the outer tie rod end was tight but i didn't like the look of it so i ordered two new ones so i can replace them before alinement.

 

Good luck with your alignment. After my new rack recently, I have had mine done 4 times by 3 different shops. Still pulls to the right and they never toed it in correctly and at high speed it would float. I finally couldn't stand it and toed it in a little at a time every day,, test drive to work the next day, make another adjustment. Until I got it where I wanted it.
If I wear out the tires,, so be it.

 

I always look for a service center that uses equipment made by Hunter Engineering for their tire balance and alignment work. Tires can make a car pull to one side. For that new car ride, look for a location that has their GSP9700 road force system: https://www.hunter.com/gsp9700
It will make a difference and identify/reject problem tires.
The Hunter alignment systems are the best available - made in the USA and backed with factory training and support. Give it a try and you'll be hooked like I am. That new car ride is no accident.

 

When I was working at Ford, I had a chance to see two different examples of front end alignment. One as at the St. Louis plant where they were building the Panther cars (LTD and Marquis). The cars were driven onto an assembly where the front tires were turned in a jig. A worker adjusted the tie rods the tires stopped deflecting on that jig, and it was sent on to the next station. There were no adjustments made to caster or camber, even though they had the provisions. The toe adjustments were pretty coarse, which is why Ford's specs were very broad. If the car pulled to one side during test drives, the dealer would adjust it enough to make it stop.

The other example was at a test garage. I was working on my car when I saw a new pickup on the lift in the next stall, and a mechanic with a blow torch in one hand and hammer in the other. As he was pounding on something under the truck, sparks were flying every where. He was also doing a front end alignment, saying that's how it has to be done with the twin I-beams. I asked if he needed a rack to check the alignment. He says they come off the line so bad that you can get huge improvements just by eyeballing it, heating the beams with a torch, and then pounding it toward where it "looks" right.

The problem with the dealer just setting the toe to where it drives somewhat straight enough to sell the car is that it takes some time for bad alignment to show up in the form of tire wear. And tire wear is not covered under the basic warranty.

 

xlt4wd90, It was my understanding that if you complained while your vehicle was new, Ford would cover the cost of aligning it.

Have you had any exposure to the Hunter products I mentioned?

Their "Road Force Vibration Control System" = GSP9700 balancing system is in a high percentage of New Car dealer service garages. I had troubles with the balance on the Ford chassis under my motorhome as few years back. Ford had me take it to a facility equipped and willing to work on class A motorhomes where they used the GPS97000 following a TSB to test and balance the wheels and tires. They replaced 2 or 3 wheels and the same number of Goodyear's tires. The system measured the wheel and rejected it if it was out of spec. Same for the tires. If they had a hard spot on the tread surface, they were rejected.

Since then, I've searched for service location that had the GSP9700 for tire balancing. My Aerostar runs as smooth as a limo at all speeds since I had the tires balanced last time. I love the results!

 

When I went to auto tech school (many years ago ), we had a jig that would clamp on the twin-I beams to change the camber. It would adjust the Twin-I beam arms using a porta-power hydraulic system. One instructor hated Fords and would say "You are bending it" and the other instructor, a Ford lover, would say "You are straightening it".

 

I'm afraid I didn't pay attention to the brand of the alignment equipment in the Ford dealership. But I can be certain that it was under utilized. It's almost like if the car doesn't pull to one side, it's "good". In my case, it was on my 87 Mustang, the bad wear pattern didn't show up until about a year into ownership. But Ford would claim it's "normal" wear.

I once had some fancy "micro" balancing done on tires on the Mustang where they shaved off parts of the tread, but I didn't notice any difference in ride or handling feel.

One time last year I was driving the Aerostar, and noticed the ride was kind of rough. I thought maybe I needed to check the tire balance the next opportunity I had. But I was some 20 miles away from home on the freeway when the rumbling started, and very quickly, the tread on one of the rear tires decided to leave the carcass. That's when I went to the bigger Explorer wheels and new tires, and they do ride smooth now.