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Factory Alignment Specs...

SeaMac324

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Joined
September 9, 2012
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City, State
Jupiter, FL
Year, Model & Trim Level
1994, Explorer XLT 2WD
My Explorer is a '94 XLT, 4-Door, 2WD all stock and I just rebuilt my entire front-end, all new bushings, ball joints, tie-rod ends etc, etc. Since I am aware that the TIB front suspension is tricky for alignment shops since most tech's don't really know how to handle them. What I would like if available are the factory specs if someone has access to them.

The specs I have found so far are as follows;

CAMBER: min. -0.25*, prefered. 0.25*, max. 0.75*

CASTER: min. 2*, max. 7*

TOE: min. -0.19*, prefered. 0.06*, max. 0.31*

TOE inches: min. -0.09, prefered. 0.03, max. 0.15

*=degrees

I have been having a very difficult time getting the alignment right and have been to two different shops with little improvement. Oddly, they don't seem to believe that there are camber/caster eccentrics located on top of the upper ball joints, kind of scary actually. Any help would be appreciated, thanks...
 



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Yes, I installed Moog 2-piece adjustable +/-4* eccentric bushings. The reason? Truck has 270k miles on it and when rebuilding the front-end the drivers side was factory original and came out very easily, the passenger side had been replaced by a previous owner and came out even easier. Since I wanted to completely rebuild the front-end with all new "tight" parts I figured why not start fresh with new eccentrics too.

Using the "garage" method I was able to dial-in the front-end well enough to drive to an alignment shop, where they only corrected the toe. The second shop got it somewhat better but their rack's software only goes back to a 1995-1997 Explorer which as we know is NOT a TIB front-end. Therefore, I now have extremely twitchy hyper steering which when encountering any imperfection in the pavement will attempt to change lanes on its own and rather abruptly I might add. This condition is associated with camber/caster adjustment which can only be accomplished via the eccentric bushings. Moog does make an eccentric radius arm bushing as well but are only really required when you have a lift kit, as far as I am aware that is.

If I can find the exact factory original alignment specs at least I'll have a good starting point for any needed corrections.
 






The factory alignment specs are not what I would go with, as they call for a degree of positive camber, and you wind up wearing down the outside shoulder of the tires, and the only thing you can do is have the tires taken off the wheels and swapped side to side to get decent mileage out of them.

Usually one degree of negative camber gives better handling/cornering performance, and better tire wear. Negative camber usually causes wear on the inside shoulder of the tire, but the toe-in can balance this.

A slight amount of toe-in(0.5-1 degree or just a mm or two if using the tape measure method) helps the vehicle track straight and also compensates for the negative camber, since toe-in causes wear on the outside shoulder of the tire. (toe-out would cause wear on the inside shoulder)

Caster is a hard one, since you usually wind up with whatever caster based on the camber and toe setting because of how the TIB/TTB adjusters work with the ball joints. 2 to 7 degress is fine, but I would say it's more important that the caster is the same for both sides, or as close as you can get it.

The alignment adjusters are not everything, either. Generally it can be better (at least in the case of old stock springs) to 'adjust' camber with washers/shims under the coils rather than compensate with the adjuster bushings, unless you desire the lower ride height or have new lift/lowering springs.

I find it easier to just use an angle gauge and tape measure and do the adjustments myself, making slight adjustments every few thousand miles or so until it tracks straight and the tires are wearing perfectly even. Shop alignments are good, but they can be a waste of money on the TIB/TTB both because of how easy it is to do yourself, and how the suspension can go out of alignment just from wear on the bushings, ball joints, tie rods, etc. Really the best thing is to do it yourself, and check it every 10,000 miles or something, because it's not really a set-it-and-forget-it thing like on other vehicles, unless maybe you start with all new components and only use it gently on-road.
 






Yes I agree the factory specs are not always best but, they ARE the best place to start from. This is why I am searching for the factory specs, once I have those I have a benchmark from which to start tweaking. Thanks for your reply...
 






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