Camber Adjustment from Pivot Bushings?

[Powerman5K]

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 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.

[mat in tn]

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. :nabble_head-rotfl-57x22_orig:'

[Powerman5K]

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. :nabble_head-rotfl-57x22_orig:'

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.

[mat in tn]

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.

[85lebaront2]

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, 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.

[Jesse3877]

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.