Joshua's blue ox dilemma

[Die Blaue Ziege]

Hey all take a look at this pic, it is on a 2001 f250 with a 6" lift, you can see the steering linkage and the trac bar are at different angles, my question is this what symptoms/problems would this cause? Thanks for you experiences and opinions

 

[YROC FAB.]

Hey all take a look at this pic, it is on a 2001 f250 with a 6" lift, you can see the steering linkage and the trac bar are at different angles, my question is this what symptoms/problems would this cause? Thanks for you experiences and opinions

bump steer if those stiff leave can even compress.

 

[Rot Box]

🍿

 

[Hickey]

If you do see a little bump steer, it would be easy to correct that track bar. I would be surprised if there wasn't a correction bracket offered for that exact application from a place like Tuff Country.

 

[Kiel]

I had an 01 with 6 inches of lift. They sell a drop track bar mount.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

So I have ordered the drop bracket, the reason I ask about what the effects would be is I have been trying to chase down the reason for the truck pulling to the driver's side, I have done new calipers on all 4 corners, new soft brake lines, new rotors, pads as well, new moog problem solver ball joints, new wheel bearing hub assembly's, new hub lockouts, new Spicer u joints on the axle shafts, new seals on the axle as well. All this and it's still pulling, oh yeah it's been to multiple shops for alignment check and have played with the alignment on my own as well I have installed multiple ball joint bushings to adjust the castor/camber.

 

[jeeper]

So I have ordered the drop bracket, the reason I ask about what the effects would be is I have been trying to chase down the reason for the truck pulling to the driver's side, I have done new calipers on all 4 corners, new soft brake lines, new rotors, pads as well, new moog problem solver ball joints, new wheel bearing hub assembly's, new hub lockouts, new Spicer u joints on the axle shafts, new seals on the axle as well. All this and it's still pulling, oh yeah it's been to multiple shops for alignment check and have played with the alignment on my own as well I have installed multiple ball joint bushings to adjust the castor/camber.

We used to swap the front tires on vehicles that still had a pull after a lot of other things were tried.

In Fact, I had to do it to my f350 just a few weeks ago because it started pulling left. All things were tight, and alignment was on. Swapped the front tires, and it tracks straight now.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

Yea, I have also done the tire swap thing... That didn't work either. 😭

 

[Hickey]

Yea, I have also done the tire swap thing... That didn't work either. 😭

Check the leaf spring center pins on both axles. I had a truck with a bent rear pin and it drove like crap until I replaced both rear pins.

 

[1969honda]

Double check the track bar bushings and track bar itself, I've seen them get a slight bend on multiple trucks and then not track straight. Alignment numbers were within spec but truck pulled until the bar was replaced.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

I ordered the correct trac bar relocation bracket, it made a world of difference the stuck now has the typical ford superduty slop but it tracks pretty straight. It still pulls a little to the driver's side, but I still need to change out the camber bushing that I installed and go back to the original ones, if it's still pulling after that, I think I will take off the u-bolts and check for a broken leaf spring center pin.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

After installing the drop bracket the truck was pulling much less, but it was still there, and the steering was very loose, when it wasn't pulling it was ping pinging all over the road.....so:


This morning on a whim I decided to put some camber/castor ball joint adjustable bushing in. I had played around with a couple sets of these before I noticed that the trac bar was misaligned, I went with a 3/4 degree bushing as the stock Spicer is a 1/2 degree, I installed them so they had a positive castor and camber so the camber adjustment would be closer to 1/2 and it would give me a little more castor. After installing them I was checking the torque on the bolts for the drop bracket, I noticed the nut holding my drop pitman arm was loose, I tightened it up and took ox for a drive. Wow, the steering is now tight, and it is tracking straight!

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

And of course,as soon as I'm feeling good about the truck I get a battery dash light...... Tested the alternator with my tester, and it's bad. I ordered a new one off Amazon for 90.00, it arrived yesterday and had it installed in 10 minutes. The old alternator never put out more than 13.5 v, the new one on my drive to work out out 14.6. I guess the old one was telling me for quite some time " hey bud I need to be replaced"

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

I have been doing a little project on Ox, I'm installing a cng kit to run side by side with the diesel, progress so far installed the regulator, fill valve, ran the coolent hoses, and drilled the holes to mount the tank.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

I finished mounting the tank, and running the cng fuel lines, the electronics were simple, needed a 12 v switched, a ground and a clean tach connection. The system is now running, if I didn't tell you it had a cng system on it you would never know, it drives just like it did before, a little more get up and go, and the egt's run a little hotter when you are getting on it. But being able to have the extra fuel capacity, and using the cheaper cng as fuel (around $2.00 per gge) this should be a fast payback. A couple guys I work with have done a number of these and they told me that the overall mog should go up.

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

Thought I'd post an update on the cng system. I have been running the system both in town and on the highway, we also took a trip with our trailmanor to the north slope of the Unitas, then down to flaming gorge, up through the steep canyon over to vernal, through the canyon and steep passes forward strawberry and back to Logan via Ogden. I must say the cng system worked flawlessly, the canyons pulled much better than in stock form ( while pulling the hills I turned the system off and on to see what the power difference felt like and man it makes a giant improvement. My egt's always stayed low, the trans did get a little warm but never over 200 degrees. It was a little bothersome having so much room taken out of the bed for the tank, I am currently talking to a guy who may have a set of tanks that will fit under the bed in the spare tire location. All in all a wonderful upgrade, it only cost me 350. As I was able to source the ( non expired) tank for free.

 

[Rot Box]

Let’s put the 6.0 trans cooler in that ol’ girl! Should help your temps a lot 😎

 

[Die Blaue Ziege]

So it’s been at least a year with the cng system, still loving it and with diesel being 5.50+ a gallon it is really paying for itself. Cng is around $2.25 a gge and the power is amazing!