Ok... working with my 90 Bronco 351 Eddie Bauer

So some are familiar with my "drunk driver" thread and here is the recent work completed:

New Ball joints
bearings repacked and inspected
New drag link
new tie rod
new steering stabilizer
new alignment
wheels rebalanced

The bronco drove great for a few trips (like 500 miles) and now is back to being all over. It tracks ruts bad, wanders, bumps rip me over sometimes to the next lane on the freeway (scary), turns go but kick back and over correct....

I'm at my wits end on this to the point of just selling the damn thing!! I don't want to sell it I want the damn thing to drive like a normal vehicle!!

I understand radius arm bushings cause a lot of these problems and before doing the ball joints I jacked it up and they seemed tight to me, but tight to me might not be tight?? Opinions? The shop I took it to I trust, they did a good job and even caught a cracked spindle nut in the process! They concurred the ball joints were trash and once out you could see they were toast! They also felt the radius bushings were good.

So what to do next? If I had the budget I would make everything new!! But I'm on a shoe string budget so I want to figure this out. I do have an appointment to go back to the shop Thursday to inspect everything.

Advice? Opinions?

 

When ours was new it would jerk you off the road if you hit a puddle or pot hole three trips to ford they said nothing they could do My mech replacing the brakes looked at it and found the radius arm bushings were installed incorrectly took them out put them in the right way and the problem was solved

 

I suggest checking the pivot arm brackets, I hope I am naming them correctly. Look for cracked brackets where the axles attach to the frame.

Then get a helper to watch the pitman arm for movement while you turn the steering wheel back and forth to check for steering box slack. Mine went from 2 1/2 inch to about 1/2 inch with a Red Head Steering Gear.

 

i had the same problems, ended up replacing the gear box with a red head and it cured most of it. later down the road i sorted the allignment problems(most) and replaced the worn pump. i had a stabilizer on for a while but it just made things jerky and masked the other probs> personally i do not suggest them unless your pushing oversized rubber

 

Axle pivot bushings and the mounts. These are the ONLY rigid connection the axle halves have to the frame of the truck to keep them from wandering from side to side under the truck. (Sorry, you can't count on the bayonet-style radius arm bushings to hold anything in place once the pivot bushing have gone south). Not only that, when they go bad there is NOTHING to keep them from letting the truck wander all over the place except the bolts that hold them in place. I've seen F-series and Broncos that have been jumped or otherwise abused, that have sheered the mounts right off the frame especially on the heavier driver's-side axle-half. This produces wander and wobble that makes the old Heep (Jeep) "death wobble" look tame!

 

Oh man, mine really has nothing to do with it and since your is probably TTB mine wouldn't matter but i had the death wobble for a while and it turns out the previous owner tried replacing the bushings for the track bar but only did the frame side one AND he used an incorrectly sized bolt. The axle side one was so gone, there wasn't even a bushing it was a metal sleeve. So i had ordered some Moogs and bought some new grade 8 bolts and attacked it. It definitely helped. But that turned out to be half of my issues, my next investment went into new tires cause my old 35s were separating on the inside and causing "cupping" on the tire. Once i got the new ones put on it rode like a dream, save for stiff suspension and road roughness None of this probably will be relevant with yours but it may sprout ideas? Good luck

 

Actually, Gruesome, axle pivot bushings are as close to the same kind of attachment to the frame as the TTB gets to a track bar. The TTB just needs two attachment points to the frame at the inboard ends of the TTB axle halves. So your suggestion is correct. It would be the equivalent of replacing track bar bushings/hardware on a truck equipped with a solid axle.

 

Oh, also usefull information. So does a TTB axle use radius arm like solid axle? So i put together a very awesome picture here

Is that basically a TTB setup? And the red circles are the pivot bushings? I didn't draw the diff but i know it is somewhere in there.

 

That is fairly accurate there Gruesome.

Def check the pivot bushings and look into a new gearbox.

 

Yes, the TTB uses both axle pivot bushings and radius arm bushings. If you could look up at the TTB setup from directly beneath the truck, one axle half and one radius arm on one side would form a corner at a front wheel. The radius arm bushing and the axle pivot bushing are the only bolt-through attachments to the frame. The spring sits just inboard of the wheel over the knuckle and there is one shock aft (primary) of the knuckle and one shock forward (auxiliary on trucks so-equipped) of the knuckle.

The TTB front axle has a total of twelve (12) pivot points/points of attachment to the truck.

2 - axle pivots which are a through-bolt-and-bushing design that only allow the axle half to travel up and down by pivoting on the bolt/bushing.

2 - radius arm and bushings which are a bayonet-type mount that allows the radius arm to follow the arc of the axle half. So, this setup allows for both linear (up and down) motion of the arms while ALSO allowing them to rotate slightly as the axle articulates since the radius arms are rigidly attached to the axle halves.

2 - upper ball joints which utilized an offset eccentric between the threaded shaft of the ball joint and the axles housing to adjust caster and camber. This eccentric often does not have the hole offset enough to compensate for extreme lift heights and allow the alignment to remain within specs. (There are ways to rectify this issue).

2 - lower ball joints which have no adjustable eccentric but are press-fit into the axle halves Both sets of ball joints are typical ball-and-socket assemblies that allow the steering knuckle and wheel to remain perpendicular with the pavement while the suspension articulates while also allowing the knuckle to rotate as the steering angle is changed.

2- outer tie-rod ends which perform the same function they do in every other conventional steering system.

1 - inner tie-rod that attaches to the mid-point of the other inner tie-rod.

1 - inner tie-rod that attaches to the pitman arm on the steering gear. Together these two components make up the rather contrived Ford "inverted Y" steering system.

 

your drawing needs an alignment,

 

Wow... Another set of reasons to be glad i had straight axles... I would hate to work on replacing stuff for that...
It also need new springs, those are a bit mangled

 

well, its time for the floor jack to come out. I appreciate everyone's input on this...will post results of my inspection...

 

This may sound simple but I had this same issue. Turns out the previous owner did not put the lower washers on the front shocks, thus the truck was just riding on springs on the front. I got bounced into the other lane twice before I ordered new shocks and quit driving it until they came in.

 

It's not gonna ever happen. A Bronco is not ever gonna drive like a pickup. It's to damn short. Mine is as tight as they get. Everything new. But if I sneeze at 70 miles an hour I just hope it stays on the road. My first trip home I thought something was wrong. It's been a long time since I drove anything this short. Now after a month or so of daily driving it I am finely use to it. It reminds me of the rack and pinion steering I have had on a few European sports cars I have had. Anyway, just saying.