Hello all
I have a 1996 F150XLT short bed 4.9/5speed 4WD.
The truck does not like to go in the direction I steer it especialy stright.
The steering gearbox was replaced with a new one and one ball joint was found to be slightly loose, that was not fixed because of excessive rust in that area. The shop that did the steering box could not align the truck because there alignment machine was broken so I took squirrelly to a alignment/repair shop. The second shop said that the steering box was overadjusted so I told them to adjust it and they did. They also told me that they road tested squirrelly and the ball joint was loose but not real bad and could not get castor and camber right because of rust on the adjusters. Alignment came out at .04" toe in Left camber-1.3, Right-.8
no spec. for caster. Squirrelly is still squirrelly. Second shop said it would cost about $1000 to change ball joints and align corectly without having to replace swing arms if they are to rusty I think.
Does this sound right?

 

The ball joints will cause all sorts of steering craziness. If you have a lot of rusted parts that are shot it might be cheaper to check the local scrap yard.

You can do the ball joints yourself - the actual parts are cheap, and you need a special tool that is fairly cheap too. You could do the work yourself, then have the shop align it.

About 10 years ago, I went through this with my bronco - shop quoted about $900. Did it myself for about $300 and paid them $60 to align it.

 

What do I need for tools.
Did you have a lot of rust to deal with? The reason I ask is because the part that the balljoint is attached to might be out of spec. do to rust eating it.

 

If the axle is rusted out that would cause major steering and alignment issues. It will take a long time to rust through the axle housing. You will need a ball joint press/ U joint press to remove and replace the ball joints. You will also need the sockets and a torque wrench to tighten the new ball joint on the axle, a pickle fork might come in handy for separating the spindle from the axle do not use the pickle fork to separate the tie rod ends unless you plan on replacing at least the rubber dust boot.

 

You should be able to pick up a joint press and a pickle fork pretty cheap at the auto parts store. The other tools are your basic toolbox items like mitchalvin said, unless you don't have a torque wrench - good tool to have handy no matter what you're working on (unless you're a really good guesser).

 

Thanks guys

 

Just a thought. you may want to check the local auto arts store. They may have a loaner tool program. I get tools all the time at Autozone and O'Reilly's, and it's free!

 

I went to my trusted Ford dealer far away talked to him today he said the nut holding the pittman arm on was only finger tight without a cotter pin and the same was true for the tirerod nut and cotterpin. He said the balljoints were ok.

 

That sounds like good news. A thousand bucks worth of good news...