97 Mercury Sable Allignment

[Dave_s]

First of all, I would like to thank all of you folks who have been extremely helpfull with all of my issues. I have two of these cars (both 97) and didn't do maintnance for a while, and now I pay for it every time I try to do some stuff that would have been routine if done when it was supposed to have been.

My latest question, I took the sable in for an alignment (its tearing up tires) and they were able to get the front two wheels within specs (he tells me I need new tie rod ends so it won't be perfect) and one of the back wheels. He was unable to get the back right wheel closer than 1.5 degrees. He tells me that something is most likely bent and I should call a body shop. The body shop I called told me that if the car has not been hit (and it hasn't) that nothing should be bent. He suggested I get another alighnment and they will be able to tell me what is out of wack. I'm thinking that i something is bent and I am getting it realigned anyways, I should take a shot at fixing it before I bring it in. I'm thinking the cause could be that the shock on that side may not be alligned close enough (meaning when I put the spring back on after replacing the shock I didn't line up the hole for the pinch bolt properly so it is off). I don't think that is the problem though becuase it was burning up tires before I put the new shock on. I did find a broken sway bar link when I changed the shocks so it could be that the tired were getting shredded because of the broken sway bar link before I changed the shocks, and after changing the shocks its not aligned correctly. this senario doesn't seem right to me. The only other possiblility I can think of is that when I changed the shocks the pinch bolts (on both sides) snapped. I replaced the spindles with junk yard spindles (it was cheaper than finding someone to drill out the old bolts) and it cold be that this "new" spindle is bent. can't think of anything else. Any advice would be appreciated.

[shorod]

Is there any evidence that the lower control arm in the rear is bent? If the car was jacked up by the control arm rather than by the jacking points, it could be bent causing the alignment issue. Or, if you hit a curb hard some time, that could bend it too. I don't recall what the lower control arm on the '97 looks like. Earlier Taurii had two control arms that were stamped steel and very prone to bending.

-Rod

[TomV]

Originally Posted by shorod

Is there any evidence that the lower control arm in the rear is bent? If the car was jacked up by the control arm rather than by the jacking points, it could be bent causing the alignment issue. Or, if you hit a curb hard some time, that could bend it too. I don't recall what the lower control arm on the '97 looks like. Earlier Taurii had two control arms that were stamped steel and very prone to bending.

-Rod

The 97 design is of the flimsy control arms.

[Dave_s]

Many a curb has been hit with this car. I'll check out the controll arms and see if I can tell if they are bent.