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I've been trolling through this great F150 forum and I think I'm headed in the correct direction, but I definitely need some advice.
Truck Info:
1991, F150, 5.0 V8
Warn winch on front
Four Wheel pop up camper in the bed
M/T LT285 75r 16 Toyo tires
Lifted (details unknow, purchased this way.) It looks like there was an added leaf to the rear of the truck and a 3 or 4inch block under the leafs. The front has a full length coil spring.)
This truck I've owed for 1 year. I store the truck in Baja Mexico near the airport where I use it 2-3 times per year.
Problem 1:
The truck pulls to the right and there's bad inside wearing on the passenger front tire. These tires are lightly used, but the ware is starting to take a toll.
The truck has been looked at in La Paz and Jose del Cabo around 4 times. One person say change the springs there bent (reason for all the photos of the front coils springs)... the other person says change the stearing box, and the alignment guys (with lazers) just aligned it and said it now good. So this is why I'm here.
My observation tells me the camber is negative on the passenger side front tire (top tilted in)
The unknown is if the guy who lifted the truck used axle drop brackets and I don't think he installed either radius arm drop brackets or extended radius arms.
This truck is store in Baja Mex and I don't have the ability to go outside and look at it until I take a trip down there. Any thoughts on what steps to take?
Well, you could certainly start by replacing the springs, although I don't think that would cause your bald spot at all. The axle shouldn't travel or "angle" much because of a slight bend in a spring. Still, that's an easy, cheap job.
P.S. You don't have to block your plate number. The "they can look up your address" thing is pure myth.
I'd find it hard to believe the spring is bad. It's a spring after all. Something would have to deform it pretty far and that thing would probably be more obviously damaged. Unless maybe it was damaged when installed. But I'm not a front-end specialist.
It only affects one side so you're looking for something on that side only (probably).
Worn out....Ball joint(s)? Axle pivot bushing? Camber adjuster thing (can't remember what they're called)? Radius arm bushing?
1st thing to do is have your tires rotated (back to front) before those front tires get damaged anymore.
You will notice that on a twin traction beam (or i-beam) truck that the camber changes as you back up or go forward (if the toe - in is set right). As you go forward the tires will tip out and as you back up, the tires will tip in (at the top).
Your camber looks pretty much correct if you had just backed it up about 10'. If that's what they look like after driving forward, then the camber is way off.
I doubt it's the springs - I would think that whoever aligned it doesn't understand the dynamics of TTB suspension. That's pretty common as this style suspension hasn't been used since a lot of today's younger mechanics were in kindergarten - you can't blame them for not being familiar with a suspension setup that they have hardly ever seen. You need to find an old ford guy who was around when these trucks were fairly new.
I'm quite sure they checked all the ball joints and other connections so my opinion - that's an alignment problem.
By the way, you can see the pivot bushing drop brackets in your pictures, it looks like they used the 4" lift bolt hole on the front one (the 6" lift hole is just below it), can't really see enough of the rear bracket to tell which hole they used there.
Using the (lower) 6" lift hole would make the tip in at the top even worse and make it very hard if not impossible to get the camber into proper specs.
Next chance you get, get a picture of that rear drop bracket and the radius arm brackets.
These pics are good to explain it.
Start with the 1st pic;
The inner end of your Traction Beams (I-beams) were attached to the frame more or less level with the center of the wheel, height wise.
When they put in lift springs it would raise the frame (but the tires stayed where they were; on the ground).
The inner end of your Traction Beams (I-beams) would go up with the frame and that would make the top of the tires tip out.
So you put on drop brackets that lower the frame attachment points back down closer to where they belong in relation to the tire (and the ground that the tire stayed on).
It kind of looks like the attachment points on the drop brackets are too low in comparison to how much the truck went up so now the tires are tipped in at the top ; so the inner ends are dropped too much.
Back to the first pic - if you look at the top ball joint, that actually sits in an oversize hole with a bushing to lock it's position. Different offset bushings or Moog adjustable bushings allow for a little adjustment there - but probably not as much as you need.
You could put taller springs and lift the frame higher which would correct things some but then your front end would be higher than the back, which isn't exactly what you're going for.
Now if you look at the 4th picture in your original post you'll see the drop bracket for the left beam. Notice the pivot bolt is in the upper hole that would be for a 4" lift. The hole below it is for a 6" lift - using that hole would make your problem even worse by tilting the top of the tires in even further.
It would appear the pivot bolt has to go even higher (new holes) to make the wheel tip closer to straight up, THEN it can be fine tuned with the bushings on the upper ball joint.
The 7th? pic shows the drop bracket for the RH beam but you can't really see if there's another hole or not.
The better way to fix this is to get the truck up where it belongs because it seems to be sagged down from where it should be with a lift kit in it - the (at least 1) pivot bolts are in the shortest drop hole (4") and it's still too low.
Part of the problem could be the weight of the winch bumper and camper especially if the springs are older so maybe spring work all around would fix things up.
Maybe price out new front lift springs and a spring shop should be able to make the back match pretty easy.
Just hopefully you can understand what's going on and why so you can sound intelligent when you talk to alignment guys. But they should have figured this out - they're supposed to be specialists.
I'm a 2wd guy, so I don't have concrete facts for 4x4 trucks.
You have negative camber going on. Causes for negative camber are sagging springs, bad ball joints, bad wheel bearings, and improper alignment. Checking that the ball joints and wheel bearings have no play in them is simple, takes no time at all. You mention the winch on the front, which I really doubt it causing your issues because it doesn't weigh hundreds of pounds. It's possible the springs are sagging, I can't tell from the pictures, nor am I very well versed with the lift springs.
They make adjustable bushings to adjust the caster and camber that slide in around the upper ball joints. If you can, take a picture of the bushing around the upper ball joints currently installed. Moog makes bushings that can adjust +/-2deg of camber for 4x4, and +/-3(or4)deg for the 4x2. If you still have the factory alignment bushings, most likely your problem can be solved with a new set of adjustable bushings.
Long story short, if the ball joints and bearings are tight, and you don't have adjustable camber bushings, start with installing adjustables
12-07-2016, 12:49 PM
1991 F150 Alignment (negative camber?)
