Ah, there's the rub.

A line of chalk across the tread and some short driving before and after will show how significant a change happens, ie are your tires erasing themselves.

 

do you want to move closer to me to show me how to do this in my driveway or on my lunch break at work LOL......

....so how much line gone is too much line or not enough or do i not want any gone at all. you my friend just opened up a can of worms lol

 

Whats up Man; just putting in my two cents. Had same prob with my 04 a nightmare to drive. Replaced steering arm, tie rod, and hubs. Ball joints checked okay but was gonna replace anyway. Took it two alignment shop to re align after changes and guy there said it was in the castor the whole time. He gave it more possitve and you can drive the ol'e 6.0 with one finger and if you remember i'm 4" up with 35s too. Those guys ahead of me that mentioned this were onto something. Hope that helps

 

It may be two separate issues but a little along the lines of what hammer65 said....I was fighting my steering with it going to one side then turning the steering wheel a bit, a bit more and then it heading to the other side over and over ...well, I read about adjusting the slack out of the steering box so I loosened the nut and tightened the screw a little - no help, did it again - steering wheel tighter but no help with the wandering from side to side - again and steering was hard...So, I started backing it off and the more I backed it off the better it felt so I backed it off past where it was originally and now the steering wheel moves easily and I don't fight it wandering side to side. The steering box was evidently too tight to start with which required too much effort to turn the steering wheel...making it SEEM as though the side to side free play in the steering wheel was too much as I turned it from one side to the other to compensate for the wandering but with it loosened, the steering wheel is easier to turn side to side and thus any wandering is compensated for without fighting the steering wheel drawing my attention to it.....hopefully that description is a little clearer than mud....not saying this will work in your situation, but, if you're fighting your steering wheel, you might loosen the steering box screw a little and see what happens ...

 

According to the alignment specs, you could add a 2 degree shim to each leaf spring pad to increase the caster and still be within the specifications for caster. You're currently at 3.5 degrees on the right front wheel and the maximum specified value is 5.5 degrees. This is something very doable at your house if you do much work on vehicles. Loosen the U-bolts holding the leaf springs to the axle. Jack up the vehicle by the frame until the leaf spring separates from the spring pad enough to insert a 2 degree shim on top of each leaf spring pad. Tighten the U-bolts back to proper torque specification. Skyjacker (manufacturer of lift kits) is one source for the tapered leaf spring shims. There are also other companies that sell these. The 2 degree shims would move your caster up to the maximum allowed, per the alignment spec sheet.

The steering gear is tightest in the middle of the throw position. I can verify that because I've had three steering gears disassembled in the past several months and when adjusting the engagement to remove the play, I can verify that the resistance to rotation of the pitman arm/sector shaft is indeed greatest at the middle position. I can't verify that this adjustment will increase vehicle drift away from the center position - like back and forth from the central position. Seems like there's some saying that that's the case. I can only verify on all three of the units I've had on the bench, two from Ford Explorers and one from a 1988 F-350, that the steering gear box tightens first in the middle position of the throw of the sector shaft (pitman arm).

 

Is your truck a 4x4 if so than from what I found that shop is not even using the right specs. granted this is off the internet, I am off work for the next few days so cant check our machine. But I would use a different shop and explain to them what is going on. From what I found
camber caster toe
2wd 0.62 3.5 0
4wd .25 4 0

I would agree bring the caster closer to spec (I'd would go to the high side) and even out that camber.

 

from What I see here your camber could actually give you a slight pull to the left. And I bet it does you would just have to be on a flat parking lot and not on a road becouse most roads have a "hump" in them. I would also make sure your rear axle is solid becouse from the specs your steer ahead is out and that would cause you to "dog track" If you look at the rear toe your axle is shifted to the right, so I would double check to make sure it is not floating around and that is is straight/even. just had a shevy come in our shop he heard a thud and his RR wheal was rubbing on rear fender, he had a lift installed and u-bolts came loose snapping the alignment pin.

 

so it seems liek caster is very popular..i put my lift on so adding a 2 degree shim isnt a big deal...where would i get somethign like that is that both sides or right??

...and after i add it there is prob no need to get that re aligned again right? i mean i should know that it will just bring the caster up 2 degree...

..also can anyone explian exactly what this will change in driveability. i know it will rotate the axel backwark 2 degree but what does that do. im sorry im asking so many questions i just find this very interesting.

 

this is a very interestering idea...i was always advides to line the box and bolt with a punch to know your return to center..this is interestering though. somethign to think about

 

The way I explain caster to my customers is to look at a shopping cart the wheels in front are called CASTERS. look at how they fall right in line, now take one and try to make it stay the other way, it does not work.

But seriously I would double check everything in the rear axle becouse of how that rear toe sits.

As for your question, the biggest thing to think about is your pinion angle. But that is something you should have considerd when doing your lift. what I am getting at here is when you lifted your truck you changed the angle of the front driveshaft. and that could be part of why your caster is off. so now that you are "rolling" the front axle back you are lowering the pinion gear in relation to the axle housing, wich could couse issues with your front driveshaft and u-joints. But like I said this is all stuff that would have been considered when you first decided to lift the truck.

And Yes you should have an alignment after doing that. firstly to make sure it is right and secondly becouse it can mess with your other measurments. such as toe, by rotating the axle you are changing the distance from the gearbox to the right knuckle. and depending on how far you are rotating it it can actually angle your steering wheel to the left.

 

That is the way he explained it to me and what I took away from the conversation. Unfortunately, it was one of the trucks at work and it has not been able to come off the road long enough to go get it done so no personal experience on it yet. He has done my 2000 model that was pretty terrible and I am happy with it. I just drove it 600 miles nonstop last weekend and did not feel worn out from the driving part of it even if the wind was terrible.


I will send u a pm with telephone #.

 

good information, thank you so much....i would feel more comfortable taking the center bolts out of the leaf packs in order to add the shim, just because i dont want to shorten the pin that goes into the axel any more..where is the best place to buy these shims?

..and 10-4, already had 5 alignments on this truck what is one more

thanks for the info bro!

 

WOW, did the guy look away when he handed you this sheet? When I do alignments I work to within +/- 0.02, looks like this guy was taking the "ford specs" to heart and working within the +/- 4.0 in some cases. That is crazy!

 

+1

Find a new alignment place.
You have positive camber on the driver side front wheel which is bad.
You have a tiny bit of negative camber on the passenger front wheel. which is ok.
You should be aiming to have similar negative camber on both front wheels. Usually -.5 (half a degree) to -1.0 is pretty good. Positive camber is never good.

also, thrust angle should be 0.

Caster numbers are actually ok.

I think you need to do ball joints and shims in order to get camber on the front of a 4x4 on pre-2004 trucks. Not sure about the later trucks when they changed the front end.



I've been going through a similar situation with my truck. All the F250s that I test drove all had terrible steering. Mine was actually one of the better ones and I replaced every but the ball joints and steering box on mine. My thread w/ my experiences is here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-problems.html

 

after thinking about this and driving the truck for the past couple days here is my plan of action i think i am going to take.

..just for good measure im going to do the ball joints, im going to take a hacksaw blade and mark the things (forget what there called) on the top of the ball joints. just to get me kinda close to where they are now.

..then im going to go to a place near me called E.M. Kutz. its a place that does big equiptment and stuff so hopefully ill have good luck with them on the alignment.


can anyone please tell me EXACTLY what i should be telling the guy at the place spec wise...like i know the caster should be at 5 what else SHOULD the truck be at compared to what i posted on here from teh alst time i got it done


Thanks in advance guys