Aligned into oblivion

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69conv

69conv

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So I raised the torsion bars to gain ground clearance, and the front end was wandering, so I took the car to an experienced shop. My $69 alignment turned into an $800 front end rebuild. I went to pick up the car and he told me he got everything aligned, but I would need to get a spacer for the drivers side. When I got the car home I found the drivers wheel rubbed the upper ball joint, so I got a spacer for it. When I took it for a spin I discovered the passenger tire was so far forward in the wheel well it rubbed the fender. So my question is did I take it to a bunch of yahoos and I look for another shop, do I take it back and give them another crack, can I adjust something at home and enjoy the car. Whacha think?

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Let me get this straight. You spent $800 for a front end rebuild and alignment, which resulted in your wheels rubbing on your ball joints. The shop didn’t explain WHY that was happening, or what to do to fix it. They then sent you home with your passenger tire set up in such a way that it rubs on your fender.

There’s no way in hell you should go back to that shop. Not only are they crooks, they’re completely incompetent to the point of being dangerous.
 
Talk to your buddy’s see who they use and trust I would make a point to talk to the owner of the shop and explain your experience at least, possibly get some money back ,if it’s a retuble shop they will try and make you happy .let us know it works out.
 
72bluNblu said:
Let me get this straight. You spent $800 for a front end rebuild and alignment, which resulted in your wheels rubbing on your ball joints. The shop didn’t explain WHY that was happening, or what to do to fix it. They then sent you home with your passenger tire set up in such a way that it rubs on your fender.

There’s no way in hell you should go back to that shop. Not only are they crooks, they’re completely incompetent to the point of being dangerous.
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I hope theres a way to get some or all of your money back that sucks:elmer:
 
Agree w above, would find another shop. Still curious though, to figure out where they went wrong , what did they replace, did you up your tire/ size ? What size ? Good luck with it, looks good
 
There’s absolutely no way I’d let anyone in that shop touch my car again. Not a chance, even if it meant kissing that $800 goodbye.

If they identified that the wheels were rubbing on the ball joints, they needed to fix that problem before they let you drive away. Even if that just meant installing a spacer. That’s the wrong answer here, because that shouldn’t be an issue with the right parts. If the ball joints are rubbing on those rallye wheels they used the wrong parts or the alignment isn’t right, because the odds of those rallye wheels having that much backspace are pretty slim.

Do you know what you have for suspension components, brakes and your tire and rim specs?
 
I did put 15" wheels and tires on but been driving it for months with no clearance issues. They did left ball joint (not the side rubbing) strut rod bushings and alignment. They also stripped the torsion bar saddle bolt and charged me $65 to replace. Theres a note on the bill "*front tire rub during turns. Wheel spacer to correct." $863.20.
 
Wouldn't adjustable UCAs solve all your problems?? That's what I used on my Barracuda when I raised it up. Gives you tons of adjustment in all directions.

Treblig
 
69conv said:
I did put 15" wheels and tires on but been driving it for months with no clearance issues. They did left ball joint (not the side rubbing) strut rod bushings and alignment. They also stripped the torsion bar saddle bolt and charged me $65 to replace. Theres a note on the bill "*front tire rub during turns. Wheel spacer to correct." $863.20.
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69conv said:
Original drum brakes.
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There's no way you should have ball joint interference with 15" rims. I'm assuming those aren't custom backspace 15" rims, which means they shouldn't even be close to rubbing on the ball joints unless something is seriously wrong.

Do you know the exact specs on the rims? Width and backspace? What size are the tires?

And did they even tell you what the alignment numbers were?

Treblig said:
Wouldn't adjustable UCAs solve all your problems?? That's what I used on my Barracuda when I raised it up. Gives you tons of adjustment in all directions.

Treblig
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No, adjustable UCA's do not solve all problems. And worse than that, if the rest of the suspension parts aren't installed properly, you'd just be using them to hide other problems. This thing needs to be sorted out before he starts throwing more parts at it. That car isn't even really sitting up all that high in the front.
 
Sorry to hear...ugh. Moron shop IMO
$800+ to replace 1 ball joint, strut rod bushings & alignment? And they send you out with the car not right!! :soapbox:

Do you have a printout you can post?
 
I would think twice about driving it too far before getting another shop to look at it.
Something to consider,dont badmouth the competition,let the shop owner start it. If you go in ranting how the other shop effed up,he may not want to touch it.
On that note,tell them you need it checked,as you dont trust what the other shop did.
Go in with a level head, make sure anything he finds is documented, then go after the other shop.

I have a good alignment shop nearby,the young lad takes his work seriously and did an awesome job on my nissan. Rear was out after i did a wheel bearing.
He likes the old stuff so i should have little trouble getting it close.
 
This is why I do my own at home!

Unless the shop will allow me to participate it will always be string aligned!
 
Well IDK, I was a tech for nearly 6 years,and,at the shop I was working at, a TireShop, we rarely scheduled an inspection and an alignment on the same day.....because when a car comes in for an alignment, it is almost always because something is wrong, and it's gonna take parts to make it right.
It only takes a few minutes to do an inspection. As soon as I knew what was what, you would have got the report, and you would not even have received a bill. If you were still in the waiting area, we would have gone over the car together. Then you would have had the chance to stop the work, knowing ahead of time, what the bill was gonna come to. So these 15 or 20 minutes, are spent in building a relationship of trust. Yes we want your money, that's why we're in business. But we're not in business to rip you off......... cuz we want you to come back year after year, and your kids too, and all your friends, and relatives. Tires wear out about every two years,maybe three on a good alignment. We know you are gonna be a hostage to a tireshop somewhere/sometime, and we'd like to be the one, year after year. So if we have to give up 20 minutes on the meet and great, it's no big thing in the bigger picture.

The tires rubbing on the front corners is common after a certain tire diameter goes onto a certain wheel offset, and that is easy to foresee, so you would have had a chance to authorize changes.

And bytheby, I can't recall if I've ever changed just one strut bushing (or just one LCA bushing for that matter). That's just about guaranteed to come back and bite me.
 
You might check with your credit card company and see if they can go to bat for you.
 
Sounds like one strut rods too tight bringing it into the fender.
Problem with these people is they don't put it back in the way it came out and sometimes they don't even have the right alignment specs to align it, occasionally using some later year.

I had a shop do my 71 swinger one time the only time I ever had a shop do it. They installed the torsion bars with the arms hanging so low... That when it was on the ground the adjuster bolts were sticking out the bottom. The bars didn't even seat all the way to the lower control and were backing out.

In the end they refunded my money but had me sign a waiver. I re did it myself in the driveway....and after how easy it was, i kicked myself for not doing it the first time.
 
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agree with above if that is the side they changed the strut bushing on

agree factory wheels should not run on ball joints, however, I see that they are chrome, which suggests they may be custom spaced.

one ball joint, one bushing, neither correct, and an alignment that should never have been done until the other issues were taken care of correctly...for $800 NO WAY.
 
$450 to do strut rod bushings........................:eek: Any set I ever did had a sleeve so there was no fore/aft adjustment. If the BJ is rubbing the wheel it might not be seated all the way down in the UCA.
 
You need to jump in a different car and drive to a lawyers office, end of story.

And I would not take the car back to that shop. Let someone else roll their eyes while they fix whatever the first shop did.
 
Maybe they left the sleeve out.
 
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