i lowered my truck about a month of go and now as you would guess i am in need of an alignment. I have been told my many shops that it wont be possible. any ideas that might help me out?


thanks

 

It is possible. Anything is. They are telling you it isnt because they dont want to do it.

-Matt

 

Did you lower it using a kit and all the right components or did you just cut the springs?
If all you did was cut the springs I can see how that would make it extreamly hard (if not impossible) to align seeing as how it throws everything out of wack.
It's hard enough to keep these front ends (4wd AND 2wd) in alignment in stock form, let alone after a modification (lift or lower).

 

13MWZ is correct,Have you had it checked? What specs. do you have? How did you lower it? What model truck?

 

its an 81 f-100 and from stock i just heated the springs until i got the drop i wanted the tire size is p235/75r15 on a chromed 15 in rim. i the back i took out two leafs but then i installed new shocks and the coils from them in the back and it helped the ride but the front end is starting to get to the point.


thanks

 

I dont know how the front end of a 2wd looks, or just what is involved with lowering a truck, I've always been a lifted 4x4 guy. Maybe if I consider everything to be oposite of what I would have to deal with when lifting a truck I can sorta help out.
The problem that I see is the method you used to lower the suspension. It seems to me that if you change the size of the springs by either lifting or lowering and not compensating for that change in the bracketry (ie A-arms or whatever is in there) it would put things too far out of whack to be corrected.

Think of this. Take this shape into mind. < Now imagine your spring is inside of that symbol attatching to the top and bottom points. Now lets say your wheel is hooked on to the bottom of that shape. When you compresed your springs it basicly raised the lower portion up twards the top portion when weight was put back onto the suspention since the top portion is in a fixed position (acting as the upper spring mount attatched to the frame).
Doing this rotated the top of the wheel inwards and the bottom outwards causing the tire to ride on it's inside shoulder.
If the shop says they cant align it it's probably because the amount it was lowered is to great to be compensated for by the adjusments provided.
In order to fix it and put things back into spec you would need to raise the pivot point.
For your application that would most likely come in the form of some sort of bracketry that a kit would have provided.


It makes since to me, maybe somebody else can pick that apart and correct my mistakes.

 

is there even a kit for the ford based on the i beam suspension?

 

Just an opinion here, but that is an idiotic method to lower any vehicle. I thought kids stopped doing that in the late 70's on the Monte Carlos and Regals. Your vehicle is unsafe at any speed.
Why not start this project by putting 55 or 60 series tires on that have the same load capacity of as your P235/75r-15's. You will need wider rims than stock but at least it will be safe.

 

Yeah,heating springs is not the way to go.The only adjustment from factory is toe-in/out.When you heated springs you dropped top of wheel in (negative camber) which is only adjustable by bending I-beams.But to give it possitive tha center of axle has to be bent upwards which is hard to do since now the axle is probably almost against the crossmember.

 

Want to align that? Fugeddaboudit, you can't, when you dropped the axle/frame/spindle/tire geometry relationships so drastically you've taken it so far out of the engineered specs there isn't enough adjustment left. And there's damned little if any adjustment on a twin beam ford, of that age anyway. If it has forged axles, you could install adjustable ball joints from Moog or TRW. Or you can cold bend them with the proper equipment, front end machine and training! NEVER HEAT FORGED I-BEAMS AND BEND THEM!!!!!!!! You'll remove the temper, making them extremely vulnerable to catastrophic failure. And please, spare me the tales of people who have hot bent I-beams and got away with it.

For one thing when the temper goes south they will warp under load fairly quickly anyway, rendering any adjustment made an exercise in futility.

We covered this very scenario a number of times in training, at school many years ago, and many seminars I took since then. It was even on my qualifying test all those years ago.

It just takes one failure to make a believer out of you, if you survive the experience. I saw a 79 in the salvage yard in Amarillo, three days before i'd refused to align it, the owner had done exactly what you did, the curb side spring collapsed as he accelerated up a ramp onto I-40, making him lose control, the truck rolled a number of times, he was ejected.

He has wheels now, four of them .... on his wheelchair.

And another thing, you trash what little handling a Ford truck of that age has under extreme conditions. I know, I have an 82, and have had a number of others the same vintage. If it gets away from you at any speed to speak of it's going to roll, all you can do at that point is hang on and pray your seat belt doesn't fail. If you're not too worried about your own safety, think about the Mini-Van filled with some woman and her kids you might take out.

If you just have to lower the thing, do it right, find the aftermarket parts, the wheels, and if you have any doubt you can install them properly, have a pro do it.

Fooling around with the suspension/steering/brakes on any vehicle can be dangerous, yes there are a lot of mods that help all the above. I'd love to have four wheel disc brakes.

But there are a huge number of things that can do far more harm than good. Even with the right parts when improperly installed.

 

but i dont think there are kits for the i beam fords? is there?

 

DJM makes a decent drop-beam.

 

I done the same thing, dropped it with 2" drop springs, before i knew what effect it would have on the alignment. It took me a while (and 50 miles away) to find an "old pro" who knew what to do. He did stress not to put a torch to it but they can be bent "cold" which he did.

After i learned about the dangers of bending the I-beams, i considered replacing them with the DMJ's "dream beams" but decided not to because of the cost and how i use MY truck -- just go back and forth to work (15 miles in the city) which would not put to much stress on the suspension.

If you want, I can give you the phone number for the shop that did mine, maybe your shop can call them to get some pointers. I have some before and after pictures too.

 

Sorry, i forgot to say that i have the same truck, a 1981 F-100 custom, full size 2Wheel drive with a (tired) 302

 

they where telling me that i if get the shoter coils then maybe an alignment is possible?