Wiggled and squirmed and clenched for about 2 hours this afternoon...it was fairly productive. With the help of my neighbor, who is a mechanic by trade, we were able to raise the complete entire IFS up to the frame. It didn't want to go without a fight...the upper A-arm rear bolts wanted to hang up on the frame even though we set one side up and over the frame and then raised the other side. It was tight...very, very tight! But it is installed onto the frame. We installed the tires and set it on the ground to see how it would sit. I ran out of time and will come back and measure, measure, and measure some more before welding it in. So far, so good...but, I have interference between where shaft comes off of the rack and the end of the steering column. I had to remove the drivers side header...and will probably need to reconfigure my header.
A note about the wheel spacers for anyone interested. I used 1 1/4" aluminum spacers to change the bolt pattern from the Jag 5 x 4.75 to Ford 5 x 5.5. It set the tires outward just right in my opinion. I had just purchased a new set of wheels from Summit and I was going to use them...
Pics of it just sitting there on the Jag suspension....It sits about the same as it did with the straight axle, but the handling and steering will be like night and day.
Because of holiday commitments, etc I will probably not be able to work on the truck again until next week....so, stay tuned...I will take more pics