Hey guys, I would've posted this in the builds section but i felt that it was better suited here because of how many questions I have. I'm new to the lifted trucks and 4x4 department and I haven't really worked on a rig other than minor rust repair, some electric, and brakes so I'll need a bit of help.


My parents picked up a 1995 F150 for me on my 18th birthday as it's the same time I got my license, the truck was already lifted 9 inches(3" body, 6" susp.) and had 38x12.5r15 swampers with steel rims on it. We got it in NH and were told it would take a vt inspection sticker no problem, wrong. Got back to VT and replaced the seized wiper motor, cracked and worn serpentine belt, topped off fluids, and discovered the wiper fluid reservoir was disconnected so it pissed any liquid out the bottom.
Heres the pic from the ad on CL:

The truck as advertised on craigslist, lightbar was not included

We picked it up knowing the middle cab mounts needed to be replaced/repaired/fixed, the truck also had an axle swap from a 1978 f250 - dana 40's or 44's, I'm not sure which or how to tell.
pics of cab mounts:

Drivers side middle cab mount, the one right under the floor pan, needs replaced bad, any thoughts?



Passenger side middle cab mount also needs replaced in a bad way.



Yeah they're pretty bad, they werent that bad before but me being me let them go too far. Anyone know if you can get an aftermarket plate that can be welded in place of the gaping hole that's there now so the mount can rest on it? Or any other ideas or ways of getting it done?

About or three weeks after getting it my father and a couple of my friends took our rusty '01 f250 and my truck out to the mud holes (glorified puddles of water) and thats when my forward clutch went(torque converter afaik?) so i had to back out of there lol. $1500 later we had A rebuilt tranny and were on our way, still trying to find someone to help me fix the cab mounts at this point.

Driving to my girlfriends I noticed the steering was far more off than it usually is, normally there was about 5-8 inches of play in the steering wheel (was told by father its normal for a lifted truck, he had an 80's 3/4 ton chevy cheyenne lifted about the same) but I got to her house and had her father turn the wheel for me while I looked at the front end and the bracket holding the sway bar (i believe) was loose enough to be visibly shifting, replaced and tightened the bolts holding it in at their house, also tightened the bolts holding the steering box to the frame because they were loose as well. Later I found out it has a 4-6" dropped pitman arm when it should be 6-8" or longer.

About a month or two of riding around un-inspected I got pulled over, which is kind of ironic because I had just taken the rotted out muffler off so it was straight piped off the headers, no cats, loud as s***. Got b****ed out by the cop for lack of inspection but no comment on the definitely too loud exhaust. $105 ticket and three days later I picked up a 28" thrush glass pack.

Before winter showed up I had the local shop try to swap the swampers to another set of rims that I had, I believe they were alluminum 10x15's with plenty of back spacing and discovered only 1 of 4 tires held air by itself, the others had about a quart of GreenGoo or a inner tube in them. So i was out of a set of fairly crappy swampers, boo, it now sits on 235/75r15 winter tires. The shop also told me why the check engine and abs lights were on.
It looks rediculous with the tiny tires:

Rattle can paint job done poorly by previous owner, planning on sanding down and doing a satin black.



Truck also stopped heating up to where i thought it was supposed to, i figured the temp needle should've been verticle and between the R and M in NORMAL but it would using barely get passed N and the air was lukewarm. replaced the thermostat with an OEM 190* thermostat and gasket in 20* snow and it didnt make a difference. Talked to my girlfriends brother and said I was probably low on coolant, sure enough put a half gal in it and it warms like it should but temp gauge still reads between N and O now, wish I knew that before haha.

As of right now I believe that's it up till now, the main reason for making this post as of now is that my truck is once again seemingly trying to kill me via steering, otherwise I would have continued just lurking.
unfortunately I have to use the truck as my DD which is incredibly inconvenient, especially with the issues it has right now.

