I have a big problem with the front alignment on my E-350 Club Wagon. The inside (sides closest to the engine) of the tires on the front axle are wearing down very quickly. I have had the alignment done once, but the tires are still wearing away. I made a trip to Florida, and by the time I got there the tread on the tires on the inside were very worn. The rest of the tire seems fine, and is having normal tread wear. Anyone know how to fix it?? My tire guy said that Ford is known for this problem on there 1 ton trucks. Please, any help would be great!! Thanks

 

Have you had your ball joints checked ? Try that and see what happens......

 

Our company uses 1 ton Fords for heavy haualing. And our chief mechanic says we get fairly good tire wear from our F350 but we rotate them at every oil change,(3500 miles). He says we used to get terrible wear from the F250s, (the mono beam front axles were not readily available for 3/4 tons, untill the new Super duty series came available). You should be able to get fairly good tire wear from the 1 ton if all of your front suspension and steering components are in adjustment and the tires are rotated regularly. Dont let your alignment mechanic blame Ford for every tire wear problem on every Ford, just because they have a bad rep with some models.
Jeff

 

I would guess that you have I beams in your front end. You need to check two critical components in the sysetem--the I-beam mounting bushing and the radius arm bushing. You can check the I beam bushing by crawling under your truck with a flash light and looking into the mounts. They should look round, even and well spaced. Except for the fact that they will be opposite, they should look the same. Sometimes it may be hard to tell if these are bad. The radius arms are a little simpler. Looking at the rear of the radius arms--where they meet the frame drop-mounts they may show wear through excessive movement. If they have too much play they will shift, sometimes in excess of an inch when you turn the wheel to an extreme angle. This will show itself in the lack of normal road dust and grime in the vicinity of the front side of the bushing. Usually the mount will be wiped clean in a circular pattern from the excess movements of the bushing. You may also hear a "pop" or thump under your foot when this happens. This may not be the real problem, but it isn't too hard to check. This will cause strange wear patters because it causes excess caster and camber angles. If I am confusing you with any of this, or you need pictures of what to look for, including the wear pattern on the radius arm bushing, just e-mail me and I can re-mail them to you as .JPGs. Also, I have the TRW part numbers for all of the Ford front end and TIB & TTB replacement parts if you need them.

 

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help everyone. I will look into these possibilities.