I wanted to know who y'all recommend for an alignment that is going to require a little extra work. To be (somewhat) brief, the factory alignment specs for my car ('03 Mercury Marauder) are known to cause excess wear on the inside edges of the front tire. Some of the users on mercurymarauder.net have figured out optimal specs to remedy this. However, there is a "tab" or "flag" on one of the bolts that evidently has to be removed to get the camber to the desired specs, otherwise it's in the way and the cams won't go that far (which happened the last time I tried to get it aligned, the place said it couldn't go any farther than well short of those specs). Not sure why they are there in the first place... Evidently removal entails either using a torch, cut-off wheel, or cold chisel, making many places reluctant to do so. So if anyone knows of a good place for alignment that won't mind setting it outside of factory specs and will know what the hell I'm talking about...


I know I'm probably explaining it poorly, but it's discussed here: http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=45590

Factory camber spec is -.5 degrees or- .75 degrees
Factory toe spec is -.15 degrees or- .20 degrees

Recommended Camber: 0 to -.3 degrees.
Recommended Toe: Zero degrees.

7/15/2009 5:27:20 PM

gowers on south saunders st., best damn alignment guys in raleigh, and much cheaper than the national chain, high school dropout employing dumbasses

[Edited on July 15, 2009 at 7:37 PM. Reason : they do a lot of custom work on lowered cars/ lifted trucks, yours should be no problem]

7/15/2009 7:36:55 PM

I've got my marauder set on -.6 camber and +.10 total toe right now... so far the tires are wearing perfectly (~5k miles)... It was absolutely destroying the inside edges before at factory spec. I may look into this trick and cut the tabs on mine before i leave my job with access to an alignment rack.

Let me know how this turns out.

7/15/2009 9:57:35 PM

I don't have the paper handy at the moment but the last time I had it aligned, I think the farthest they could get the camber might have been -.7, not sure about the toe. You should see my driver's side front tire--inside is worn clear to the belts. I do have nearly 20k on those tires though...getting new tires tomorrow and will be aligning it either Friday or next week, I'll let you know how it turns out.

What type of tires are you running? Still have the BFG KDWs on the front and getting another set, but I've got 255/55 Kumho Ecsta STX out back because the damn 245/55 KDWs were sold out across the country last time I needed back tires. Unfortunately the STX doesn't come in 235/50 so I can't match.

[Edited on July 15, 2009 at 10:11 PM. Reason : oops]

7/15/2009 10:10:52 PM

I've got the KDWs on the front and some toyo proxes s/t (i think, too lazy to go confirm) on the back... 255/55 like you have.

7/17/2009 1:00:59 AM

take it to gowers

7/18/2009 9:18:50 PM

your alignment may be good

but it is lawful as well?

7/18/2009 9:20:26 PM

wtf are you talking about

7/18/2009 9:22:44 PM

is your alignment lawful good?

7/19/2009 1:50:19 AM

Brown's Alignment on Wake Forest/Atlantic.

7/19/2009 2:17:25 AM

Quote :

"take it to gowers"

7/19/2009 9:27:58 AM