Hello All
I have a 99 F250 with the 7.3 in it. My wife bought it from a guy she worked with. All the previous owner said to her was, "I did a few things to her and she is good now..." You guys probably already know where this is going. Now, it is up to me to keep "her" going and I have no idea what this guy did to this truck! A couple of the things done to the truck had a LOT to do with zip-ties and hose clamps, though, and that is what is making me wonder what all was done and how to find out.
First of all, it is in bad need of some new shocks. Since my wife is awesome she even agreed to a lift kit. Unfortunately, I do not know if what I have is stock or aftermarket and what is good and what needs replacement. How do I find out if the suspension was modified? There are about 5" blocks in the back but I do not see any indication of a lift in the front. The springs in the front and back are just about flat though. That can't be good. When driving down the road, everything seems to be fine until I hit a bump or railroad tracks and then it gets fun quick with it bouncing all over the place.
Can anyone offer me a starting point so I can get on with fixing whatever is not right? That you all in advance for your help. You have already answered a lot of my questions through the search bar but this one kind of stumped me.

Thanks
no1speshal

 

First of all 5" blocks are a bad idea, and will definitely affect your ride comfort significantly. However, does the truck have no kind of lift whatsoever? As if it sits up a lot higher in the back than the front?

 

No, actually, it sits pretty flat. That is partly why I am so confused. When I saw the blocks in the back, I went up front to see... nothing. That was when I started looking at the suspension as a whole and realized that now would be a good time to do something before something happened to me.

Honestly, I have no idea what was done to this truck before I got it around 2007 or so. I have run the VIN a few times to see what that would tell me as far as what was stock and what was not but the VIN's on these are not very conclusive. At least not as far as I have found. If you know of any place that would be able to dissect my VIN beyond what is already listed in dieselbombers and a few of the other major forums, I am all ears. Otherwise, I know I have a Lariat super cab and that is about it.

Are there any ways to tell what I have? Thank you again for your help.

 

5" blocks in the rear is deffinately not stock, usually with stock overloads you'll have 3" blocks in the rear and nothing up front. This creates the so called "rake" that everyone hates so much.
In turn with the 3" blocks in the rear your front leaf springs will appear to be some what flat. ( normal).
My advise to you, if you are wanting a lift on the truck, dont go and start replacing shocks and all the other suspension parts. you'll end up wasting your money. go to your local off road shop, or tire sales and start talking to them, they'll help you figure it out. However, if you need some time to save for the complete lift kit, I would start by at least replacing the shocks first, that way your ride will be alot better, and you wont be destroying all of your other important suspension parts.

 

What he said.^^^

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However if take your vin to a ford dealer they can search it up and tell you all of its factory specs most likely.

 

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help. I did notice most of the lift kits come with shocks but they do not always come with associated pieces parts. I live about a half hour from town so I will have to plan on taking it to a shop if they have one next time I go.
Are there any other things to look for? With 202000 miles I expect to get very familiar with the truck in the near future.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

Hello again everyone. Well, I finally found out the manufacturing date on my truck was April 1998. I am not sure how that still allows it to be a '99 but oh well. Going back to the original post, I found out the blocks in the back are 4" and came stock with the truck. If I put a lift kit in this thing, will it compensate for the rear already being higher? Or will I need to get a kit that has a lower lift in the front than the rear?

Again, any help would be appreciated.

 

If you get a lift kit they will take the blocks that are in it out and put the lift kit under it weather it be blocks in the rear or springs

 

Thank you Friday 88. I think I found a kit that will work. One of the problems I have been having is a lot of lift kids won't work with fifth wheel setups and I have that too. I found a pro comp kit that adds a spring in conjunction with the blocks to keep them smaller. Hopefully this will be the answer. I am ready to be done with this part of the truck! I have been researching this for about a month now!

Thanks again to everyone for your help. Maybe someday I will be able to return the favor.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

Not a problem buddy