Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Alignment Diagnosis

I finally have print-outs of alignment numbers from my rear-ended SVT contour.

These are essentially greek to me, although the inconsistent values, especially of the rear-right values where it was hit, are particularly unsettling. Can anyone decipher these for me? is it bad news? The car seems to be handling much better now.

Hopefully these will post in a readable format.

Thanks for the help (alignment data below)

Before
Front
Left Right
Camber -0.75* -0.88
Cross camber = 0.14*
Toe -0.15* -0.69*
Total toe = --.85*

Rear
Left Right
Camber -0.34* -0.74*
Cross camber = 0.40*
Toe -0.12* 0.22*
Total toe = 0.10*
Thrust Angle = -0.17*

After
Front
Left Right
Camber -0.83* -0.93*
Cross camber = 0.10*
Toe -0.09* -0.09*
Total toe = -0.17

Rear
Left Right
Camber 0.06* -0.30*
Cross camber = 0.35*
Toe 0.23* 0.20*
Total toe = 0.42*
Thrust angle = 0.01*

* = degree symbol

OK, I don't have the manual for the SVT, so the closest I have is the '96 SE (there are probably some differences). For camber (angle between the tops and bottom of the wheels) the range is about -.5 to +1.5 degrees, so you are probably in range. The rest of your numbers are very close (little difference) from left to right, so assuming that they were set to the right nominal values, it looks like a good alignment.
In the factory manual, the drive test is that it should take a car more than 7 seconds (at 55MPH) to drift from one 12ft wide lane into another. In FL you should have no trouble finding a flat, straight road to try this out on.

Brucer:

Thanks very much, I'll try the 7 second test tomorrow (it wouldn't have passed the 7/10 second test before the last alignment).

And yes there are almost too many flat straight-aways to test this on - the only trick is to find one without someone doing 10 under the limit just to annoy you.

Thanks again,

Ken in FL