You're going to have to look, but most two-wheel-drive Ford trucks used the twin I-beam around this time. The photo below shows the system as would be viewed as standing by the driver's door and looking down and forward. Look for the I-beam with the blue arrow, and the strut rod, (called "radius arm" here).
The only advantage to this system is it's very strong. The disadvantages are poor ride quality and it had by far the world's worst tire wear at that time. GM and Chrysler used the "short-arm long-arm", (SLA) suspension system because of its superior ride quality. Road shock had to change directions multiple times before reaching the passenger compartment. It is still used today, but it is a heavy and expensive system. It also offers the easiest methods of making alignment adjustments.
Adjusting "caster" and "camber" is extremely time-consuming and difficult on the twin I-beam system and is rarely done more than once in the life of the vehicle. Unless something got bent, it's best to leave those two basic adjustments alone. Of the three primary adjustments, that just leaves "toe", the direction the wheels are steering when the steering wheel is straight ahead.
Due to the single geometric angle the system can go through, suspension ride height is critical in reducing the miserable tire wear. As the coil springs sag from age, both front wheels will tip in on top, (that's camber), and that will cause accelerated tire wear on the inner edge of that tire. The only vehicle that has worse tire wear is the Bronco 2 because its I-beams are so short. The poor design is real easy to see when the vehicles are raised on a hoist. Both front wheels will be tipped out on top a real lot. That inward and outward tilt is the range the tires go through as the vehicle bounces up and down as it goes down the road.
Once ride height is corrected, if necessary, by replacing the coil springs, it's the right front tire that will see the worst wear. The engineers specified frequent tire rotations to equalize that wear, but that just means all four tires wore out very quickly. The aftermarket industry came up with a better solution to reduce that wear. That was to replace the strut rod bushing and the shock absorber, (red arrows), with heavy duty parts not available from Ford. Moog was the first company to offer these "problem-solver" parts. You can find them reboxed at most auto parts stores under different company names. We always replace those parts in matched pairs to maintain stable braking and handling, but it's the ones on the passenger's side that reduce the wear on that tire.
Competent do-it-yourselfers can replace the coil springs. If you ask at any tire and alignment shop, they will have small books that list every model and year, what the height specs are, and where to take those measurements. If you find new springs are needed on the front, no spring compressor or special tools are needed to replace them.
The ball joints are a different story. Leave those to the specialists with the right tools. There were multiple designs over the years. We have to look at what is there, and at the new parts before we know how the old ones come out. This is also the time to install an offset insert the stud goes into if an alignment change is needed, but we don't know that unless the alignment was checked first.
You can also do tie rod ends yourself, but if you plan on changing them, take a look at this article first:
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/tie-rod-end-replacement
I can offer some suggestions too if needed.
Shock abosrbers are also something most people can replace. Here's a video that shows the job being done on a newer model, but it's very similar:
https://youtu.be/0RnluM9d4gw
The video shows this vehicle with the SLA suspension system. One word of warning; . . . if you live in a state where they throw a pound of salt on an ounce of snow, the top bolt will not come off this easily. I can help with that too.
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Thursday, April 16th, 2020 AT 8:02 PM
