Serious problems with my front axle alignment (?)

[Matzel]

Dear Explorer friends,

I have a serious problem with my Ford Explorer located here in Germany - I already put some research to find a solution, but until now, without great success.

Maybe the first and most important information: My car seems to got a hit on the drivers side some years ago, before I bought it. It has a new drivers side fender and I found some parts of bended sheet metal behind the fender, but nothing that looks very strange or heavy damaged.

As I walked around the car, I noticed that one wheel (passenger side) sticks more out of the fender than the one on the drivers side.

Maybe it is hard to see on the pictures, but if stand right next to the car, it is cleary visible. Please compare the wheel to the top fender line (wheel house) and you'll see the big difference.

I already swapped some parts of the suspension, the front springs and also checked the supsension brackets and the frame for visible damages - nothing helped!

Do you have any idea which fault causes this differences between the driver and passenger side? The car runs very normal, there is no bad feedback during driving. I just want to get sure to get this car in a perfect shape for daily driving, because my family will sit in this car and I don't want to take hazards.

I am looking forward to get feedback and some new fresh ideas what to check to set this wheels identical on each side of the car.

Thanks a lot,

Marcel

 

[Suicide77]

Hey Marcel,

Due to the way both of the axle halves are anchored to the vehicle (or the beams more specifically) I would be inclined to think it isn't an axle problem, but rather an alignment problem.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Alignment.html

I'll let one of the experts chime in, but I'm inclined to believe maybe your camber is out of alignment. That would cause the tops of the tires to be left or right of the body instead of centered. You would probably be the one who could tell, but maybe the tires tilt to one side or another as depicted in the link. Btw, nice Explorer!

 

[Matzel]

Thanks a lot!

I will check this out if I come to the X today. Indeed, it is a very nice car, in especially here in Germany, this cars are real rare. But in this situation, I have to think about to repair this problem or parting this car out.

Here are two more pictures from the passenger side wheel, shot from the front door and from the rear quarter panel on the passenger side:

From my memory, I would say the well sticks out around ½" to 1" compared to the top edge of the fender (wheel house).

I also found this thread here at the boards: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355965 - it is exact the same problem, but on a 95+ car.

Thanks a lot,

Marcel

 

[dking]

Marcel
It seems I have the same problem as you just not as bad. But mine is on the drivers side. My ex was also hit before I got the truck on the passenger side. It drives Ok but pulls to the drivers side. I know it needs a alignment. I hope to do this in the near future. Here is some pics of my truck. 1992 Ex 2wd.

 

[Matzel]

Thanks a lot!

Sound very interesting, but are you real sure that this kind of huge difference comes just from a different setting in the alignment?

I already thought about if it's just a normal fact due to the construction of this twin beam axle...

Here are a few more images front the front axle under the car:

Thanks a lot!

Marcel

PS: What do you think, is the drivers side in a more correct way than the passengers side or vice versa? Is it the way to be for the front wheel from the factory to stick out a little bit as the passengers side or to be cleary inside the wheel house as the drivers side? As I mentioned before, the cars gots a hit on the drivers side, so maybe I screwed up the drivers side of my twin beam...