That's pretty much what I took away from the article. That alignment's are a little harder than they look. And given the complexity, if the wrong shop tries to do it with the wrong equipment, the results can be scary.

 

wva beer, no, hubs are both disengaged. Although I admit that the automatic engage no longer works (gotta get out and manually engage both of 'em) but if anything that means they would not be engaged unless I forced 'em to. I'd like to get that fixed too, but fundage is a little tight, and I hate to ask what THAT will set me back (grin). Tires and alignment are gonna be bad enough.
-Enviro, yeah, only problem is, figuring out weather or not they can do the alignment like they say they can. It means taking them at their word when they say they do alignments on SD trucks -I'm not what you call a 'trusting' individual -unless I have no options.

 

I've gotta say, if you're already used to locking them by hand, leave it that way, and then get Warn manual hubs to replace them if you need to.

I'm under warranty, so I'm going to try to get my fixed, but I have no high hopes on that.

 

97 f250 front end never aligined 70k on it rotate tires by 6,000 miles grease tie rods
make sure you don't have a bad non greaseable ball joints and not letting the front end go to the centered position. I had my sweaky ball joints replaced by Ford under warranty at 30k it goes down the road no hands. The roads where I live are dished in both ruts from the weight of the trucks in the asphalt up here.

 

I had a similar issue pulling to the left... On my 01-250 4x4 w/plow package at 20,000 miles took it back 3 times, the first two times the dealer said it must be from plowing. Well this was last Aug. that I noticed the problem so to No Way it was from plowing (I only plow my driveway anyway). Turns out the Automatic hub on the left side would not disengage in 2 wheel drive they replaced the vacume seals and alligned the truck and it been great ever since.

 

Relic, I have to manually disengage 'em, as mine haven't worked on the automatic function for some time now. Unless I'm wrong, if you manually disengage 'em (turn the hub by hand) they won't be stuck "on". Otherwise, I'd have no idea. I know that if I don't, I can feel it in the wheel when I drive at highway speeds (thats how I knew they weren't disengaging as they should have been, when I turned the switch -regardless of what the dashboard light said (of course, it only applies to the tranny anyway)
I'm pretty confident that this is truly an alignment problem -though I would like to get the hubs working properly again before hunting season. I never need the 4wd unless the weather is foul, and then it means tracking mud and clay into the truck if I have to get out and turn 'em by hand (ugh! )

 

Ok,, guys here's the scoop. My 2000 Ex 7.3 4x4 was pulling to the right when I bought it used. UP front I will tell you I have solved the problem.

The problem is that the front alignment CAN be set exact dead on target center of range and it will pull to the right or left. Mine (7.3 4x4 2000 Excursion) pulled to the right.

The solution for mine was to adjust the right wheel caster to +.4 degrees more than the left side. This is within SPEC for the FORD manual so this adjustment is considered in spec.

The downside is to do this, FORD makes and NAPA sells a bushing for the top of the ball joint that fits over the ball joint shaft and the spindle bracket. To change this bushing the nut over the ball joint has to be removed, the ball joint broken lose from the taper and then the factory shim removed. The factory stamps shims with a degree number on the top. My Factory setting was 0 to .5 degrees. The new bushing would go to 1.0 degrees. This allowed for the +.4 differential over the left side. The total cost of alignment and installation of the shim was $152.00 not the "normal" $89.99 alignment on this truck/Ex.

Now the Ex tracks dead straight unless road surface changes. The effort to maintain straight driving from the pulling to the right is gone. Prior to doing this work I checked brakes, slide pins, hubs and hub releasing. The first shop that did an alignment dialed it in TO THE NUMBERS but set the left and right side caster to 2.5 degrees with no offset and this resulted in pulling right. The +.4 caster brought the caster to L 2.5 R 2.9

The rest of the numbers are:
LEFT RIGHT
Camber 0.7 (range -0.8 to 1.3) 0.1
Caster 2.5 (range 1.5 to 5.5) 2.9
Toe In 0.04 (range -0.11 to 0.14) 0.4

These numbers resulted in my Ex driving like a new with little effort.
So if you are having pulling to one side issues and they tell you the numbers are within spec. They might be but adding +0.4 to the right caster will correct right pulling given you don't have other issues. I had checked brakes, slide pins and tires for this problem and only the caster corrected the issue.
Hope this is helpful. Jim

 

This thread was 1.5 years old

One thing, if you have pulling issues, you should get a "thrust-line" alignment, which checks that the front and rear axles are parallel and perfectly in-line front-to-back.

I bet your X is slightly out, and the caster adjustment masked it.

 

I agree, but many trucks still pull. The thrust alignment can be an issue but the most common causes I have found are belts in tires and alignment to specs. Each truck is different to some extent and the more information the better the chance to solve the problem.

I have had pulling right issues with my corvette, mercedes and 4x4 Excursion. I have had dealers in each case tell me they were within spec. And they were, but the adjustments to solve the right pull on the caster were also within spec. Mercedes even issued a service bulletin stating that if proper aligned and still pulling right to lead caster by 0.4 degrees to compensate. So hopefully the old thread will help some new readers. Have a nice day. Jim

 

For a start - good post!!!

Now, the toe in you mention - I assume the 0.04 & 0.4 is relative to the centre of the vehicle at steering wheel dead centre?

Because having extra toe in on the right will stop it pulling in - it also means that it isn't aligned all that correctly.

If it happens to be the rear toe in - its just plain scary....

 

The tires on my truck with 17k wear perfect !

 

If you thrust line isnt right how do they correct that?

 

No clue.

Depends on why it's not right, I guess. Axles parallel but one is moved laterally? Or axles not parallel?

The first, I guess you'd put offset pins in the rear leaves and move the rear axle one way or the other (or the front). There's not much adjustment available there...

The second, I don't know... I don't think they make spring hangers that are offset

Nor offset leaf-spring pins either.

One interesting way for the thrust line to be off is hitting a curb - with a plow on the front

 

I thought the rear axle had a "thrust angle" preset to overcome the forces of acceleration. It isn't much, to be sure. I'm pretty sure big truck rears are adjustable for this (and wear as well, I'd guess).

 

let me guess, big-o-tires, I had a toyota that was taken care of and always went out of alignment, later i bought a 99 4x4 ranger, I jumped it...regularly! i beat it up pretty good off road and that sort of thing. it was solid as a rock. the alignment was good for 80k miles. i let big o rotate tires and check alignment every 5 k. finaly they said it was out. every 5k after that, it's been out! badly too. i'm convinced they don't tighten the bolts down!