Won't track straight?? HELP!

[rfp23]

I purchased a '68 F100 yesterday and on the 140 mile journey home, my wife followed me to make sure there were no problems. At a gas stop, she commented that it appears the truck's front wheels and back wheels are not in alignment. I got her to drive a few miles so I could see and sure enough, the truck seems to be not tracking straight. Yet, at 70 MPH it will not pull to the left or right side?

Is this a common problem? I crawled under the truck and the frame does not appear to be bent in any way. Is it worn out bushings?

Thanks for the advised!

rfp23

[ezernut9mm]

i'd start with the rearend. there are bolts that run through the spring packs and they have a head that sits in a hole in the spring perch on the rearend to keep the rearend aligned. if for some reason the bolt head is not in the hole the rear will be off track.
look at the position of the rear tire/wheel in the fenderwell and see if both left and right seem to be centered.

[FORDification]

Keep in mind that with these '67-'72 trucks, the rear wheels are closer together than the fronts...so the rear wheels do not track immediately behind the fronts. Ford corrected this in '73 on all F100s and most F250s when they widened the rear of the frame section by 4" and used a rear differential that was 4" wider as well, which enabled the rear wheels to track immediately behind the fronts.

[fordman]

it probably needs and alignment.

[kid]

I spun my Dad's 69 F100 around in a circle one time to the left and the rear end hung out to the right. After thinking about it for a few weeks I took the truck to a parking lot and spun a circle to the right. Dog-tracking was gone.

The rear end registers on the spring center clamp bolt and it jumps up on the head part way and makes the truck look really out of whack. Found out in a old Tech bulletin at my first dealership. 67s up to 75s were prone to this problem if the rear end was side loaded. They changed the bolt to give it a taller head to register the rear end after that.

[68F250]

You might want to check out those bolts kid is talking about because some of them were not tightened correctly from the factory.

[wt4speed#2]

If you have after market wheels and they are the same width and same back space . It'll look like the are tracking off . I'd have the alignment looked for piece of mind . But if you have the above mentioned wheel combo. there's not muck can be done about it, I chased it on my '72 swb before some one told me the only way to make it appear correct from behind would be to go with a narrower front wheel or offset back spacing with the same width wheel, (I put the wheels on after buying truck and bought them in a package deal)I put over 30,000 miles on those tires and wheel and never even scalloped an inner tread grove.
Just my 2 cents

Tony b

[68F250]

Also, don't just go by the front/rear wheel misalignment. Follow the truck and see if the body tracks straight going down the highway. If it dog tracks you'll see the body constantly "hunting" for a position.