Camber Adjustment from Pivot Bushings?

As we have talked before on this forum, I have an 80 F100 with kingpins. There is no camber adjustment for these models causing me to loose some sleep as I have a ton of positive camber. My first thought was to find an old school shop to have them bend the twin I beams. This is proving to be more difficult than I thought as I can't find a shop with the skills/knowledge to do it. So I'm pivoting a little...

I found these Axel Pivot Drops: https://www.suspensionconnection.com/20842.html

They are intended for trucks that have been lifted 2 inches. My truck is not lifted but my thought is, if I lower the pivot point of the end of the I beams it will kick out the bottom of the tire. Plus, if it works, it has camber adjustment too.

Has anyone tried this? Would it even work? I'm racking my brain to figure out a solution to my positive camber issue.

Everyone says "find an old timer and have them bend the I beams." Well I can't find any! I have to find another solution. I'm open to all ideas!

Powerman5K wrote

My truck is not lifted but my thought is, if I lower the pivot point of the end of the I beams it will kick out the bottom of the tire. Plus, if it works, it has camber adjustment too.

Has anyone tried this? Would it even work? I'm racking my brain to figure out a solution to my positive camber issue.

Well, technically your truck is lifted. I know you didn't install a "lift kit", but by installing new coil springs, that may be longer/stiffer than the originals, you are lifting the truck.

Like I mentioned previously, I talked to an old guy that worked in an alignment shop for years (and bent lots of Ford beams), and he said that most of the time the issue was negative camber because of weak or worn out front springs. He'd bend the beams to correct the negative camber, but if later on somebody installed new springs in that same truck, they'd then have positive camber issues.

Your truck looks like she's sitting pretty high...



People that install spacer lifts in these trucks always end up with positive camber issues. I know you didn't install a lift...but new springs do lift the truck, so it's kinda the same.

I don't know if any of the members on here have installed lift kits in 2wd trucks, but it has certainly been done before.

For the $150 bucks, it's a cheap enough experiment to do, but they're not that much fun to install lol. If you're careful removing the old rivets and don't damage the factory drop brackets, you can always swap them back in if need be.

If you have already exhausted every other option, then I'd give them a try. The worst that can happen is that you waste $150 and a weekend of your time (to install them and remove them if need be)

stop !!!! the issue STILL lies with the springs. please do not go down the rabbit hole of chasing a correction for an already made mistake. research the correct springs. if there is a little negative camber then the spring seats can be shimmed to get the correct camber.                                                                            I am currently doing the same exact job on a camper special with kingpins. everything checked out well enough so i am going to replace the axle pivot bushings and radius arm bushings but i can tell that the passenger side spring is setting lower than the driver side and therefore has a fair bit of negative camber.
you obviously have the opposite meaning that the springs even loaded are too tall. they may only be .5-1" too tall in order to give the amount of camber that you have. and the amount IS different from side to side. if you try the drop brackets you will end up with far more negative than the positive you have now.
the geometry is a little tricky. each i beam is a different length to accommodate for the drivetrain offset. about 2 1/2" and the length from pivot to kingpin axis crosses the plane of the spring seat. meaning that two different lengths will have two different planes.  the designers already compensated for this in the spring seat. this is where we can shim to fine tune the spring height, but we can't take away to compensate for taller springs.  

I hear what you are saying about the springs but my positive camber issue was present before the new springs were installed. You have provided an option for fixing negative camber with shims. My camber was positive even with the factory springs on. If it makes any difference, I'll throw the factory springs on and upload another picture this weekend, but I'll spoil the ending, it will still have crazy positive camber.

these trucks had a reputation, at least in middle tn, for having a little positive camber and wearing the tires excessively. there was a shop in downtown Nashville who really knew the set up and would have it set so you could cruise the highway at limit plus speed with only the tip of your finger to steer.  I studied everything I could from my truck after that. and took their advice to heart. if your truck had really positive with the original springs then I wonder what else is off. going with the thought of "something changed". was anything added like a sway bar etc. from the factory set up?

another thought. the lighter the model, the more spring sensitive it is going to be. have any accessories or devices been deleted? lessening the sprung weight.

