1993 Ex XLT Pulling to the Right

[timber22]

What it do everyone,

I've been having some issues with my truck's front end and I'm not sure if I'm capable enough to pinpoint exactly what I need to fix. My 93 Ex has been pulling to the right resulting in having to hold the steering wheel to the right about like 10-15 degrees off-center just to get it to drive straight. The front passenger side tire has had some gnarly cupping on the inner tread. Any time I go in to get an alignment, usually within a week its already fallen out of it and back to pulling to the right.

I was just curious if anyone has dealt with it before and what they're solutions were. My dad was saying it could be any one of the bushings on the bottom being worn out. I have no doubt that any of the bushings could be the original ones from 25 years ago.

And less concerning, if anyone has any solid brush guard recs I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[RangerX]

Check the ball joints, especially the lower, and check the wheel bearings. Is this a lifted truck, or stock height?

 

[Centaurious]

Take it to a better alignment shop and ask them to inspect the front suspension as it is pulling to the right. A lot of shops will inspect for free hoping to get your repair work.

A good shop will not align a suspension with bad parts because, as you have found out, it will not do any good in the long term.

Any shop that tells you "they're all that way" or any thing else implying that less than correct is good enough, take your money and run.

 

[hlg99]

My old '94 had a similar issue, turned out to be the radius arm bushings.

 

[massacre]

I am going through the same thing

 

[massacre]

On my stick explorer I replaced radius arm bushings. On my green explorer it was the idler arm sticking

 

[92exp4x4]

Shops typically hate the ford twin I-beam/traction beam suspensions. They normally won't align them correctly either by not knowing how or just not wanting to do it. Most shops don't even carry the caster bushings anymore and haven't in years.

I'm lucky in that I have a friend at my local car x, that worked for a Ford dealer on these trucks when they were new. He now manages the car x, and he personally handles all the Fords that come in because they can be so difficult to properly align.

Be careful of the "toe and go" shops out there. If it doesn't take them a significant amount of time to do it, they didn't do it right. I think the only worse alignment job are the aerostar vans.

All that said, the vehicle will not hold alignment if any of the bushings in the suspension are bad. Make dead sure that everything is tight and in good shape before trying to align the vehicle. Use a prybar and tug and pull on everything. Anything with slop will need addressed. You may consider a total rebuild if it's never been done.

 

[timber22]

Check the ball joints, especially the lower, and check the wheel bearings. Is this a lifted truck, or stock height?

It's a stock Explorer. No suspension or lift modifications that I know of.

 

[allmyEXes]

My old '94 had a similar issue, turned out to be the radius arm bushings.

Same here on my '94. If they have never been replaced you have to cut with a side cutting tool and knock the rivets out of the radius arm bushing brackets to remove them to be able to change the bushing on the arm in front of the bracket/s.

Here is a picture of the bushings replaced and bracket bolted back on with high grade bolts. This is on a Ford Truck but it is all the same principal.

The ones I have worked on it was the right side that went bad first. There is a lot of heat coming off of the exhaust on that side and in my area the right side of the road tend to be rougher.

 

[timber22]

All these responses have been great, I have a good size list of stuff to check now.

I was already having problems with my driver side radius arm bushings creaking super loud anytime I went over any unlevel ground. Would that have anything to do with it?