lowering springs = terrible camber

[CamMan02]

the previous owner of my MM put eibach lowering springs on the front and gave me larger wheels for the car as well. with the two combined, the camber on the front wheels is ridiculous. i was wondering if anyone knows of any camber kits, shims, or fixes to this problem as i know the eibach springs are somewhat popular amongst MM owners. also, the larger wheels make the steering wheel shake even worse! i believe they have crapped out the wheel bearings so now i'm looking at getting balls-deep on the front end to fix this problem. (i'll keep a running tally on how many responses include "put the stock wheels/springs back on!!!") but thats not the solution i'm looking for..

any other suggestions?

[ctrlraven]

If you still want the lowered look up front, get a set of OEM front springs and have 3/4 to 1 full coil cut off from them, that is what most of us do instead of install eibach crap.
I'd get new struts also just to be safe, also here is a link to the specs for the correction for the alignment on the car to help cut down on the wear of the inside of the tires.
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/34/sort/2/cat/19/page/1

[GetMeMyStogie]

Well, the first thing to check is that the alignment "eccentrics" have had their flags removed (search for "remove flag" to find posts and pictures of what I'm referring to). If the flags are still present, you should probably have them removed before getting your MM re-aligned to specs recommended by "carfixer"(again, search for "carfixer" for more details).
Finally, the size of the wheels has no bearing on how much shake you'll get at certain speeds. Shake is caused by wheel imbalance, plain and simple. If you got shake, you've got one or more wheels that need to be re-balanced (oh yeah, bad wheel bearings can probably cause some shake too - but if the bearings are shot, steering wheel shake is not your biggest problem).

[RR|Suki]

The same thing happens with the stock springs, doing a search will give you tons of topics on the inner tire issues, and the steering vibration issues as well. Good luck, have fun.

[CamMan02]

well i figured a larger and more importantly, much heavier set of wheels would increase the problem and the amount of reverb coming through the steering wheel. and yes i also considered inner tire issues. i'll have them re-balanced tomorrow and a full alignment with the noted specs (very helpful) and see if that doesn't solve the problem.. if not.. it's on to tearing into wheel bearings and such. i'm not exactly sure what makes the eibach springs crap as i didn't exactly choose to put them on.. but maybe i'll look more into that as well

[Kennyrauder]

Look my friends, if you want a lowered look for your front end, just get rid of the air bags in the rear suspension. Go with the HD Highway Patrol rear coil springs. My marauder looks great & handles the same after I lost the air suspension compressor at 40K. No front end Crap to worry about either. $150.00 bucks fixes your problem+ a front end alignment.

[SpartaPerformance]

well i figured a larger and more importantly, much heavier set of wheels.....

I would say get rid of the wheels, I hate aftermarket wheel due to the fact they are not made specifically for your vehicle. They may have different offset and/or backspacing that can prematurely wear out bearings cause alignment, tracking, ride and, braking issues.

[musclemerc]

well i figured a larger and more importantly, much heavier set of wheels would increase the problem and the amount of reverb coming through the steering wheel. and yes i also considered inner tire issues. i'll have them re-balanced tomorrow and a full alignment with the noted specs (very helpful) and see if that doesn't solve the problem.. if not.. it's on to tearing into wheel bearings and such. i'm not exactly sure what makes the eibach springs crap as i didn't exactly choose to put them on.. but maybe i'll look more into that as well

If i'm right our cars have hubs in the front and the bearings are non replacable. You just swap the entire hub ,the bearings ,lugs, and speed sensors are all in one unit.

[FordNut]

For the vibration: Road Force Balancing.
For the inner tire wear: Carfixer's Alignment Specs
For the pogo stick ride: Eibach Delete, either Cut Stockers or the Naake Adjustable Fronts

[ctrlraven]

Eibach suck because their lowered springs don't have enough spring rate to handle our car unlike the stock or even 1-coil cut stock springs have.

The previous owner of my 89 5.0 installed Eibach springs on car but they were the least drop amount so the ride is not too harsh and I added fully adjustable shocks all around.

[RR|Suki]

Maybe you guys are just fat :P I've never had ride issues with the Eibachs, been running em 4 years or so :run:

[RF Overlord]

^^^what FordNut said^^^

Increased steering-wheel shake may not be the fault of the larger wheels OR the balancing, it may be hard spots on the tires. I had the same effect with the stock rims after installing new stock tires and a Road Force balance showed that one of the new tires had a hard spot. I got a replacement new tire and all was well.