I am new to the forums and have done quite a bit of research on these subjects I'm about to ask about but have been unable to find an answer.

Let me start by saying this, I have only always owned Dodges and know them inside and out. I am fairly fresh to the Ford scene. I have owned two without any luck. My first was the engine in a boat. The connecting rod from the 460 jumped out and landed in the bilge. Second, on our escape the transmission lost all forward gears which made me drive it seven miles home through a rural area in reverse. That's was interesting.

So on to my current situation. I was bidding for a 2013 f150 lariat, 4 door, 4x4, 5.0, platinum tri coat. In a silent auction. It had been wrecked. I did some research on what the egine was worth and decided I would bid up to that amount. My bid was $2,151 and I won. Upon the total inpsection after getting it home to assess the damage this is what I found:

The right front hinge pillar was pushed in 1/4 inch and back 1/2 inch. The door and front right fender are trashed. The only other damage was to the front right suspension. The spindle was broke just under the upper ball joint and the brake line was severed.

I found out that the owner tried to pass a snow truck on the highway, lost control and the back end swung around. The left side of the snow blade hit the front right of the truck and did the damage.

I bought a spindle off ebay and put it on last night. First of all, the original broken spindle was cast iron. The replacement I was given (factory FoMoCo parts) was aluminum. All bolt holes are the same and all accessories that bolt to it fit exact. The only problem is the lower ball joint. The hole in the replacement aluminum part is much larger and the ball joint stud has to pull though at least a half inch further to get it to seat in the taper. This causes the bottoman of the stud to make contact with the spare 17 inch wheel. This isn't a problem because I have a replacement 20 on the way. I am concerned about this ball joint. I know it is an incorrect piece but can not find a fiche or different part number that shows what models came with aluminum spindles and what came with cast iron so I can order the correct lower ball joint.

Second, I can not tell if the frame is bent. I have taken a detailed series of measurements and compared them to the same measurements from a non wrecked exact same truck. No differences. However, I am not a body shop. After setting the truck off the jack stands from the spindle swap, the camber looked very very good. It had about 3/4 inch of toe out. I took the truck for a a test drive on a blacktop rural road. It was a bit wandery but felt right. There was a grind/growl/vibration that in creased in frequency and volume dependent on wheel speed. Both in drive and neutral. At 50 mph it was loud enough for me to start slowing down. I will have to address this asap. This will be a matter of checking what rotates. I will figure this out on my own. What bothered me is once I pulled it back in the shop and straighten the wheels up, which put the left wheel and steering wheel in true center and the right wheel back at the aforementioned toe out, I could see that there was some very obvious negative camber to both front wheels. Very noticable.

I will try to get the truck to get the alignment checked in the next two weeks. But before then is there anything I can check on that front end that would make it go negative camber like that, other than a bent frame. It is odd to me that both sides are affected. Would the bad toe out have any effect on the loading of the suspension and show a bad camber once stopped? I remembe the older twin I beam front ends would act really funny in reverse but I don't know about this. Upper or lower control arm bushings? Bent bolts? Bent control arms? Bent frame? Everything appears to look correct.

Truck has a good title. Not a salvage title. It is in pretty darn good shape except for what I've mentioned. I drive 8 miles to work through the country everyday; I thought for $2,150 plus parts it would be a good work truck, even if the alignment is slightly out. However it now looks silly with the tops of the tires over a half inch narrower than the lower.

 

It's probably a good thing that the spindle was broken, that usually means it stopped pushing on the more expensive parts. I wonder if getting the correct spindle and possibly a new lower control arm might bring it in closer. It would be cool if you could have a daily driver with such a small investment..

 

Honestly, I haven't even looked, but do these trucks have alignment cams on the A-arm mounts or are they fixed solid like some Nissan trucks? If there are cams, it may be adjustable for camber and caster.

I'd also check the coil/shock mounts, and I would check the steering. These trucks have electric steering rather than traditional hydraulic setups, so it's possible that unit could be screwed up now from the impact.

But, it sounds like you're on the right track and I would continue to pursue this. My father did the same thing...he found a 2008 Ram 2500 Quad Cab 4x4 with Cummins diesel in a salvage yard. It had just been declared "totalled" by insurance, but the only thing wrong with it was that the front tire had taken an impact and broke the front suspension. He replaced the axle and links and did a little fender work and now he's got a $25,000 truck with about $2,000 invested.

 

If everything is copesetic, that would be a hell of a deal!

 

Can you post some photos of the parts you're asking about? By spindle, are you referring to the steering knuckle?




Was switched to aluminum for the 2015 redesign. If this is the part in question, you bought one for the wrong year.