97 Escort Frt-end alignment

[chris39]

PLease Help My Escort Pulls to the right how can I correct that myself.
Is there something I can do to save from going to a shop to fix it.....

[AzTumbleweed]

First off, have you checked your tire pressure? Second, is there anything bent or broken like a tie rod? Something made it go out of alignment.

[chris39]

Originally Posted by AzTumbleweed

First off, have you checked your tire pressure? Second, is there anything bent or broken like a tie rod? Something made it go out of alignment.

yep I checked all of that tie rods ok and tires ok i was told i may have a inner tie rod bad could that do it...

[Davescort97]

Originally Posted by chris39

yep I checked all of that tie rods ok and tires ok i was told i may have a inner tie rod bad could that do it...

An bad inner tie rod would not make it pull to the right. It would screw up your toe-in and make the steering wheel off center. It wouldn't make it pull one way or the other because the front wheels still center even if the toe in is off. A worn ball joint, control arm bushing, broken spring or a worn strut could make it pull one way or the other. Normally the caster and camber don't have to be set. They are controlled by the position of the strut mounting bracket in the strut tower block and can be adjusted by changing the position of the mount in the bracket. Nothing on the front end can be adjusted accurately with out a front end alignment. At that time the front end man will check all the parts for wear and advise you about what is needed. You could either have him replace the parts and then align it or you could do it yourself and take it back to get it aligned. Improper alignment will make your tires wear out. There's just no way you can get it back into alignment yourself.

[mobil_12]

Make sure its not your tires causing the pull. If you have a jack and 4-way swap your two front tires from side to side then drive it. If the car pulles the opposite way then you got a bad tire. Get two new tires and have it aligned to protect your new tires.

[AzTumbleweed]

Unlikely, but one more thing to check is the brakes. Make sure one side isn't dragging a little. If so it would be noticeably hotter.

[rbsteve]

feel the wheels after a drive on the freeway, if one of them is hotter than the rest, then your brakes are seizing up. Also another trick is put it in Drive, and release the brakes VERY VERY slowly, you should here them creek a little, but they should all release evenly. If you feel the that one side is not unsticking like the others, your problem lies there in the brakes.