I am fairly new to the forum now, but most of my time has been spent in the GM posts. Anyhow my girlfriend has a 1995 Ford Explorer with a 4.0 in it. Pretty common I guess right? Anyhow I was wondering if anyone has replaced the upper balljoints and control arms as I have. Let me fill in some more information which will lead to my question. She had the tie end rods and lower ball joints replaced and the front end aligned a while back. Well since then the uppser ball joints went to crap so I replaced them and the upper control arms since tehy are all one piece from the factory. After doing so the front end was tighter and handles better and does not pull. So my question is this. Should I have the front end aligned? It doesn't seem to be wearing the tires... well some times it seems like it does, but just very slightly and other times it doe snot seem like it. So should I have it aligned or not?

from the factory the upper armsuse long bolts and shims.the long bolts that go through have locking shims to hold the arms in place on the side with nuts. Theyget removed and oval shaped shims are put in that look like the onesattached tothe long bolts. camber and caster adjusments are done using them. I would reccomend to get it aligned because new parts will effect camber and caster which will also effect toe adjustment causing premature tire wear.

The thing is the tires do not seem to be wearing. It just looks like the normal wear and tear from turning and such. I mean before I changed out the upper control arms and ball joints itreally worethe inner edge of the drivers side tire and the passengers side tire was worn, but not nearly to the extreme as the drivers side. So now they are on the rear of the Explorer. I just have them balanced every now and then to help prevent the drivers reartire from vibrating or hopping. I really need to buy new tires, but I am waiting to buy all 4. And I am waiting to see how bad it is wearing the front tires now. It has been going on roughly 2 months and like I said just the normal wear.The ones on the rear are not shot completely... just worn. Time will tell.[&:]