my truck is having some issues with the front end. it's an 83 4wd. i bought new camber/caster bushings for it that are adjustable and i set it pretty close visually. now i can drive it and park it and it looks like it's bowed OUT at the top, then drive it again and it will look like it's bowed IN at the top. i've checked my ball joints, even replaced one of the upper ones. the wheel bearings appear to be tight. anyone have any ideas how it can look one way at one moment, then change the next. i'm planning on taking it to a shop to have the alignment set, but don't want to spend the money on that if i've got something else going on. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It depends on how the suspension is loaded when you stop. The alignment shop will park the truck on plates that have ball bearings under them, so the truck will settle down to a "home position". Don't get mad after you get it back after the alignment, and the tires seem to be tilted in at the top. That's usually they way they look at the factory settings.

 

yeah, when i took it in to have it done a few months back they wanted too much money to replace my stock non adjustable bushings and do the alignment, so i did that myself, they told me what degree to get and that the factory settings were for the top of the tires to be slanted to the inside. i'm going to take it back and have it done probably this weekend, i need new tires and don't want to buy them til i know the front end is right. thanks

 

i work at tires plus and we do alignments. i know a few things you can do right or wrong but i seen people do it to us and get away with it and it happens at alot of places one is you can take it and tell them you want to have it aligned. when they put it on the rack and shack down the wheels and exam all the front ends parts they should tell you whats wrong with it before the align it. i know at my place they wont align it if tere is anything loose and then they tell the customer what needs to be fixed and they wont charge you for that info. then you can take it home and fix the problem and bring it back.
now i seen people get a free alignment by bring it to use saying it pulls to the left and paying to have the aligment done and then coming back and saying it pulls to the right now. they ask for the money back and sometimes ask for corporate number. most places dont want you calling cororate up so tey give you what you want. i seen this last week and we even had a girl come in for a 100.00 head light clean and complain she wasnt happy with the results, so the didnt charge her. i subed work from lowes and seen people get have there money back on thousand dollar doors. just some tips if you are not 100% happy

 

This is what I do sometimes, but they charge me usually $10.00 for checking it out. If I know something is bad, I will fix it before I go in. But if something is wrong, and I can't seem to find it, I will take it to them and let them have a look. For $10.00, it's worth it to me, though I have had them miss stuff before too(we are all human).

 

yea but everyday we have people coming in our shop for alignments and when you tell them you want your truck aligned for 69.99 and they put it on the rack they check to make sure it can be aligned beofre the put the sincers on. if you have a bad tie rods ball joints or something like that it can't be aligned. so then they will tell you what needs to be fixed and how muchit will cost. you tell them you dont have the money then they back you truck out and send you on your way. now for 19.99 you can get a alignment check but if you have bad parts it will be out and they would proable end up charging the 19.99.

 

Sounds like your shop needs to change their policy. People should not expect the tech to take their time to put it up on the rack and check it out for free. I am surprised they don't charge me the minimum 1 hour rate though.

 

buddy i hate it. it seems like the company gives away more then they sell. free oil changes for filling out a credit app, free tire rotaction with oil changes in hope of a break job, free brake checks, half the time they wont charge to fix a flate. it reaaly seems like they just give the stuff away. but they say we do it so the people will come back, lol. yea right maybe for more free stuff. i work for michels tires, which firestone and maybe on more all owned by the same person.

 

Check your pivot and radius arm bushings. If they are worn and loose you can get all kinds of front end symptoms. Jack the truck up and place jack stands under the frame (not under the suspension components). Then, try to wiggle the wheel up/down and left/right; any excess motion is a problem. You may have to use a small bottle jack near the pivot to move the axle up/down.

 

i checked it out again this weekend. it's a dramatic change from being toe'd in at the top to being toe'd out. my radious bushings are tight. thought it might be upper ball joints, pulled one and it was good, but replaced since i had it out. wheel bushings seem tight. it doesn't flop around, but this weekend it was parked and it was toe'd in at the top, i cranked it up and moved it a few feet forward and it was toe'd out. thought it might be uneven yard, so i pulled it out onto paved road, still toe'd out. pull back into yard and it's toe'd in again. i've also replaced the shocks thinking they might be sagging. i replaced the inner tie rod end on the driver side, it was really wore out, and set my toe in at 1" from front to back. the truck drives straight as my new one, and you can't feel any looseness in the front end, but when i park it from one minute to the next the camber changes. i'm going to take it to shop one day this week but it's just bugging me cause i can't figure out where the movement is coming from.

 

The camber problem is a down side to the TTB suspension, as the arm swings down, the camber changes, and if the truck isn't perfectly level, and the load just right, it will be out of position. I noticed that with my truck, which is a 250 4x4, and the alignment shop told me that it unfortunately does that. Mine shows up worst when backing, but the truck drives just fine.My tire wear isn't unusual either. If you ever notice, Ford front tires tend to wear the outer shoulder first, and the twin I beam suspension is why, due to not being able to keep the tire straight up and down, as the beam holds the tire in relation to it's pivot, not the vertical position.