I bought a 99 f150 4.2 w/ several inches lift the other day for my daily driver. This is my first ford and first truck, I've only had f-bodies and other cars mostly so I don't have much knowledge of anything lifted. I'm trying to determine the type of lift and how much lift it has on it...does anyone know how I could determine that? It appears to have the blocks on top of the rear leaf spring and some 'rough country' shocks.

The main issue I am having with it is that the front tires are visibly leaning in at the top very dramatically. I did some searching and couldn't really find a solid answer for my truck. I have some pics if that would help. Thanks for your help!

 

Posts some pictures of the front suspension. Without any pictures or even knowing if its 4x4 or 4x2 we can't really help.

 

It's a 4x2 and has 315/70/17's on it. Pictures are attached.

 

HOLY!!....i dont know my 2wd susp that well but yall help this poor guy...look at that upper A arm angle....youve got at least a 4 inch lift in the back because they came without blocks...But your front has some terrible angles on the A arms and tie rods....that is some awful tire wear as well...

 

You definitely need aftermarket control arms and since you have 35's, without seeing the spindle if there is a spacer with those coils you may have to pull that out too. Those angles are terrible.

I hope you didn't pay to much because you've got about 1500-2000 more to add to it in fixes now.

 

What would yall suggest to be the simplest, most cost-effective way to fix the front? Should I just lower the whole thing a few inches or check out some aftermarket UCA's? Thanks!!

 

You can take the lift completely off and go back to stock, but you'd have to buy stock parts.

It looks like there is a spacer in under the coil spring so you could take that out and get smaller tires. But I can't tell from the pictures whether's the spindle is stock or not so I can't tell if those are stock coils or lift coils or not either. So while aftermarket arms will help it may still not be enough.

If you know it doesn't have wheel spacers, if you look at the front of the truck if it's about 1.5" wider on each side than the back of the truck it has a spindle lift, otherwise it doesn't and it's just way to much lift crammed with those coils.

You could just pick up a complete new 6.5" lift kit for like 960ish too and keep the lift and have correct angles.

At a minimum your going to need new tires, upper and lower ball joints, outer tie rods (possible inner ones too), and an alignment. Preferably all at the same time, otherwise it can throw the alignment back out again. Not including the parts your going to need on the suspension to get it proper either.

So the question is, do you wanna keep the lift and height or go back to stock height?

Also I'm not sure it's really to safe to be driving it until you get it fixed, those upper ball joints look like they could snap anytime.

 

Whoever did that lift is a moron. I don't know much about lifts but wow at those angles

Good luck bud!

 

Not only who did the lift, but also whoever aligned it and let the original owner drive out thinking it was safe like that. I just keep seeing like horror images of that ball joint snapping from all the stress while going down like the highway ha.

 

Yeah that is one scary looking BJ... I'm with you, morons all around

Please don't drive that truck man

 

I don't think alignment was high priority for the previous owner....just look at those tires ha

 

I like the height it is at now but I would be fine with lowering it some too. I plan on replacing the ball joints, tie rod ends, etc. regardless of what I do but would some after market control arms fix the current front end problem?

 

It depends on how much is up front. Did you do what I said above to see if its wider or not up front?

 

Since it has Rough Country shocks, it's probably one of their lifts. However, someone did some modifications to it for more lift. Or at least that's my guess. Maybe it's a combination of lift springs with a coilspring spacer on top. I'd try removing the coilspring spacers first. That upper control arm and ball joint angle is just scary!

 

Here are some more pics including the spindles: