I have a few of questions about my front end and my bronco is wandering… maybe?

[Cbrownin9]

I inherited this Bronco. I’m not that familiar with driving older vehicles on the highway so I don’t have the greatest baseline for how it should feel so I hope I can explain my issue on here good enough that y’all can point me in the right direction. I’ve soaked up a lot of knowledge from different threads here. I think I have gathered enough info on my truck but we will see.

67 with v6 and 4speed manual. Idk what transfer case or axle gears ratios. Tires are 31/10.50 28psi. I think it has a 3.5 inch suspension lift. I’m pretty sure that all the bushings and ball joints are in good shape. Steering wheel has around a half inch of play.
I measured the front tires with a measuring tape from a consistent point and got the following measurements.
Top 58(as close as I could get)
Bottom 57 5/16 (as close as I could get)
Front 57 11/16
Back 57 11/16
had it put on an alignment machine also.

what front end do I have? what degree c bushings I have? And or please explain how to tell.

For the driving problem when turning around curves I have to recorrect all the adjustments I make. I’m not sure what to call it idk if this what is referred to as wandering or if the truck isn’t returning to center. It seems like the latter is a more accurate description but I’ve have seen many of these post talk about it like this. Maybe what I’m doing is “bump steering” but I’m not sure what that really means either.

It’s seems to be worse if I’m coasting. If I’m braking or accelerating it doesn’t seem to be as exaggerated. And at speeds between 25-55 ish

From what I’ve gather my canter is less that ideal and my camber is too positive and that’s kind where I’m at.

I’m hoping to get a good idea of what if anything I need so I can order everything at once but if it becomes a process so be it.

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[broncoitis]

Well, looks like you inherited a pretty nice Bronco thats in really nice shape. So best of Luck with your truck. Having said that i haven't really been all that active on here in quite awhile but here is my .02`

Not sure what type of condition that the bushings are but this is probably not a bad place to start with tightening things up. I would check to make sure your ball joints are all good. Could simply check without going too crazy by securely/safely jacking and removinbg the left and right tires and checking tyhe knuckle for any play. It should be very solid obviously with NO PLay IMO.

Secondly in terms of your alignment from what I know I believe that your tires should have a slight amount of Toe In with the tires pointing straight ahead. Meaning that the measurement from common points on the tront o the tires should be slightly smaller than the measurement on the back of the tire. Yours seem to be dead even which could possibly lead to some wander i would think.

Third i would check the condition of the back radius are bushings. These can wear out and loosen up and should be checked to confirm there is no play in this area as well.

Now the Last and probably biggest PITA potentially is your caster that your truck currently has and the C Bushings currently installed. In an ideal world your trucks Caster should be over 4 degrees and possibly even a touch more maybe up to 6 degrees. As a result o lifting the Bronco even as little as 3.5 inches it does have a negative effect on the caster and will actually make it worse. Now most of the lift kits come with replacement C Bushings that are designed to replace the caster that the lift kit is taking away from the truck and correcting the caster lost by rotating the axle back the few degrees that are lost from the lift kit. The tricky thing with the C Bushings is that they can be tricky to install and could easily be installed incorrectly and leading to possibly worse caster than you should have to stabilize the front end from wandering around. You haven't mentioned any shaking so your good and I dont even wanna get into the dreadded death wobble which is also attributable to bad Caster.

Long story short your caster plays a huge role in the stability and tracking of your Bronco and Should be a positive value of at least 4 degrees. If not your truck will probably wander around a bit driving. This also assumes that your running a Radial Truck Tire. If your running a Bias Ply tire on the road they don't drive like a radial and tend to wander as a result of the way they are built.

In a nutshell check all the bushings ball joints and what not and make sure the front end is tight with no play. After that confirm what the caster is because it probably the culprit.

I am not a expert by any means and I know that others will chime in on this and please correct me if im wrong. But i think this will get you pointed in the right direction so to speak.. Good Luck!

 

[broncoitis]

Just looked at the specs on the alignment and from what I can see your caster is 1.5 and 1.3 degrees! the .02 difference is not a big deal and normal BUT they ideally should be over 4 degrees! Yeah doesn't seem like a big difference but it will make a big difference with getting rid of that wandering your having. Thats all I got.

