Wheel Alignment ? for lowered Ex

[Xplor]

Hey guys, I have lower my '00 Ex about 2 in., basicly I took the bolts adjusters out. Then I went to have it align and it drives straight as a ruler. However, the front wheels bow out a little. Is this normal for a lowered Ex? How many of you lowered Ex guys front wheels look like?

By the way, I did the everything myself. I went to a local parts place to pick up 2 in. blocks for the back. I also got the Blistein shocks. Let me tell ya about try to reach for the top mounts for the rears. Pain in the butt! Of course I had to drop the spare. Overall, the ride it tight and excellent.

 

[expo5.0]

i did a 2 inch drop as well. check out my pics for what the front wheels look like. i'm not sure what you mean by bowing, but i'm assuming you mean the top sits closer to the truck than the bottom of the tire. mine looks the same. did you have a professional alignment after you lowered the truck? it's necessary to prevent bad tire wear.

 

[Xplor]

Yeah, I had it align right after I did the drop. what I mean by bowed is this /\ on the front tires. It's not bad, if you really take a good look at it from the front. I guess in terms of it is called toe-out.

 

[XCptNoImiTaTioN]

your tires are butterflying...thats when it gets lowered and the wheels start to use onlee like 3/4 of your tire rather than sitting perfectly on it...to fix it usually yooh need to get a camber kit but i dno bout an explorer...i mainly know imports...but same thing happens...

 

[Alec]

Yes, there are camber kits out there for lowered Explorers and Rangers. Ask at www.explorerunderground.com , there are lots of lowered X's there.

 

[expo5.0]

my toe-in after lowering is equal to the toe-in before the lowering and that is without a camber kit. however, my toe-in increased greatly when i originally put my wider rims on. so i'm not sure if i could have retained the original toe-in with the lowering if it hadn't changed first with the new wheels. but the lowering didn't change my toe-in at all in and of itself, so i don't know why yours should have to.

 

[YetiX]

When you get the Explorer Express lowering kit, it comes with "camber adjusters" which are used for re-aligning the front end. However, any professional alignment shop should have them and when you get it aligned after lowering it should be perfect.

What specs did you get it aligned to? The EE kit comes with specs to align it to and I'm not sure how they compare to the stock specs.

 

[V8Pete]

What you're seeing is negative camber. Toe-in and toe-out refer to how the wheels are pointing relative to the vehicle; if they're in at the front, that's toe-in; if they're out at the front, that's toe-out. Spec calls for a small amount of toe-in (~1/16", I think) to keep the thing tracking straight. It'll corner a mite better with toe-out, but then you'll be correcting all the time as you try to go down the road straight.

If you're wheels are in at the top, which they will be after lowering, that's negative camber. You need the camber adjusters for the alignment shop to correct this, and they still won't be able to get it to 0 if you've lowered it two inches. Mine's around 1/2 negative, because to go more you lose most of the positive caster, which means you lose all your steering feel. By the way, if you backed the torsion bar adjusters all the way out, you've essentially got no front springs, and it'll handle like a pig. The alignment shop, if it's any good, should've pointed all this out to you.

Pete

 

[Xplor]

Yeah, I got those camber adjusters from Napa and gave them the the guy doing the alignment. So thats taken care of. By the way, I am maxed out for the front, I took the torsion bolts off, since there were sitting there loose. I was little surprised , I thought it could go lower, but it's even level now with the 2in. blocks in the back. I took the front bump stops off, but I am going to go look around to see if I could find shorter ones. Did you guys with lowered Ex's shaved the factory ones found shorter ones?

 

[focbl]

Thanks for the replies,and the great trucks i have seen

As far as my standard ex goes
I guess i am going to go for the two inch drop.
The blocks seem basic enough but i am not sure about the front. Can someone give me a more detailed instuction on the torsion bolts.....

Many thanks for all the help

Standard 2001 EX sport, But i am workng on that.........

 

[STANN]

Not much to it. i just measured from the front fender lip to the ground to determine lowering height. Lowered by jacking up the front end and loosening the torsion bolts located at the end of the torsion bar. It's pretty straight foward.

 

[clowwny]

NAPPA CAMBER ADJUSTERS??? HEY MAN HOW MUCH?? EXPLORER EXPRESS WANTS TOO MUCH FOR EM, WHATS THE PART NUMBER IF YO UKNOW IT

 

[Xplor]

Yeap

Clowwny, man! You should of gotten here last week. I don't see you on here often anymore. I saved my Napa recipt till my credit card bill came in, which was last week. Well, whatever you do, don't go to the Napa website, it won't help. Just go to a Napa store and ask for the rear camber adjusters. There are going to be 2 different alignment adjusters. Just tell them you need the round ones which are sold in pairs. I believe they are about 20 bucks. The alignment shop guy told me to buy 2 sets, so I did. So your going to pay probably around 40 bucks. Hope this helps.

 

[clowwny]

thanks so much man, yea i was pre-ocupied with a veedub, (volkswagen) but now im all about my EX. thanks man ill go by nappa after work

 

[Xplor]

Well, I guess I still have the recipt, just found it. The part # is 264-2979. I am not sure if all years are the same, but thats what I got on mine