alignment

[Archangel]

I think my front wheels are all out of whack, the left one sits with the bottom part towards the inside of the car (not vertical), and the right one is just the opposite - the bottom of the wheel is kinda towards the outside of the car. So, what settings am I looking for, I know I need to max out the caster to deal with the rake my car has because of the low front end and raised rear, but what about camber and toe-in? Also how much is alignment usually (don't wanna get ripped off), and where is a good place to get it done - I think I read somewhere here that if I go to a dealership I get several months of warranty, is that really so? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[88grandmarq]

Camber and Caster are controled by the control arms, control arm bushings and ball joints.
If the front end that far out of wack, the first thing to do is jack up the car and do a good visual inspection of everything. Make sure the bushings are in decent shape, none of the ball joints are worn or broken and the control arms are not bent or cracked.

If everything checks out, get the front end aligned as soon as possible.
Most any tire store will do alignments, most of the chain stores (NTB/firestone/goodyear/sears..etc) will set up the alignment by the factory specs that programed into the machine.
Some of the mom and pop tire/repair shops will do a custom alignment for you.

According to Ned Nuss (retired panther chassis engineer) you want as much postive caster as you can get with out having a 5/10 split
camber should be negative 1/2 to 3/4 degrees
and you want the toe to be at Zero to 1/16 of an inch out.

after the big brake swap on my car, the local tire tech was able to get 9 degrees of postive caster out of my car, which is a lot.
Most cars won't go passed 5-6 degrees of caster.

[Archangel]

Control arms are solid an straight, upper ball joints are OK, lowers are brand new, bushings are tight, so I'm all good there. You can see the tires don't sit right if you stare at them carefully, and you also have seen other panthers, a regular Joe would most likely not notice anything at all.

Here's a table with the factory specs for some Ford cars, if the tech manages to get 6* or more caster that'd be great.

[gadget73]

Boxes with stock upper control arms won't get nearly as much caster as a big brake converted car, as there is only a single adjustment without a huge amount of travel. Big brake cars get both the box adjustment and the one directly on the balljoint itself. I had my car aligned for like $75 or something. Price around, but I doubt you're looking at more than $100

[87_crown_vic]

tires plus and firestone offer 4 types of alignments.

standard
1 yr free alignments
3 yr free alignments
lifetime alignments
i used to work there and any time you think you need an alignment, take it in within the time period. i am gonna opt for 2 tires(Yokohamas, or fuzion HRIs) and get the lifetime. it is like $108 and anytime i want the alignment i can go in.

[Archangel]

Good info, thanks - I'll get to shopping for alignment once I replace those upper ball joints, which hopefully will happen this weekend.

[85crownHPP]

here, you can get front end for $38 and a 4 way for $56 at a local mom and pop alignment shop. 2 bays and its all they do.

[Archangel]

Well, fuck that suspension - I relaced the upper ball joint on the left control arm today (the right one will be tomorrow, lowers were already replaced last week), and my wheel still gets some funky camber - then I drive forward the lower half of the wheel goes in towards the engine of teh car (camber increases?), but when I put in reverse the lower half of the wheel moves out (camber decreases?). Right wheel doesn't do anything like that, so only the left one is acting up... As I already said I have new ball joints, bearings and rotor on that bitch, so the only thing I can come up with is loose upper control arm - it doesn't seem to be moving though, I had the frame marked around it then I moved the car front-back slamming on the brakes pretty hard, still no visible movement of the control arm found. I'm really running out of ideas here...

[LtMercDaddy]

When u checked your front end, how did u have the front end supported? Panthers have was is known as a load carrying ball joint set up, when checking for ball joint tolarence, the proper way to check would to be to jack the vehicle up by the lower control arm, doin this u will take the load off the joints caused by the coil spring. then u can use a pry bar and lift on the outer edge of the tire to check for ball joint tolarence, at this point if they are tight u can check the upper control arm bushings by pushing and pulling on the top of the tire. NOTE: u can not check the lower contol arm bushings unless u jack the vehicle from the FRAME and allow the control arm to hang! then push/pull on the lower end of the tire to check for lower control arm movement. IF ANY MOVEMENT IS NOTICED. Perform a proper grease job and perform your check again. Hope this helps....

[Archangel]

Well the lower balljoints are a little over a week old, uppers are newer, rotors and bearings got done with the lowers, so the only thing left to move are the bushings - I have a set of polyurethane ones on order at AutoZone, will hopefully be installing them this Sunday. Then it's allignment time, new tires install, and I should be good for a while. Man that thing turned into a money pit, but at least all parts are salvageable if worse comes to worst.

[LtMercDaddy]

Make sure everything has a healthy dose of fresh grease in it, (ball joints, tierods, idler/pitman arms) this way hopefully when u get ur car aligned its rock solid in da front.... I tend to notice that my steering wheel likes to get a little towards the left side when my front end is in need of greasing... usually every oil change, unless i go down extremely bumpy roads.

[Archangel]

I shoot grease in them till it starts coming out from under the rubber boot. I also do that at every oil change, but I haven't really noticed if my wheel pulls to the side before that.

[DanHool]

i got one for like 50 bucks out the door. at the lincoln/ merc dealership

[gabegt90]

alignments can be a bitch expecilly the caster and camber but toes really easy I take a steering and suspension class right know and my left front toe was out so I just adjusted the tie rod and that did the trick