IFS troubles

[bowtieman55]

my '92 Suburban has a Rough Country lift on it. I believe I installed the lift 10/05. Ever since lifting it, I've had trouble keeping ball joints and alignments off my weekly schedule. Regardless, I really noticed the right front tire this afternoon. It looks as though it is steered out and the toe in/out is terrible, also. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? BTW- my steering gearbox is extremely worn out...maybe the drag link has gone bad or something? TIA

 

[Jeff B]

time for a solid axle

 

[bowtieman55]

YEAH NO KIDDIN'...that's been on the list for a LONG TIME

 

[AlphaFourWheelDrive]

Being its a GM, I'm sure you need an idler arm and pitman arm. As far as the ball joints, they may be on too much of an angle, may need a spacer.

 

[bowtieman55]

dangit...that'll be the 3rd idler arm in 2 years

 

[bowtieman55]

ok...well another thing:
As you can see, my passenger front door is smashed in...I backed into a tree (wheels turned to the left, caught a tree.

It didn't affect ANYTHING except for the door...could it have caught the tire somehow? If so, what could it have messed up?
This happened a couple of months ago and I really haven't driven the '92 much since then until this week.

 

[AlphaFourWheelDrive]

I've seen them bend the upper control arms pretty easily, especially if the tire hit a tree.

 

[bowtieman55]

how would I tell? These uppers are RC tubular/gusseted.

 

[AlphaFourWheelDrive]

If you only suspect one side, measure from the control arm bolt to the ball joint on both sides. If one is shorter than the other, it's bent.