Alingment problems- pulling to right- Camber Plate bolt not fitting on!

[dpancer]

Hi guys,


Been having a frustrating problem getting my car aligned. The car keeps pulling to the right. No mater what caster/camber/toe combination is used it just keeps on pulling. We tried rotating and swapping tires. I have gone over the TSB about pulling and used the adjusted alignment specs as well with no luck.

It has H & R race springs with only top isolators. All other front suspension is stock. The car has not been in a wreck.

I just placed a new Reman motor in and this was done by dropping the K-member and lowering the car onto the motor.

-At the alignment shop we noticed that the passenger front wheel was about 2 cm pushed back (setback) to the fender than was the driver side. We used a body jack and loosened the bottom k member bolts and got it to shift about a 1cm forward.

-Its like the car doesnt respond to any alignment changes whether i ramp up the caster on both sides or just on one side.


Now another problem is this (pics are a bit blurry):


Drivers side C/C plates

Drivers side C/C plates

With a caster setting of 4.5 deegrees I cant get the last nut on the driver's side camber plate stud. This is just strange!!!


After hours of working on it and getting no where my mechanic and I decided that the only thing left to do is address the small set back that could not be corrected from one side ( its about 1cm difference now). The passenger side is already maxed out, in that the k-member bolts are pushed right up against the slot. This means that the drivers side need to be pushed back. I'm hoping that this will also allow me to get that last driver's side bolt on, since technically I'll be increasing caster by shifting the k-member back.

Has anyone had any such issues with their k-member or camber plates?? This is driving me crazy!




Follow up questions are:

To properly shift the the driver's side of the k-memeber backward what should be done? I was thininking of following Maximum motor sport's directions on squaring their K-member for reference)
-Which bolts need to be loosed?
-Do I need to remove the motor from the mounts and hoist it up (or use a supporting motor bar like Maximum motor sports does)

 

[94slowbra1]

I would follow the mm directions for squaring the k-member. Once that is taken care of then I would start trying to align and see where you get. And yes use an engine support bar to hold engine up. You can grab one from harbor freight for like $60. It takes a little time but in the end it will be done right.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

What does the caster settings on both sides look like?

What is fords spec? I can't remember.

 

[03cobra#694]

What does the caster settings on both sides look like?

What is fords spec? I can't remember.

 

[dpancer]

I have my caster set at 4.5 degrees on both sides now.

I tried ford's spec, MM's, and tweaked versions of both.

I really dont want to but, it looks like im going to have to try to square that k-member a bit. I just cant think of anything else.
I just hope that will correct the pulling and the fact that the last bolt cant tight down the caster plate.


Has anyone had any experience squaring a stock - k member? I need to figure out where to run the plum bobs.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

How far apart did you try on the caster?
Did you try 4.5 right and 3.5 left? Or even greater that 1deg difference while staying in spec?

 

[dpancer]

How far apart did you try on the caster?
Did you try 4.5 right and 3.5 left? Or even greater that 1deg difference while staying in spec?

I tried 4.5 both sides. 5.5 on left 4 on right. 4.80 on left 5.5 on right.....no difference. Car still pulled to the right. Its so strange how it didnt respond to changes in caster.

Im looking into the Harbor freight engine support beam now. I'm thinking about just trying to square the k - member in my garage. I just dont want to go ahead, order everything, spend a lot of time doing it and then have it not make any difference.

 

[hotcobra03]

Has anything been touched on rear?

After working on my rear..I noticed the toe will affect steering wheel and pull to 1 side or other..

yes the rear alignment...

 

[dpancer]

Has anything been touched on rear?

After working on my rear..I noticed the toe will affect steering wheel and pull to 1 side or other..

yes the rear alignment...

Yea we noticed that as well. The rear specs had to be tweaked a bit to get the steering wheel straight. I did find that a bit strange.
All thought I'm not sure how much the guy who aligned it played around with those settings when addressing the pull.
At the beginning my rear camber was not going any lower than -1.2 on the passanger side. I had to slot the camber bolt-hole and weld a piece of metal to the eccentric washer to be able to get my rear camber down to -.5. Worked fine. However, the car pulled before and after this modification.


