I took my 01 into firestone for an alignment today and I am about ready to shoot someone. Yes, I know firestone= horrible idea, but I wanted the lifetime alignment, anyway....... After 4 hours of two idiots ****ing around with pipe wrenches under my truck the toe is just as bad as when I took it in. They told me that if I wanted the camber or caster adjusted I would have to buy the adjusment sleeves and then pay them abouty 200 to change the sleeves out. I would think that it would be normal to make the customer pay for the sleeves but the alignment would include installing them, am I way off on this. At one point the tech that was working on it told me "My manager told me to go ahead and do it, but if It were my choice I would have reccomended you take it to an alignment shop". WHAT THE **** is and "alignment shop" if firestone isnt one.

So now Im about about 5 hours of my time (an hour of waiting on them to get to the truck) and the sleeve that holds the two tie rods together looks like it went through a meat grinder due to pipe wrenches instead of the correct tools. In the morning I am going to take it to a local shop that I have used for years and let them do it. Where can I find the sleeves for camber/caster or should the shop have them? Thanks guys

 

Normal for the shop to charge labor to install the cams.


Depending on the shop, they may have the cams or they may not. You won't know what if any change in caster or camber you need until they put it on their alignment rack.

 

You need to figure out what the caster/camber should be, and what it is now, and buy the appropriate sleeves, probably from Ford.

They are a big pain to change, being that they are basically holding in the upper ball joints. It would certainly add about two hours to the job, I'd think.

 

They have groves in them for a two jaw puller and are suposidly easy to change. Is the dealer the only place that would have them? I found something on advance's web site that appears to be an adjustable one

 

No, the dealer isn't the only place that has them.


Again, w/o knowing your current settings you don't know which ones you need.

 

Advance has some that say "Adjustment Range From +3/4 To +2-3/4 Deg"

 

Hey Sweets,

I just went through the ol' 'alignment' issue on my 1999 F-250 4x4. I however, had a much better experience. I just took it to a local alignment shop and was fortunate that it was a good shop with a fella that knew what he was doing.

You can read about it here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...er-adjust.html

• You have to pay for the bushings, and the labor to install.
• A good alignment shop should have the bushings you need, or can get them quickly from a local parts store (NAPA, etc.)
• It will take 1-2 hours depending on how hard it is to get the old gaulled and frozen bushings out.
• If you are going through the trouble of replacing these bushings, ask for a 0 degree or very slightly positive camber, as this made a WORLD of difference to my truck. I was "in spec" according to Ford's recomendation (I was very slightly negative, more on driver side than other) but I still had a wicked pull to the right.
• I have no idea how a person would use the adjustable bushings themselves without having access to an alignment machine....I think I would stear clear of doing anything yourself. Let a knowledgable shop do it, IMHO.

I know you are frustrated, but my experience was that after it was all said and done, it was like a whole new truck, so if I can make any recomendation, STAY THE COURSE!!! It is worth it!

Stone

 

Thanks for the help... I dont think it will be too bad to get the old ones out on mine, as I just had them out two days ago when I put the ball joints in. I have tried 4 shops this morning and none of them want to touch it. I found one that said they can do it and they told me to bring it in tomorrow. In the mean time I am looking at 08's for sale and hopeing to find a good deal on one so I wont have to get it aligned

 

Warning it took an air chisle to get mine out to install the split sleeve for setting the alignment.