I dearly love the Aerostar but I finally found something to complain about. After all these years driving, I finally had a flat tire. I mean FLAT! As in ripping the sidewall open on an old reflector post hidden in the roadside weeds. BOOM! Down on the ground NOW - stop or destroy your rim. This 91 has a cute little scissor jack and even cuter folding jack winder. The jacking point on the rear is under the coil spring pan. The jack is made to fit nicely inside the pan. Only trouble is the jack will only go under the pan WHEN THE TIRE IS FULLY INFLATED! When the tire is flat, there is no way to get that jack under there. It fit just real nice under the other inflated tire where you don't need it. What a sick joke! It doesn't go low enough to fit under the pan and yet doesn't go up high enough to reach any other point such as the axle or suspension mount. (And yes, I had it fully retracted.) I finally inched over from the asphalt onto a grassy area and dug a hole to get the jack under the pan. Since the winder is only about 12" long, you have to get down in the dirt, sand briars and broken glass on your back to operate the tiny crank. My efforts were rewarded by the winder twisting the rivet joint apart - so that now, I had two little cute pieces, each 6 inches long. The jack is brand new for all intents and purposes -never used before. Even if the handle had been one solid piece, there was just no way that jack would even begin to lift the rear wheel. God forbid you should have to lift one of the front end tires. Luckily, there was farm COOP store nearby that did mobile repair work. Moral of this story: This jack may be nimble and this jack may be quick, but this little jack could'nt lift up a brick.

 

Ford must have moved the jacking points on newer Aerostars. On my 1988 Aerostar, the factory sissors jack and folding handle worked like a charm when the LR tire picked up a nail and went flat. The jacking points on my '88 are on the frame rails just ahead of the rear wheel wells and just behind the front wheel wells, depending on which tire needs changing. These points are shown in the owners manual, but where pretty easy to figure out by looking at the frame.

-Mark

 

On my 93 the lift points are behind the front wheel on the frame & forward of the rear wheels on the frame like the 88.

 

 

yes, my jack is a paperweight now too. i got a flat on the passenger side rear. the scissor jack is a joke! the handle for it is even worse! the worst part was when i almost had the van all the way up, the jack folded like a taco shell and got STUCK between the body bead and the flat tire!

I felt like a total and complete moron having the tow truck dude come to change my tire for me.

so, I got a craftsman floor jack in a case from sears for 20 bucks.

 

I agree! You guys are right on. When I first purchased my Aerostar (1987) I thought I had the wrong jack. Luckily, it was a warm, sunny Saturday morning in the comfort of my own driveway. I pitched the factory jack, and purchased a 5-ton bottle jack i store under the passenger seat, with a small 4X4 block of wood, for it's base. The jack will lift front and rear cornors of the van, easily. Under the front seat, I keep a 4-point star spinner wrench to remove the lugs nuts, and a small plastic wheel chock to keep the Aerostar from rolling. I kept the original jack handle to remove the factory "star" hubcap, took the original jack out of it's jack storage compartment behind the driver's side rear wheelwheel. Lastly, every so often, check your space saver spare tire. When washing the van one day, i happened to feel the spare tire, and it was soft, and flat. I had it repaired at America's Tire Company (where I last purchased four P215 75 R14 tires from them) and they were nice enough to fix the space saver spare for free, even though it's not one of their products) When I am at home, I forget all of those jacks, and use my trusty black 3 ton Craftsman floor jack. Once the jack engages the Aerostar's lift point, one pump of the handle, and the tire has 6" of daylight under it. Now that is a man's jack!! haha Ed

 

One more thing. I had responded to a previous post somewhere, concerning tire wear on the passenger side, RF tire, which my van experiences over time. When lifting this tire off the ground, it noticeably curls in, in a "toe in" condition. Do any of you notice the same thing on your Aerostars? The van run straight at 65-70 mph, steering wheel is centered, no pulling to the left or right if you take your hands off of the steering wheel at freeway speeds. But the RF tire shows wear only on it's outside edge (LF driver's side wears normal) but if I don't rotate the tires every 5,000-6000 miles, the RF tire will not last. 3/4 of the tread patch looks normal, the outside edge worn smooth and bald, with the prior tires I had on the van (Firestone FR-440's WW P215 70R14), which I replaced with a little taller tire, P215 75 R14 White Walls. Replaced front shocks, tie-rod ends, with an alignment about 15K ago, and it did not help the RF tire wear problem on my Aerostar. Anybody have an idea or a suggestion if you have experienced a similar wear issue with your Aerostar? Thank You, I'll look forward to any comments from my Aerostar Authority fellow owners.

