Hi guys, first off I am new to the sight and am sure hoping to learn all that I can about this truck of mine from here.

Well here it goes, I have a 2002 F-150 4.2L V6 4dr and I just came back from the alignment shop. They told me that they could not do the alignment because the camber adjustment kit was missing on both sides and the passenger side upper ball joint was thrashed and so if I wanted them to order it, it would run me $350.00 parts and labor.

I have already picked up the upper ball joint assembly from autozone for $60 and I have tried looking for this kit online (autozone had no clue what i was talking about ) and I did find a few kits but wasn't sure if they are what I need, can someone help me out here and maybe point me in the right direction to locate these kits? To be honest I looked at the slot to where this "kit" would seat and concluded that I could get a all-thread and two nuts and make my own kit but I wanted to check with you guys first

 

2WD or 4WD? 4x4 needs no such kit, the caster and camber are adjusted by turning the cams on the upper a-arm mounting bolts.

 

thats what he is talking about. from the factory you dont get the cams on the bolts. mine has 185k miles and dont have the cam kit. i have set my own addjustments twice, since changing lower ball joints, then upper ball joints. THe cams might make it easier to set the camber- caster, but they sure are not a necessity. That guy just dont know much about alignment. I think the cams have small marks on them and the alignment machine will tell you to move the bolt so many marks. Just a helper for someone that dont understand exactly what they are trying to do.

 

sorry its a 2WD, and yea it does not have it.

 

I don't know about the 4wd, but on my 98 F-150 2wd, I had the camber/caster adjusting bolts installed on mine the same way. Just replace the factory bolts with off center washers and get the proper readings. I never knew about such a thing until a high level tech told me about it. 165k and NEVER had the bolts done. No wonder it pulled so much. Most of the alignment shops just used a prybar on the wheels to adjust what was needed. NOT COOL! We had to get ours from Parts House. Check with Carquest, dealer and any of the sponsors here on FTE . If none of those people can help you... there's always EBAY

 

just did my upper and lower ball joints one side had the kit and the other side didn't. don't know anything about that but i'm sure from the factory they don't come with them. and i had many alignments (3 in the past month due to working on it) and they didn't mention anything about the kit.

i called my local napa and they have the kits and they were about 16 dollars, it's just a bolt with a cut and off centered washers.

or you could get lucky like i did, go to fords for an alignment for 52 dollars and they installed the cam caster kit for free because they didn't tell the service manager guy...saved another 52 dollars.

good luck.

 

It has 2 washers, 2 bolts, 2 nuts and 2 lock washer. My question is do I remove the rectangular washer on heach side of the bushing and replace with the 2 washers. Do I leave the rectangular shims? Do I put both washers on one side or one on each side. Thanks.

 

YES.. remove the rectangles. Those are the "preset alignment brackets" from the factory. one washer on each side. There should be a total of 4 offcenter washers. two for each arm of the control arm.

 

Thank you!