I installed a rough country 2.5" leveling kit on my '05 F-150 STX 4x4 on Saturday. Well everything went fine with the installation(did it myself), started going through system checks and noticed that when i turn the wheels in either direction and get to about 1/2 a turn before i am maxed out the front end gets pulled down and you can hear the PS pump giving a little extra strain when it is having to compress the front end to complete the turn.

Example (while sitting still):
-turn the wheels to the right, about 1/2 turn before you cant turn anymore the front drivers side (opposite side from direction turning) gets pulled down and the PS pump works extra hard to complete the next half rotation.

flip the situation for turning left...both ways the front end gets compressed with about a half turn left in the wheel.



I am pretty good at following directions and what not when working on my vehicles but troubleshooting is not my strongest area.



Is this a common problems with this F-150?
Do i need to adjust or replace my steering linkage?


Any ideas/advice are appreciated. I have not contacted Rough Country yet but will call them today as i have been out of the office in the field on business.

Attached are pics post leveling kit(front end is HIGH...think i need to block the rear now)
*driveway on an incline making the front end look even higher...i think i level ground it is just past level with front end being a tinge higher.


You can see the spacer on top of the strut just under the shroud






Once i get all of this bidness figured out new shoes will be on the way for the new to me ford.

 

man i have the same thing, all i had to do was get it realigned... not sure what's going on int your situation... maybe someone else will chime in.... i also only paid 40$ to get mine installed....

 

Have not had it aligned yet as i have been out of town until this morning. Would be fantastic if that was my problem and it will be resolved when i get it done...but unfortunately im not that lucky

 

I had the same problem before alignment.

You really need to align it first and see if you still have the same problem.

 

Hope that fixes it...taking it at lunch today.

 

good luck homie, let us know~

 

Yeah get it aligned first most probs are from that and then if it still occurs then check other things out

 

Just picked it up from getting aligned...it appears to have helped a bit but it is still tugging the front end down irregularly in the last but of turning.

Not sure what to do other than call rough country and see if they have a solution or just not turn that sharp!

 

if it was'nt doing that before the install.. man i'd call them kats~.... ..

good luck

 

On a factory level full steering turn, the knuckle fits perfectly into a steering-stop noch on the lower control arm (back side, I think). I suspect with the downward deflection of the arm, that noch is no longer lining up with the knuckle at full turn causing some premature binding before full turn. I just put a front half shaft in the front of mine two weeks ago and saw that my stop noch on that lower arm was fairly "chewed up". I have the 2 inch AS spacer.

 

its because of the turning of the wheels changes the caster angles i believe. it is normal ... i had a 3 inch lvl in mine and it did the same thing ... not much to worry about... gotta think your tire is turning on its side technically and therefor it is bringing it down ... i had my lvl on for 30k and i took it out when i got my 6 inch in and everything checkd out fine. balljoints good tierod fine.. its just angles changing as the steering axis is rotated