90 Bronco 302 single front shock, no rear sway bar, front sway bar, and 31 inch tires.

Handles like crap, bump steer is horrible, stearing is sometimes very loose and sometimes very tight, drifts all over the road, sometimes floats down the road and sometimes the suspension is tighter.

What should I do? I assume the shocks are shot, probably need a new stearing gear box, possible new front sway bar bushings; anything else?

 

I would start at the pitman arm and work my way down and out to the tie rods. Check all bushings, bolts, tightness of links. Then jack up the front end and check for sloppiness of each tire, (pushing top to bottom) to see if the ball joints need replacing. Then have a friend watch the tie rod ends with the truck on the ground as you turn the steering wheel back and forth. If there is play in the tie rod ends, it will be easily visible. All those can cause your "floating" steering and handling as well as eat your tires up quick. If all those check out, have your alignment checked. From there go to the shocks.

 

Even when everything is operating as designed, the Bronco and F150 still handle like garbage, compared to alot of other rigs I've driven.

It's the design of the front suspension that's the problem!
Regards
Ken

 

For perspective: I came from older cars (A '68 Mustang to be exact) and thought the Bronco was a mighty good handler for its size and stature! I do wish it throttle steered better, however.

 

Aside from being an extremly generalized statement, its just not true. Yeah the front end is DIFFERENT than most conventional suspension but that doesn't make it worthless. It certainly doesn't make the handling "garbage". (Seems to me that the Rochester Quadra-jet carburator got the same kind of bad rap because people just didn't want to undersatand it and work with it the way it was designed. Sorry lot they felt when the guys who took the time to understand how to truly tune it were blowin' the doors off everything else). Sorry I just can't abide generalized comments that lump hundreds of thousands of vehicles produced over a 16 year period of time into a catagory of "garbage". Lets not forget the OTHER Ford truck models that fall under this generalization by virtue of their front suspension design... Rangers, Bronco II's. Guess its the lousy handling that made that particular front suspension design the single most sought-after setup for Baja and other professional racing niches for so long. Last time I checked, "race-proven" was a good thing. I've been behind the wheel of more light trucks than I care to imagine and I'll still take the TTB or Twin I beam setup anyday over the competition... but then maybe thats part of why I'm HERE!

 

Right!!!

A careful examination of the vehicle that has the problem is the only answer.

 

having only the front sway and no rear sway doesnt help either. i have found that its best to run the rear stabilizer with out the front but not the other way around.

 

Problem is it never had a sway bar in the rear when I bought it.

Also, does everyone agree that BillyBob is sending me in the right direction?

Can just the tie rod end be replaced without getting all new tie rods. I am trying to go the least expensive way possible.

Also there is play in the steering, if it is the gear box, how hard is that to replace?

 

BillyBob's right on. Start with the stuff in the front end that wears out. I love the way our Bronco handles. It handles rocks, it handles mud, it handles sand....

 

I second andym's message. And your steering box, you may be able to adjust that if the bushing is ok. And yes, you can replace tie rod ends, that is totally legitimate.

 

anyone mention ball joints yet?? those are easy to check, make sure u keep grease in all your goodies too

 

What AndyM and BDox said.

 

Sorry your so sensitive.