The only thing I deleted was the smog pump. The reason I know nothing major was changed and the springs were factory is because my good friend was the previous/original owner. I've been like you, looking for something to be wrong/missing.  But I can't find anything and refuse to just "live with it." My frustration is getting maxed out with this issue.

It's interesting to note that when I follow your link (at the bottom Q&A) Suspension Connection says "Unfortunately, this will not work with 2wd."
Maybe they just don't know their product?

Honestly I don't understand why it's so hard to find a shop that will bend your beams.
You just need an alignment place that works on medium duty trucks and not BMW's

I saw that too in the link. But everything seems to match up when I look at the parts. Rough Country makes them for their 2wd lift kit but they are not adjustable. I like the others because it will give me nearly 1/2" adjustment on the final camber.

I though the same about medium duty truck alignment. I called 2 yesterday and both wouldn't touch the job. One told me I would have to heat with a torch to do it. That throws up major red flags as I've read you are NOT supposed to heat them.

I'll keep digging in the area to try to find someone but it's not looking good for me.

I only found one place that could/would do the alignment on my 1977 F150 and Darth. It was an older shop in the man's back yard, came recommended by two other Ford truck owners, both of whom were very particular as to who worked on their vehicles. He did my 1977 and when my son had it, he finally needed front tires, shop started with the "we will need to do and alignment in order to warranty the tires", then backpedaled when they realized it was a Twin-I-beam truck. Once they looked at the virtually dead even wear on the old tires they asked who had aligned it (truck was in San Antonio by then) son told them it was some shop in Ark Virginia.

After I bought Darth, same issues with needing a proper alignment, same shop, but he had a young apprentice he was training and asked if I had a problem with the apprentice doing the work under his supervision. My reply was that if he felt he was good enough to train, then let him do it. That was in 1994, no other full alignment has been done since, just tie rods and toe-in. Tires wear dead even, local tire place insisted on checking it, and were amazed that the front was dead center of the ranges.

I want to chase the springs issue like you suggest. I purchased these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000C55V7K?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

These are what Moog's website lists for my year and model. Is this the wrong set? Where can I confirm this? They were definitely beefier and about .5 to 1" taller than the stock. I attributed this to 42 years of use on the originals. Remember, I had the positive camber before the springs too.

I've check my kingpins and pivot bushings. They all look/feel good. Chasing these springs is my last good option.

something to possibly look into. are the springs which you purchased also listed for the later trucks which had ball joints? ball joint axles have more adjustability of course. i find very often that the parts listed as compatible are not really so. the most recent example i can give is the fuel filler hose listed for 1980-1996. hello ... they were / are different. yet most suppliers sell the later (shorter) version for the older trucks. 4" difference is a lot of duct tape. '

Agreed with the later models issue. How can I tell the correct springs when I'm looking at them? That's the hard part. At this point, I'm thinking I might just throw the old ones back in. Although that won't fix the positive camber issue but hopefully make it better.

unfortunately you cannot see spring rate. height of spring loaded and unloaded are two specs that you might find. weight of spring is one you need to find. meaning the weight its intended to hold. im still curious about "what changed"? hopefully it did not roll off the line "key stoned".
im looking at lmc catalog right now and they list #45-2860 as the standard spring set for 80-81 yet a different number for 82-87. im sorry to say that they do not list any more info than that in the catalog. not sure what you spent but these list 95 dollars ,plus shipping and local taxes im sure. i will keep looking as im looking for the correct set also.

Unfortunately, I think Ford's numbers were on plastic tape wrapped around the spring coil. On the door tag (certification label), bottom right will be springs, from there, you can go to "Documentation" and drill down to "suspension" and finally "springs". Year and model then the code letter. For Darth front is J, rear is K.

1986 F150-350, J is E3TZ-5310-T. A spring shop may be able to give you the specs in lbs/inch deflection If you have any race car shops, they can probably test springs for you.

I replaced springs on my 81’ F100. It raised front of truck by a couple inches. I assumed springs I took off were original. I still have them and will measure them, unloaded of course. I had a shop in sterling, VA bend my axles but I don’t think they did that great of a job. The geometry of pitman arm doesn’t look right.