I can't believe how many alighnment guys that have been doing their job for DECADES that don't know which frontends came in which Ford in what years.

 

Well this guy was not as old as my truck, but still he should have known the difference between a Dana 44 IFS and a Dana 60.


No computer port on your vehicle.....bad news at the shop.
Worst part, shop now days includes the Ford dealers.

 

You would think so.
I've only been into Ford trucks for less than two years, even then it's just a hoby, and I can tell a TTB 44 from a TTB 50 just by looking at them and they can't even tell a TTB from a 60.

It makes you wonder how good your alighnment actually is.

If someone came to me for a trigger job on their Remington 700 and I couldn't tell them which trigger they had I doubt they would be very confident in the resuling work.

 

Actually once he plugged the right equipment info into the alignment machine, the alignment was perfect.

I always ask for the spec to be set to preffered, not just within spec.
I pay more for it to be set that way, but the money is returned with interest with tire wear savings.

 

I have a local guy now that does a pretty good job.
When I swapped the TTB 44 into my PowerStroke it steered worse than anything I've ever owned and it had a suspension knock in it I couldn't find.
I took it to him for an alighnment and he asked about all of the things I had already checked. I told him it was a '90 TTB 44 instead of a '97 TTB 50.
He alighned it real well, especially compared to how bad it was before and found the knock was the bushings where the calipers mount.
One of the best $100 bills I ever spent.

 

Job is done! I got to the yard and they only had one 250 out there that was old enough to work. As I was cutting the shackels loose the cordless Dewalt sawzall I had barrowed from a buddy broke in half! When I get home I find out that the main leaf on one of the springs was cracked. Now I decide to just replace the broken leaf on my truck, that goes easy. Well then I figure I should do the same on the other side of truck and viola my main leaf is cracked as well lol. So a 3 hour job in the drive way turned into almost 5. Oh ya taking that main out I realized my shakle was rusted out, what a day. On the brighter side tho I called the yard about the broken main and they cut me a deal, gave me back $30 gotta love that.

 

An other thing, Why do they use reverse arch springs on the front of trucks?

 

Back in those days and older, reverse arch springs were common on many vehicles right up to class 8 trucks.

Some of the thinking was they rode better, some thought they did not sag as fast.

Given the metal technology back then, I would say the slower to sag was the best choice.

 

Thanks, it always made me wonder.