 

im not good with alignment questions. i usually go to the cheapest place advertising and get it done. mine did that too. alignment cured it. but after an alignment your van always feels different. like its a different van. and you have to re-learn its driving style.

 

Ed,

Do you purchance make a lot of fast left hand turns? Most American cars have poor suspension designs that have this kind of behavior. The problem is that as the front suspension compresses, the wheel goes into positive camber, which causes the tire to roll toward its outside edge. This is called a positive camber curve. Since most people take left turns faster than right turns, the right front tire suffers the most.

A simple patch is to try to adjust the alignment for zero static camber and as much positive caster as possible.

The real fix would require repositioning the upper control arms to a lower mounting point so that they are horizontal, or slanting up and out, instead of slanting down and out, at static ride height. This also requires moving the upper ball joints to accommodate the new mounting angle. This will create a negative camber curve with suspension compression, which will force the outside tire tread on the ground while turning. This helps with traction around turns, and makes the tires wear more evenly.

 

The right Front wears faster cause the way roads are layed. They have off camber for drainage. Also the right front has to deal with drain opens next to curves. Same reason the right shocks will start to sag faster.

 

Muffinman,

That is a good point about crowned roads. Such roads will cause the van to pull to the right. I also noticed that most driving surfaces around here that are like that are on city streets. Ed was saying that his van tracks straight on the highway at 60-70 mph. Around here, the highways are pretty flat, so most cars will track pretty straight, Also what he said about the tires toeing-in when jacked up indicates that the tie rod is not parallel to the lower control arm. This is called bump-steer, and is also a characteristic of the suspension design.

Also, shocks usually do not determine the ride height, or sag, of the suspension, but the springs do. But the wear can occur to both from the same things, as you said.

 

xlt4wd90, a great suggestion on your #9 post. I have never thought about it, in all honesty. Actually, I am a very easy driver with my Aerostar. I do not drive it hard at all, stops are smooth and planned (Unlike some relatives, who brake hard at the last moment. As a passenger, i find myself pushing my right foot to the floorboard, gently) I honesty don't take turns hard, the most I can think of, is when exiting the freeway when you hit the offramp at a good clip of speed, or when accelerating to an on-ramp that is curved. Even though your suggestion is excellent, with the age of my Aerostar ('87) I guess it wouldnot be cost effieient to do the suspension work you described. If the van pulled hard to the right or left, then I would consider that a safety issue. However, the van tracks straight at freeway speed. Also, a lot of the freeways here in NoCal have grooves cut out in the pavement to channel the water better when it rains (less water on the pavement, and it dries faster because the traffic acts like a squeegee to get rid of the water) But like I said, the driver side tire lifts up normal when it comes off of the ground. the passenger side tucks under, when the suspension is hanging. Not bad, but somewhat noticeable. I keep the tires at max psi (35 lbs) of what it says on the tire sidewall. I'm just trying to lower the rolling resistance for maximum MPG with the high cost of gasoline. I wonder if lowering the PSI in the front tires to say, 28-30 PSI would help? Not cure the wear issue, but help it...I'm not sure.

 

Hi Ed,

I mentioned the fast lefts because that happened to my Mustang when it was new; the right front tire wore out its edges much faster than the left front. But I was taking left turns fast.

If one side of the suspension is behaving differently from the other, I'd look for damage or severe component wear on one side. I don't believe Ford would install asymetrical parts on these vans. As someone mentioned on this list, some times it's not easy to see suspension parts that are really worn.

 

The jack in my '92 Aerostar works like a charm. However, I much prefer the ease of use with bottle jacks. I will probably put a bottle jack in the compartment for the stock jack, and leave the jug wrench in there.