Hi friends, I am having a time here. I dropped the front of my 55 today with a 2" dropped axle. I noticed alot of sound coming from the front tires while driving, and noticed that they are butterflied with the bottom of the wheels inwards a little bit. After a couple of miles, I got her home, and my tires were HOT, and I noticed uneven wear on the outsides. Has this happened to anyone? and if so, is there a way to fix it? I REALLY appreciate your help.... Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

55forder
Have you had the front end alignment checked? Too much toe-in will scuff tires like you describe in a hurry. Tires tucked in at the bottom are too much positive camber.
Adios,
Brett

 

No, I havent had her aligned, but she was fine before the install. Could this be the problem, and if it is, how would an alignment make the wheels tilt straight?

 

55forder,
Did you just unbolt your spindles, tire rods, etc. from your old axle, swap axle beam, then put all those parts directly on your new axle beam? That could explain a need to re-adjust toe-in. You can do a back yard assessment of the toe-in situation by comparing the distance between the front rims in front of the axle, and comparing it to the distance between the front rims behind the front axle.
Camber (tires tucked in or out) is another story. First, make sure your king pins and wheel bearings do not have excess play in them and your rims are not bent. You can do a back yard assessment using a level placed against your rims with your truck sitting on a level surface. 0 camber would be straight up and down (plumb). If it's off more that a degree or two you should probably look deeper into this. Something is not straight. If it was OK before the axle beam swap, then the axle beam is not straight. Truck alignment shops correct this by bending the axle beam. This is not a big deal for a real truck alignment shop. I used to do this myself. Get on the phone and call around.
Good Luck!
Brett

 

There seems to be a little play in my king pin, and the top to bottom of the wheel bearings. Not alot, but there IS a little bit of play. I believe this is where my problems are coming from. I got a new king pin, and bushing set, and they slid in rather easily, after I froze them in the freezer. Ive seen king pins sold at 10% larger size for this problem I believe. I drove it just a little while ago, and it diddnt seem nearly as bad, or maybe I am getting used to that grinding tire sound...hope not. I'll get on the phone.

 

I just measured the distance between the tires front, and the rear. They seem to be toed in on one side more than the other. How can I adjust this?

 

Sounds like you need to take the truck to an alignment shop and get the toe-in adjusted. While there, have the entire front suspension looked at to be sure you don't need any other front end parts replaced. You can do a ballpark adjustment on it yourself by loosening and adjusting the tie rod ends so that you have about a 1/8 inch toe-in between the front and rear of the tires. This is just a ballpark adjustment, but should get you to an alignment shop without any damage to your tires. If you have a truck alignment shop around take it there instead because if the camber needs adjustment, they can do it there.

 

One more thought, when you pulled everything apart you didn't by chance put the tie rod on backwards? One side has left threads for the left and the other side has right threads for the right. A few years ago when I did my king pins on my 54 I also changed my tie rod ends, I was using wheel adapters and I didn't pay attention when I put my tie rod back on, I did the measurements but when I drove it down the road I broke my wheel adapters so I pulled my tie rod off and checked it, it was on backwards, I pulled it off and turned it around and everythings been fine since.

 

I just got done with the job. I noticed that one wheel was toed in pretty bad, when the other was straight. I then took off the tie rod, switched them around like earlier mentioned, and it was the same. I then figured if I shorten the tie rod, it would straighten it out. I did about two turns on each side and put the tie rod back on and voila! she is straight, and I noticed that she is much happier going down the road. I did add some of the tie rod lowering blocks from bobs f100. I wonder if this made the tie rod need to be shortened, or maybe the new axle is just a tad shorter than the original. These tie rod blocks seem like they would weaken my tie rod links... Anyone had any problems with them? I am going to the alignment shop in the morning just to make sure. Thanks to all who helped the newbie.