the good, the bad, and the ugly *long*

[EvergreenRanch]

Starting with the bad :

the rivets and bolts on almost all of my structural crossmembers (the fronts went first, but the additional frame movement wrecked havic on the rest) have loosened, elongated the holes, and were causing my frame to move around everywhere, causing all sorts of issues with alignment, tire wear, handling, articulation, doors fitting incorrectly in cab frame, bed of truck displacing to the side of the vehicle almost 2 inches on a tight turn, and the REALLY bad, a 3 inch hairline crack in the drivers side frame behind where the steering box mounts on the other side and extending in behind my shock's upper mount .....it was literally getting scary to drive after about 2 weeks of steady decline in quality of driveability.

ok, the good:

is that i figured this out before i had a catastrophic failure on the road. also good, is that im getting a new set of polished aluminum wheels out of the deal for next to nothing. highly polished mag aluminum wheels, polished center caps, polished lug nuts, wearing new 33" agressive all-terrains, $600 mounted, balanced, and on the truck....and the best part....almost 20 lbs reduction in rolling weight. i almost didnt believe him when he told me that the 2 inch wider wheels mounted with bigger and wider tires than i had before weighed 4.8 pounds less a piece than my steel rims and smaller tires. customer had ordered the wheels, had them highly polished, the tires mounted, paid for the tires only, then never picked them up and they had been collecting dust in the shop for a couple years. i verified the bolt pattern and told him to put them on.

the ugly:
im good with a welder, im pretty good at vehicles in general, but when it comes to something as important as the frames structural integrity and alignment being permanently if i screwed up.... im having the shop align the trucks frame, weld the living hell out of everything they deem necessary, then re-enforce were they feel necessary with more welding, and then do the regular wheel and suspension alignment. god im glad i just made my next payscale, cuz its gonna be out the door with the wheels and everything about $1,100

im going to post pics of the welding, wheels, everything after i get the truck back on monday.

and finally, has this ever happened to anyone else? the rivets loosening and working the holes to this point? im assuming this has been going on a long time and has just now gotten exponentially worse?

more to come...........

 

[tuckerd1]

That is bad! That truck must have been used offroad a lot ! It sounds as if it will work out alright though.


Good Luck!

 

[tonkadoctor]

I've seen it a few times on the Ford F-150 4x4 models but not as severe as you describe. My '82 F150 4x4 had alot of movement and popping in the front crossmember and a former 1st sgt I know was at my buddies 4x4 shop a few months ago, when I had my rear gears changed, with his '95 (I think) F-150 4x4 with loose rivets in the front crossmember and a cracked frame near the steering gear box. Both trucks had larger tires and Tops truck has a 4" lift and 35" tires.


What I understand from talking to my buddy is that cracking on these trucks around the gearbox and loose rivets in the front crossmember is common on lifted big tire Ford 4WD trucks from the '80s and '90s.

GMC and Cheby have a similar problem with the gear boxes breaking.

Good luck on the repairs and also.....Sweet deal on the wheels and tires

 

[sle2115]

GMC and Cheby have a similar problem with the gear boxes breaking.

Good luck on the repairs and also.....Sweet deal on the wheels and tires

The GM/Chevy problem is usually a rusted out frame rail where the steering box mounts. The way it is designed, it is hard to keep the mud and moisture out of there. They make a kit to fix it though, I wonder if someone does for the Ford problem as well? Might save you some big money.

 

[TLBREWER]

The GM/Chevy problem is usually a rusted out frame rail where the steering box mounts. The way it is designed, it is hard to keep the mud and moisture out of there. They make a kit to fix it though, I wonder if someone does for the Ford problem as well? Might save you some big money.

My '73 Chevy had the frame crack at the gear box. There are weld on and bolt on beef up kits for those. I'm sure I've seen somewhere the same type of kit for Fords. Check some of the websites of the custom off road shops like ORU and such.

Tom

 

[EvergreenRanch]

yeah i wasnt going to mess around with this one......talked with the shop alittle while after posting and the first of the beads have already been run. he said the wheels and tires looked amazing on the truck :sweet . frames coming along nicely......he said it will be better than new and last for the rest of the life of the truck. he originally quoted me 2 hours time for the welding, but it said it will likely take 4, but since it was quoted two, it' ll only be two....great guys at this shop......cant get much better than a suspension/tire shop that builds race cars by guys who are offroad afficianados.