97 F250 4x4

New upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends and drag link, all replaced in the last 7 months.

I did the tie rods about a month ago but have not bothered to get it aligned (tracks fairly well, was meticulous with measurements), because with such a horrible positive camber, I figured an alignment shop wouldn't be able to get anything done the way it is.

Driving forward, camber is WAY positive, degree wise, I'm not sure. Had new tires put on when I bought the truck a little over a year ago, outside tread is damn smooth. When I back into a spot, tires seem to straighten out to damn near perfect. The positive camber is very noticeable.

What should I check? I'm fairly new when it comes to front end suspension past ball joints and tie rods.

 

Check leaf spring/shackle bushings and axle pivot bushings.

 

I'll look into that, thank you.

Question, for my own understanding. How do those two things affect camber? How could shackles (aka leaf springs??) give such a bad camber? Tires look like this from the front \ /

Not questioning your answer, I'm just trying to understand the terminology for the front end because it seems there are various names for the same part. May have to barnify it for me.

 

The TTB front end has some personality quirks.

Changing the spring bushings and the center pivot bushings to new, or better yet, polyurethane, will help. Make sure you pull the front spring 'shackle' from the frame to change both ends of it. It is a surprisingly small bushing and is likely in very sad shape.

Camber is changing because you have some toe in. As you roll forward the wheels steering into each other causes the bottom of the tires to try to get closer, tilting the top of the wheel out. Roll backwards, the top tilts in. Some of the tilt is from the slop in the spring and pivot bushings, ball joints and the wheel bearings, some of the tilt is the tire itself deflecting.

When I backed into a parking space my tires went like this: / \ When driving forward the looked about straighter: | | This is about normal for the TTB front end. I quit backing into parking spots.

The truck has to be aligned with the front tires 'loaded' in the rolling forward condition. Yours seems to be opposite.

If you are doing the work, roll the truck backwards as far as practical, then roll it forward to your work spot. Makes some adjustments, then roll it back and then forward again. Keep doing it until it is correct rolling forward. Unless you are doing a lot of crash derby driving, forward is your primary direction anyway.

And if you are taking it to an alignment shop, chat with them about this before they put it on the rack. If they don't seem to understand, you may want to go to another shop.

 

agreed. when i do front alignment on a TTB vehicle, i drive it in off the road and stop. no reversing at all before i mess with the front end.
people always freak out when they see the front wheels all out of whack after backing it into a spot. but they understand once i explain how the TTB works and move it forward 25 FT and it sits properly.

 

Wezo, the front leafs on my '97 were so shot that I was on the bump stops. My wheels looked like this / \ all the time.... worse when I backed up. I had my buddy who is an ironworks blacksmith, re-arc them. We replaced both front and rear bushings.
At the finish, the truck sat a little too high in front. Now looked like this \ / .
We had to take some arc out of them to get it right. That's the quirks of this TTB front ends. Maybe you have too much spring up front.... may want to check that out.

 

IMO if your front end is right, any you have a good front end alignment guy, you shouldn't have any of them problems. My tires don't do that in/out crap you guys are talking about backing or moving ahead. Tires wear good. IF its right, the TTB works fine.

 

??????? My '89 F150 and '91 Bronco did that stuff when brand new. 'Coures got way worse as it aged. In fact I see 9 of 10 do the same thing. Almost every TTB Ford of this era do that, especially backing up. I'll post a vid from the campsite this summer.

 

I'm sure most people know, that the sleeve at the top ball joint is removable so it can be replaced, changing the caster and/or camber.

There is also an adjustable sleeve too so that you don't have to keep buying new sleeves.

The challenge is finding an alignment shop that knows how to do any of this...

 

Thanks, great to know. I was not aware of this. Front end alignments are not a DIY thing (for most). What I do know is that all the TTB vehicles I've owned have done this backing up, yeah some worse than others. Where I like to play most is on the ocean beaches here. Every vehicle is required to back into the dune area along Fire Island National Sea Shore. When there were more of these on the road years ago, you could just walk down the rows of trucks and notice that most or all the fords had a / \ to some degree.

 

Just saying how it is with mine. And I still stand by what i said. IF the D50 is right, its fine. I back mine in everytime I park it. Never had a problem.

 

My 87 f-150 did it. Then I took it to a guy in town that knew what he was doing and voila. Perfect . Don't ask what he did though. I was pretty young and just wanted it fixed and lifted.

 

My 85 looks like this after I back up.

 

that bumper rocks no matter what direction its moving

 

LOL. The front of the "MOOSE_MACHINE" had the same bumper in half Chrome half rust. The font was a little different being a 1 ton and a brick nose though.