ajcarson11

Afternoon all,

It took me a few weekends and 40-50 hours, but I've replaced lower ball joints, brakes, and added a 4" Rough Country lift to my '95 F150 XLT 5.8 RWD. This was my first time to tackle such a project and the Indiana rust made it a huge challenge to get things apart (spent 8 hour on pitman arm removal alone! ) I've put 100 miles on everything so far, and all is tight as a drum. I'm looking into new tires (either 31" duratracs or 32" KM2) in the next week or so.

A couple thoughts and questions:

1. During ball joint replacement, I found it impossible to budge the upper ball joints, and thus I opted to just replace the lowers (which came out just fine with a ball joint press). I'm now wondering if I should go back and try to find a way to replace the uppers, as the passenger side has a slight negative camber even with the adjustable camber bushings set to 1deg positive camber. The drivers side doesn't have this problem, and it is also set to 1deg positive as well. I suspect upper ball joint? Would this seem logical? The passenger side upper joint stud moves around quite easily by hand.

2. As you can see, even with the 'leveling' kit installed, there is still 2.25" of difference between front and rear. It's enough to drive me crazy, and so I'm considering throwing some 2" spacers under the front coils. Is this a bad move? I've got 3degrees that I can still utilize on the adjustable camber bushing to correct any post-spacer camber issues.

3. There is actually a 1/2" difference in height between the left and right sides of the truck. I suspect this is due to the 4 different brands of tires currently on it (no idea what the previous owner was thinking... ). I'll see how it goes with new tires mounted.


Overall i'm happy with the result, minus the reasonably steep rake. Very satisfying to get it back on the road!





Here is pre-lifted truck after a quick wash.




This radius arm bracket was wasted. Replacement bracket was part of lift kit, and new polyurethane Energy Suspension bushings did great.



Despite using the correct technique.... It took lots of heat and effort to get those radius arm nuts off.



A steel brush and some of this helped with the rust. I highly recommend it. Only $12-14 per quart bottle.



The rust treatment hardens and turns rust a nice matte black as it dries.





Passenger side post lift. This was before moving the truck, so some of the suspension had to settle.



Drivers side is looking good!

fltdriver

I can't believe you still couldn't get the uppers, in my opinion it could definitely affect things but to be certain try moving the tire/wheel with the truck lift up. If you can wiggle/wobble the wheel then the BJ needs replaced. I would say to pull the spindle/steering knuckle off and take both side into a shop and have them swap it out. Shouldn't cost you more than an hours worth of labor to have it done since you have the parts and the spindles in hand.

ajcarson11

I'm thinking the same as you FLT. I think what i'm going to do is go ahead with the new tires, and then take it into the shop to get aligned. I trust the mechanics there (it's a friend's shop) and I'll let them try to align it and see what they think.

If they want the upper joints replaced then I'll pull the spindle and bring it in.

EDIT: there is a little bit of wiggle, but it's very very minute. We will see.

fltdriver

Just remember that a small amount of movement by hand can transfer into major movement when the weight of the vehicle is combined with some speed and g-force of a turn. Not calling you weak but anything you could possibly do by hand is nothing compared to the forces that will be applied while the truck is in motion.

ajcarson11

New Cooper STT 32"s are on FLT. Really happy with the look and performance. Going to potentially raise from end with spacers or new springs and adjust camber bushings to match.

New upper ball joints and tie rods will be here tomorrow, so i'll find a way to get them changed later on this week. Rented a much better BJ press from advance auto and will give that a try. I'll throw on some heat and a BFH while the press is cranked down and hopefully they will pop.

With the new tires it is easy to see the wear on the ball joints and tie rods -- Grabbing the tires with both hands I can quite easily move the passenger side about a half inch. Wayyy too much play. I'll report back when fixed!

ajcarson11

Also, if you will, give me your thoughts here (since my engineering brain isn't working after a long work-week):

The axle drop brackets under the truck have a second mounting point, 2" lower for those who go with the 6" lift. My axles could be moved from the 4" lift position, down to the 6" with 5 minutes worth of effort. There is no way to adjust the radius arm drop brackets without putting in 6" ones. If I throw in coil spacers (or new springs) and drop the axle crossmembers down 2"... that would throw off the caster, as the radius arms wouldn't be dropping as well, correct?

The adjustable camber bushings can be used to adjust for addition of coil spacers, but didn't know if there was any benefit to also dropping the axle crossmembers, since it is very easy to do?

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

If the frame goes up 4", the pivot bolts should come down 4" to put them back to where they were in relation to the wheel. If the frame goes up 2 more inches, the pivot point should come down 2" more.
All this raising up, did you put a drop pitman arm on ? You can adjust the tie rod sleeves to get your toe in correct when it's straight ahead with the stock pitman arm, but as you turn, the geometry of the whole setup goes out of whack and the wheels don't turn equally when you're cornering. Really hard on tires.

ajcarson11

Chris,

I do have a 4" drop pitman arm installed. I assume it would be OK to go up two more inches with just the 4" installed -- This seem right? I suppose ideally it'd be best with a 6" drop arm.

And yes, it makes sense that the pivot point should drop 2" more as the frame goes up 2", but am I OK to do this without also dropping the radius arms? Or does it make sense to leave the pivot bolt alone and just adjust the camber bushings to correct camber?

I assumed that dropping the pivot bolts 2" without dropping radius arms 2 more inches would just be dropping one axis, while throwing off the other.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

It's not a perfect science. You do the best you can with what's available.
Most drop pitmans are for 4 and 6 ". As long as the radius and pitman arms are dropped, it will at least be as close as possible.
Dropping the pivot point is pretty crucial to getting your camber as close as possible to what it was originally. Much easier to make small fine tuning adjustments from there.
In theory having the radius arm brackets drop the extra bit as well would be the correct way to go, but if you already have them dropped 4" you should be ok.

ajcarson11

Chris,

Thanks for the thoughts -- I'll drop the axle crossmembers 2 more inches and adjust from there with camber bushings. Should happen around thursday or so.

I'll report back with results!