Alignment or what?

It is alignment, but I think your model has the twin I-beam suspension up front. The wear on the outside of the tires indicate it is setting high, but what you say about how it looks would indicate it is setting low.

This has been discussed here before if you search the archive in google. Either inserts or cams to adjust caster (or camber, not sure) or heating the I-beams. If it is setting low, could also be worn out springs.

Blair

on a similar note, (95 E350) how much space is supposed to be between I-beam axle and the rubber bumper? mine has about 2.5 - 3 inches, and there are handling and tire wear issues.

I also agree with you that when wearing the wheels at outside should be that the wheel are tighter at the bottom than at the top. I just cant't explain that. It also looks like when wheels strait forward that the wheels is more tight in the back than in the front. Sorry but I don't understand what you tried to explain about cams and caster etc. When I look at the front end I find the adjustment of the alignment which will fix what I explained about wheels more tight in the back than in the front. That is no problem, but I can't find any adjustment for the top/bottom problem. (nealing or what.....) Could be like you say that the springs is weak, because as far as I concerned that will interfer on this. It is nothing that I notice when driving. No problem with that. Tor Elling.

My '75 service manuals have that information in them but they measure from the top of the I-beam to the frame. All you need is information about your year and model that I don't have?

Yeah, at first, it doesn't make sense but I figure he's got way too much toe-in and that is what's wearing the outside edges.

Do we have a wheel alignment guy on here? :) (to straighten me out)

The lightest springs Ford/Chevy etc uses are too friggin light! :/ They give out on you and start sagging, for one thing, but are too soft and bouncey and no friggin good either. (unless you like soft and bouncey ;)

Do yourself a favor and measure the "wire size" of your front springs, then go to the wrecking yard and measure them there and get yourself some heavier springs! :) A caliper that reads .001" will work great.

If you want to change out your springs get back on here and we'll go over it, back and forth, so you'll get it right the first time, ok?

Alvin in AZ

Tight = close? If so... Really bad toe-out? (instead of my guess in my other post, too much toe-in)

Cool. :) But don't adjust it until you fix what's causing the big (overall) problem ok?

If it's a twin-I-beam suspension you won't find those adjustments.

Where are you?

Alvin in AZ ('75 F150 360 4speed)

On the tops of the king pin on twin I-beam suspensions there is an elliptical cam that can be changed to do the alignment. It moves the caster & camber of the alignment. They will sell you adjustable ones if the factory ones are still there, depending on the year. Not sure if all years have fixed ones, or that was changed at some point.

Most likely you will need to take it to a place familiar with Ford alignments.

Blair

Cool. :)

The new ones won't help you much. :/

You need to find out for sure if yours has the adjustable camber and caster. If Ford was going to add that ability to a twin-I-beam vehicle it would be their E series, I figure.

There's another post with that information in it by someone that actually knows something. :)

Oh heck :/

You don't have wrecking yards full of spare parts. :(

It's sounding to me like its been wrecked.

Can you re-check the radius arm bushings and their washers? Have you got it back together right -for sure-?

Also the radius arm rear support... has one been shoved back? Don't let them rivets fool you, they can slip/shear half their diameter and still hold. Been there and done that. :)

Have you got a service manual or access to pictures on the internet?

Can you adjust the toe-in yourself? I do it's not that hard to do and the tools are common junk.

The only thing about adjusting it is you'll have to adjust it back when it's fixed right. No sweat. But more important to me is you loose the reference point of lining things back up and seeing if it needs more, it's just right, or has been moved too far.

But I don't know your situation. Have you got to drive it right away?

Alvin in AZ

When you are looking at the wheels and making your observations, it should always be done after driving the vehicle forward before stopping. If you have stopped after backing, you may see conditions that are not customary during normal operation.

alignment

suspension up

That is an interesting part yoy mentioned here. Because I think this observation I do only happens after I am backing in to the parking place etc. It only looks like this when I have backing before stop. If I drive straight forward and just stop I think everything looks pretty normal. Tor Elling.

What you see is a common contradiction in wheel alignment with twin I-beam front ends. The front springs are either sagging or are over loaded causing negative camber of the front wheels. As this happens, the toein increases resulting in excess outside tread wear. The proper repair is to either replace the front springs or remove the overload and, have the front end properly aligned by someone who is intimately familiar with twin I-beam suspension - not every technician or shop can do them correctly.

Yeah but:) doesn't that indicate something is looser than it should be? My '75 F150 doesn't do that.(?) He replaced the radius arm bushings something might not be quite right there?

Alvin in AZ

No, it is not an indication that something is loose. However that is a possibility. Backing the vehicle, assuming that toe-in is correctly set, is the same as driving forward with the toe-in set as toe-out instead. When backing, your tires will tend to creep to a wider stance than they will driving forward. This will give the impression that the camber is incorrectly set. The vehicle is set up for forward motion as that is what you will be doing 99.99% of the time that you are driving. If you don't believe this, then ask yourself why the front of the wheels is set closer together than the back. What do you think would happen if you reversed the toe-in setting? Answer, if the front end is being run with the wheels toed-out, it will immediately throw off the camber setting. When a wheel alignment is done, the vehicle is always stopped from a forward motion. If the vehicle overdrives the pads, it is backed up a couple of feet and brought forward again. It is never just backed up into position. Now you know the reason.

Cool question, I bet you didn't figure on me actually having tried it out huh? ;)

On my pickup it feels the same as too much toe-in, like there's no center to the steering, like it's out of focus. The best spot for me (and my extra-tight radius arm bushings) is just barily measurable toe-in from straight ahead. If I remember right ford sez: 0 to 1/8" on my old clunker. ('75 f150)

On dune buggies with really big tires on the rear, toe-out is the answer for better stability on straight-aways. More on that, if you want to hear it. ;) But then the toe-in in the rear-end of a dune buggy can make or break you before you ever mess with the front.

This whole toe-in thing has bothered me for a long time, wouldn't the toe-in be effected by tire inflation and load and condition of the parts in the system to the point that alighnment is just a big guess anyway?

Treating it as a guess is easy for a guy with an old twin-I-beam suspension huh? :) Because I've experimented and found out what I like best, with my particular vehicles and their particular conditions. Now you gotta know, that's just plain weird for a non-racer, right? :)

Alvin in AZ

Your toe-out on the rear is exactly on target. But that's a driving axle. You always have toe-out on a driving axle. Like front wheel drive cars have toe-out also. That's because the driving forces tend to bring the toe-out back to zero, which is the ultimate goal.

Non driving front axles will almost Always be set toe-in a bit.