So I got my F250 out of the shop and they said the entire steering system needs to be replaced. They said:

Steering box
King Pins
Complete linkage assembly (tie rods, pitman arm, center link, etc)
I beam bushings
Front springs

Can anyone direct me to somewhere that I can order all of these parts and maybe help complete that list with any of the smaller things I'm going to need? They want about a grand in labor and the parts seem like they're going to be expensive too. I could do $800 on parts and do the labor myself if I have to but I can't put two grand or more into this right now.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Am I going to need all of this? Any donor trucks I should check the scrap yards for? Bronco's?

 

Take it to another shop for a second O. I would think it would take one being wrecked to need all that.


John

 

Thanks John, I appreciate the reply. I originally thought it was the rag joint because it's all degraded and that's where the play seems to happen, on the upper steering shaft. I was a little panicked when I got the news but now that I've settled down a little I think I'm going to just order a new rag joint and start there. I might just do the tie rods, king pins, and pitman arm too while I'm at it and see if that takes care of it.

I feel like a fool asking this, but I can't seem to find an "I beam" or "I beam bushing" in the LMC catalog anywhere. Is there another name I should be looking for that it is called?

 

If your suspension and steering are original there is no doubt that all of that should be replaced. Except maybe springs.
You are going to get into some very heavy labor with the things you describe. King pins alone will wreck a Saturday morning. And you will need special tools.
Suspension work is no joke.
$2k does not sound bad at all for all that work. I live in Bay Area CA and no shop would touch that extensive work for that money.
It all depends on what your plans are for the truck. My advice: Don't mess with that work yourself.

 

The $2k is just a guess with labor. They said a minimum of 8 hours at $115 an hour and I told them to not even bother with the parts. I'm going to look for a donor truck that I can get most of it from. The truck only has 78k original miles (I have all the service records to prove it) so I just don't get how it could be so screwed up.

Is it really that big of a job? I have the time and can spend a few weeks on it if necessary. I'm no expert but I am pretty mechanically inclined and patient. I don't mind buying the tools either. That's pretty much why I made this thread.

What special tools am I going to need that you can think of?

 

the only special tools I can think of is a tie rod/pitman arm separator, maybe a spring compressor, and torque wrench.

Kingpins range from $70 to $90 plus shop labor to ream and fit the metal bushings. Mine ran $90. The big dollar item is the steering box... $220 from your local Autozone but a quality unit from Red-Head or Bench Works is about $400.

Take what your shop states with a grain of salt. Some merely make it seem worse than reality to milk more manhours out of ya. Do your own inspection.

Leave the machine shop stuff to the machine shop. Otherwise, a decent set of tools will save lots of money if you do it yourself. Think about it... it's just an assemblage of components that a high school graduate (maybe) put together on the assembly line.... It's not rocket science.

 

That's a good point. I have a good set of tools and am pretty confident I can do everything except the kingpins. I called the shop to get a quote on the kingpins and I beam bushings and I think I can probably do the rest. I definitely think they were trying to pad the bill a bit and do more than necessary. I don't even think the steering box is bad because the power steering seems to work fine when I'm turning and it doesn't whine or anything. I'm going to pick it up tonight and do an inspection on everything and see what I can find.

 

Atta boy.. you CAN do it.

Go to the bottom of this link for a list of vendors : https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13139591

Btw, Rock Auto is a really good source for replacement parts. Personally, I prefer Moog steering & suspension components. Try to avoid the imported stuff.

 

I will always buy American if I can. Hell, that money's going to end up in China usually anyway. Thanks for the link I've been looking for something on the forums like this for a while now.

Edit: I found this link in your link and it's exactly what I needed. I'm just going to do all of it and take the kingpins down to the machine shop to have the old pins pushed out and the new bushings pressed in and reamed. I think I'm actually looking forward to this. I'll be able to paint a lot of my suspension while I do it.

 

You will very likely wind up having to remove the I-beams and take them and the spindles to a shop to have the old king pins pressed out. They can be EXTREMELY difficult to remove without a heavy duty shop press. The shop will install the new bronze bushings into the spindles and ream them to size. Take one of the new king pins in with you as they'll need that to get the size correct.
This would be an excellent time to replace the suspension bushings as well. I used Prothane bushings I bought from Amazon, but many vendors sell them.
Prothane 6-1207 Red Radius Arm Bushing Kit and Prothane 6-604 Red Axle Pivot Bushing Kit with Twin I-Beam are the ones you'll need. The king pin set you need may be different from mine, though. I have a camper special.
I can't help much with the steering box. I didn't replace that. Last fall, I replaced the king pins and suspension bushings on Frodo. Here's a write up I did on it:
The FORDification.com Forums • View topic - Frodo, the '69 F250 CS

It really wasn't that bad a job to do. You can handle it. You will need to take your truck in for an alignment when you're done.
Good luck!!

 

Axle Pivot Bushings

Good luck!

 

Chris, all good advice above. But you have not said that you have a problem with the steering except what the shop guy said.
The shop guy sells steering and suspension.
Why don't you crawl under the front end and have wifey wiggle the steering wheel back and forth? Look for loose in the steering knuckles and bushings. Jack up the truck and have wifey wiggle the tire to see how bad the flop is in the kingpins.
As Jowilker, I am suspicious of the advice from the shop.

 

+1 on checking it out yourself , most shops try to drum up biz . with only 78k on truck it should be in good shape .

 

I actually found your guide off of another link and already printed it out. It was exactly what I was looking for!

Sorry John, I should have elaborated. I took it into the shop for steering issues. I thought it was just a bad rag joint because the amount of play that it has is exactly the amount that the upper steering shaft has before it engages the lower. After I dropped it off they said all of that stuff was bad. I'm thinking their advice was worth a lot less than I paid for it because with how bad the play is I don't think you would be able to tell how it wanders or anything like that. I also found out after hours of searching that the pitman arm is a no wear part so I really don't believe much of what they said.

I'm going to check out everything this weekend but I took a little while last night and looked and the tie rods don't seem loose or anything although a lot of the bushings look like they need to be replaced. The front coils are pretty bad too. It's looks like I'm going to replace the rag joint, radius arm bushings, I beam bushings, king pins, and front coils. I'm hoping that takes care of everything because otherwise I'm going to be pissed if I have to rip it all apart again! All of those parts plus machining for the king pin bushings puts me right at my budget so thank you everyone that gave advice here. I'll update once I do the work next weekend.

 

Do not go by these descriptions, because LMC (as usual) hasn't a single clue!

Look at Ford truck parts catalog pic.

3280 includes 3A131 left outer tie rod, 3281 sleeve and 3A130 tie rod end. These 3 parts also available individually.

Disregard LMC's wild mule p!ss inre to the before/from serial number M00,001 center link, because this only applies only to the 3304 draglink.