Hey guys so when I took my 2001 EX 7.3 in awhile back for a ball joint job I also had it aligned. Since then it hasn't tracked as straight, seems like it has more wander then it did before. So I went looking through my paperwork to find my alignment specs and lo and behold didn't have any paperwork with the specs on it so I called up the shop to ask them about that. They told me two things: First, was that it should have been stapled to my receipt and they couldn't get me a copy for a few weeks since they had sent off the original paperwork to the accountant. Second: the tech told me that castor could not be adjusted since it was a straight axle. Is this true? I tried looking through the tech forum thread to find out how to adjust castor on my truck and while I think you can indeed adjust castor I couldn't find a clear answer as to how to do this. I'd like to know so I can tell the tech how to do it....sigh.

Thanks everyone!

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post16086297

Start here. Pirate will chime in...

 

 

wpnaes: Thanks for the link, I have gotten through half of it already

Pirate4x4_camo: It wouldn't surprise me if they were ripping me off, I've already had to take my truck back once already for a botched powersteering pump job. They replaced the pump but somehow didn't notice that the powersteering hose from the pump to the hydroboost was leaking everywhere? This is a larger independant shop that supposedly is a great place to take your car to. I'm trying to do most of the work myself but some things like suspension work I don't have a lot of practice with and I'm a little timid about possibly screwing something up. The shop is willing to re-do the alignment for me for free but which method of increasing castor is the cheapest and/or the route you would take first? bushings or shims? If I go shims I'm assuming I'd need a set of 2 right? If bushings would I also just need 2? Are the links below a good set of bushings or is there something better? Also, is the factory spec is +/- 3.5* of castor would adding 2* shims or 2* of bushing adjustment give me roughly 5.5* +/- ?

​​​​​​https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IYCAN8/ref=psdc_318331011_t3_B000RDAD66

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IYFZ4O/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIK X0DER
Thanks!

 

I also found this place that makes steel shims, would this be good or is there already a place that sells steel shims ready to go?

​​​​​​4Crawler Offroad Products - Custom Leaf Spring Shims

Thanks!

 

 

 

Pirate: Ok so if i'm understanding correctly then maybe I should just ask them to add the correct height shims to get me to maybe what? 5* degrees castor? Instead of me just buying ***** nilly any ole' size and guessing? And maybe going the shim route instead of the cam bushing route so that camber doesn't change too much?

Thanks!

 

 

Casting my vote

 

Maybe you shouldn't even go back to that shop. Cut your losses short. You're in The SouthLAnd. Not a 1 shop town. Take your truck somewhere where they won't be pissed at you for coming back to challenge them on their ****ty work! I don't know LA all that well. But from all the car shows on TV, there have got to be a couple of shops with better reputations. Look up Chip Foose and see if he could do an alignment. Wander over to West Coast Customs to see if they could "pimp" your alignment. Maybe a dealership. Try Galpin Ford.

 

 

Now if I could only find a good shop up north, here in Norte Califas.

 

 

I'm in San Francisco, California. On the 13th floor in Jackson Square, right across from Immigration Customs Enforcement. This means that I do not have the luxury of a barn, garage, or workshop. Anything that I do, is done on the street. Even oil changes are guerilla. So everything from general maintenance & service work, is on the street if I try to do it myself. It's hard to find a shop where the owner operator and technicians are knowledgeable, actually care about doing things right, and are honest.

Too many shops try to angle you in with low pricing, and substandard work. Common example is the shops who will change a timing belt, tell you that they will save you a few hundred dollars, then finish the job by reinstalling all the old parts they just took off.

I don't need them to save me $200 today, on a $1,000 job, by reusing an old water pump, belts, hoses, & thermostat......only to have cooling system failure a few moths down the road, then go back to the same shop with another $1,000, so that they can help me save $200 again. Common sense would tell you that you have over 250,000 miles when your timing belt went out, so the best thing to do is install all new belts, hoses, thermostat, water pump......since you already took all the old parts off to get to the timing belt cover. Gee.....all those parts are already off the car......you're not going to flush out the cooling system and install fresh coolant? I've seen mechanics catch coolant in a dirty old bucket, then pour it right back into a customer's car.

Same way ****ty mechanics never use a new drain plug washer with every oil change, hammer the drain plugs on with an impact wrench, then use lots of blue LocTite all over the oil drain hole, on the drain plug threads, and even on the washer! Change the washer! It cost what? $0.12? You'll bill the customer an extra $5 for that, and list it on the invoice as "reseal leaking engine oil pan".

A friend of mine was on assignment in another town, where her neighbor just happened to be the owner of the corner gas station. He did the service work on her car for the 20 months she had to work there. He did a lot of stupid things. One was oil changes with the wrong oil.......his computer generated invoices reflected it! Every oil change, he used 4 quarts of 10W-40 conventional oil - in a Honda Accord which is spec'd for 4.5 quarts of 0W-20. When I asked him about "reseal leaking engine oil pan", he actually showed me all the blue LocTite around the drain plug. "Ya see, the oil drips out because the gasket's no good, so we's gots ta use a 'lil LocTite 'n hammerin' it iup in there real good with an impact gun." That blew my mind! Then I asked him why the oil drain plug was all damaged and rounded off on a new car still under warranty. "The impact gun done did that. Stripped the heck off of 'dat thang."

I drove to the next town over, bought an OEM drain plug & drain plug gasket/washer at a dealership, had the HillBilly put the Accord back onto the lift; then installed 4.5 qts of 0W-20 & a K&N oil filter myself. That night over dinner, I told that good ole' boy, "don't you ever touch her car except to wash it, if she needs anything at all, tow her to the dealership since it's still under warranty". Problem is, I really like that guy. We had dinner with him every time I flew into town. He has even flown up here to take vacations in California. We let him & his girl stay over at the apartment downtown, borrow one of my cars to go sight seeing, and I even let them borrow my Harley to ride up to The Wine Country. I kind of feel sorry for him to be such a bad mechanic, and that is how he earns a living.