560SEL drifts to the right

[falconsprint]

My 89 560SEL drifts to the right. Not a lot, but enough that I always feel that I'm compensating with the steering. It's been that way since I had it aligned in Feb 06. Recently I noticed increased wear on the outside of the front left tire. Again, not serious but noticable. I took it back to the same alignment shop (a place in bay areas that specializes in alignments). They said that the alignment hasn't changed since Feb 06 and that it is correct and the car shouldn't drift. They claimed it must be "a tire problem" and suggested I rotated the tire. The tires I have are directional so I wasn't able to do a true rotation, just front to back. No change after the rotation.

(left is the first column, right is the second column)
Caster 9.5 10.7
Camber -0.4 -0.4
Toe 1/16" 1/16"
Toe Total 1/8"
Rear Toe 1/32 1/16
SAI 11.8 11.9
Included Angle 11.5 11.3
Setback Front -0.3
Setback Rear 0.0
Track Width Diff 1.6"
Wheel Base Diff -0.3"

FYI, the left caster rod is at its minimum (shortest). The right rod has two turns to go.

They also did a Hunter GSP9700 balancing on all 4 tires and the report says the tires should have -2lb net pull (to the left). I've never seen this kind of analysis before so I'm not sure its significance.

Any experts on this forum that can interputt these numbers? I know about roads having a crown for water runoff but the tire wear seam to indicate that it is more than that. Also, other cars I've driven have tracked better. Thanks
~Dave

[t walgamuth]

have you checked to see if it pulls left if you drive on the left side of the road?

the pull to the low side of the crown is startling.

i dont know about the wear on the tire. if it is wearing only on the outside of the left front and the rf is fine i would suspect too much positive camber on the lf.

i dont know if that could make it pull right or not. the air pressure is correct in both front tires?

tom w

[dpkreuze]

Friend,
Walk around with a tape measure and get yourself a crude idea of the ride height on a level surface. You should measure straight up the wheel center from pavement to fender. I think 1/2" is too much.
G'luck,
dpk

[falconsprint]

dpk, I just measured the car on a nearly level spot. I'll try to find something perfectly level later. The left front is at 26 5/8", the right is 27 1/4". Interesting, but doesn't the alignment shop measure the camber with the car sitting on the ground? Wouldn't their adjustments be correct regardless of fender height?

How do I get the car to sit level? Is it time to replace front springs (car as 152K miles).
~Dave

[falconsprint]

Does anybody know if the steering box on this car self-centers? I suppose I can test this by raising both front wheels off the ground and running the engine. If it does and the steering box is not centered on the right spot when they did the alignment could it be pushing the car off line?