Alignment drift?

Ok original poster here again, I'll try to clear up some confusion.
1. The car does not have a "lift and stay" problem like the one in the linked story. The lifting is slight when accelerating and returns to normal when you back off the throttle. The tires squealing and darting when accelerating was a recent development discovered while test driving after replacing the wheel bearing. This condition may have been present before and I didn't notice during my brief drives in the car.

2. All front suspension parts save the springs were new less than 15k miles ago. And I describe them as "tight" as opposed to loose. Not binding. And yes, they are after market made who knows where. But the still seem to be holding up fine.

3. The steering box was rebuilt by a reputable shop at the same time and still works properly. I do have a slight amount of play between the box and it's connection to the Flaming River tilt column. Very slight.

4. The 1/2" toe in change I observed was when the car was lifted well over what I believe would be a normal driving condition unless you hit a big bump. I was just trying to see which direction the tires were going so I could add some toe adjustment in the other direction. My crude measurements were made with a tape a given distance from the floor at the edge of a tread groove.

5. The unibody structure is sound. No shock tower cracks. The guy who did the body/paint work was impressed buy it's lack of rust and collision damage. Although the core support has been replaced sometime in it's life. I'm thinking a shock tower support might be a good idea to help it maintain an alignment.

I'm not confident this thing has ever really had decent alignment. The last one seemed to be fine until I did my test drive mentioned above. I had my wife take it back to the same shop to get it checked but the old timer that did it wasn't there. They bailed out on me saying I had play in the steering box. BS! The box is fine, I think the youngster there didn't know what to do with it. They didn't even put the alignment heads on the wheels. Sent her home and called me to say the box is bad. I plan to return personally tomorrow and at least get it checked (if the old guy is there).

Just for history's sake here are the alignment specs from the past. Needless to say these numbers are only as good as the last rack calibration and the set up by the garage monkey.

1st
left camber -.10 deg
right camber -.10 deg

left caster -2.00 deg
right caster -1.70 deg

left toe +.05"
right toe +.06"

2nd (after discovering and replacing the bad strut rod bushings and noticing inner tire edge wear/scuffing)

Before
left camber +.20 deg
right camber -.80 deg

left caster -2.10 deg
right caster -1.50 deg

left toe -.32"
right toe -.15"

After
left camber -.00 deg
right camber -.00 deg

left caster -1.90 deg
right caster -1.00 deg

left toe +.03"
right toe +.04"

3rd (still noticing inner tire edge wear/scuffing)

Before
left camber -.40 deg
right camber .40 deg

left caster -2.60 deg
right caster -1.60 deg

left toe -.37"
right toe -.13"

After
left camber -.30 deg
right camber .30 deg

left caster -2.60 deg
right caster -1.60 deg

left toe .06 deg
right toe .22 deg

the car handled better and appeared to have better tire wear after this.


Shop manual specs
camber -.50 to +1.00 deg (+.25 desired)

caster -1.00 to +1.00 deg (0 desired)

toe .125 to .375" (.25" desired)

So at this point I've dialed back the toe in 1/4 turn on each wheel after a few trial and error runs to eliminate the squeal when accelerating. Not sure of the actual measurement without the proper tools. The tires have a negative cambered stance now where before they didn't. I'm going to start hunting for a shop that can provide a more comprehensive alignment instead of the flat rate your outta here approach. If the diagnosis still points to tie rod issues I'll see about getting some adjustable ones.