Frt End Question

[97explorersport]

My explorer 97 4x4 sport, has the bottoms of the tires kicked out and the front end, looking at the truck from the front, appears to be way out of alignment. The wheels sort of resemble this / \but not that drastic. Can this be corrected with a major alignment or is it something that I need to live with. I see alot of Ford Explorers with the same thing. Any reply would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[exploded99]

Originally Posted by 97explorersport

My explorer 97 4x4 sport, has the bottoms of the tires kicked out and the front end, looking at the truck from the front, appears to be way out of alignment. The wheels sort of resemble this / \but not that drastic. Can this be corrected with a major alignment or is it something that I need to live with. I see alot of Ford Explorers with the same thing. Any reply would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Not so much a problem in the second gens - the first gens often get the squat looks.

Your front end is torsion bar suspension. The torsion bars have an adjustment that is used to set the ride height of your front end. This basically sets the front end height to the same hsight as the rear end. If your front torsion bars are wearing out or your front end has a problem, you can lose your ride height. That will cause a squat look. So I would get your front ride height checked as well as your front alignment.

Many alignment shops will do an alignment check for free and if you question your front ride height, I am sure they will check that. They can also do some quick checks for worn front end parts such as ball joints and control arm bushings.

I have heard of a few people that have had worn out torsion bars on the sports - they just get tired and lose their "tension". The bars are about 50 per side if that is the issue.

You should probably get your front end checked at this point. You may save your front tires.

[97explorersport]

I've replaced the torsion bars and adjustment arms,lower balljoints and shocks could the problem be just that the shop isn't doing the alignment right. Like maybe not touching the upper control arm mtg????

[exploded99]

Originally Posted by 97explorersport

I've replaced the torsion bars and adjustment arms,lower balljoints and shocks could the problem be just that the shop isn't doing the alignment right. Like maybe not touching the upper control arm mtg????

The upper control arms are the only adjustment for caster and camber - camber is the lean inward you are talking about, caster is how far the front wheel trails a vertical line through the steering knuckle. Both are referred to in degrees. In the explorer, the lower control arm is bolt in, and is not adjustable, altho you can have bushing wear.

So if your ride height is correct, which it probably is given the work you've done, it is possible the alignment was done to compensate for some lower bushing wear - if camber inward is excessive, that must be offset by toe-in to get the tire to wear evenly and not scrub off the tread on the inside tire edge.

Don't have a 100% answer here - I guess I would take it to a different shop and have them tell you what the measurements are, and what they should be to see if the alignment is off. I'd be curious to know what they say.

[asemstr]

The condition your describeing is just a normal characteristic of the Camber specs for your vehicle, and will not affect treadwear or driveability. Camber in most vehicles isn't set at 0 degrees while the vehicle is stationary because the suspension's symetry undergoes changes while driveing under variable conditions, so the engineers set the spec that keeps the tires centerline in the optimum range in spite of those variables.