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Rear Alignment Problem

5.3K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Nidan  
#1 ·
I usually don't work on FWD cars, I own a 1985 Monte, and a 1981 Cutlass wagon...

My father picked up a 1997 Taurus GL for $300 In immaculate condition. Car has 150K on it now.
Needed a pass rear brake line, pads up front, a new battery, and a windshield.

After I finished the brake line, I noticed the passenger rear tire has I believe a toe in problem that's nothing like the driver side.

The side of the tire closest to the front of the car points in, and the side of the tire closest to the rear of the car points out.

It appears to be off ROUGHLY by about an inch.

Any likely causes?

Any suggested solutions? I've found information suggesting a toe kit, some mentions of a simple toe adjustment wrench, and others suggesting bending control arms.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE:

I spent some time examining the suspension.

The car has an independent rear suspension.

There are 2 "I" beams per side. And a trailing arm That goes from the knuckle, and mount under the rockers in front of the rear tires.

I pulled the rearmost I beam, and was able to twist the complete rear assembly enough where it would line up properly, and fix the toe issues.

When the I beam is reconnected, it pushes everything back out where it was when I began.

All I beam mounts have some sort of indexing tab, not sure what this is.

Also, Where the 4 I beams connect in the center, the rear most I beams have an extremely large hex nut?

Looks like it could be an adjuster for the toe?
 
#3 ·
You gotta be kidding me.

I just adjusted the toe cams the best I could, tightened the nut on the rear, put the wheel on, set the car down, and it's pretty much the same as it was before.

Not sure if this means anything, but when I took the rear control arm off, and twisted the knuckle with front control arm still on, and tension strut still on, I was able to twist the whole assembly, but it gave me heavy resistance.

Twisting was pushing the left side away from me, and pulling the right side towards me.

I also noticed that when I twisted the knuckle, the tension strut also twisted.

If you look at it from the top, it's shaped similar to the bars in the Mercury emblem.

The part where the bend is, twisted downward.

And thanks for the help, I appreciate it. :)
 
#4 ·
Here is what I would do if you still have problems and do not want to get a new or replacement knuckle. Take the tension strut out. Heat the tension strut mount where it is attached on the knuckle and bend it. It won't take much bending.
 
#6 ·
You should be able to see if the arms are bent or not. The only way to see if the tension strut is bent is to compare it to a know good one. The knuckle is almost impossible to see if it is bent.

I have a used knuckle off my '93 if you want it.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for all the help so far guys, and the offers of parts as well.

I've been thinking about this, and the control arms both seem to be straight. I don't see any difference between the 2 control arms on the bad side, when compared to the good side.

I'm not sure if the knuckle is bent, but the tension strut looks to be fine.

On thinking about this more, when I pull the rearmost control arm, I can line everything up the way it should be, at least the best I can going by eye.

When it's all lined up, the stud on the knuckle that mounts the rear control arm won't line up with the hole in the arm. I'm really thinking it just needs to be adjusted, and I didn't do something right.

This is the best info I've found online: https://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/cont...19/S3H40007.HTM

The center mount for the control arms, the inner nuts, the large cam, and even those tabs/bolts in the first picture are there.

I think I may have just done this wrong? I found a huge adjustment wrench of some sort that works perfectly, however the cams seemed to be rusted in place. After loads of PB, a little help from a torch, and about an hour working on them, I had trouble turning the cam, but I was able to turn the smaller bolt, with what appears to be an indexing tab of some sort.

I turned the bolt, instead of the cam (turning the smaller bolt turned the cam, and I thought it would achieve the same results) I even did this with the control arm off the knuckle, to provide as little resistance as possible.

I lined up the passenger side indexing tab the same as the driver side, but now I look at the pictures again, and it looks like I screwed that up and went the wrong way.

How difficult should it be to rotate the adjusting cam when the control arm is unhooked? When I was trying to turn the cam itself, I had such a hard time, I tried the smaller bolt with the tab instead...

And this was with the larger nut (13/16 I believe) loosened half way.
 
#11 ·
That's not an indexing tab - that tab just holds the nut from spinning when you turn the bolt.

The large adjustment cam you're trying to turn is what adjusts the toe. Unfortunately, over time, it siezes up, as you've discovered, and AFAIK, the only way to fix it, if WD40 or PB doesn't work, is to replace that control arm. You shouldn't try to heat it, as you'll melt the rubber bushing in there.