OK, time to begin this thread. So, I've done alot of thinking on setting up a long travel for my 73. I hate torsion bars and the stock susp. for off road. It just doesn't work. I as of today went to a pull a part to do some measuring and research. I had alot of good luck.

Originally the idea was ford ranger or bronco I beam susp. not gonna work. way too much fabbing and aside from that, the beams are different lengths. I did discover however that the ford f100, and I believe it to be 1974, had a similar I beam setup, except the mounts for the beams and control rods are directly to the frame. the rangers susp mounts were built into two crossmembers. The cool thing is, I should be able to unbolt the spindle, beam and control arm assembly, and weld it directly to the frame of the datsun.

looks like it would work. that also gives me a chance to use the 10 or 11" front disc brake spindles from the same truck. total cost? beams - 21.50 ea, spindles 11.50 ea. , and control arms 11.50 each. Then i would have to find adjustable linkage for the steering from a mid 80's toyota truck. I think.

whats left to actually fabricate? upper coilover mounts. other than that, I believe it would be fairly simple, but it would still give me the much longer travel, much wider wheelbase, (approx five feet!) that's almost a a foot wider, (or 6" on each side).  Not to mention fatty disc brakes. so, I think I'm gonna buy the beams and control arms to start with. then go from there.

how about that? Here's a picture of a truck with long travel front, notice that it 's much wider than the rear. I do however like the sound of using a rear out of a toyota, who told me about that? I measured the rear on an 85 today , it was almost 5' across, so that would give a little width in the rear. Either way, thanks for reading my short little novel here. Let me know if you guys have any ideas or info on the f100 front brakes, or whatever.

I think it was GarryK6 who mentioned the Toyota rear. The 2wd rear axle is a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern, this matches the Bronco II and Ranger stuff.
The F100 has a 5 on 5.5" bolt pattern. If your using F100 stuff I would just run the rear out of the F100, which should be a Ford 9". It has a drop-out third member and has been used in everything from desert racers to hot rods and probably has more aftermarket support than any other drivetrain component out there.

So...I take it this isn't your DD

So...all this begs the questions...

Where do you go off-roading? When's the next trip there? And can I tag along in my celica

Should have the new rearend in it next weekend. All locked up and ready to go...

That's the cars co-owner/co-thrasher with the stupid grin on his face...

Sorry for the hi-jack, but nobody else I know has a fire road flogger...

Pic should work now. I'm teaching myself how to run a server and I somehow lost my ftp address....

Yeah that would be an offer, I like making stuff do stuff it's not supposed to do.
My buddy (his name is Ryan too) and I got that Celica for free and have been breaking it and upgrading it ever since. I have my Jeep and he has a Yota 4x, but they don't fly like the Celica does. We should have it going again next weekend, we store it in Monroe and play with it on the fire roads around there. If you wanna play sometime we know a few places.

There are a couple of jumps in Seattle, if you don't mind on-road stuff

That Toy rear should have almost as much aftermarket support as the Ford 9", plenty of lockers, lsd's and gear sets for them.
Spring over would prolly net you around 5", I got about 7" when I did my Wagoneer's front axle. You add the spring pack thickness, axle diameter and perch height to calculate the amount of lift.

Then You can just put the axle back on top of the springs as before. It is a little wider than the stock Datsun, but will look good with the wider tires and the front suspension.

Garry K in Port Orchard.WA

hey cool! oh wait, I have those pics. in fact, I got them from Bleach about a year ago. I emailed the guy and chatted with him for awhile about what he did. I have this datsun, too, but he has stock front susp, except for the real long shocks....

 still waiting for sept so I can tear into my front susp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!