for replacement parts, etc would really be appreciated. I suspect some parts are better than others and if I am going through the effort I figure I might as well use the better stuff. I see tie rod ends are available in 9/16" as well as 11/16", whats up with that? Thanks for any input you can offer.
 

Camtron

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Civilian cars came with 9/16” tie rods, police/taxi/fleet vehicles typically came with (HD) 11/16” tie rods . You can use the 11/16” rods on civilian cars without any modification as the difference is in the rod ends going into the adjustment sleeve.
 

Camtron

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Civilian cars came with 9/16” tie rods, police/taxi/fleet vehicles typically came with (HD) 11/16” tie rods. You can use the 11/16” rods on civilian cars without any modification as the difference is in the rod ends going into the adjustment sleeve.
 

jayvee

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So I might as well go with the 11/16” and the right sized sleeves when replacing the tie rods. Thanks for the explanation.
 

Sub03

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I found a lot of good info on the Dippy site, with diagrams and torque specs, when I did my front end .

Front Suspension and Steering Linkage

The things you listed isn't too bad, the worst problems for me was sepatating the T-bar end bushings from the bar.
Som useful tips about the T-bar issue on our forum, lots of helpful people here.
 

jayvee

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I found a lot of good info on the Dippy site, with diagrams and torque specs, when I did my front end .

Front Suspension and Steering Linkage

The things you listed isn't too bad, the worst problems for me was sepatating the T-bar end bushings from the bar.
Som useful tips about the T-bar issue on our forum, lots of helpful people here.
I hadn't really been considering I would have to do anything with the T Bar and it's bushings. Thinking that the other things I had mentioned would probably cure the issues with bump steer and the tendency to dive a bit to the left when braking. Are you thinking I might be wrong on that? I admit I am not too well educated on this so any help is appreciated.
 

Sub03

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Just keep in mind the T-bars also acts like a support strut to prevent the lower control arm from moving forward/backwards.
I would check them for play, the center bushings too. If they're OK you probably good with the things you mentioned.
Replacement bushings are impossible to find. Only poly available which includes a lot of work, because you have to split the bushing-shells and reuse them.
 

jayvee

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I have been reading about the “adventures” some guys have had with replacing the bushings. Hoping to avoid that. I will take your advice and check existing ones for play. Thanks
 

Camtron

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No problem.
Far as parts and brands, depending on money to burn and performance sought, there’s a few options out there all depending on ride quality, performance and branding/pricing. Companies like Firm Feel offer complete rebuild kits with great quality parts.

Firm feel Link: FMJ Body Parts

You have companies like Moog who you can grab pats from autozone/O’Reillys/Napa

Poly Bushing makes torsion bar bushings if you tackle the Torsion bar bushing…from the couple cars I’ve worked on, it’s normally the center pivot bushings that go out, the end bushings seem to be pretty solid. But I haven’t worked on as many of these as others have.

Poly Bushing link: polyurethane torsion bar MoPar

Kyb, Monroe, Bilstein and Viking for shocks

Rare Parts make a upper control arm pivot shaft with some extra camber adjustment built in.

Rare parts link: CONTROL ARM SHAFT KIT…seems the shaft kit isn’t available at the moment.
 
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