Now im questioning the parts that the tire place wanted to more than double their money on (upper control arm & idler arm) are even shot......How do you tell? I there play or something in them? He told me he couldnt align it without replacing them..... 2001 f150 4x2 5.4 scab....

 

there shouldnt be too much movement from left to right or up and down that DOESNT go to the steering.

Lift the truck up and grab the tire at 9 and 3 and shack it back and forth if theres alot of movement thats not making it to the steering then you got bad tie-rods or idler arm. Now grab the tire at 12 and 6 and shack there shouldnt be any movement there if so then you need to take alook at the ball joints.

Ive been thinking about this... what i said might be backwards just remeber, if theres movement on the tire that doesnt make it all the way up to the steering then you have problems and need to address the whole suspension and find the warn out parts

 

Yea, i get what you're saying about the wheels moving steering wise with the truck lifted up....Tomorrow ill lift it up and check for play in the wheel both vert. and horiz. and go from there....I was just wondering how the alignment person found that those parts were bad before going and buying and installing them myself....Thanks for the info

 

did he put it up on the machine? cause mine were garbage and he tried to align it and it wouldnt stay where he put it the tires would just wander back out. So they didnt charge me and i went and installed new ball joint and tie-rods that night and the next day they aligned it for me. Then 10 hrs later i totaled the suspension.... hahaha lol but the bal joints and tie-rods are still in great shape.

 

I dont know if he did or not.........I was in the waiting room and he called them and said he needed to talk to me......He said he couldnt at all try to align it without the $425 work (upper control arm & ilder) done....

 

i did mine myself. it cost me 250 in parts but that was everything replaced with upgraded parts.

it really wasnt that bad. I got a good deal from a friend at napa normally the parts i got would be well over $500.

then went to the mud hole and bent the torsion bars which popped the ball joints out which was good or they probably would have been destroyed. as well as the tie-rods. Check out my build thread theres a link in my sig... its what im doing to keep from breaking this stuff again...