Big Blue's Transformation

[ArdWrknTrk]

For your D44?

Gary shows the screen of the machine in a previous post.

But that is for a solid D60 axle in a '95 F350

Yes. The specs for the D44 TTB, sorry. I should be more specific.

What does "screen of the machine" mean?

When Gary brought Big Blue to the alignment shop last Wednesday he took pictures of the screen on the rack, and also a printout, showing how camber was tilted left from spec on both wheels.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

And you wonder why I like my nice 2WD with it's "old fashioned" king pins. Aligned once in 1994, only adjustments since have been toe-in when the tie rods were replaced. Front tyres wear nice and evenly.

If you ever want spares Bill, there's a set of pins and bushings on U-techcenter... or at least there was a few days ago.

[Gary Lewis]

For your D44?

Gary shows the screen of the machine in a previous post.

But that is for a solid D60 axle in a '95 F350

Yes. The specs for the D44 TTB, sorry. I should be more specific.

What does "screen of the machine" mean?

The alignment specs are on this page: Documentation/Suspension & Steering/Alignment.

[Sac79]

Good point, Jim.

Any tips on getting the eccentrics loose? I've banged on the knuckle, put the nut on the ball joint and banged on it, and even tried to pry it up by driving a chisel under one of the tabs - but broke the tab off.

I've had similar issues in my feeble attempts to correct the camber on my driver's side. The instructions claim you don't need to remove the bushing to make adjustments. No idea how you would change the caster without at least lifting the bushing tabs above the 'stops', but I only need to turn the inner sleeve to adjust the camber to maximum, but I have been unable to do that. The material seems rather week, mine are ACDelco, not Moog. With a snug fitting socket all I managed to do was deform the metal!

Waiting with bated breath to see if you find a way to do this without disassembling everything Gary...

[Ray Cecil]

Waiting with bated breath to see if you find a way to do this without disassembling everything Gary...

......ditto

[Gary Lewis]

Waiting with bated breath to see if you find a way to do this without disassembling everything Gary...

Ok guys, someone is going to have to 'splain this to others, but that statement reminds me of what a friend once told me: "I'm waiting with bait on my breath to see....."

 

Anyway, it is aligned. At least I got the eccentrics out, set according to the chart, and re-installed. I'll have to wait for a week to get it checked as Steve/FoxFord33 is the alignment guru and I want him to check it.

 

I've re-included the instructions again, but before we get to them let me explain how I got them out. First, I should have used anti-seize on them when I installed them originally. So to get them loose I soaked them in PB Blaster overnight. Then, with everything having been banged with a hammer multiple times I took a very small chisel and started tapping it into the gap between the ears and the knuckle. And quickly broke off two of the smaller ones. But using the larger ones I was able to slowly get the eccentrics to come up to a point I could get a thicker/bigger chisel in. Then pretty soon I used a pry bar and tapped on it - gently.

 

However, when I got it up to about the point where the top of the eccentric was even with the Cotter key slot in the stem of the ball joint it didn't want to come out any farther. It seemed like the wheel was pulling the ball joint outward hard enough to keep the eccentric captured. So I let the lift down and put just a bit of weight on the wheel and the eccentric came out easily.

 

Then I lubed the goody out of them with anti-seize and then set them to the desired setting. So let's discuss the right setting and use the right side as the subject. It was at +.4 degree for camber and the target is 0 degrees, so the correct setting was -.4 degree. But the eccentric chart only goes in .25 degree increments so I used the -.5 degrees column. And the caster was at 3.7 degrees and the target is 3.4 degrees, so the correct setting was -.3 degrees. So go down the -.5 degree column and you'll see that for the right side it intersects with the -.25 degree row at OP/YZ. (The left side is at what should be LC on the chart but is actually PM - as discussed previously.)

 

 

Ok, so how do I use that info? The instructions say to align the upper letters, the OP, with the slot of the outer bushing. And then set the outer bushing so the YZ is "lined up with the flat or outside tab of the knuckle." And I think this is what that looks like:

 

 

[Sac79]

Waiting with bated breath to see if you find a way to do this without disassembling everything Gary...

