Poor Mans Front End Alingment
 

I have a 99 F-150 with inner tire surface wear on both sides. It is obvious that there is too much toe in. Is there a way to adjust this? Do both sides need to be adjusted eqaully?

I would have thought that your problem indicates too much toe out, but this is one job I always leave to the pros.....trust me its worth the $50 for an alignment.

Unless you have the alignment tools and ramps, don't even attempt it yourself. Everything from caster, camber, toe-in/out has to be equal and balanced left to right and visa-versa. Definately not a weekend warrior project.

save the upcharge and.....
 

get your self some camber bolts and take them with you when you get the alignment done

Ditto... A poor man's alignment will only cause wear in the tires, almost never correct it.

Did you check to see what caused to poor alignment? They seldom just "go out" over time. There is typically some precipitating factor, like hit some bad pot-holes, worn out steering or suspension components, etc. A good alignment/suspension shop should be able to set you up no problem.

-Joe

Your problem is actualy too much toe-out if its the inside of the tires wearing, outside of the tires getting warn down is too much toe-in. Your basic mechanic can do this if they have a good understanding of how everything works. my 97' was eating up my new BFG's on the inside, spent awhile reading about alignment and had it done in a weekend with basic tools, 4 jack stands, a ruler, some string, and some floor tiles. But if your doughting yourself from the beggining, just spend the money for the pro's to handle it...:banana:

I hate to burst someones bubble, but 95% of the time wear on either edge of the tires is most likely caused by too much camber either + or - on one or both sides. Toe in (or out) will cause the tires to wear over the entire surface of the tread area (if it's bad enough, you can feel the tread 'feather-edge' when running your hand across the tread) . Ball joints come to mind as a first thing to check here. you definitely need to get it to a competent alignment shop :coffee:

yeah, when ur camber is off your tire will wear on the inside or outside depending on positive or negative camber adjustment, but toe in and toe out will cause the same thing but with cupping, my tread was cupping on the inside, adjusted toe-in and fixed my problem... toe-in/out, camber, and caster All play a part when i tire starts to wear uneven, if you adjust one setting, your gunna need to make sure everything els is adjusted right after. Im just saying in my case, i took the messurements, found my rig to be running too much toe-out, i adjusted my toe-in 1/2 degree and my problem was solved.... like i said though, much easier to let a shop find out whats going on cause alot of the time, its all 3 that need adjusting

100% agree......touch one adjustment and the others go out....Good equipment and a competent tech. is needed with alignment issues !:coffee:

I had the same problem when i bought my truck. Ended up having 2 bad ball joints, driver side lower and passenger side upper. Also needed a camber kit plus alignment. I ended up replacing my upper control arms both sides and bottom ball joints both sides. All new bushings while i was in there to:thumbsup:

hey jesso, i was thinking about getting new lower controll arms and new ball joints and bushings. Was it hard to do yours? Did you run into any problems or needed any special tools?

Camber/caster is going to be nearly impossible to do yourself because the machine they use will give you exact measurement unless you have certain tools to measure it. As for the toe you can easily do that yourself and get it into check within a 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch. Just pick up some toe plates and 2 tape measure to get yourself by for a little before you can take it in to the alignment shop. Hard to explain but I'm sure there is videos online.

Yeah this is one thing that you don't wanna skimp out on. Def take it to a professional.