I have a 2001 F250 Crew Cab Super duty with the front leaf spring suspension. It has 62,000 original miles on it, never been plowed or abused.

Noticed a slight drift to the right recently, so brought it in to have tires rotated (new at 50,000) and alignment done. The alignment was last done when new tires were bought last fall and all was a-okay.

The alignment shows that the front right camber is off. Tech says it needs an adjustable bushing. I ask if they are equipped to do this and they say - no problem. Go ahead I say. They order bushing and the wrong one is sent. They miraculously find the right bushing in their parts room, install it and realign. Alignment shows camber is now okay, but caster is off by about 1.5-2 degrees. They say not to worry, this is the best they can do and camber is more important because it affects tire wear.

I pay bill and take truck on the highway and immediately notice a bad drift to the left which gets worse as the speed increases or when you brake hard.

I complain to manager and he says tech installed bushing at the one o'clock position and he wants me to bring it back so they can install at the eleven o'clock position and see if that fixes it..

I asked to have them install old bushing and give me a refund as I dont have faith in them.

When I take the truck elsewhere...what should the techs be doing to correct this problem?

Thanks

Trident

 

id first check the ball joints, there are known to go bad and its probally causing your aligment problem

 

Thanks. They said balljoints were fine...but then again, I dont get the feeling they are not very experienced.

 

You got the alignment sheet? Or can you get it from them?

 

I have the before and after alignment sheets.I will post them tomorrow.

Thanks

 

If you have one in your area, find a top-shelf alignment shop. I rarely hear of dealers (or tire shops) with particularly competent alignment techs. Your shop sounds like it's fishing for an answer and having the caster 'way off' while fixing a camber issue is not acceptable or typical.

 

when my ball joints went it didn't sway or pull, i had no tire wear at all. The only reason i knew it was bad is because i was rotating the tires and when i removed the front wheel the knuckle moved, then i inspected it closer and the passenger upper ball joint was sloppy.

 

Caster difference between each side generally has to be less than 0.5 deg or a pull results. I will guess that your left caster is closer to zero than your right based on your symptom.

As others mentioned, these guys are missing fundamental alignment skills. Take it somewhere else.

 

If you have a Les schwab near by try them. I just had my truck in today for a check up. I had changed the ball joints, it was driving as good as ever but thought I would have it checked. Tech said all was good and within specs, best part was, no charge. Here is the specs on my print out:

Front:
Camber L 0.3 R 0.3
Cross camber -0.1
Caster L 3.2 R 4.1
Cross caster -0.9
Toe L0.06 R -0.05
Total Toe -0.11

Rear
Camber R --0.1 L -0.2
Cross camber 0.1
Toe R -0.03 L 0.10
Total Toe 0.06
Thrust angle -0.07