Modified F150 tires

15

Asked by Victoria Aug 10, 2009 at 03:03 PM about the Ford F-150 SVT Lightning

Question type: Car Customization

I own a modified F150 "lightening" (1984). Someone had done some work on it already, new 302, edelbrock four barrel with ceramic coated headers, flowmasters, etc. It sits on a lowered chassis with 295/50/15 GT Turbo Tech radials. It evidentally needs kingpins--the tires look "squatted" out and wore quickly. People are telling me it has joints, not the kingpins.

Two questions.......I don't want to buy new tires without fixing the kingpin/joint problem and have it aligned. How difficult is this to do and is it costly?

Secondly, I am having difficulty finding affordable tires this size. Is there another size that would work?

It was my husbands truck purchased a few weeks before he was killed in a work accident and I want to keep it in good shape for the children.

Any suggestions at all are deeply appreciated.

2 Answers

sorry to hear him go. your truck could have either one. get the offset on the front wheels checked out. i saw the truck on your profile and the front wheels are sticking out past the fender. youll have problems down the road with that. i went through the same thing with my amc eagle. i went through a lot of balljoints until i compared the wheels i put on to what came with the car. my problem was the wheels were out too far. kingpins rarely go bad. balljoints can last a long time if theyre maintaned right.

195

TireRack.com has the best prices and rating system on new tires. Even if you buy the tires locally, it's a great place to do research. They have wheel/tire combos too, but that costs more $. I had the front end of my Ford truck rebuilt at a good, local front end shop and it ran about $2,300.00 including 4 new tires and alignment. That was $800.00 less than my high estimate. They did a fine job on the suspension, but installed one tire that was 3 years older than the other 3. It blew 18 months later. That's the last time I bought tires locally. Be sure you find out exactly what you need to replace in your front end. It could be something as simple as front shocks or as major as a steering worm and pinion gear. Hemmings says,"The front suspension was standard F-150 fare, with twin I-beams. But a one-inch anti-roll bar kept things in check. The rear suspension included a rigid axle and leaf springs, as you'd expect from a pickup. The front shocks were Monroe Formula GP gas units with a 1.375-inch bore. Both front and rear anti-roll bars measured 1 inch and the entire suspension was lowered 2.5 inches from stock. The leaf springs contained a single leaf. Each Lightning had integral recirculating ball type steering with a 17.0:1 ratio. The steering system was reworked with a larger Pitman arm and improved-response power steering control valve. You can find out more at... http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2006/01/01/hmn_feature11.html

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