Do you remember what toe settings you had set up?

 

[dpancer]

How about this: Can anyone verify that by pushing the drivers side of the k-member forward a bit, thus squaring the k-member to the subframe, will give me the clearance I need up top to get that last bolt on the cc plates?

the way I see it, pushing the k-member forward will move the strut forward thereby increasing caster. Sliding the Caster plate back, towards the firewall, will get back down to my setting of 4.5°.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

On IRS cars rear toe will affect it for sure.
Back when I was an alignment tech (holy shit that was years ago) I had a few vehicles (all ford go figure) that presented this issue. All pulled to the right fairly hard.
Caster is your main adjustment for pulling if all else is good.
In most cases it took 1 full degree lower on the left to make it drive straight.
I can't see the rest of what your tech did so it is hard to say for sure but you may want to also start looking at the possibility of the right front bearing or brakes starting to induce drag.

 

[dpancer]

On IRS cars rear toe will affect it for sure.
Back when I was an alignment tech (holy shit that was years ago) I had a few vehicles (all ford go figure) that presented this issue. All pulled to the right fairly hard.
Caster is your main adjustment for pulling if all else is good.
In most cases it took 1 full degree lower on the left to make it drive straight.
I can't see the rest of what your tech did so it is hard to say for sure but you may want to also start looking at the possibility of the right front bearing or brakes starting to induce drag.

The mechanic who was aligning told me he checked the wheel bearings and brakes and all were good.... but now im thinking maybe I should check them for myself. But like I said before, we put the caster 1° lower on the left side and it made no difference.

And still there is that last bolt that we cant fit on on the drivers side! I was thinking of just grabbing a grinder and filing the plate down a bit so the nut can be torqued down. However, If there is some underlying issue/ problem as to why that plate is pushed that much forwards, I would like to get it; and not just mask the problem.

What if the hole in the strut tower was drilled slightly off from where it should have been (I didnt install the plates)?

 

[03cobra#694]

Mine, this was using the MM specs and taking into account the crown of the roads here.

 

[94slowbra1]

I would not start gaining away at the pates. There is some underlying issue here. Too many people run these plates to never have the problem come up. Start with squaring the k. Just because it "looks" good doesn't mean it square with the rear pick up points. After that is straight I'd go over all front end stuff: brakes ball joints tie rods hubs ect... Also try switching the tires from side to side, even the rears. Then start looking at alignment, again front and rear. The rear of these cars can affect the front.

 

[dpancer]

I would not start gaining away at the pates. There is some underlying issue here. Too many people run these plates to never have the problem come up. Start with squaring the k. Just because it "looks" good doesn't mean it square with the rear pick up points. After that is straight I'd go over all front end stuff: brakes ball joints tie rods hubs ect... Also try switching the tires from side to side, even the rears. Then start looking at alignment, again front and rear. The rear of these cars can affect the front.

Thanks for the tips. If i get the time this weekend im going to drop the k-member and inspect all bushings and parts. I just ordered a new set of Energy Suspension poly mounts. Figured now would be a good time to replace the 11 year old mounts.

Im looking into getting shorter end links in the front as I'm running H&R and x2 steeda ball joints (and I think I dont have the spacers in). Never really measured the total drop of the car. Im still busy doing the research on this. I know that bump steer isnt a issue since my LCA and tie rod ends are parallel. When I pick up my car and finally take it home im going to check whether the sway bar ends are at a 90° angle with the end links.


I briefly read through the MM install of their k-member, but can anyone confirm where the plumb bobs need to hang from on the stock K-member?

 

[dpancer]

From a while back I new the control arm had a bend in it. This is how it was when I bought the car, while it was driving straight




should this be replaced. It doesn't like the structural integrity of the a-arm is being affected by this bent flange. all though it is on the passenger side and that's the side the car is pulling to.

 

[dpancer]

I briefly read through the MM install of their k-member, but can anyone confirm where the plumb bobs need to hang from on the stock K-member?

anyone??