rowland1980

Attempting to do an alignment on a 03 F150 4.6XLT RWD. A bit confused about how to tighten the sway bar links. I've seen the torque for the links is 18ft lbs. Do I tighten them while truck is flat on the ground, with the truck up on stands or with a jack under the lower control arm raising them?
There seems to be no camber kit added. Just a flat spacer type ordeal, guessing factory style. Am I able to use the tightening of the sway bar link to help set the camber alignment part? Driver side upper wheel seems to be inwards. I don't know I'm just an idiot to broke to bring it in. New tires and they need to last.

R3FAN1

Sway bar shouldn't have any affect on camber adjustment

PerryB

You probably need new ball joints. I'd find out what the problem is pretty soon, because a ball joint failure can be a very unwelcome and expensive surprise. To answer your original questions, 1) If its like every other F- series sway bar I've seen, its free floating in its pivot bushings so it doesn't matter what position you tighten it in. If in doubt, do it sitting on level ground. 2) You can't bias the camber with the sway bar.

jerawat

agreed with you

rowland1980

I recently changed out the upper conrol arms and idler arm. Also had gotten a pitman arm but hadn't replaced it yet. Tuck wander a lot. Lower ball joints seemed fine until I had started to align and noticed a tear in the boot. Wanting to replace them, lower ball joints. Seems like it's going to be a job. Would it be easier to replace the whole lower arm than the joint alone? I also need to replace the tie rods. Thank you for your comment, much appreciated.

PerryB

For some reason I had envisioned the TTB front end. I was thinking '93, not '03. My son recently bought an '01 that had considerable negative camber in the right front wheel, which of course we didn't see until we got it home. All that happened was the UCA bolts had loosened and the alignment cams rolled over. We just eyeballed them to match the other side and about two weeks later he got new tires and an alignment. I made sure they are tight now.
Look at your alignment bolts/cams to see if they've slipped.

rowland1980

Not alot of knowledge on the camb thing but learning. When I replace the upper control arms there didn't seem to be any type of adjustment. When taking off the bolts there was a flat square type spacer/ oversized washer with a bottom corner extending 3/16" nub ordeal. On the frame part a lip to where that square piece snugs up and holds from sliding. The extension nub rests past the bottom end lip on the frame. Seems to help keep it in place. Doesn't seem to be a way to adjust anything. Don't know mechanic terms for I'm just mechanically inclined and started working on my own. The pics I see on the web on camb adjusters and kits look nothing like what I have. So I don't know if I should buy a kit or not. Figured I would change out lower joints and both inner and outer tie rods and work it from there. I don't know confusion sets in at times.

RLXXI

Sway bar has 0 to do with a front end alignment. It's there to stop body roll while cornering. Gives the vehicle a solid stance for maneuverability and driver control.

PerryB

If you look at the UCA pivot bolts you'll see that they have an eccentric washer. The bolt and the corresponding hole in the washer are "D" shaped so the washer turns with the bolt head and moves the mounting points in/out. Thats how you adjust caster/camber. If my feeble mind is working correctly they take a 15/16" wrench. Once you make an adjustment you want to tighten the NUT, because turning the bolt head moves the UCA.

rowland1980

Here shortly I will jack up the front end and take the wheels and takea look at it. Thanks for a further depth detail on the matter. Don't have the data to watch videos and I'm more of a visual learner. I see it, I got it, I read it, well trail by errors. Read some posts where they mention that shops can't do their alignment unless they get a camber kit installed. Again I appreciate all the replies.
Everyone mentions using standard but yet metric is all I've used on this here truck. Lol, 21mm is what I used on the bolts. Think my Ford maybe foreign.