[SEL] OT - 3/4 ton truck question (for the pros) Help pleasE?

[Bill Dickerson]

Sort of OT, sort of on. I do pull my flat bed with tractor and engines
around and haul engines in the back..........
OK, 1995 Ford F250 3/4 ton 4x4 with 315 and automatic. Probably a heavy axle
as it's got the larger of the lockout hubs on it - found that out when I
busted a lockout 4 years after buying it. IT took the larger one.

Brakes new about a year ago, tires not too bad, recently rotated. New pads,
rotors turned. 
Was pulling a trailer with it when I realized that when you hit the brakes
it felt like the left front was shaking or rather "jerking" back and forth,
almost like a grabbing brake or a warped rotor, but then not really. Hard to
tell for sure, but really felt like left side. Wouldn't go away with time,
and it only does it when braking. Going down the road, turning, etc. no
issues, good solid ride, but brake and it is almost scary.
It does it with no trailer on behind now too.
I raised the front end, pulled the wheels/tires and put my dial indicator on
the rotors. Left side almost .001" runout, right side .0005" runout (note 3
zeros so not even 1 thousandth)
Rotors and pads still look great and I was able to easily move the calipers
back so I could spin the rotors. The calipers move smoothly with only hand
or screwdriver. Nothing is stuck, rotors are really true, tires look ok.
So I crawled under it and found the spring bushings are really weathered and
cracked. Well, it's a 95 so it's almost 15 years old. But then I shone a
light up into the front shackle area and found the top bushing for the left
front spring shackle was really shot - in fact, bolt to metal, the bushing
is split and moved away.
Question - is that what I'm feeling?
If this was a car I'd feel confident - I did front suspension work to help
get through college and did many dozens of front end alignments and rebuilds
and it was a full quarter in college, but I'm so out of touch with the
larger trucks and their suspension and behaviour.........

Thoughts????

Bill
Runnells - cold and dry, record cold July