Alignment know it alls... read this..

[Eric VerValin]

Ok.. so I just got my car aligned a week ago, then I took that trip to KY. I hit what we will call a "*** hole" and now the strut on the passenger side sounds like its rattling around or something. Everything looks tight, but I think I might have damaged the strut mount or something....

REguardless.. 0 play in the tie rods, steering rack.. and all that good stuff.. but this is what I found out after taking it to get the alignment checked..



At any rate.. I didnt get a print out from the first place I went... some reason I didnt trust them as my front left tire was showing wear after the 900 miles I put on it the day after the alignment... wore on the inside as if I had a bad toe or camber issue...

Now my question is this... for those of you who have done this stuff... roughly what is one revolution of say a front tie rod end... I'm wondering If I can't turn the driverside out once and solve most of this.. or should I go back and just watch that guy at the machine like a hawk... demand they fix it sort of thing..

These 18x8 245 40 18s are kind of expensive ya know.. 97W isn't very cheap.. should they buy me two tires now? Not sure how to complain about this...

 

[shobote]

An alignemnt is only as good as the tech doing it, not the machine. Take the printout to the first place and tell him he screwed up your alignment and make him pay the cost to have the second place do it properly. Same thing happened to me and that is what I did. The Mgr started to make excuses and I just got louder in front of customers until he agreed. I would never trust anyone who wold not provide a printout of the before and after spec's

 

[Shoaz]

This is why I do my own alignments. Have to admit I'm struggling with my truck at the moment to get it right, though.

Toe is easy to check yourself with either some chunks of conduit or jack stands and some string.

Like this:



Something under the front tires (e.g., a couple chunks of 1/8" hardboard with newspaper or grease in between them) for stress relief will make the adjustments easier and more accurate. Tools include a crecent wrench to loosen the lock nut, channel locks to turn the tie rod, and a combination square to measure from the string to the front and rear edges of the wheel rim.

 

[St Louis SHO]

Your toe readings are whats causing your tire wear. On top of that, the subframe needs to be shifted to the right to even out that camber.... You have a ****** alignment guy... I work in a tire shop, and they will not give you tires, unless you bought them there along with their alignment.

- James

 

[RonPorter]

Are the welds drilled out on the strut plates? Other than move the subframe, as James mentioned, their only other adjustment is the toe.

 

[Eric VerValin]

When you say to the right, you mean towards the passenger side? I'll have to do that and I think I'm going to paint around the alsfbs so I'll always have it lined up as long as the paint stays..

Other than that... I just have done most of this by eyeball... and a tape... at any rate.. I have the adjustable mounts, and I'm not so sure I didn't break a upper spring seat or something.. something is rattling in or around the strut area.. and I can't seem to find it.. neither could the alignment guys today. Being there isnt much too them I'm going to look and see if I can't peek up there and see if I still have that little bushing there intact.. or maybe I destroyed it? something sounds like its moving.. I know the sway bar bushings are on their way out.. but it got louder after my off road event..

If anything the steering feels a little late... I wonder if I might have broken that subframe "cup" finally... not sure why its held on this long to be honest with ya... lol those reinforcement kits have been calling my name for years..

 

[32MTX]

damn ur alignment sucks


just pay somebody to do it right

get a before and after print out

make sure the steering wheel is straight when driving down the road in a straight line and all tha jazz

if u modify ur suspension and whack potholes and craters, expect it to get knocked out of alignment

nobody should be held responsible for wear or alignment angles out of spec after things like that except yourself.....

 

[Eric VerValin]

I don't ever normally hit a damn thing.. 2 mph into and out of my drive way, and I swerve like a drunk to miss most potholes.

It drives just fine.. dosen't pull or anything.. but yea, this is AFTER one place did it.. of course its modified.. cut intrax, and tokikos, alsfb's, and mostly Poly bushings.. I haven't had to move the welds, just used the adjustable plates, and turned them all the way out...

I'm also wondering if I should change these settings now that I'm running a wider tire. a 245 is not the same as a 215 you know. 18x8 with a 40mm offset if anyone was wondering..

 

[notbange]

That alignment doesn't "suck" that bad for going fourwheeling with your taurus. Camber isn't that awful, millions of Taurii owners that are too cheap to pay to have the spotwelds drilled have much worse uneven camber then that. That toe needs to be fixed right now though, that will saw those tires off in no time. Have you checked your swaybar end links? Pull up and down on the swaybar right where the link bolts on and see if there's play. That will cause a ton of racket over every tiny bump either wheel drives over. Tauruses specify a lot of negative camber and negative toe, so it's hard to not have the inside of the tire wear quickly even if the alignment is right in the middle of spec.

 

[Eric VerValin]

There they are side by side... didnt drill any welds on the 92 either... same setup..

 

[rubydist]

as I understand that graph, your left tire has too much toe in. to fix that, you would shorten the left tie rod, not lengthen it. iirc, about 1/2 turn on the tie rod.

but I'm not understanding the fact that you are saying the left tire is wearing on the inside, because too much toe in causes the wear on the outside shoulder.

however, some of the alignment places use negative numbers for toe-in, so maybe that is what they are saying. that would make more sense with your wear description.

generally, when the alignment is toward the maximum negative camber, you need the toe in to be toward the maximum - within reasonable limits they cancel each other out from a tire-wear standpoint.

while the spec says you can have some toe-out, I find that makes the cars squirrely, especially at higher speeds.

 

[Eric VerValin]

as I understand that graph, your left tire has too much toe in. to fix that, you would shorten the left tie rod, not lengthen it. iirc, about 1/2 turn on the tie rod.

but I'm not understanding the fact that you are saying the left tire is wearing on the inside, because too much toe in causes the wear on the outside shoulder.

however, some of the alignment places use negative numbers for toe-in, so maybe that is what they are saying. that would make more sense with your wear description.

generally, when the alignment is toward the maximum negative camber, you need the toe in to be toward the maximum - within reasonable limits they cancel each other out from a tire-wear standpoint.

while the spec says you can have some toe-out, I find that makes the cars squirrely, especially at higher speeds.

Well.. I'm going to go ahead and shorten that driver side, and see what that does for me. It might be a little tough to get it in to get checked again on Sunday, but I'm going to try.. Got places to go in this SHO of mine..