mach1won

I have an 04 mach. Just bought it 4 months ago, I went to the track when I got it and when I launched my right rear shock snapped. Got a new one and I put my car on lift and noticed I had coil overs on rear. Replaced shock and my tires are now slanted in at top and wobbles when I get on it. Car is lowered but there are no lowering spring on rear control arm. I also replaced upper rear control arm housing bushings. Risk what to do!!!

mach1won

[QUOTE=mach1won;8338243]I have an 04 mach. Just bought it 4 months ago, I went to the track when I got it and when I launched my right rear shock snapped. Got a new one and I put my car on lift and noticed I had coil overs on rear. Replaced shock and my tires are now slanted in at top and wobbles when I get on it. Car is lowered but there are no lowering spring on rear control arm. I also replaced upper rear control arm housing bushings. Also I'm sure my rear is leaking a little bit of gear oil.

artdohc

Can you be a bit more specific?

Did you replace both shocks and springs in the rear, or just the shock on one side? If you replaced the shock on one side and it was a coil over, what did you do with the spring on at side? What coil overs where on the car? What shock/springs did you use?

It is VERY strange to have toe-in issues on the rear since you have a solid rear axle, you should likely not be driving the car until you determine the issue.

WJBertrand

With a solid rear axle it would be unlikely to have negative camber like that unless something is seriously bent, there's no adjustment for rear camber on a solid rear axle to my knowledge. The wobble could also indicate something's bent.

If you are judging this by comparing to the front, perhaps what you are seeing is too much positive camber (tops of the tires tilted out) at the front? I think you'll need to put her on an alignment machine to know for sure.

CaptainRon

its possible that whoever owned the car in the past changed out the rear control arms for adjustable ones since he had coil overs installed. Sound like whoever had it may have tracked the car instead of drag racing it.... That may explain being out of wack after putting in the new shocks... But still...... what happened to the springs in the coil overs? that is what holds your car up.... The coil over shocks replaced the original springs that it came with..

Norm Peterson

It is not odd at all for solid axles to have measurable amounts of both camber and toe. It is possible that at some point a different axle was swapped in that was either bent in an accident, or a previous owner intentionally bent the axle for running on road courses or at autocross.

I think we need a picture or two so we can see what's going on, at least enough so we can ask better questions. Breaking one shock should not generate toe or camber changes, so I suspect that the camber or toe was there when the car was purchased. Just not noticed and not mentioned by the seller.


Norm

WJBertrand

Gotta believe bending the axle would cause serious wear issues for the rear end. I had an old Ford Ranchero with a bent rear axle (due to overloading by the PO - my dad!) and the rear gears chewed themselves up in short order. Had the gears replaced and again they wore out quickly. It wasn't until after the second set of gears I realized the axle tube was bent. Ended up sourcing a replacement from a dismantler's yard and had no further problems.

Norm Peterson

Most stick axles will tolerate small amounts of camber and toe - maybe as much as 1° total on each side before the splines on the half shafts need to be barrel-ground so they won't bind in the side gears (likely what you were experiencing).

The rear axle on the 1979 Chevy Malibu I had up until a year or so ago measured out at -0.5° camber (both sides) and nearly 0.5° toe in on each as well. Got about 20 years and probably over 100,000 miles use out of it with no misalignment-induced problems whatsoever. Not even odd or excessive tire wear. This axle was from a dismantler as well - the car's original axle had spit one of the C-clips out of its groove, which then proceeded to tear things up pretty good. I was several hundred miles from home at the time, so I kind of had to take whatever axle the shop could come up with on short notice. I doubt the shop knew it wasn't zero camber and toe, and I know they wouldn't have guessed that it suited my driving a little better being bent that little bit (though to be perfectly picky I've since wished that all 0.7° of the misalignment had been camber and none of it toe).


Norm