Hello everyone. I am the proud owner of a 2004 LTD, 6.0. 4 wd with 105,000 miles. My question has to do with the track bar. I have read everything I can find but there remains a couple of questions.
When I got the truck it had a "2 inch leveling kit" under the front. It sat a little nose high. I removed the stack of small plates under the front springs (4 of them, 2" all together), changed to Bilstein shocks, new sway bar bushings, new ball joints, etc.
My question is the track bar. It appears to be the factory bar -- there are no adjustments. I do not know how long a factory bar should be -- that's one question. The other has to do with the front end alignment.
If the alignment was set with the 2 inch spacers, did I change anything (the steering geometry) by simply removing the spacers? I wonder if it is as simple as removing the spacers and we are good? After replacing the ball joints, it seems like my steering wheel is no longer centered but rather has rotated about 1/5th of a turn clockwise. I saw the article on how to reset that, I just need to know if I need an alignment. I also am in the dark as to why the steering wheel would change just by changing the ball joints and nothing else.
Thanks to all.
Doug

 

1. Oem track bar is 1 piece
2. You need new ubolts even though the ones that were on it may still fit, ubolts are a one time use item. Once torqued they stretch and should not be resused
3. The alignment you need is the steering wheel centered. You moved the axles fixed position closer to the spring which changes the static height and relationship of the drag link to the steering box which changed the length needed for the tie rod if you want the steering wheel centered.

 

Thank you for your response. Yes, my track bar is one piece, so I assume that it is the factory -- not a mechanic by trade, just what I think is correct. I have new ubolts and nuts for the springs, not a problem there. I read several times on this site not to reuse ubolts as the factory are TTY. As far as number 3 -- to align the steering wheel -- I may be calling it by the wrong name but I think it is called the drag link (maybe wrong name) but it the bar that goes from the pitman arm over to the passenger side of the steering -- it has a sleeve with two bolts. The article I read here said to loosen those two bolts and with giant channel locks turn the sleeve -- one way to make the wheel rotate counterclockwise and the other direction for clockwise. Is that the alignment you are speaking of? If so, I think I can handle that. Your explanation of how it changes things made a lot of sense. I wasn't sure if I was just not paying attention to the steering wheel position before or if it really changed. I have only owned it since late September. Again, thank you for your help.

 

Correct, that sleeve adjuster will align the S/W . HOWEVER if you did tie rods & BJs, & have descent tires, I'd take it to a shop to align the front end & they can straighten the S/W at the same time. You could do it in the drive as well because it is a simple toe (in or out) alignment.

 

PS: WELCOME to the world of XXXs

 

Thank you for the welcome! No, all of the tie rod ends were relatively new -- just needed ball joints! Is there a file on how to do that? I never tried that before -- always willing to learn something.
Thanks.

 

You got it.

I wouldn't fiddle with the toe adjustment, let a shop do that if you feel it is required.
Taking out those spacers would not have effected your toe however.

 

Cool, thank you.

 

Hey Doug: Please add your general lo-cal to your profile page. We'll then know what part of the Country you hail from

 

Done (I think).

 

YEP................Thanks

 

Would you happen to have a pic of these? I was wondering if they were "mini-leaves" or something else, like blocks (blocks are a no-no up front).

 

Well Joey, I don't have any pictures but I still have them. There were 4 plates (mini leaves?) on each side -- on top of the differential but under the leaf springs. Each "mini" was 3" wide -- the bottom one was about 4 inches long, the second about 5 inches and so on (never measured their length). Each "mini" was 1/2 inch thick for a total of 2 inches each side (front only). There were no blocks.
I have only owned the Excursion since mid-September -- I am still undoing some of the things the previous owner did to it. Like he had 20" rims off of a King Ranch -- nice wheels and tires but he had lug-centric spacers on it and he had chopped off all of the wheel studs to about 1.5 inches or so. I have changed all 32 wheel studs but the wheels are in my garage until I can afford to get hubcentric spacers -- and then there is the host of other "repairs" he made that I have had to correct.

 

Front end level kit. No need to remove or change the track bar when using these IMO.

 

As it turned out, the factory track bar was still under mine. Upon removing the mini leaves, however, it did throw the "centering" of my steering wheel off -- it looked like I was taking a right turn going straight down the highway. I corrected that this weekend -- as discussed above with harley4jcs.