91 XL Sport Serious Front End Problem!!! Truck Stuck In Parking Lot!!!

[raptor125]

Hey all, like usual, another problem. My other 91 XL Sport messed up. My girlfriend was driving it to work and she said the front end just made the loud pop noise and it started to shake real bad. Well when she applied the brakes it pulled to the left. So she calls me and goes, hey the truck messed up. So I went to go get her and checked the truck out. At first I thought it might be the steering or something because we had a problem with that before. Well that was fixed and that isn't the problem. The problem is when you get over like 35 or so the front end just starts shakeing like hell. Plus if you let go of the steering wheel, the truck will start to go right by itself. Now if you hold the steering and make it go straight down the road and hit the brakes, the thing will go left instead of right. This is strange. So I was like okay, what if a ball joint went or something. So I parked it at Wal-Mart and jacked the front end up and checked. Well both tires are tight, no play at all. So maybe the ball joints are still good? I also thinking about the drag link. Could it be that? Any info would be great. I got it sitting in Wal-Mart parking lot and I am afraid of driving it. Please need some info!!! Thanks

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

well there is definitely something wrong.

is the front-end sitting at normal ride height?

 

[raptor125]

Yeah, it seems to be okay on height level. Doesn't sag or dropped in the front end any. My girlfriend says that it is sitting weird when the wheel is turned to the left. It is sorta higher on one side. But I really don't see that. When the wheels are straight you can't see anything wrong.

 

[raptor125]

Okay guys, what is up with this. I went and got it tonight and it drove just fine. The only thing it did was pull to the left when you applied the brakes. I don't understand it. The steering was fine and no shakeing. Any ideas?

 

[jtison]

Snap, crackle, pop ... not good

This could really be just about anything, but I'm gonna point you in a strange direction: check out your radius arms. They connect the frame to the axle and keep the axle lined up horizontally -- I'd think they'd wreck camber, caster, & toe values if they aren't doing their job. The problem parts of RAs are the bushings where they connect to the frame in the rear. These are rubber parts that weren't very well designed. Could that 'pop' have been the RA retaining bolt giving way? Yeeesh ... that's creepy.

Do you have 4WD? Auto/manual hubs? Any abnormal noises from the front end? You didn't mention anything except the 'pop'. The shaking's really strange: I was taught that the shakes always come from imbalanced tires. Maybe not

Good luck. PLEASE be careful driving it until you find out what this is. I'm just an amateur. If you depend on this vehicle, you might want to seek out a pro. Don't ever futz around with potential steering problems! It's not worth an accident, or worse.

Peace,
--Jim--

 

[raptor125]

Hey all, this morning I checked it with a friend after driving it again and it started to mess up again. So we jacked it up and come to find out the inner and outer tie rod on the drivers side was messed up. So we replaced it and it seems to be fine now. Thanks everyone for the responses. This site rocks.

 

[jtison]

Excellent! Tie rods are a lot easier to do than RAs

Now I wonder what that "pop" was. Oh well, guess we'll never know. At least it's driving right now

Peace,
--Jim--