What can cause rear axle to be offcenter!!!

[bloopbloob]

i've never noticed this before, but with my new wider tires i do. my rear tire sits just inside the drivers side fender, but the passenger side rear tire sticks out almost an inch past the fender. what could this be???? bad body panels? (they look fine, all original paint etc, even gap), could my rear axel be offcenter? i also noticed that when i installed my new quad shocks, i had to cut the cover off the drivers side quad to keep it from rubbing the tire, but the passenger side tire had about 1/4" of gap. don't know if that means anything, since the mounting points are welded directly to the axle... but thought i'd add that too. any ideas?

 

[QUICK91LX]

check condition of your torque boxes (especially uppers) and control arms/bushings. your control arms are what locate the rear, and its not all that hard to rip the torque boxes out of these cars...a little tweak here or there can cause an issue

 

[TT91]

Its a ford.....youll need a panhard bar to sqaure it off.

 

[bloopbloob]

i routinely check the torque boxes, they look good. upper and lower CA's look good, but i will be replacing them in the near future. would adjustables be able to help with this problem? what kind of issues does this create? i don't notice any driveability problems, except that my right wheel gets hop sometimes, but i think that was because of my quads being toast. just put on new ones. no burnouts since though. the tires seems square with the car still, just shifted over maybe an inch or so...

Its a ford.....youll need a panhard bar to sqaure it off.

so are u saying this can be a fairly common issue with these cars??

what can i measure off of to find out if somethings off in the drivetrain, rather than just eyeballing it?

 

[bottlfed92]

Mines off center, lightly. Without measuring, I would say about 3/16" more to one side.

 

[wythors]

This is a very common situation on both Fox and SN95 cars that becomes more noticable when you put wide tires on them. My wife's 96 is the same way, though offset about a half inch to the left. I've never measured my 93. A trailing arm set-up like these cars have is to blame. The Panhard bar comment is probably accurate if you're hugely concerned about it.

 

[QUICK91LX]

now that you mention it, my 97 cobra was the same as you mention about your wife's 96, whythors. just slightly over to the drivers side. my 03 GT with a panhard bar, however was dead-nuts perfect. its just very easy for the control arms to flex and move. hold a broomstick horizontally straight out in front of you with both hands. you have good up and down control of it, but if someone comes up and pushes on the broomstick from the side, suddenly you're all out of alignment. same principle with our axles/control arms. the panhard bar would hold everything together straight.

 

[TT91]

You can measure from any point on the axle to the frame rails. Dont measure to the body, because thats not straight either.....Remember..Its Ford, not Ferrari.

 

[wythors]

Remember..Its Ford, not Ferrari.

You have no idea what you're talking about!!!

 

[88GTStreetRod]

Mine is the same way, just chalked it up to worn out upper and lower bushings.