The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk why is my truck crooked

i put the front clip and bed on my truck. and it is sitting low on the d.s side by about a inch or so. i mesured the distance from the spring to frame on both side and it is the same. i took the shocks out and no difference i losend the rear springs and jumped on the back.the front tires have are and are the same size.any where else you guys would check?

Is your driveway or shop floor level?
Did you measure from floor to,,say,,bottom of running board on each side?
Tires all inflated correctly?
There could be lots of different things........
Marty

53 chev, I feel your pain. I have the d.s. a bit lower than the right side. I have tried all sorts of things and all the measurements of what was done check out. I feel like the chassis is twisted in some what when it was a work truck in the 30's. I even put a new set of coil springs on the front end a couple months ago. The old ones were not off much and the new ones are dead on ......still a little "lean" to the driver side. Heck, I'm gonna drive it. Most folks will never notice it but.....I do!!

Check it on a flat level surface, tires inflated to running pressures. I'd measuer both from ground to frame and ground to body in several areas (to the frame horns and the fender lips are good places). Look for any variation side to side. If it's in the frame, then there's a spring issue, if it's in the body, then perhaps something's mis-adjusted or perhaps you have a weak body mount. Is it just in one part of the body? Or the whole truck?

I think that I missed something here. If the frame is the same height on both sides and the front sheet metal is not level, that is not a problem with the frame. The front clip is adjusted using the cross braces, the support shims under the rad saddle and the connection of the fenders to cab. The cross braces can affect the sitting height of each side in a big way.

Look at the angle of the shackles in relation to the frame.If the arc of the spring is differant from DR side to PAS side it might show in that way.I took four sets of front and rear springs off at one time years ago.It was surprising how differant they all were when side by side.I mix matched them to all have the same arc.Just a thought that might help.Let me know if that turns out to be anything.Good Luck

Tilt your head a little bit the other way.

When I bought my 50 3600 I noticed the passenger side of the cab sat about 2 inches lower than the drivers side. After crawling under with a flashlight I discovered the front cab mounts had rusted out and the previous owner had jammed lumber between the passenger side frame rail and the cab to keep it from sagging any farther.
Needless to say I ended up pulling the cab off and welding on new cab mounts. Now it sits even.

My 53 used to do the same thing. I finally took it to a spring shop and told them to make it level. Wella they did an excellent job. I did this about 8 years ago and I still have no problems with spring sag.

My floor on the driver's side had rusted away from the inner kick panel and it leaned to the left. new inner cowl and inner to outer and outer cowl panel and new floor cured the problem.. ron

thank you all for the advice i will check all your pointers on saturday. hopefully i will find my problem and it will be something easy

my dad came over and did not rest until he found the problem. the right frsme horn is bent right above the front axle raising the right front 1 1/4 inches. now he is going to show me how he used to straighten frames back in the day. im very anxious to see how it is done

do you know anyone with a forklift? bolt (chain) the frame horn to the back of the forklift and apply some heat to the bend and slowly jack up the truck taking measurements as you go along.