So... funny story.
I jacked the truck up with the bottle jack and had a lift jack under the axle. Took the tire off and backed off the 4 axle shackle bolts. They were lose already. I left a few threads on to make sure it's not flying off when I lower the axle.
Removed the sway bar bushings, and bought new ones. because the old bushings were very worn.
zI clamped the leaf springs with two c clamps.
Then I lowered the axle and had a peak under the top plate. The pin also was pretty lose, but did't seem to be broken. The white plastic sheet, that lays on top of the spring had a bit of an oval center piece. Probably from the the pin moving around.
So I took off the 4 shackle bolts and lowered the axle some more to see underneath the springs.
When I had the shackle u bolts off I could see that they don't form a perfect U shape... more on that later!
I looked under the leaf spring assembly and the Pin looked alright there too. The axle had a round hole. So that seemed to be a good thing ,too.
I didn't see anything that would explain that the axle is and inch and a half away from where it is suppose to be.
So when the time came to button it back up I got a surprise.
The shackle bolts didn't want to go back in the bracket as they were spaced wide than the openings. So I got out a ratchet strap that I wound around the bolt and connected to the front bumper shackle ,that allowed for the bolt to squeeze together and fit into the holes. I am sure there is a better way of doing this, but it worked for me and maybe if you're in a pinch you'll try the same way I did.
I didn't want to buy a new set of shackle bolts before I had the problem remedied. I can always swap the bolts for new ones once I got the issue fixed.
I noticed that whatever #13 is called is pointing down on the passenger side and tilted back on the riverside. I'm sure that can cause some issues , but I am not sure if it would cause the steering wheel be so far off.
The bushings in the leaf spring look worn out. So I'll take that next.
Someone mentioned that they have honed the spring loops with an appropriate size hone. Do you guys know the size?
Tomorrow I'll check out the passenger side. Maybe that axle moved ...
