Alrighty, finally ready to reopen this thread because I have the truck at a good shop that I trust and they took a look.
To refresh memories... I got the truck a couple years ago and it has Rancho suspension lift and one day i hit a pot hole at around 40mph and the passenger wheel went a little wild. I eventually figured out that the drop bracket for that side was cracked for a long time (by finally noticing in photos from when i got the truck) and that it finally gave out. Note, the truck had been cheap-shop aligned to this half cracked bracket right after i got the truck. So to replace the bracket, y'all helped me zero in on
this one by Tuff Country, which i installed myself. I only did the passenger/broken one though. Then, the passenger wheel resulted in being pretty off-camber... upper part of wheel is tilted in. I thought to myself, "well i guess because it was aligned to a bent/cracked drop bracket". So I brought it to the same cheap shop to have alignment corrected and they said "there is no alignment for camber on your truck" much to my confusion and amusement, which is when i decided to never go back there. The turnover rate there has been so bad that once every six months it's a totally new staff, so i wasn't even able to ask what they did before when they aligned it.
Then recently brought it to the good shop and had them take a look. He says there is around a 3-3.5 degree need for change. We discussed the drop bracket that i put in, and the possibility of adjusting that to help bring the camber closer, and then using new ball joint bushings to adjust it the rest of the way. The concern we both have is that it still won't be enough.
So, what do you all think actually is going on here? I swear that somewhere in specs i saw that these drop brackets were applicable to 2.5" - 4" lifts, but i'm only finding 4" now. Could it be that the drop bracket to dropping to low and thus tilting the upper wheel inward? For some reason, to me that seems unlikely but I haven't done the math. 4x4junkie mentioned that there was never a 4" Rancho for the Ranger, only 2.5". I did not know this when i purchased and installed the bracket and had thought it was a 4" lift upon other people's opinion. And i really do think i saw in specs that these bracket set could be used for 2.5" - 4" lifts. Maybe what they mean is that you'll need to use the camber nut to adjust to your lift accordingly. I honestly hadn't thought of that until now.
Bobbywalter pointed out these in this thread...
https://shop.broncograveyard.com/mobile/Dana-28-Adjustable-Alignment-Bushings-Pair/productinfo/93530/
That's a max 2 3/4 degree adjustment. Maybe that combined with the camber nut on the drop bracket can get to what we need? Or close enough maybe.
And lastly... Like i mentioned, I only installed this side's new drop bracket. I did not install the driver side. So, if I come up with a custom solution here for the passenger side, should i also install the driver side so drop bracket so that all is symetrical? Or does it really matter, if i get the problem side corrected and straight, should i just live with the old drop bracket on other side that's fine? Truck can still be aligned symmetrically ok? Obviously cost is the factor here. Will the height of the truck on either side be different due to having different equipment for each axle? I guess it probably wouldn't result in very much difference if it did.
As for the work itself... upon first glance he's saying that the lower ball joint of the problem side looks like it's quite likely shot and this could be a contributing factor here. But he can't really say for sure until everything is opened up. He's willing to do partial ball joint work as I request... for example if I have him replace the upper/lower on just the problem side, that could cut the cost in half and solve the problem. Then maybe i can do the good side next summer myself and install the same nice new bushing for upper, in addition to putting in the other new drop bracket.
So the max approach is this... i have them do all upper and lower ball joints and use those 2 3/4 degree brackets, and install the other new drop bracket... then do an alignment and hope that the combo of drop-camber and 2 3/4 bushings does the job to bring things straight.
The mid way is this... do just problem side upper/lower, use new 2 3/4 bushing, do full alignment and ignore the good side's ball joints and drop bracket.
The factory camber bushings, located above the upper ball joints, alter camber by changing the ball joint stud angle.br Your local Ford dealer or alignment shop offers these bushings for most vehicles in set increments of correction up to 2 degrees of change.br Adjustable camber/caster bushings...
shop.broncograveyard.com
Also just FYI: The Rancho kit is 2.5" lift (they never made a 4" kit for a Ranger).