Loss of steering

[jjw3091]

Looking for possible culprits. When driving over a rapid sucession of small bumps at normal speed my steering goes a little haywire for a second. I have to make sure I keep a couple hands on the wheel. It feels like i lose contact with the road surface sort of like on ice. I am going to the alignment shop next week and I called first to see if they had capabilities to do cold bends of the i-beam suspension and he said that they did not. Also stated that it says on the frame not to bend and he should be able to align without a cold bend. My question is do you have to cold bend to properly align?

[fordman]

bending the i beams is so the camber can be set.

[jjw3091]

So what you are saying is that it is necessary to bend and what the alignment guy told me that it says on the frame "do not bend" was bs.

[mlheppl]

If you haven't dopped or raised the front end, then they should not have to bend the Ibeams to get the truck into alignment (unless somethings gotten bent over the years).

[jjw3091]

Thanks for the replies. The alignment guy says he has been doing alignments for years but his info was a bit different from things that I have read. I just want to make sure. Any ideas on my steering issues?

[fordman]

it doesnt say on the frame not to bend them. bending the i beams to correct any camber issuse is a factory authurized procedure. if it needs to be done. do you inner or outer edges of the tire wear out faster than the rest of the tire? if they do they you have bad camber. but that could also be cause by bad king pins. somewhere on the site is a picture of the ford statement abou thow to bend the i beams if needed. but i am unsure how to find it.

[basketcase0302]

Here's the proper way to bend the I beams, (about half way down the page):
http://www.fordification.com/tech/alignment.htm

You might want to also look at your radius arm bushings, (they've been an issue for my "wandering fords" more than once in my lifetime).

[fordman]

thank you. i didnt even try to look for those. i wasnt even sure they were findable.

[jjw3091]

My left front tires outside edge is showing a lot of wear the passenger side looks like even wear.