asking for parts ID help

[barnstormers]

hello family, I'm trying to help out a fellow offroader. I have a customer that brought in a Ford 4x4 conversion van. Among the list of things he needs is radius arm bushings. Now the problem, these arms are NOT any ford I've ever seen. They look almost like Land Rover arms, but they have bolt flanges on top of the bushings. Any insight from the group would help. I've just about burned up the intergoogle looking for these. Thanks Barney

 

[smritte]

Does it say who did the conversion anywhere on the vehicle? I looked at a couple of conversion companies and all theirs were custom tube arms. That doesn't mean they didn't start out using someone else's arms or in some cases have custom arms cast for them. I've worked on enough of those in the past.

 

[barnstormers]

No manufacturing information at all. The vehicle owner is new to the rig and has no idea what he has or what he bought

 

[North American Sojourner]

hello family, I'm trying to help out a fellow offroader. I have a customer that brought in a Ford 4x4 conversion van. Among the list of things he needs is radius arm bushings. Now the problem, these arms are NOT any ford I've ever seen. They look almost like Land Rover arms, but they have bolt flanges on top of the bushings. Any insight from the group would help. I've just about burned up the intergoogle looking for these. Thanks Barney

What year is this thing? VIN? Got to have a starting point
Zim

 

[barnstormers]

I’ve run the VIN. Comes up comes up 85 ford E250. 2wd, 302 v8. It’s now 4WD with a 351. It’s an aftermarket conversion with no ID.

 

[North American Sojourner]

I’ve run the VIN. Comes up comes up 85 ford E250. 2wd, 302 v8. It’s now 4WD with a 351. It’s an aftermarket conversion with no ID.

Cool that's a start. You think it's rebodied?
Zim

 

[barnstormers]

I don’t think so. Looks more like they just cut the suspension off and started over. Still has the ford rear axle and a Dana 50(?) front axle.

 

[North American Sojourner]

So I think the base number for a ford radius arm would be a 3B360. That one you have is cast, not stamped so I'm thinking 60's-70's heavy duty or 3/4 ton....just thinking out loud here. So part number to get you close would be C or D and the year 0-9 so 5 for 65/75 and T for truck....lol.......and last prefix is c for chassis or A...whew.
so 1965 is
C5TC-3B360-A ..............3B360 is correct for sure. Just need to secure the year.

A old FORD part guy can hook you up. Find a dealer parts guy that can help you
LKQ is another good source.
They have over 300 yards accros the country
Zim

EDIT. the numbers stamped on the part are part of the engineering number which is slightly different. It may help if it's even a Ford part.....oh shit..LOL

 

[North American Sojourner]

You can call these guys and give them the dimensions of the bore.
Find Universal Energy Suspension Parts by Measurement| EnergySuspensionParts.com
Zim

 

[velo47]

Cool that's a start. You think it's rebodied?
Zim

Ford didn't make any 4wd Econolines that I am aware of. So any 4wd version is an aftermarket conversion. The closest to "factory" would be a Quigley conversion which could be purchased on new vans through Ford dealers. I don't know if it was reflected on the VIN, though.

 

[North American Sojourner]

Ford didn't make any 4wd Econolines that I am aware of. So any 4wd version is an aftermarket conversion. The closest to "factory" would be a Quigley conversion which could be purchased on new vans through Ford dealers. I don't know if it was reflected on the VIN, though.

Rebodied meaning a truck chassis. The "T" in the part number indicates truck. "U" would indicate econoline/club wagon etc. I created the part number in my above post. I worked for Ford as a service tech, and a parts professional.

 

[velo47]

Gotcha. I thought you were talking about the 2wd vs 4wd designation in the VIN. My mistake. As an aside, my understanding is that some of the 4wd converters try to use Ford truck suspension and drivetrain parts where they can and some do not. Not knowing who did the conversion makes it much harder to figure out the source of the parts, especially if they didn't use Ford truck parts.

 

[North American Sojourner]

Gotcha. I thought you were talking about the 2wd vs 4wd designation in the VIN. My mistake. As an aside, my understanding is that some of the 4wd converters try to use Ford truck suspension and drivetrain parts where they can and some do not. Not knowing who did the conversion makes it much harder to figure out the source of the parts, especially if they didn't use Ford truck parts.

It could be a dodge, or a chevy for that matter. I though it was just old. It was cast (expensive and old) not stamped (current cheap crap). Hope he reports back with some info.
Zim

 

[barnstormers]

still nothing folks. but I appreciate the help. this looks nothing like any Ford arm I've ever seen. Ford 2WD bolts went in verticaly, the 4WD used a Clamp style mount. thos arm looks like it could be Land Rover but has a few extra mounting holes. If you review the pictures its 1/2 cast steel and 1/2 stamped.

 

[smritte]

Damn.
Now your down to something custom. The rear shouldn't be too hard. the front you could have made out of delrin or take some measurements and start searching. I cant even count the hours ive spent trying to figure out things like this. You can never really charge a customer for "50 hours @ $70 hr" for time spent researching their newly purchased Frankenstein monster.

The next question is, how does the rest of the conversion look? Ford adapter to transfer case, shifter linkage, did the arms fit the axle or did they weld mounts?
I've dealt with a few 4wd conversions, normally after they came apart. Some were done well, others.....The biggest issues were figuring out bushings, seals and cracked welds on things just cobbled together.

Good luck