hello fellow ford drivers. I'm new here. I'm a full time logger from Tn.

I recently became the new owner of my uncles 94 f250 4x4 with the 7.5 460 motor and a 5 spd trans. He only put about 15000 mi on the truck in the last 12 yrs using it only to pull their camper a few times a year. So basically the truck has been a well kept garage ornament most of it's life. The 1st owner owned a horse ranch and only put about 65000 mi on it pulling horse trailers to shows etc. The truck has been pampered basically but all that is about to change(or I hope). Being a logger I need the truck to pull 10,000+lbs of equipment and get in and out of job sites on logging roads.

As soon as I got the truck I went thru and changed all fluids and gave it a major tune up. Steering had a lot of play in it and it needed new tires so I replaced the drag link, inner and outer tie rod ends and adjustment sleeves before putting new 265-75r16" Goodyear mtr's on it. Shop that mounted and balanced tires had a breakdown on their align rack so I had to take it else where for alignment. I used the same place we get all of our equip and heavy truck tires and alignment done(reputable big name co in the area). After over an hour on the rack the truck came out and still had some neg camber on the psngr front tire. I figure it needs an adjustable camber bushing installed as it's only about-1 degree. Took it back less than 100mi later to confirm this and they said it was completely out of alignment again(not just camber) and had no idea what could be causing it to go back out so quickly. Ball joints are good, so I'm at a complete loss as to what's causing this issue so quickly with so few miles driven. I've gotta figure it out or all that thick new rubber is gonna get eaten up on the inside and I cant afford that kind of bs. Any ideas or advice?

 

Go ahead and replace the pivot bushings and the leaf spring bushings. After 20 years of service they are probably falling apart.

 

I'm figuring from living where I do that is gonna be a beast of a job for such a small repair. They use salt on roads here like it's going out of style. I'm guessing it would be best to do both sides at the same time even though psngr side is problem area right? No sense in having to go back a few miles down the road. Will I still need to replace camber bushing as well? I was thinking the stock ones have 1 degree of adjustment but I'm guessing it must already be maxed out or the shop wldve caught it

 

When you are doing one pivot bushing you are already at the other, so yes do both. It may not be as bad as you think. The bolts on the spring eyes will be the problem ones. Plan on replacing them. A smokewrench is a wonderful tool! After you do the pivots and the spring bushings your camber may come back close enough to spec that the camber adjusters will do their job. If not, time for ball joints, too! Make sure to do the spring bushings. This is a complete system. If one thing is out of whack the whole system suffers. The springs are usually the part that gets left out of the equation.

 

Sounds like for your intended use of the truck in and out of muddy rutted up logging roads day in day out you should put a D60 under the front end and dump its TTB in the scrap pile, work out to less work too. New spring/shackle bushings at the same time, still less work.

Find a F350 parts truck to get the parts needed from.

 

Yea, I have to admit that is what I did to my 89. I redid the farm 94 a while back and I have to say it rides better on rough pastures and goes good in muddy feed lots. Might go better in mud than mine. The D60 swap will be a permanent fix and with sway bars probably handle heavy loads better than a ttb. That might be the way to go. See https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...questions.html and feel free to join the conversation. But if you want to keep the ttb and fix it up, there's nothing wrong with that either...............

 

ive been looking into it but in this area people seem to covet the 60's that are available. Either the prominent off road community has snatched em all up from local junkyards for projects or the people selling em want entirely too much $ for em. No luck finding any on c list etc for the past few mths either. Time, availability of parts and overall price, has me stuck working the ttb for a while longer it seems. In the long run I would like to make the swap though but it looks like luck would be the determining factor on when and I have a lack of that at all times. I just gotta get this thing back on the road ASAP to keep the $ coming in.

 

I here ya! Go ahead and redo the ttb. It will do fine. When you get it all fixed and working perfectly THAT'S when the bargain D60 will appear!

 

Thats exactly what I was thinking. If I didn't hv bad luck, I wldnt hv any at all worst part is the truck has the 10.25 rear axle but not the heavy front axle. I'm guessing the farmer just asked for the rear special and didn't think about the front since it was only gonna be a tow vehicle. If I was gonna do that I wldve just got a 350 2wd.

 

Update

Went ahead and ordered the kits from energy suspension. Had fully planned on pulling in the shop this eve and knocking it all out but had some equip fail today and now the shops full to the brim. Got 2 dozers and a skidder in there so it's about as full as it gets. I've gotta get this done ASAP cuz like I was saying, just put new tires on and cant afford them getting messed up so quick. So I called around to price some labor. Started at the high end so I could know how much is too much. Ford dealership wants $980 for just labor. Ha! Typical. Then most places I called either said they don't do that type of repair or had no clue what I was talking about. So I called the local off road shop and they priced it at around $400. Sounds a lil more like it should. How does this sound to everyone? I would just do it myself in the driveway since I can't get in the shop but when I was doing a tune up on it a while back I realized that this truck is way to heavy for jack stands on an old asphalt drive. It sunk and busted big chunks out of the driveway. Not to mention 90% of my driveway is heavily slopped. Not a real safe work environment in general.

 

$400 is not too bad. Sounds like your time fixing the stuff that makes the real money is way more valuable than a measly 4 Franks!

 

i agree. Not to mention as soon as I get the dozers fixed and ready to move, I need the truck to be up to the task of hauling em back to the job site.

How can I tell if the front leafs are just worn out all together? I know you can't really tell until you get the bolts out and dropped from the shackles, but the bushings really do seem to be ok from eyeballing em.
I've got a friend that has a 96 f250 and it seems like his sits just a lil bit higher in the front than mine. I was thinking his might have off road pkg or maybe it's just the difference in the year, I'm not sure. I have 265/75 tires on and still clear just fine. I just wanna be sure before replacing the bushings etc on my current leafs if what I really need are new leafs altogether. What do you guys think?

 

Eyeball them.....If they look like they are rolled over right in the area where the axle attaches to them, they are shot. This would cause caster issues as well. they should be fairly straight, or a consistent curve to them. I know what I mean, but not sure how to put it into words.......LOL Hope this helps

 

What PEB said on the springs. Was your buddy's a diesel? They had a bit stiffer spring which might make them sit a bit higher, but new pivot bushings alone followed by a proper alignment will probably sit yours back up a noticeable amount. And if it won't come back into specs after pivot bushings alone, you will know spring and shackle bushings are next (If the springs aren't rolled, that is).

 

I will be replacing the pivot bushing,ball joints,tie rods,drag links,allignment and maybe spring bushing on my 94/250-4x4.When replacing the spring bushing do you need to remove the springs from the axle or can you press them out while attached to the axle with a ball joint press?