Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

Could someone explain how toe in can vary from side to side??? Is this spec taken with steering wheel straight ahead??

Traveling down the road IF there is say 1* on left & 0* on right, it will divide itself out to ½* on each side, yes the steering wheel will be slightly off center...

total toe is what you explained, where 1 degree on one isde and 0 degree on the other would divide itself , and the steering wheel would compensate by being off.

but the reason that toe looks off more on one side vs the other is that most alignments require a caster sweep, where you turn the steering 10 degrees to the left, 10 degrees to the right, and then center it from those specs. most modern machines use triangulation to measure how much needs to be taken out of each side.

Had the alignment on my 87 T-Bird checked today and the readings the Shop gave me are wacky and the reason they gave me for these values was the ball joints were bad and they wanted $450 to do the repair.

wow,  those specs look nasty.  ( i do alignments )

your camber being so far out on the left side is causing your pull to the left.

I will say that a bad set of ball joints could cause the specs to be so far out.  I would check them, both for in/out movement, and for up/down movement, using a bar, while supporting the lower control arm. I would have asked the shop to show you the play in the ball joints, any reputable shop will gladly show you the bad parts, as a way to verify they aren't trying to screw you over.  At least that's how it is here.  I gladly welcome to show my customers why I'm suggesting that they let me put in parts.

Got around to looking under the car at both ball joints. This "so called" alignment shop was just trying to rip me off. Both ball joints still had grease from the last lube all over the under side of the joints. Going by how the Ford Manual says to check for wear they would of had to wipe the grease off to see the Wear Indicators. Both indicators stuck out and measured near new. Tell me if Ford is wrong in how to check for ball joint wear.

You should lift the wheel by placing a jack under the spring cup so that the suspension remains loaded, get an inch or so of air between the tire and the ground.  Grasp the front of the wheel and try to wobble it in and out.  Any play you find here will be attributed to the inner or outer tie rod ends.  Using a long prybar, place one end under the wheel on the ground, and using the grounded end as a fulcrum, push up on the bar.  You're watching for the wheel to move up and down, specifically the lower balljoint, so you may want an assistant to work the prybar while you watch the joint.  Technically, there is an allowable amount of play here, but it's small and a dial indicator is required to measure it.  Personally, I consider ANY play to be indicative of failure.