Dedenbear Ford Dana 44 Knuckle Issue

[MrShoeBoy]

So I just got done installing Dedenbear Ford Dana 44 knuckles on my front axle. The Axle is a 78 Ford F250 high pinion Dana 44 housing that I narrowed to use waggy inner shafts. The inner C's are factory ford. Before with the stock F150 knuckles I had 0 degrees of camber (the tires where pointed stright up and down). After installing the Dedenbear knuckles, I have a lot of negative camber (the tops of the tires are pointed towards the truck). I called Dedenbear and they said that the knuckles are machined with a 1/2 degree of negative camber to correct the factory issue. The factory Ford came with a 1 degree positive camber with the idea that when the balljoints started to wear and there was a load in the truck, the camber would return to zero. Does this sound right? I am in no way bashing Dedenbear, I just want to get my truck up and running right. They where very helpful on the phone and want to help me figure this out, I just would like another opinion.

So how does one go about checking if the inner C's are bent? Could the inner C's I have be some weird version that Dedenbear hasnt seen before and thus give a lot of negative camber? I want to get this fixed because I really dont want any funny tire wear and also it looks like I got a wicked mean road race car with all the camber. On a side note, it handles like a race car and loves the corners

Thanks,

AARON

 

[monkeyevil]

When I put Chevy outers on my Jeep FSJ front I had about 2 deg of negative camber. It appears to be a common issue.

I bought some 0-1.5 deg camber shims from my local auto parts store. They are made out of aluminum and go between the spindle and knuckle. Took care of the problem.

 

[MrShoeBoy]

Thanks monkey. Any ideas on why this happens? Are there just different inner C's on dana 44s?

AARON

 

[JBweld]

I'm running an early Bronco dana 44 with stock C's and Dedenbear knuckles. When I had new ball joints in the stock knuckles, I had 1 degree positive camber. It was pretty messed up looking and did effect steering and tire wear. The Dedenbear knuckles took care of that. I have 0 camber right now and tire wear is much better. I guess maybe your C's are bent or Ford had Dana change the specs on their axles over the years. I dunno, maybe those caster correcting balljoints or spindle shims would help your situation.

 

[CRASH]

NAPA makes a fine balljoint sleeve that will correct up to 1.5 degrees for very little money. $30 for both sides will do it.

Tack weld in the sleeve, though, as it can spin under, uh, "abusive" conditions.

 

[monkeyevil]

NAPA makes a fine balljoint sleeve that will correct up to 1.5 degrees for very little money. $30 for both sides will do it.

Tack weld in the sleeve, though, as it can spin under, uh, "abusive" conditions.

The only thing I don't like about the offset sleeves is you cant set proper ball joint pre-load with them because you can only adjust them a full turn either way. Proper pre-load is important for ball joint life and strength.

But you may get lucky and they will work just fine. Also they have offset balljoints, but they have thinner housings on the offset side (read weaker housings.)

IMHO the best method is the spindle shims.

 

[MrShoeBoy]

I spoke with the guys at the shop and they have the adjuster sleaves for the balljoints. Will have to see if they will fix my problem. Thanks for the heads up on the preload issue. If it doesnt work, spindle shims will probably be used. I will post results if or when I get it fixed.

Thanks

AARON