what parts control the camber and the caster?

[Mbrooks420]

I just don’t get it. He’s a professional. He’s doing it at a shop with a full complement of parts. This should be a basic 3/10 difficulty level repair.

Performance and non OE parts are irrelevant. Sometimes you needs the kits. Sometimes you don’t. The kit won’t effect reliability in either way. Typically if you considerably lift or lower you’ll need a kit. Sometimes factory height OE type parts need them.

Virtually all wear items in the front end need an alignment after replacing. Tie rods, ball joints, control arms. Typically if you take it apart, and put it back together it needs an alignment.

Post your alignment sheet.

 

[jimmaymh]

I'm just trying to find out what parts control which of the 3 so I have an idea as to prices if I end up having to replace parts.

All he did was replace the inner and outer tie rods which change the toe but doesn't mess with the other 2. He didn't touch anything else so something else is either going bad or it was off to begin with but my vehicle was driving perfectly fine besides the cluncking noise I kept hearing in I'm front right that is now gone.

I know just throwing parts at it won't fix the alignment but I also know if there is more parts going bad it's pointless doing another alignment because it will go out of alignment again.

Hope this clears it up some.

Basically every front end suspension component affects the alignment. On my '96 the main adjustments happen with tie rod ends and the control arms, which are adjusted with camber bolts. If you're worried about stuff "going bad" have your BF look at it first when he has time- but the change in tie rod ends would absolutely affect the alignment unless he was out there with lasers and measuring out the toe by hand.

Nothing else is necessarily wrong. The parts that "go bad" in my rig are usually the sway bar links and the ball joints (they get hammered on on the dirt), but he probably checked those if he was in there with the tie rod ends. It's a pain but alignments are cheaper than new tires, and likely cheaper than paying someone to check every part in your suspension if you're not willing to take a youtube dive and figure it all out to DIY.

If you get it aligned and everything is groovy then you paid $90 for a smooth ride, less tire wear, and so you don't have to mess with anything else. If there's something else wrong, any decent shop will figure it out when they're aligning the vehicle, and then you'll know the next steps. $90 is relatively cheap for diagnostic work.

 

[meisterhyde]

and it is very simple to determine if your hub assemblies (which contain the wheel bearings) are affecting the alignment of each wheel. Simply lift ONE front wheel at a time, or the whole rear end, and go to each tire and gab it at 12 and 6 o'clock. if there is play, then your hub/bearing is bad.
It can also be bad and not be affecting your alignment, fyi.

Also Note, to my knowledge of being a shadetree mechanic and just having replaced my front Struts and mounts, that the only thing adjustable up front is the tie-rods. The strut itself, while yes many will say to just get an alignment after changing, does not have any adjustable parts/bolts.
The rear, whew, what a mess back there. I believe each side has two adjustable linkages, the trailing arm and the toe-link. The toe-links had a recall last year, two actually , and 2014 is included. I have the same 2014 AWD NA V6.

 

[Mbrooks420]

There is ABSOLUTELY more to adjust up front than just the tie rods.

 

[meisterhyde]

Good details there. Please elaborate?

 

[Mbrooks420]

It’s adjusted via the camber bolts and what position the strut is in when everything is bolted together. Otherwise the only 2 other things that could be true are:
1. There is no way at all to adjust caster/camber. (There certainly is.)
2. The tie rods adjust everything in the front end. (They don’t.)

 

[dillon_24]

Hello, I have a 14 explorer limited 4×4 with 104k miles on it and just had the inner and outer tie rods fixed and new pads and rotors put on but the alignment is off a bit still and can't remember which one was off. I know the tie rod ends control the toe and know the ball joints control one of the other 2 but can't remember which and was also wonder what controls the third. At this point I'm about to just rebuild the front end but wanted to see what other parts I'd need to get the alignment completely fixed.

Thank you in advance!!!

i did my 11 limited base at my work and youd need a castor kit to fix castor there isnt a spec to fix castor unless you run into a curb to pop the wheel back to zero
i cant remember about camber but youd need a camber castor kit in order to fix the castor. or just run into a curb with the one wheel thats off

 

[Mbrooks420]

Shouldn’t have to say this, but......

Don’t run into curbs to fix your alignment.

 

[Justinwht]

special cam bushings/bolts

My understanding was Ford set the alignment at the factory with no way to adjust it afterwards. Ford house or any auto parts store has the two shims. I think it was $20 for the pair.

 

[Justinwht]

Don’t run into curbs to fix your alignment.

I did just that! $1,050 parts an labor. New road construction different from week before, at night, poorly light...missing barricade barrels. Reaching out to city and get contractor's name and bill them for the damage.

 

[Mbrooks420]

My understanding was Ford set the alignment at the factory with no way to adjust it afterwards. Ford house or any auto parts store has the two shims. I think it was $20 for the pair.

View attachment 329790

I really don’t think that’s the case. If there was no adjustment a single bad pothole could result in rebuilding the entire side.

 

[Odrapnew]

I can't speak for the Explorer, but my 07 MazdaSpeed6 didn't have camber adjustment from the factory. Instead, they made the camber tolerance massive and ridiculous. Something like -1.5 to +1.0.

That car was known for destroying outside edges of tires.

Looking at an old alignment report for my Explorer, the camber on one side was not changed, but the other was, by 0.1 degrees, which could just be a rounding differences.

@Ayame95 can you post your alignment report?