Laziness prevents me from doing a search on this...

Just bought a '97 F150 XLT x-cab 3-dr. 4.6, with 137k on it. Truck drives straight & tight, clearly not beaten on.

Looking into any issues that I may want to watch for on this..

One specific question:

Lots of squeaking from the front end when turning, and going over bumps, seems to be on the drivers side.. sounds mechanical, not pump or belt noise. Thoughts?

Never mind... searched... grease (I assumed this), ball joints, pitman arm..

 

You need new upper and lower ball joints and a camber kit for each upper ball joint. The ball joints should cost you about $250.00 dollars. Get Moog. They can be greased. Takes about 3.5 hours to replace them yourself.

 

Like you said, the most common cause of squeeks while turning is caused by the pitman arm.

I wouldnt look at ball joints just yet.