71 F100 Alignment

[Chasbod]

I was reading the shop manual and apparently in the old days they utilized a gi-normous (my son's blended word for giant/enormous) contraption to bend the I-beam/radius arm to set camber/caster.

Has this changed? I heard something about off center bushings now but don't see where the older ones had these. What should I be expecting when I'm ready to get the front end aligned?

[meandad xlt]

Hi Meandad here

I don't know about Texas, but in Phoenix when I wanted my '71 aligned I called around to different shops and found one that aligned it the "old right way" on a frame rack.

I never heard of any other way. But new things are always happening.

[Chasbod]

Thanks Meandad. I figured I will be doing a bit of calling. But it's good to know what to expect. The truck drives straight but is wearing outside passenger tire a bit. I do know the spring is weak is on that side plus some of the other front end parts. Have to get all that done first and hopefully it won't need any alignment correction.

The shop manual spooked me a bit looking at the size of those bending contraptions.

[NM5K]

Have to get all that done first and hopefully it won't need any alignment correction.

That will probably do it. If you fix the front end,
most likely all they will have to set is the toe in.
The caster and camber will probably be close nuff,
once you get new parts on it. In theory, you should
only need to bend an axle, if one was bent by hitting something...And it would take one heck of a whack to bend one of those.. If all it has is normal wear, new
parts should do it. When I did all that, I took mine to
a frame shop for alignment. But...Not all will have frame shops close by...Most any of the shops can set
the toe though. On mine, after new parts, all they had
to set was the toe. Tire wear is very low now compared to before all the work. MK

[72hiboy4x4]

I've heard one way to help tire wear on the 2wd trucks is to install dual shocks on the front.
the theory is that it will help keep the front end bounce to a minimum , thereby not wearing the tires out as fast.

[67effie]

I have always been under the impression that it is impossible to set caster camber on these trucks and only toe in and out. You could save yourself some money and do it yourself. My brother and I did mine by simply centering the steering wheel with the wheels straight forward as possible and then measured front and back of the 2 front tires until they were the same, and checked visually from the front to the back for straightness.

[NM5K]

Toe is the only setting that is adjustable on the
old ones. To adjust the others, you have to bend
the axle. But, it's pretty rare to need to do that.
You can set the toe at home, but it's pretty tricky
to do, and is almost never as close as when done
at the shop, unless you get lucky. I tried setting mine myself, after rebuilding the front end, so I could get it to the shop. My home setting was way off and I did it as careful as I could measuring the front/backs of the tires.
Didn't come out too well in my case. I think you need a slight toe in if I remember right.
MK

[flyboy2610]

Yes, you need a slight toe in to compensate for the tires tendency to push the front of the tires apart at road speed.
Get it as close as you can at home, and that should be enough to let you drive to a shop.