Onto the steering.. when we swapped the small tires on it drove incredibly well, 2-3" of wheel play and drove in a straight line with wheel centered but now theres about 3-6" of wheel play as well as when you're driving along the truck will throw itself to one side or the other, usually the right, when I correct to continue straight it just throws itself in the other direction. Sometimes its not bad and sometimes it doesn't do it at all. It'll happen regardless of speed, bumps, or wheel angle. It does seem to happen more on hills though, it'll want to turn into the slope. Last night was particularly bad, however I've checked visually that everything is tight, had my father turn the wheel while looking at everything on the front end and nothing shifted. I'm stumped and worried.

Another reason for the post going up now is that I pulled out of my driveway and just up the hill (30 seconds into the drive) the truck started to sputter and sound like it was dieing, like it wasn't getting enough gas or something. RPMs stayed the same but serious sputtering and loss of power, was able to pull off the road into a driveway and it died on me. It took me a while to get it started again, went back to the house and let it idle for a bit and it idles rough but steady, no sputtering anywhere past 2750rpm either. Definitely threw me off though, I have a lot of plans for this truck but I'm not planning on doing anything until i get the suspension and steering fixed and that wont make a difference if the engine decides to croak. Checked oil and its where it should be. Any suggestions or ideas?:help: Thanks.

 

Welcome to FTE Jenkins150,

Please do us all a favor and keep that truck off public roads until ALL your issues are fixed.

YOU DO HAVE A PROJECT ON YOUR HANDS!

You know you will be spending more money on the truck than the truck is worth, right?

You will need to post better pictures of the front end swap, just to give everyone a better idea of how the SAS was done and what needs to be done.

You will probably need to buy a Ranger first as your daily driver.


Post pictures of the front end.

 

Since last night my dads letting me drive our 04 f250 so that problem is solved and im definitely aware ill be putting more into it than its worth.
heres a couple front end pics:


front axle from the front, tried to fit its entirety in the pic



close up of the bracket with the replaced bolts, inner tie rod end(small end) visible in the pic was replaced as well.

 

I'd start with a good old shake dwon of the front end.
start by jacking up the front of the truck so the front wheels are off the ground. support the truck with jack stands, not the jack its self.
have someone in the drivers seat turning the steering wheel back and forth. watch how much the person is turning the wheel relative to how much the steering shaft is turning just outside the firewall in the engine bay.
keep doing this all the way to the front tires. seeing where the slop is in the steering. it will more than likely be in more than one place.

when you replaced your wheels and tires you affected the alignment. your truck was aligned with those horrible tires prior to you getting it. since the tires were horrible, your alignment will be horrible. after the shake down and fixing any worn parts from that, you will need an alignment. but i would wait until you get the wheels and tires you will be using. if you will be running the ones in the pics for a while, then just get it aligned and then again when you get new tires.

 

I plan on getting different tires, these were given to me by a friend. I dont actually think the last tires were aligned, they pulled to the left pretty wicked, we put these on and you could actually hold the wheel straight haha but i see your point. I'll ask my dad for help tomorrow as its dusk already and i have class in 30. Thanks for the quick response.

 

Can buy replacement cab supports on the WWW without much trouble, front mounts anyway.

As far as steering being loose with lots of play in the wheel solely due to being "lifted"......bullcookies.

Need to check the shaft before the steering gear box, from it up to the wheel, just as much as everything after it for free play.

Pictures show the track bar and drag link at to high an angle.

Track bar too short pulling the whole front axle to the left side, longer one would improve that but lowering its attachment point at the frame would be the best solution. You want the track bar near to parallel with the ground as possible/practical, prevents the whole axle from shifting left/right as the suspension compresses and extends while encountering rises and dips and bumps in the road/trail.

A longer bar instead of lowering its bracket? appears that the left shock would either come very close too or hit the bracket that is there now, my bet is hit it.

