Suspension questions
 

New guy here, this is the first of many questions. '92 F150 2WD 6cyl.

Lots of different suspension/steering issues. Steering: I've got about 5-10 degrees of freeplay in the steering wheel, but mostly to the left. Steering feels very loose toward the left, but firmer to the right. The truck does not wander on the road, but tracks straight. Running straight, the steering wheel sits a full quarter-turn to the left. When I took it in for alignment recently, they wouldn't do it, citing excessive slop in the front end, particularly in the steering box. Another person has suggested that steering box problems are often actually in the rag joint.

Suspension: Front end seems to bounce too much, and I can feel and hear every little bump in the road, and the bigger ones are awful. There is no side-to-side wobbling or wandering.

What I'm thinking here is that I'm going to just go throught the suspension and steering front to rear. Tie rod ends, ball joints, all applicable bushings, rag joint, shocks, possibly steering box, .....what else? Am I missing anything? More importantly, am I on the right track? Thanks.

John

There are many post with people that have the same handling/ride condition.
The twin I beam suspension is very sensative to worn bushings- etc. High mileage rigs really show signs of wear.
I have a FSB- full size Bronco- it needs a complete front end redo- all bushings, etc. plus shocks, tie rod ends, the whole thing.
I would suggest replacing steering components first and find someone that will align the front end. I take my trucks to a place that only does alignments- for obvious reasons.
You are on the right track, it is hard to tell you what to do since we can not see the truck.

I just got done replacing my axle pivot bushings, because I too could hear some play in the front. It ended up being a loose axle drop bracket(4x4) which was loose. That fixed the problem. The bushings arent that easy as they seem like. One end mushroomed on mine so i had to cut and grind that off, and then drill out most of the rubber bushing, then grind off all the burrs so the new bushings will fit. You can do it, just takes time..