I have a 1991 f150 with the 300. I recently swapped the front and rear ends as part of a 4x4 conversion. I took it to a guy that I've never been to before just because he was the closest to my house to have it aligned. He said his machine wouldn't align it because the front end is wider than the rear end so they just aligned it by hand as best they could. He seemed pretty sincere and gave me a discount on the alignment. The truck is driveable and everything, but it does pull to the right enough so that my left turn signal won't stay on because of how far to the left I have to hold the wheel to keep the vehicle driving straight. Has anyone heard this before? I'm wondering if it's worth it to have the Ford garage in town do another alignment on it or if they would run into the same issue? The guy I took it to said he can't imagine they would have an alignment machine that would do any better than his but I find it odd that Ford would build the front and rear ends different widths then not have a machine that could align their vehicles.

 

I'd have told him the discount for not doing the alignment correctly is 100% off. But no, the dealership techs aren't likely to be any more familiar because these trucks are antiques, so not what the dealership normally works on. Tire stores are more likely to know how to align it.

Most vehicles have different front track width from the rear - it's the normal way to build a vehicle with front-wheel steering. And any alignment machine can align them - he just doesn't know what he's doing. Modern alignment machines will recognize the vehicle by VIN (even antiques, back to 1981) and walk the tech through the process, including showing video clips of each adjustment. Click these & read their captions:

(phone app link)


(phone app link)

 

Thanks, I told him I looked it up and it seemed to be a common thing. He claims this was the first time he'd seen it in 18 years. The only reason I went to him was because it was so bad out of alignment after I swapped the front end I didn't want to drive it very far. I don't think I'll go back.

 

Not going back, except for a refund maybe, sounds like a good idea.

It's not uncommon for vehicles to have a wider front track. Hell, look at any chevy pickup truck since forever, they're noticeably wider up front, and I would challenge you to find a shop that can't/hasn't aligned a ton of them