marsjnj
New Member
- Joined
- March 1, 2015
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Vancouver, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997 Ford Explorer XLT
I am working on my son's 1997 Explorer XLT with 4.0 OHV engine. The tires were worn down to the threads on the inside edge and the passenger side upper ball joint was shot. We replaced the ball joint and control arm and had new tires installed. The truck had a serious lean on the drivers side so I swapped the rear leaf springs thinking the drivers side was weak but it only made a difference of around 1/4". I then adjusted the drivers side torsion bar and raised the drivers side about 1" and leveled the truck out. I took the truck in for alignment and the guy told me the hub bearings needed replaced before he could do the alignment. I brought it home and adjusted the toe using the extension cord method and got the steering wheel straightened out and got it to quit pulling to the right. I then checked camber and had way too much negative angle especially on the drivers side. My son ordered new hubs for the front from Amazon which I will install next week before finishing the alignment. It already has a concentric washer system installed to adjust camber so that should be easy. I haven't figured out how to check caster yet so I may end up taking it to a shop again. My question is: If I take it to a shop, and they adjust the camber to be less negative, will that raise the front of the truck? If so, and with the drivers side being more negative than the passenger side I'm assuming that the drivers side will end up higher. Do the alignment shops adjust the torsion bars? Should I put the torsion bar back where it was originally? The reason I'm asking is because I don't have a lot of confidence in alignment shops. They don't like to answer questions and I'm somewhat picky. Also, I'm not totally convinced it needs hub bearings because he very grudgingly allowed me to watch while he worked his ass off trying to wiggle the tire to demonstrate that they were bad but I'm going to replace the hubs/bearings anyway.