 

[DirtDonk]

Ideally, you should get rid of some of the lift.
Unless you need it high for ground clearance for more capable off Roading, you certainly don’t need it for the street.
And it would help correct your steering angles somewhat.

The reason for that much lift could potentially be the tires rubbing in the back. Looks like there’s lots of clearance, but I can’t tell from the pictures if the rear tires stick out a little too far and would rub with less lift.
Is your tape measure indicating from the bottom of the frame rail? To the top of the axle tube? Then yes, that looks like roughly 3 to 4 inches of lift.
And that was accomplished, unfortunately, without correcting the steering angles. That would be for both of those bars in the front that are running parallel to each other.
Parallel is good, but their angle is far too steep for good steering field.
The typical correction factors are a dropped Pitman Arm and a dropped trackbar bracket.
Even that might not be quite enough, hence, my recommendation for potentially lowering the suspension a little bit as well.

But you have to maintain clearance for the tires and the body panels.
Can you look up the numbers on the side walls of the tires to see what their age is? Look up “DOT tire date code” and see the details and how to tell what how old your tires are.
If they are more than five or six years old, they start to deteriorate. More than seven or eight years old, and they will almost certainly have an affect on how it feels while driving.
More than 10 years old and you might as well just assume that they are part of the problem and change them.

 

[Timmy390]

First thing I would do is drop Pittman arm and Track bar brackets.

Then go from there

Tim

 

[m_m70]

First thing I would do is drop Pittman arm and Track bar brackets.

Agree and get some additional toe-in.

Do you have power steering??

Welcome to Classibroncos!! Nice truck and you'll get good info here from some great folks!

 

[Shimmy]

based on the pics i think you may have a couple issues to deal with... bumpsteer due to your steering angles and also wandering due to caster? your front coils bowing forward with the stock arms and buckets is a sure sign of low caster.

As DirtDonk mentioned, you may want to consider swapping to a lower suspension lift if possible. at 3.5" of lift, you're gonna need some further suspension arm and and steering work to track down the road straight and safely. Do you intend this to be a 60mph bronco? 1.5-2" of lift seems to be the sweet spot to avoid major radius arm and steering work, but not sure that'll clear your tires. Do the rears tuck?

if you're happy with the ride height and want to stay there, then look into some radius arm drop brackets or long arms. that will give you a bit more caster and improve your ride quality since your radius arms won't be at such a steep angle.

for steering, a drop pitman arm and track bar lowering bracket would help, BUT at 3.5" of lift, it looks like you could easily install a track bar riser bracket on the axle with an adjustable track bar. you may also want to consider moving your draglink and tie rod OTK. I would suggest that vs the pitman arm and TB lower bracket.

I'm running a 3.5" lift with James Duff long arms and their OTK steering kit and TB riser bracket. I'm trying to remember what C bushings i have installed... but i'm at about 5.3* caster and the bronco easily tracks straight going 60mph. no issues. Be prepared to spend some $$ if you do this though.

 

[Cbrownin9]

Thanks for all the great comments. I have power steering and the tires are about 8 years old. I’m still not sure what I want to do about the lift height.

Maybe for different post but I haven’t decided what I want to do with the trucks looks. I like the idea of tall skinny tires but I’ll have to search through the different threads to get an idea of what will fit in uncut trucks or potentially cutting. And with various sized lifts. If I decide to keep the lift I’ll definitely drop the track bar, radius arms, and get a drop pitman arm.


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[DirtDonk]

That’ll go a long way towards improving things.
Getting those linkage bars more parallel to the ground helps achieve a more linear steering feel between the steering wheel and the road.

 

[m_m70]

It's hard to tell from your pics (or may just be my screen) but your c-bushings look like they are deteriorating?? Can you tell if they are rubber or poly?? I don't think they make degreed bushings in rubber so if they are rubber that may be the reasoning for the poor caster. If you decide to replace the c-bushings, 7* offset is the go to with 3.5" lift.
Lots of folks run at highway speeds lifted. Mine will easily hold 80+ straight and comfortable with drop trac-bar, drop pitman arm, 5/16" toe and ~4* caster (7* poly c-bushings).
Glad this thread came up. made me check my tires date code and they are at 14 years now. Time to start looking for new shoes!