Does anyone know the factory alignment specs for my GT, as well as the pinion angle? Thank you

 

Camber: -0.75°, ±0.75°, no more than 0.70° difference side to side . . . IOW, anywhere from 0.0° to -1.5° subject to the 0.70° maximum cross-camber limitation

Caster: +7.1°, ±0.75°, no more than 0.70° difference side to side . . . IOW, anywhere from 6.35° to 7.85° subject to the 0.70° maximum cross-caster limitation

Toe: 0.1°, ±0.2° . . . IOW, anywhere from 0.3° (toe in) to -0.1° (toe out)

I cannot find a pinion angle spec.


Norm

 

Thanks for the numbers! If you wanted to keep tire wear to a minimal while still being aggressive enough for spirited street driving (no autocross), would -.75 be fine or could I get away with -1.0 or so?

 

-0.75° is actually the factory-preferred camber, and you can take this to mean it's what Ford intends it to be for some average customer's driving. This at least considers the V6 and "regular GT" models (I'm not sure if this setting applies to the GT500 and other limited production versions or the newer Boss and Boss LS).

For spirited cornering but no autocross you'll be OK at -1°, with settings that are still further negative being do-able if your average cornering is hard enough to justify it. Given that most really serious autocrossing is associated with cambers out beyond -2° wherever it is legal to adjust it that far, there is some room to experiment. Just don't forget to check and reset toe if you do.

I'm being intentionally conservative here, as there is no real way for me to know how "spirited" anybody else's non-autocross driving tends to be, or what their mix of hard cornering vs really hard braking might be. Most average drivers rarely see 0.3 lateral g intentionally, 0.5 lateral g drives away from most other traffic, and maybe one driver in 10,000 that you encounter will still be keeping up with you at 0.7 lat-g. That's from some very informal and somewhat crude measurements I made a number of years ago, but it doesn't seem to have changed much since.


Let me suggest measuring your current cambers yourself just so you know where you're starting out at. There are several inexpensive DIY methods.


Norm

 

Thanks for the in-depth explanation! I am going to do a full suspension swap this winter, still buying parts at the moment, and was curious what alignment specs would be best. I suppose I will just keep it near factory since I'm doing nothing "extreme" and only lowering it 1" (not taking into consideration the lift from larger 27.8" tires.)

As for the pinion angle, I am doing the install myself and this is the only thing that concerns me because I have no prior experience and I bet replacing the lower and upper arms while lowering the car will throw it out of wack. I have a car lift and all the tools I need, but guess I need to invest in an angle finder and learn how to use it.