Alignment after 5.5" | Ford Explorer Forums

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Alignment after 5.5"

akcrogers

Well-Known Member
Joined
April 19, 2002
Messages
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City, State
Fairbanks, Alaska
Year, Model & Trim Level
'92 Explorer 4WD 4DR XL
Finally getting around to finishing up my lift. Its been raining hard the last few weeks, and I hadn't had time to do all the little last things.

I've got a huge amount of toe-out after the lift, and I'm wondering what would cause that. I haven't put the drop pitman on yet, so if anything, it seems like there should be toe-in because the lift should have tightened up the angle on the links, pulling the tires together. Any ideas?

Also, I loosened my radius arms nuts (bushing side) a bit to help align the drop ra brackets, and now on the drivers side I can't get it to seat right again. On the towards-the-front side of the bracket there is about 1/2 gap that I can't tighten up. What would cause that?

Thanks
 



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sorry akcrogers I don't know what your problem is, I'm a step behind you. Can you tell me what you did with your brake lines to make them work with your lift?
 






Did you get additional camber bushings that go around the upper ball joint?

You will need some new ones with additional camber adjustment. I'm not sure what is going on with the gap on RA's but they should just tighten up. can you supply some pics of what you are talking about. Maybe I can see some stuff in the pic.

Too bad I was going to be making a trip up to Fairbanks this weekend but I have a lot of replacement parts to put on my truck and it doesn't look lik I will be making it.

But I will be coming up real soon and I would like to see it in person.
 






AK how hard is it to do the Rivets, no one wants to try it, and with what tool did you do it with. And was your workstation totally level because were worried the body might shift and then were screwed. Thanks
 






Originally posted by Hermz
AK how hard is it to do the Rivets, no one wants to try it, and with what tool did you do it with. And was your workstation totally level because were worried the body might shift and then were screwed. Thanks

I did my Superlift in a sloped driveway. No Problems with body movement(its only 2 rivets on the body mount for the extended RA brackets). As for the rivets, ya they were a B*TCH. We used a disc grinder and an air chisel.

If you view my gallery, you can see some pics of the work in progress.

Good luck, hope this helps
 






Originally posted by Siekyre
I did my Superlift in a sloped driveway. No Problems with body movement(its only 2 rivets on the body mount for the extended RA brackets). As for the rivets, ya they were a B*TCH. We used a disc grinder and an air chisel.

If you view my gallery, you can see some pics of the work in progress.

Good luck, hope this helps


Yep what he said. Its all true!!
 






can it be done with just a disc grinder? Mines with a 4 inch blade.
 






4" grinder will be fine, but if you don't have an air chisel, here is the next best bet: 1/2" round cold-chisel, crowbar, and a BFH ( :hammer: ).

Grind off the heads of the rivets, then use the crowbar to pry the radius arm bracket of the rivet. It doesn't take much, and you'll hear a 'pop' when it comes off. Once you have them off, lower the radius arm bracket out of the way, and grind off the piece of rivet that is revealed. Now, using the small cold-chisel, and the bfh, you should be able to knock the rivet out pretty easily.

I'll get pictures of my radius arm and insane toe-out up soon. I've been too busy playing with herc :D:D
 






thanks for the help I got 1 of the 8 rivet heads off, took 40 min!
 






oh yeah in the instructions it says take off the Axle eye bolt off and I dont know what it is, so I took off a bolt one the left of the front axle, and I took one off where you have to take off the rivets, is it one of those?
 






There are two axle eye bolts, the passenger side axle- axle eye bolt is on the drivers side, and the driver side axle -axle eye bolt is on the passenger side.

Pics of my problems:
Driver's side toe-out:
toeout.jpg


Space on tie rod adjuster, just might pull it in enough:
tierod.jpg


RA gap, can't tighten any more, its like the nut is bottomed out, and if I do tighten it, it will increase my toe-out:
ragap.jpg
 






hey guys i used an air hammer with a chisle bit... took the rivets right off....but i am having a problem with my alignment as well... have way to much camber... but i put it on the alignment rack and got it all in speck.. then drove it and the wheels are like this /--\ but i could have bad ball jounts... because it moves all over the place.... but that could be just cause of camber.... and also my front sits kinda low.... whats up with that...? and what does yalls lower spring mount look like got a pic?
 






Air Chisel, Grinder, Torch yeah all the above and yes the rivets sucked bad... lol

Iro... your front end is sittin low cuz the tires are / \ it should str8tn up after u do the align.... mine was way way \ / and hi until after the align and now its all
| | lmao

akcrogers all those toes should go away after the align also ..... u should be able to align the RA up by putting a jack under the axle until its all horiz and then push the RA all the way in until u have the RA tight against the bushing all lines up and in b4 u tighten it all down.....
 






i aligned it 3 times... and still the same its good when i pull it off the rack then it drops as if the lower balljoints are bad.... and when i drive it its all over the place.... like the whole wheel is moving and such
 






im thinkin replace the ball joints lol
 






me too but i dont wanna lol, would hate 2 do it and not need it lol
 






if its aligning when its up in the air but squattin when u put it on the ground ide be down at autozone in the AM lol u should be able to feel some play when its in the air if its sittin that bad when u put it on the ground
 






well its a drive on alignment rack... then i back off and then drive straight 15-30 feet and its /--\ agian..... but i get no noise....
 






Hmm well we adjusted my camber in the street kept getting little adjustments then pull it forward and reverse several times and it would settle some then we do it again and after several adjustments we had it.

I don't know but You could check the lower ball joints it couldn't hurt. How are your wheel bearings???
 



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wheel bearings are ok... all good and tight... but dont know why this would change from going from spacers and shackles to the lift.....
 






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