Hard to tell by the picture but appears it has stock type C bushings in it, they dropped the aft end of radius arms down however appears the front axle housing is still rotated forward too much negatively effecting caster angle. Would tend to make it wander, not want to maintain a straight line and or return to straight after navigating a turn.

Axle housing if rotated forward beyond spec, would also cause drive shaft to pinion angle issues there.

C-bushings are available in 2,4 and 7 degree positive caster to counter that if needed, again cant really tell from picture. Appears rotated forward at least a little but can't say for sure, may not be an issue.

Also appears the right side radius bracket is damaged/bent?

 

Okay, so if I understand you right,

Drag link is at too much of an angle:
Could that be because of my Pittman arm not being large enough? Was told I needed a 8-10" dropped Pittman arm and if I understand that right it's the angle are which it slopes down, not just length. And right now I believe I have a 4-6" dropped Pittman arm

Track bar too short:
The track bar is the one connected to the bracket yes? If so I think it would make more sense to get another bracket that's lengthened downwards and has a better connection to the frame rather than just a longer bar, is that logical thinking?

C bushings and axle housing angle:
Not entirely sure where or what the c-bushings are but I think I have an idea. You mention that hey come in 2,4,7 degrees of angle to counter that and if I understand that it means I would replace the bushing instead of having to lower the radius arms more, correct?

 

..............

 

So i went and took a few more pictures, it definitely seems like my passenger side control arm(radius arm??) mount/bracket is bent, its definitely not the same as the drivers side. It doesnt look like the drive shaft is at any sort of angle, looks straight actually, which almost makes the axle housing look like it is angled forward too much. one thing i noticed is that the passenger side shocks look angled quite a bit compared to the coil and truck itself.the C bushings dont appear to be stock but they might not be at enough of an angle as they need to be.

 

UPDATE:
Found steel replacement cab mount support's that i need, $140 for both LH and RH found here:
https://www.autobodyspecialt.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=F-288-LH
https://www.autobodyspecialt.com/cgi...n&key=F-288-RH

The engine stuttering/wanting to die has ceased, i believe it was because there was A LOT of water on the roads the night previous, then freezing temps in the night and morning causing things to freeze over.

I have and have had three dash lights on for a while, the third being more recent.
I have a check engine light on because the o2 sensor was cut off by PO for straight pipe exhaust. Does anyone know how many wires the o2 sensor has and where about it is located? Im having trouble finding it, even with google.
I have an ABS light on, the shop told me the code read a bad ABS sensor in rear pumpkin.
I have the (p)arking brake light on, this one stumps me though, the parking brake is mechanically disengaged from the drum, checked this already, the in cab floor pedal is completely depressed and the brake fluid is topped off, but the light is still on? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
ABS sensor is on order, and a catalytic converter will be on order next paycheck, and the o2 sensor will be on order when i can figure out how many wires it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

for the parking brake light, if i remember correctly, there is a switch at the parking brake hinge point area on the drivers kick panel. unplug that and see if the light goes out. if it does then you either need to adjust the switch or get a new one.
i read that while looking for answers for my soft brake pedal. so try searching for parking brake light switch and you might find a good troubleshooting guide for it.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll check it out

 

Never heard of a Dana 40. The front axle is almost certainly a Dana 44.

If the axles actually came out of a '78 F-250 the rear axle would be a Dana 60. But then they'd also have 8 lugs instead of the 5 I see in the pics. So they're probably out of an F-150. The '78 F-150 probably had a Ford 9" rear axle. The '95 would have had a Ford 8.8".

Dana 44s look like what's shown in your pictures. They also have a "44" cast into the diff housing.

Dana 60s look basically like that, but bigger, and have a "60" cast into the housing.

Ford 8.8" looks basically similar to a Dana 44, with a removable cover on the back of the diff.

Ford 9" doesn't have a removable cover on the back. Rather it has bolts on the front so you can remove the differential from the housing.

 

In that case the rear is a 8.8", the PO painted the cover a light blue so there's that, thanks for the clarification.