Technical 1952 Ford F1 not driving straight - front AXLE

Hi guys, this does not apply only to my truck because I know a lot of you guys drive trucks or cars with axles here, so my truck has a 3in dropped axle with mono leaf on the front and it does not drive straight I have to constantly correct. I had to bend the spindle to help the draglink be as straight as possible, I do have a shorter pitman arm to help as well, so its almost parallel to the ground, almost everything in the front is new, because I changed the springs, added disk brakes, and new dropped axle, what could be causing the truck to not drive straight? and to correct constantly?

issues: the steering does have some play, I have a new ccp steering box

 

Put it on a front end alignment rack and get it checked.

 

Steering box, tie rod ends can cause the constant back and forth with the steering wheel. HRP

 

Toe in, caster, box not centered when the drag link attached.

 

Check your caster, 6 to 8 degrees.

 

will try to do all of the above, thanks guys, I will check caster, toe, box not centered (this I know if off a bit) tie rods are new, if nothing works will probably just take to an alignment shop, does anyone know of a shop any where near the Los Angeles California area? its hard to find shops familiar with front axles

 

It could be as simple as the tires.

 

you have me thinking now, have you had this issue before and how was it fixed?

 

You will be hard pressed to make it stop wandering with play in the steering box.

 

Have not read your complete thread yet but send me some pictures of the tire threads so we can read them it's first thing I always do when walking up on a front end job Thanks .

 

Johnson's in Torrance they are off the 405@Crenshaw is take it to Alan Mest if you think you need parts he may have them . Also just start a conversation I'll come look at I'm in South Bay area matter of fact your avatar looks familiar . I'm in Torrance

 

thanks, I will take some pictures and upload this week, and will try a few of the tips here but at the end I have a feeling I'm gonna have to take it to a shop

 

I've bought vehicles that needed tires and were almost impossible to drive with the tires on them due to separated plys.. I also worked at a large tire chain. And I've seen all sorts of weird stuff.

Old tires do all sorts of weird ****. Even ones that look okay.

I'd be looking at the steering box and tires to start with. If you can find a good alignment shop that will actually shake down the front end instead of throwing all new parts at it would be my best advice.

 

Any big truck or RV repair place will be familar with straight axles.

 

I’m betting on reversed caster , happened when dropping the axle took place . There are wedge shims available to correct this issue . You can do a simple check with a magnetic protractor , it will get you very close .

Ever turn the fork backwards on your bicycle as a kid , and try to control it ? Well this is the effect of reversed caster , explained as simple as I can

 

I will check again, but I'm almost positive it was ok, I did but some shims to add more so I will try that as well

 

The tires are new, they are radials, I'm just gonna check if the have direction, meaning, fwr

 

Is the stuff all new and greased ? Tight, or dry and sticking king pins will drive like ****

 

6 Degrees of caster will solve it, go to a dump truck repair shop they bend axles all the time and can do it with the axle in the car. A steering stabilizer will help too, auto parts shops have them listed under 56 Ford pickup steering stabilizer kit.

 

Negative caster will not cause the car not to drive straight , constantly needing correction.
It will make the car feel unresponsive and understeer. [and the steering won't return to centre]


Too much toe-out will make the car feel unstable and constantly needing correction

@Hessler You need to check all the components first [king pins, ball joints etc]
And please report back to us, if you want help, or else this becomes another HAMB mind-reading exercise in futility.

The symptoms of "the car not to driving straight constantly needing correction" are pretty vague.
It could be mechanical bump steer, or alignment, or it could be rear roll-steer

So an accurate description of what it is actually doing would be a start.............

 

Low caster on stock cars would cause the car to dart around on the straights. On those it was an easy fix. Bad toe will do it to a degree. So will a sloppy steering box. I had a '64 Ford that had play in the steering, driving that was an adventure until I adjusted the box.

 

This would be the solution I would guess at too. What you have done to dump the nose down has no doubt killed the original caster (or much of it,) unless you've put in spring wedges to compensate. So yes, check the caster of have it checked. It's important.

I had to deal with a beam axle car that drove as you described. When I checked the caster it was barely 1 degree. Made it 6 and all was good. (Sounds like a quick fix, but the way the car was built needed quite a bit of work to enable those extra few degrees. Wedges would have been so easy!)

 

Are you defining "not drive straight" as pulls to one side or wanders back and forth.

 

Did you add the little tapered shims that usually come out between the factory spring and axle pad ? Very important.

 

will check this

 

yeah, kind of wanders and need to correct constantly

 

Don't remember, but I did just ordered some shims to

just ordered some shims with 4 degrees, we will see what happens

 

I do not remember, just ordered some shims with 4 degrees, we will see what happens

 

just ordered some shims with 4 degrees, we will see what happens