2003 F150 4x4-bought new tires, have 6,000 miles on them. Noticed a very slight wear on the inner side of both front tires. Decided to take to a local tire shop for alignment. Mechanic told me lower ball joints are shot. He said there's a 1/4 inch of play in them. Also said it would be $700 to replace...I wanted to check it myself and brought the truck home -jacked up both front tires by the frame. Using a long board under the front tires to flex the suspension with the tires in the air, I can't see any play or movement whatsoever. Mechanic also said he aligned the best he could, and showed me the printout, with the right front camber out 6 degrees. I can't find any sign that anything has been adjusted. There was still road grit on every place I thought he might have put a wrench.

How do they adjust camber on this torsion suspension? Shouldn't I be able to detect the worn ball joints with what I did? There is absolutely no slop in the steering or front end suspension when driving, or with the wheel off the ground. Even took the tires off to inspect. I can't find anything wrong.

Was I almost a victim today? Any other way I can detect worn ball joints?

 

Please help. Anybody know about adjusting the camber? I'm thinking I paid for an alignment and nothing was adjusted.

 

I would call u almost a victim. There is no way it should have $700 to replace that. You could buy a whole new lower control arm with that kind of money.

 

You need to put your jack under the lower control arm.....This will un-load the joint to check for play. The way you did it, the ball joint was still under load due to the torsion bar.

 

OK. Now I've tried that. I put the jack under the lip on the lower control arm on the front, which is the jacking point. Still, placing the board under the tire and lifting, there's no play. Also tried to rock the tire from 12 oclock and 6 oclock position. Still nothing. Feels pretty tight. Had help too, and can't see any play. I'm still wondering if they even adjusted or aligned anything.

 

This the part that got me confused..sorry, If you jacked by the LCA's, then you did the check correctly. Almost sounds like to me someone was trying to scam you, we have some of those places here. Believe it or not...(around here anyway) Sears does about the best job around for quality work with alignment.

 

Sears-wow. That's surprises me.

Thanks for the info.

 

Forgot to add Sears also will guarantee their alignment for 6 Mo.