so i have a tire problem.

i replaced the ball joints about a year ago with MOOG parts. they have grease zerks and i use them. ive changed all the tie rod ends and they are tight. i had it aligned about a year ago and was told it was all ok. it still pulled to the right a bit but not bad and i figured it was just a ford thing since all the fords i have ever driven have pulled one way or the other and had sloppy steering. so i put my new tires on. brand new. and lately id noticed it pulling to the right more and more and more. so i took it to a different shop and they said the leafs were bad. so i got new bushings (energy suspension bushings) and swapped out the springs with some from a different 3/4 ton we had that had a 351 in it so i know they havent been carrying much weight and now it does sit off the stops further than it did before but im still pulling to the right something terrible and my passenger side tire is bald on the outside and fine on the inside and my drivers side tire is still brand new. these tires cost over 200 dollars a piece so im not to happy about all this and it needs to be resolved in less than 2 weeks. i dont know what to do im going to take it back to the shop and have them put it on the rack again but while i was driving the hour trip home from our shop i was thinking the springs would make the inside wear not the outside right???? what can i do.

 

for the short term, rotate the tires around so no one of them gets bad enough on that outside edge to be a big problem.
the fact that you're both pulling to the right AND have abnormal tire wear means that you either have an alignment problem or a defective tire.
the toe-in angle of the alignment can easily be checked with a tape measure, just drive the truck straight forward for a distance of at least 10 feet without moving the wheel, then take a tape measure from the inner sidewall of one tire to a theoretical line you see by eyeballing the tape measure against the near sidewall and the far one (front and rear) of the tire you're close to. repeat this from both the front and rear sides of the tire, and compare measurements. it should be toed in somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8". if you don't know, "toe in" means the front side of the tires are closer than the rear of the same tires.
having done so, drive forward about half a tire rotation and measure again on both sides of the front tires, the readings should be the exact same as before, and still in that same range i posted above.
also check for any slack in any of the steering components, including tie rods, ball joints or kingpins, axle pivot bushings, etc. also check wheel bearings for excessive slack or drag

 

Though you've had poor tracking performance with Fords before, mine, with tight front ends and decent alignments, track straight (take your hand off the wheel and stay straight) and have even tire wear.

Are you still running the Dana 50 in your truck? Check the bushings for the springs, trailing arms, etc. Some guys have had issues with them. Double check the ball joints are still tight, along with the tie rod ends.

When you had it aligned, did they give you a print out of the allowed specs, and the actual measurements? Wearing on the outside could be too much toe-in, or the camber angle out of spec, letting the tire lean too far out.

Sounds to me like your alignment a year ago wasn't done right, or something happened soon after to affect your front end/tire wear.

 

I would check the axle pivot bushings mine was pulling to the left and I layed under it and had a buddy turn the wheel, my right bushing was completely gone. After replacing both the alignment is right back where it should be it tracks nice and straight compared to 1/8 turn to the right I had to give the wheel to go straight before. Also note the pivot bushings can cause negative camber even with new ball joints.

 

the axle pivot bushings were also replaced about 1 1/2-2 years ago. i went through this axle from one end to the other replacing everything that needed replacing when i bought the truck. which was pretty much everything because the front axle was never maintained to my knowledge by the previous owner. it was in rough shape. bushings shot bearings bad axle shafts junk. ect. thats why this doesnt make since. i did everything short of replacing the leafs. and now ive changed them. i dropped the truck off at the alignment shop this evening and there supposed to call me and let me know what needs to be done tomorrow im hoping its just a toe in adjustment now and i can go back to driving my truck. my ol lady is going to have it during the month of december when i go back on active orders for the month. so i want it ready if the snow falls for her.

 

well i got the truck back 370 dollars later. they had to put bushings on the top ball joints to correct a camber problem. but now it drives straight. damn its expensive though.

 

they probly used offest ball joints.

 

Its expensive because of the labor to pull it all apart to put offset bushings in. Basically its the same amount of tear down as ball joints, you just don't replace the actual balljoint, but the bushing it goes into on the knuckle instead.