Ok guys, someone is going to have to 'splain this to others, but that statement reminds me of what a friend once told me: "I'm waiting with bait on my breath to see....."

 

Anyway, it is aligned. At least I got the eccentrics out, set according to the chart, and re-installed. I'll have to wait for a week to get it checked as Steve/FoxFord33 is the alignment guru and I want him to check it.

 

I've re-included the instructions again, but before we get to them let me explain how I got them out. First, I should have used anti-seize on them when I installed them originally. So to get them loose I soaked them in PB Blaster overnight. Then, with everything having been banged with a hammer multiple times I took a very small chisel and started tapping it into the gap between the ears and the knuckle. And quickly broke off two of the smaller ones. But using the larger ones I was able to slowly get the eccentrics to come up to a point I could get a thicker/bigger chisel in. Then pretty soon I used a pry bar and tapped on it - gently.

 

However, when I got it up to about the point where the top of the eccentric was even with the Cotter key slot in the stem of the ball joint it didn't want to come out any farther. It seemed like the wheel was pulling the ball joint outward hard enough to keep the eccentric captured. So I let the lift down and put just a bit of weight on the wheel and the eccentric came out easily.

 

Then I lubed the goody out of them with anti-seize and then set them to the desired setting. So let's discuss the right setting and use the right side as the subject. It was at +.4 degree for camber and the target is 0 degrees, so the correct setting was -.4 degree. But the eccentric chart only goes in .25 degree increments so I used the -.5 degrees column. And the caster was at 3.7 degrees and the target is 3.4 degrees, so the correct setting was -.3 degrees. So go down the -.5 degree column and you'll see that for the right side it intersects with the -.25 degree row at OP/YZ. (The left side is at what should be LC on the chart but is actually PM - as discussed previously.)

 

 

Ok, so how do I use that info? The instructions say to align the upper letters, the OP, with the slot of the outer bushing. And then set the outer bushing so the YZ is "lined up with the flat or outside tab of the knuckle." And I think this is what that looks like:

 

 

Looks perfect! Did the bushing go back in without a struggle? I'm concerned that if I pull the whole thing out it won't go back in with the balljoint in place. Mine is all the way out at A G(or at least that's where I want it), so the angle is quite severe. I might leave it a little longer and let the shop check the alignment first before I do anything.

[Gary Lewis]

Looks perfect! Did the bushing go back in without a struggle? I'm concerned that if I pull the whole thing out it won't go back in with the balljoint in place. Mine is all the way out at A G(or at least that's where I want it), so the angle is quite severe. I might leave it a little longer and let the shop check the alignment first before I do anything.

It went in easily. With just a bit of weight on the tire, like maybe it just resting on the floor, the ball joint's stud could be moved to allow the eccentric to go in. I slid it in, tapped it down with a plastic-tipped hammer, and then put the nut on and tightened it down. I watched the setting as I tightened the nut and it didn't change at all.

Without a lift it would be easier with the tire off. But you may also need a jack under the outboard end of the spindle to shift the ball joint slightly.

So if you know where you want the settings I'd give it a try. It was tedious but worked out very well. Or, at least I think it did. Steve knows what he's going to work on next Wednesday.

[Gary Lewis]

It went in easily. With just a bit of weight on the tire, like maybe it just resting on the floor, the ball joint's stud could be moved to allow the eccentric to go in. I slid it in, tapped it down with a plastic-tipped hammer, and then put the nut on and tightened it down. I watched the setting as I tightened the nut and it didn't change at all.

Without a lift it would be easier with the tire off. But you may also need a jack under the outboard end of the spindle to shift the ball joint slightly.

So if you know where you want the settings I'd give it a try. It was tedious but worked out very well. Or, at least I think it did. Steve knows what he's going to work on next Wednesday.

