Well, I just finished up major work on my 300zx, now it is time for the F150

Story
Man, I just got back from some off roading and really did a number to the truck! I ran into a sizeable revine. I tag part of the front bumper My buddy's head broke the winshield and I ate the steering wheel!


Comments
Anyway, you can clearly see that the radius arms are bent and the steering box is leaking PS fluid. Also the driver's side fender got shoved back and jammed the driver's door. You know what it looks like! That is about all I could see wrong with the quick flash light inspection.

Questions
What else do you think could be mess up with a hit like that?

I assume this is a good time to add a front end lift kit with new radius arms. Right?


Truck Info
94 Regular Cab
4WD, 4.9L, Auto

 

If you hit hard enough to bend the radius arms you'll wanna check out all the steering links, axle pivot bracket, and check to see if the beams are still straight. Also the rad. arm crossmember is probably bent as well.

Take this as a lesson to wear your seat belts offroad. You're lucky you aren't spending a small fortune at the dentist, and that your friend wasn't seriously hurt when he got thrown into the windshield. The head banging smilie after that statement has got me scratching my head as to your attitude towards that situation. Chances of bodily injury during offroading is very high and stupidity breeds disaster. Use common sense next time Hell I'm aprehensive about what I get into with my truck until I get a roll cage built and get a 5pt harnass installed.

 

Cool, thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that I had already completely wrote off all the steering stuff. The gear box is now leaking PS fluid and would imagine that all the linkage is hosed.

I think the pivot bracket is ok. Everything there look fairly straight. If it was I think your talking about.

The beams your referring to I assume is the frame that runs down the entire truck. They look ok to me and don't seem to be bent out of reference to each other. I was going to crawl under there and check the frame for square with a tape.

Does all this sound about right?

As for the smilie, it was simply in jest with the head moving down as mine did into the steering wheel. Really wasn't expecting that we would run into such a big problem. Most of this "off roading" was running around a farm with all flat land and no trees to run in to. However you can bet the next time we are out there seat belts will be used!

 

The beams I'm refering to is the axle beams themselves. You have a TTB front axle consisting of 2 axle beams, coils, and radius arms.

 

OK, I'll check them out. Thanks for all the help.

 

Well, maybe it isn't as bad as I thought. I had ordered new radius arms, and when I took them out to compare, they pretty much look the same.

The wheels are sitting like /---\ and the passenger side is alignment is way off. Before the trouble, I knew my ball joints were failing because of inside ware. Could I have just finished off the ball joints and reall hosed up my steering?


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