Hey everyone long time lurker but finally decided to sign up. Ive had my f100 for over a year and need some help identifying my problem. I pulled my truck out of a barn and spent a few months getting it running and rebuilding the entire brake system. At that point I had just idled around the yard, but the first time I tried the actually take it down the road, I was in for a huge surprise. It was an absolute bear to keep on the road and the steering wheel jumped from side to side. I knew that my truck had an excessive amount of camber due to worn out springs/shock or king pins. After looking closer The truck has extreme toe-out and the wheels seem to wobble when moving. I have worked on plenty of cars but this is my first slick. Just feeling around to see if anyone else has had this problem before I try to find another set of I-beams because I believe one of mine is bent.

 

I'd try new tie rods and aligning it before jumping straight to new I beams. If you do need new I beams then you already have the new tie rods for them.

I had a 1990 F350 that would get a wobble and shake violently until I got new tie rods and an alignment. It's a completely different sharpening because it was a solid axle front but in my experience toasted steering components tend to all act horribly regardless of the suspension design.

You can check the king pins by jacking one wheel up of the ground and see if there is any top to bottom wiggle-grab the to of the tire and pull/push straight towards/away from. If there's pay then it's a sign of a bad king pin... It could potentially be a bad bushing where the I beam mounts on its pivot too.

 

eastTN65 Welcome to and the Slicks Forum.

Sounds like you may have one of several issues, and if I may, I suggest that you buy a 73-76 F100 pickup with engine & trans like you have or want to upgrade to and do the disc brake and power steering upgrade. You can replace the complete front axle set with the donor and hopefully all the issues will be gone. The project is bolt hole swap and if the donor was aligned properly before you start, should remain so when complete.

Something to sleep on.


John

 

Thanks for the input. Another reason I believe one i-beam may be bent is it looks like it was in a small fender bender that only affected the bottom of the fender and tire. If you look at the I-beam from the side it appears to be bent backwards. I don't know if this is how its supposed to be but it doesn't seem natural. Also not sure how to post pictures or I may be able to get pictures of the truck.

 

Welcome to FTE; looking forward to your input!! IMO, determine what is causing the problem, once solved the upgrade could be an option, particularly if replacing I Beam became necessary?

Similar issue with my 65. Suggest lift front end, check for play, side-side and/or up-down and inspect for excess play with 1 or more suspension components. On my 65, gradually found the front end would drift to the right. Lifted the front suspension and found the components; tie rods, ball joints, etc., were in fair condition, but the nut securing the idler arm to the gear box loosened allowing excess play. In addition, the driver's side radius arm bushing had deteriorated and I could not establish, or torque to spec's. Since it came down to removing and replacing the radius arm bushing decided to replace suspension bushings and components, well worth the cost.

Alignment: I purchased a cheap $30 MANCO alignment tool years ago and it works great, it's primarily for establishing a reference point but I have used it on a few occasions and found it came damn close to what the shop came up with. Basically works on principle of lifting the tire couple inches off the ground, make a mark either from center or outside of tire, rotate 360 and measure the difference.

Anyhow, had an urge to chime in?

 

When writhing look at the items above the posting box. There is one that looks like a yellow post card with stamp. Hold your mouse pointer over it, should say Insert Image, click on it and you can load images to thread.


John

 

He's correct.
If you decide to fix what you got, or fix up a disc brake front end, they are simple front ends. Wreck it all out, examine all the parts and rebuild it. If you do it once, and do it correctly, you will have a great driving truck, and you will not have to tinker with it again.,...jack

 

Touche, John has a good point and a very pragmatic line of thought, but I'm going to play devil's advocate:

You just spent the time and money working over the braking system and if you're kingpins are good you probably just need tie rods and an alignment. Considering the money and time you've already invested, this will be the cheapest and quickest route to having your truck safe and roadworthy.

This may be an exception and I'm just getting a good deal, but I can generally get tie rods and sleeves done by the alignment shop I use for only about 10%-15% more than I could buy the parts and do it myself. That is before the cost of the alignment which you'll need either way.

 

Oops, wrong quote in my previous post, this is the one I meant to quote.

 

I may be a little older than you, and do suffer from CRS, so if I swap a complete 76 I-beam set under my truck I can remember that everything below the chassis needs 76. I can pass that info along to the guy that just purchased it to help him remember.

It is my years of reading here when guys come after mismatching wanting help that moved me hard into that corner.


John

 

Sounds like you have been given some good advice so far. But if you just want to get it driving. Only go after the most worn parts first. If it turns out you do have a bent axle PM me. I have the complete front suspension that I torched off of a 1965 parts truck. Keep in mind though that the axles on these trucks have some twists and turns built into them.

 

IF you don't know the history of the truck it doesn't hurt to take a good look down the frame rails toward the back too before buying parts. I've seen pickups on the high way that could leave two sets of tracks in the snow because the back tires were not behind the front tires...guessing their frame was bent.