Looks like I missed posting yesterday, but I didn't do much on Big Blue then. However, I did get a few things done today. The first was that I got the PEX on the later-style door striker and got it installed on the driver's side:

And I got the skid plate for the mid-ship tank installed again. Steve/FoxFord33 came by yesterday and I asked him to help me get the skid plate up there so I didn't have to put it on top of the tool box again and lower the truck onto it. Boy, was that easy! But we just put nuts on the studs and today I snugged them all up - but it wasn't nearly that easy.

About then the Q-Jet air cleaner spacer came in and I turned to that. But first, while the air cleaner was off I adjusted the choke to the neutral setting as it was waaaaaay to rich. Then I added the spacer. But in this pic you can see that I've put a yellow cap on the PCV port. Turns out that the port is a size smaller than the ports Ford uses, so the right hose for the engine doesn't fit that port.

Then I put the dual-snorkel air cleaner on for a test, and it doesn't fit as it still hits the A/C hose:

But, the smaller 5.0L HO air cleaner from a Mustang does fit. So there's hope for the larger 5.8L HO air cleaner to fit, although it'll take some effort. Maybe use the 5.0L snorkels on?

So, I put the single-snorkel 5.8L HO air cleaner back on for now and put a longer hose on the PCV fitting and it connects nicely to the air cleaner.

And about then the Saginaw power steering pump came in. But, it had a hole in the box and the reservoir was somewhat the worse for the wear, as shown below. So I called U-Tech Center, as directed to do on the paperwork that accompanied the pump. I had to leave a message, but a few minutes later got a return call - from a weird # so I let it roll to voice mail. Turned out it was Frank from U-Tech Center and the message he left was that he was shipping me another one.

I called him back and told him the pump was probably still usable, but he insisted he would sent another one. And he said I could give this one away.

So, it'll be later next week before I'll have the new pump to install, but I'm still pleased with U-Tech Center.

 

[86 12 Brutus]

Looks like I missed posting yesterday, but I didn't do much on Big Blue then. However, I did get a few things done today. The first was that I got the PEX on the later-style door striker and got it installed on the driver's side:

And I got the skid plate for the mid-ship tank installed again. Steve/FoxFord33 came by yesterday and I asked him to help me get the skid plate up there so I didn't have to put it on top of the tool box again and lower the truck onto it. Boy, was that easy! But we just put nuts on the studs and today I snugged them all up - but it wasn't nearly that easy.

About then the Q-Jet air cleaner spacer came in and I turned to that. But first, while the air cleaner was off I adjusted the choke to the neutral setting as it was waaaaaay to rich. Then I added the spacer. But in this pic you can see that I've put a yellow cap on the PCV port. Turns out that the port is a size smaller than the ports Ford uses, so the right hose for the engine doesn't fit that port.

Then I put the dual-snorkel air cleaner on for a test, and it doesn't fit as it still hits the A/C hose:

But, the smaller 5.0L HO air cleaner from a Mustang does fit. So there's hope for the larger 5.8L HO air cleaner to fit, although it'll take some effort. Maybe use the 5.0L snorkels on?

So, I put the single-snorkel 5.8L HO air cleaner back on for now and put a longer hose on the PCV fitting and it connects nicely to the air cleaner.

And about then the Saginaw power steering pump came in. But, it had a hole in the box and the reservoir was somewhat the worse for the wear, as shown below. So I called U-Tech Center, as directed to do on the paperwork that accompanied the pump. I had to leave a message, but a few minutes later got a return call - from a weird # so I let it roll to voice mail. Turned out it was Frank from U-Tech Center and the message he left was that he was shipping me another one.

I called him back and told him the pump was probably still usable, but he insisted he would sent another one. And he said I could give this one away.

So, it'll be later next week before I'll have the new pump to install, but I'm still pleased with U-Tech Center.

Glad to hear that about the pump, its good to know some places still have good customer service.

That engine compartment is lookin some good Gary. What is that on the heater box, some kind of wrap?