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Properly aligned?

beavis195

Well-Known Member
Joined
October 15, 2000
Messages
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City, State
Sammamish, WA and Provo, UT
Year, Model & Trim Level
94 XLT 4 door
I just had an alignment done because it pulled to the right on the freeway I thought. So I take it to the dealer and on the comments it says vehicle tracks properly and follows curves of the road. Well they rotated the tires, realigned it and it seemed back to normal. Well now that I get new tires when I let go of the wheel on the freeway it stays straight for a second and then if the road is just a little bit slanted to the right it steers right. Is this normal? and how do I tell if it is properly aligned? Thanks
 



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I think that if it's properly alligned, the weight of the vehicle would allow the 'weather curve' of a two lane road to pull it to the right. Find a peice of 4 lane expressway and drive down the middle. Bet it goes straight.....
 






Most roads (including Interstate highways) have built-in "crown" - this is the "cross-slope" that directs water to the outside edge of the driving surface from the center of the road. This slope can vary from 0.01 foot per foot to 0.03 foot per foot. If you go into a curve, the road typically goes into "superelevation" - that's where the entire road will slope to the inside of the curve to counter centrifugal force - this can be as much as 0.07 foot per foot. I really don't think that the "normal" crown of the road is causing your drifting problem however. have you checkred the more obvious causes, such as low tire pressure or dragging brake ??
 






bearings, tie rod ends, dragging brakes, a lot of things.


-Shawn
 






In my opinion, sounds basically normal. My X usually will drift a little right on the crowned roads around here. In the past, to test the vehicle I would use pavement that I thought was basically flat...sometimes a big empty parking lot (just watch for the drainage areas.)

I used to get an alignment every time I got new tires, but now I don't. If I think it's fairly well aligned, I just keep the tires rotated and I've been getting excellent even wear out of tires. Haven't had an alignment in years.
 






tires can wear funny, get the new ones rotated and see if it fixes it... tires can be a source of radial pull and force the vehicle to pull even if the vehicle is in perfect alignment....
 






It could be the shop's alignment rack could be out of calibration. I've seen it before.

I have noticed similar things with mine tending to follow the crown of the highway, and just overall a feeling of constantly having to fight the steering wheel to some extent. Others I've driven feel similar.

I think part of this is because they add a little too much positive caster to the factory alignment specs to give the vehicle a more responsive feeling, and this tends to make them feel a bit "squirrely" on all but the flattest roads.
The Gen I Expedition is another even more pronounced example of this. I even looked up the alignment specs on a '99 Expedition, and compared it to that of a '99 F150 (its cousin, and mechanical twin) and the caster was more than 3° positve more than on the F150. The F150's caster spec was -0.8°, and the Expedition was +3.2°. We aligned an Expedition to F150 specs and it drove a lot better...A bit more dull and unresponsive, but more controllable and pleasant to drive on long highway hauls.

Unfortunately, the Gen III Explorer doesn't have a pickup truck sibling to compare specs to like the Expedition did, so it would probably boil down to an alignment shop feeling daring enough to alter the specs to what he felt would help. Most won't do this, only align to factory specs.
 






the 94 TTB has alot of things that can cause this
If your bushings, ball joints, tie rods, pitman arm, bearings, brakes, etc all check out and the truck is aligned within spec, it will still pull to one side when on a crowned road...that is the nature of the TTB and the inverted Y steering setup on these trucks.

The ride characteristics are worsened when the TTB is lifted with drop brackets.

My BII has a custom TTB setup with aftermarket steering. All parts are in new condition, I run 35" tires and the truck will track straight, until I get on a road with a crown (90% 0f roads)

If it pulls excessively in your opinion check your tire pressures first, then check the front and rear brakes, then check your front end for worn parts...a 94 likely needs alot of new parts
 






I don't think he updated his profile in the left column...In his sig it says '05 XLT. Since it's in the Gen III forum, I assumed that was the vehicle in question.
 






well I just had it aligned again and same thing but not as bad. It is an 05 by the way. I'll post the numbers on the printout tomorrow and maybe someone can tell me if they sound normal. Thanks guys!
 






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