I went through my front end about 7 years ago. New springs, new radius arm bushing, new I-beam pivot bushings, new drag link and short link (can't remember it's name now!), etc. I did not rebuild the king pins as I could not detect an ounce of play in them (still can't)..

My alighment is getting VERY wacked recently (I'm sure THAT little nugget suprises everyone....). One thing I have noticed that appears "different" is that my camber changes a lot depending on if I go forward or backwards (from positive to negative...). While thinking about it, I THINK two things are going on:

1) The radius arm bushing is "giving" allowing the I-beams to move forward or backwards slightly
2) The toe in is excessive and it is driving the suspension either towards the center of the truck (going forward) or pulling it outward (going backwards) causing the camber shifts. The bushings may be worn allowing the suspension to move too much.

I am about 100% sure that I have too much toe in (leading to the suspension moving), but I don't want to get a pro alignment done until the hardware has been rebuilt or replaced. I think I will go measure it this weekend and tweak it in to see how it behaves...

So, the real question I have for everyone: Does the theory above hold any water? Has anyone else seen this problem before? For $30, it is a no brainer to go ahead and replace the suspension bushings (and it is REAL simple to pull each side off and roll it forward to get at the bushings). I have to replace the drag link as well as the ball joint to the steering box is plain wore out too. Sigh. While I love my truck, the front end alignment seems to be a never ending issue...

 

I think I have decided to replace the front suspension bushings this weekend. I did the "eye-ball" check on my toe in and it was WAY toed in! When I went to adjust the passenger side, I found the adjuster had not been properly tightened down the last time it was in for an alignment. I gave it 3 full turns and then tightened everything down (amazing how much harder it is to turn the adjuster when the lock bolts are tight... Sigh.)

My test drive DEFINITELY confirmed the issue with my alignment was 90% toe-in. My steering wheel was back to the straight up and down position, the truck was pulling out of the a turn correctly (when you release the wheel the truck should try to straighten out, even on a tight turn) and it was not longer scrubbing the tires going around turns. Oh, an all the sudden, my front wheels are sitting straight up and down (again, visual inspection) after driving it instead of angling out while going forward (wheels trying to drive under the truck) or angling in whil going backwards (wheels trying to pull themselves out from under the truck).

I think I will go ahead and replace the bushings as I don't like the fact that the suspension moved THAT much to cause such a huge change in camber depending on which direction the truck was driven.

On the bright side, I now have an alignment shop I can officially add to the "no way in heck" list...