Alignment Issues HELP!!!!

[mlovett]

Hey guys. Need a little help. Just picked up my X from the shop after having the BTF coil spring spacers and new end links installed and carried it to a local shop that does alignments. I have rancho quicklifts and added a 1.5 inch spacer to the front and a 1.0 inch spacer to the rear at the recommendation of Brandon with BTF. The local shop says they can't align the truck. Says I need an extended caber kit. Not sure what he is talking about nor do I know if one is made for the 2004 ford explorer. Now I have plans to go to another shop first thing Friday morning in Athens GA and talked to this shop and they assure me that they can get the truck aligned. In meantime just wondered if anyone else here has experienced this issue? Can the X be aligned with this setup? The quicklifts gave me approximately 1.25 to 1.5 inches of lift and the spacers added a little more to that and I am running 265/70/17 tires. I have not seen any other posts on here where this has been an issue with guys putting this same amount of lift on their Xs. Any help or insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ronin8002]

Hey guys. Need a little help. Just picked up my X from the shop after having the BTF coil spring spacers and new end links installed and carried it to a local shop that does alignments. I have rancho quicklifts and added a 1.5 inch spacer to the front and a 1.0 inch spacer to the rear at the recommendation of Brandon with BTF. The local shop says they can't align the truck. Says I need an extended caber kit. Not sure what he is talking about nor do I know if one is made for the 2004 ford explorer. Now I have plans to go to another shop first thing Friday morning in Athens GA and talked to this shop and they assure me that they can get the truck aligned. In meantime just wondered if anyone else here has experienced this issue? Can the X be aligned with this setup? The quicklifts gave me approximately 1.25 to 1.5 inches of lift and the spacers added a little more to that and I am running 265/70/17 tires. I have not seen any other posts on here where this has been an issue with guys putting this same amount of lift on their Xs. Any help or insight is greatly appreciated.

BTF arms will help some in the front because they are longer. Even with those it's going to be tricky though. these are the camber kits he was talking about:

front: http://www.jegs.com/i/Specialty-Products/827/86140/10002/-1

rear: http://www.jegs.com/i/Specialty-Products/827/86180/10002/-1

 

[mlovett]

Thanks Ronin! Will these camber kits solve the problem alone or will those ucas have to be purchased in addition to these kits to solve the problem?

 

[mlovett]

Here is the report that the shop gave me on the front:
Left cambe= -2.09
Right camber= -2.33
cross camber= 0.24
Left caster= 3.74
Right caster= 4.37
Cross caster= -0.63
Left Toe=0.19
Right toe=0.14
Total to=-0.39

He did not do the rear after he figured he could not do the front. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Ronin8002]

The camber kits will help with the alignment, but won't address the long term problem: durability. you really REALLY should get the btf arms for that reason. You don't want your stock ball joints coming apart on the open road..you could very well end up with a repair bill that exceeds what the arms would cost.

 

[mlovett]

The arms are in my long term plan and I do plan to purchase them in the next 6 months. This truck does not go offroad much and is not a daily driver. I am just doing a little at a time but wasn't counting on this being an issue. The arms may have to come sooner than later and I am not so sure that I am ready to spend the $ right now. Thanks for the help! Will let you know how in comes out.

 

[Ronin8002]

The arms are in my long term plan and I do plan to purchase them in the next 6 months. This truck does not go offroad much and is not a daily driver. I am just doing a little at a time but wasn't counting on this being an issue. The arms may have to come sooner than later and I am not so sure that I am ready to spend the $ right now. Thanks for the help! Will let you know how in comes out.

No problem! You could potentially hold off on the alignment since your truck isnt a dd and doesn't get off-road much. The btf arms will require the truck to be aligned again so you may think about that.

 

[mlovett]

I have thought about it a lot over the past 24 hours. I figured I would only need to have the front realigned after the arms are installed. Think I am going to go ahead and get them ordered in the next few days and hopefully get the truck aligned tomorrow just to save on tire wear. Hope to post some pics up over the weekend. I did have another question what about the lower ball joints do they not have the same pressure on them or will yhe stock ones hold up? Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Ronin8002]

I have thought about it a lot over the past 24 hours. I figured I would only need to have the front realigned after the arms are installed. Think I am going to go ahead and get them ordered in the next few days and hopefully get the truck aligned tomorrow just to save on tire wear. Hope to post some pics up over the weekend. I did have another question what about the lower ball joints do they not have the same pressure on them or will yhe stock ones hold up? Thanks again for all your help!

Most of the ball joint problems people have are related to the uppers. I think it's mainly because the lowers are further out from the frame due to the length of the lower control arms, so the lower ball joints just don't see the same amount of stress or angle when the suspension gets drooped out.

sounds like you have a good plan, looking forward to seeing your results!