1988 Ford Bronco 2 Toe adjustment

REBELMHZ

MEMBER
1988 FORD BRONCO
6 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
11,000 MILES

I have an 88 Bronco 2 that I've recently starting putting back together. I installed new tie rod ends because the ball joints on the old ones were shot, but now it seems to steer rather squirley. It has a little play in the wheel, but when going over about 40 if you try to correct a gradule drift, it seems to be very sensitive and over corrects making it difficult to keep it straight on the road. I installed the tie rod ends the same amount of turns that the old ones where but the wheels seemed not to be straight, so I've lined the front wheels up as straight as possible. What my question actucally is, is how many turns in would the base adjustment be, and how do I get the "toe" corrected.
Thanks in advance.
rebelmhz

3 Replies

JAMES W.

MECHANIC
2,395 POSTS

You lost your base adjustment when you pull out the old tierod ends. Now you have to start from scratch. And scratch is first centering the steering wheel. If you had done that first, then measured from the center of the joint to an immovable point on the frame or something, you qould have a reference point and could get the toe in set fairly close. It still need alignment.
Tierod end length varies between manufacturers. Counting the number of turns will get you close, but rarely exactly where you need to be.
Also, the degrees of toe in depends on ride heighth, suspension travel, Bronco or Bronco II and other factors.

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Thursday, April 16th, 2009 AT 5:53 PM

REBELMHZ

MEMBER
3 POSTS

So what do I do, mark the center of the frame, then measure to the ball joint and make them equal on both sides, I understand centering the steering wheel, but how do I get a base setting for the tie rods before I take it for another alignment. What do they adjust when they do an alignment at a shop?
Any help or info appriciated.
Rebelmhz

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Thursday, April 16th, 2009 AT 7:55 PM

JAMES W.

MECHANIC
2,395 POSTS

An alignment adjusts the "caster and camber" of the front wheels. That's the in/out of the top of the tire. You didn't fiddle with this, but they would check it anyway.
Then they set the toe-in. I would HIGHLY recommend you take it in for the alignment. You will save yourself a lot of grief and probably a set of front tires.
When ever I did strut or front end work on any vehicle, even though I could get it set pretty close, I would write accross the front of the ticket "MUST HAVE THE ALIGNMENT CHECKED". And 2 weeks or a month later if they came back complaining about tire wear, I wasn't liable. Sad, but true.

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Thursday, April 16th, 2009 AT 9:21 PM