benbailey84

when you look at my truck from the front the top of the tires are in farther than the bottom. is that a sign of front end alignment? you have to turn the steering wheel about 45 degrees off to go straight. whats the deal? ball joints? tie rods? doesnt pull, squeek, grind, or any other abnormal noises or actions.

benbailey84

i was reading on another forum about adjusting some collar near the steering box to fix the steering wheel. does anyone know about this?

thunderstang

The steering wheel issue I believe is fixed by addjusting the tie rod end collars. Any good alignment should be able to correct that. My 96 was the same way after changing all my tie rod ends.
The top of your tires being in farther then the bottom is something we fight with the twin I beam suspension however the alignment shop should be able to correct it by changing out the camber adjustment bushings. They are kind of like a cam style bushing that your upper ball joint sets in. The shop should know which ones to use. Once again my 96 after I lifted it was bad. Some guys would have left it alone and just rotated tires more often. I paid to have the alignment done right and I have zero tire wear issues.

dextreme

neg camber! that can be a regular problem on these trucks with I beams. a front end alignment should fix that up and your steering wheel should get straightened out. that is if your mechanic has any pride in his work when doing the alignment. or you could put in some bigger front springs and an aftermarket steering wheel

benbailey84

would there be any extra charges other than the 59.99 charge for the alignment?

fosgate3

I have a similar problem on my 95 F150, except I'm finding that the bottoms of my front tires kick inward. I noticed it yesterday when I was walking towards the truck from the front. The truck was sitting on level ground and both sides were in more a the bottom than at the top. I started becoming concerned with it a few months ago when I had to replace my front tires due to the outer edge of each tire being worn.

It seems that I have to get an alignment each year. Is this normal? Should the tires sit straight up and down, square to the level ground? and if so, would adjust the outer tie rods help any?

fosgate3

I think "excessive positive camber" is what my front end problem is called. Continued my research after posting this and found more info.

mitchalvin

If you have the adjustable bushing no, the standard bushings will need to be replaced with the correct angle or adjustable that will cost more.

benbailey84

so i stopped by the alignment shop today and had them look at my truck, he said the coils are worn out and so are the shocks, i replaced the shocks not the coils yet. He did say that i would need the new bushings and it would cost about $200 to have it aligned. Well guess i will wait on that.
back to the shocks, the passenger shock was so worn that when it was compressed it did not bounce back. i have a strong feeling that is why that tire was leaning more than the driver side. also when you replace the shocks you are supposed to take out the old rubber bushings and replace them right? i hope so. lol if not oh well. they were difficult to remove.

aliens8mycow

That price sounds about right - and you probably still had the factory shocks on there!