Well my truck has 260*** and it has been setting for a couple months because i need to get this front-end done. When i drive the wheel has about 6 inche of play back and fourth. I am planning on doing all ball joints all new tie rod ends, a new steering box, new bearings and of coure brakes since i will have it apart. I am also going to ad a stabelizer bar, this i am not realy sure how to install. This is a prety big job but i get the parts tuesday and im going to knock it out. Any sugestion from any one on anything else that may be replaced that i have missed or any pointers on how to make this job easier. Thanks

 

The steering box prob just needs adjusting unless it leaks.

 

i dont think it leaks but i also have the oil cooler leaking it just has so much play at the wheel it floats back and fourth driving down the road, could that be caused by something else

 

also my turbo is leaking exsost so i am obviusly loosing boost can i get a new seal kit or something the turbo is still strong and only a couple years old.

 

yep,worn tie rods,drag link,ball joints,pitman arm all are possibilites.also the front spring shackles eat bushings.there is a lot of stuff going on in the front end and just a bit of play in several things and next thing you are sawing on the wheel like a dumptruck. I just hate for you to waste the money and time to do a box if everything else is shot and the box just needs some adj. I just rebuilt my track bar and adj the box and my 321000mi truck drives like new.ALL other components,and I mean everything has been checked,greased,replaced what ever it needed.
Just cause she is old does not mean it has to drive like it.

 

well that the thing i want mine to drive like new again. i am going to pull it in the garage and get everything thats needed taken care of it wounds like the box is not bad so i hopefully dont need to replace. How would i check if it bad??

 

Honestly if its not leaking,adj and drive and make sure it does not bind.That is about it.Just be very careful and adj a little at a time.dont bind it up then it will be junk.

 

Some "how to" posts if you need them

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-dummies.html


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/3...ll-joints.html

 

I may be wrong, but I don't think you can put a stabilizer/sway bar on the TTB D50 front ends. I thinks the 250s only had them on the rear.

 

Bill,I sure thought joshs 250 had it.ill check it..guess I never thought much about it.
But then again there is not much travel there and may not need it.

 

Well there is a lot of play at the wheel at least six inches. I figured puting a stabilizer would help with the swaying. It pulls from one side to the other and floats going down the road. Once I get it fixed im shooting up the mountin I got spring fever bad and I miss my truck. O ya and the death wobble when I hit a big bump is always fun

 

my two cents on the matter - i just replaced all 8 (2 leaf spring bushings/side, 1 shackle bushing/side, 1 'center' pivot bushing per side) on my F250, and the steering and ride were DRAMATICALLY improved by that alone. i, too, was looking at a new steering gear box, due to tons of play in the wheel but then one day the truck started doing what you're describing - pulling from one side to the other, so i thought i better fix it quick before i wind up in a ditch on day.

in my case, i described it as 'pulling to the side i just turned to,' as it seemed the truck always wanted to just keep turning the way it had just turned. i started looking for loose u-bolts in the rear end, but eventually tracked it down to a severely toed-in left front shackle. i ordered a new shackle thinking it had to be bent to be that toed-in, but once i got it off, the metal was fine - the upper bushing was totally shot and the lower (front leaf spring bushing) was also darn near dead. that prompted me to replace all the front bushing with polyurethane ones.

the improvements in ride quality and steering were amazing! i can't say good as new, since i really don't know (bought my truck at 180k mi), but i can say the ride is as good as i'd ever want in a truck. plus the steering is plenty tight now, too - no need to mess with replacing the steering gear...

and for what its worth - it looks like we have darn near the same truck - even down to the color - tough to see from your profile pic, but mine is extended cab 250, 4x4 PSD, 12.5x33" tires, and faded/peeling red/maroon - not that color matters :-)

to paraphrase what others have said - do the cheap stuff first. changing all those bushings is grunt work for sure - especially the center pivot ones - but its straightforward and cheap and made a huge difference for me. maybe you can save your ~$200 for steering gear, too.

about the sway bar - was it not standard issue on the 250s? i swore i thought i saw it in a manual somewhere sometime. my truck had a plow setup on it when i bought it, so i just assumed they scrapped the swaybar when putting the plow subframe on. now that i think of it though - i can't see where the swaybar would have attached to on the axle... i never cared much, though, as these front ends have such limited suspension travel that sway was never a concern for me.

 

Thanks old woods ill check all the bushings. My dad bought my truck new and passed it doen to me. I am looking to buy another one but I will never get rid of this one. I am going to pull the old dog in the garage and check out all the bushings. All I know is this problem has gotten worse over the years and ive always concentrated on the drive train. New turbo exsost trany rebuild ect. I just want my truck to drive like new I have always driven her hard four wheeling and such and she has always taken it like a champ but I got to get her fixed so I don't drive off thd side of the mountin.

 

good luck with it - like someone else mentioned, the upper shackle bushing is probably the most damaged - though with 260k mi on the original bushings (if that's the case), i doubt any of them have much life left. mine were all shot at 190k mi.

the upper shackle bushing is real tough to get a gauge on its condition without taking the shackle out though. if you want to try to gauge their condition before taking it all apart, you could try to measure the distance between the upper and lower shackle bolts and post the dimension (the more 'shot' the bushings are, the closer together the bolts will be, until they're completely through the rubber and resting metal on metal). i could then measure mine for you and you'd have a good comparison between yours and a new bushing setup.

i think you can get your head under there to get that measurement. if you take the bumper off, you can get a measurement between the upper loop of the shackle and the inside of the frame rail, but that's more work.

 

great thanks old woods if you could do that it would help me referance looks like a am going to be pulling her in tomorow a little sooner then i thought so hopefully by next weekend we got my baby back on the road and driving like she should. thanks guys all appriciated dont know what i would do with out the info i get from this site its great.