Re: Front End Alignment
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Re: Front End Alignment




here's some more stuff on wheel alignment.

for radial tires the specs are normally quite close to 0 camber and 0 caster (aka a neutral alignment. ) to check take a small plum bob or make one with a heavy washer and a piece of string. With the wheels straight ahead hang the string and bob over the fender so the string passes through the centre of the wheel. When it stops swinging measure the distance from the string to the top side of the wheel rim and then from the string to the bottom side of the wheel rim. In real life the top measurement should be just slightly shorter than the bottom measurement . About 1/8 of an inch which gives the car just a slight amount of Posotive camber and helps put a bit more load on the inner wheel bearing which is larger on our cars. Anything from that to both exactly the same would be "in specs" so to speak. Next with the wheels still straight ahead hold the string to the bolt of the upper ball joint . the washer or bob should be almost centered over the bolt for the bottom ball joint. That would be 0 degrees. If it is forward it would be neg caster and if it is behind it would be positive caster.

 rule of thumb

When i am standing facing the front of my car anything coming towards me (from front to back or from the side) is negative (Caster Camber) anything going away from me is postive (Caster . camber ) It makes sense of you think about it . "if i am standing in front of a car anything coming towards me is negative. " hard to forget.

And now a short note for those who have already said i think it would be a lot better getting it lined up on a modern computer ized alignment machine. (which never has your 62 to 65 alignment specs init anyway and may have been dropped five times that week alone and could be seriously out of calibration from ther drops and abuse) let me assure you that i can absolutley guarantee that the bob weight is hanging exactly at 0 degrees. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Other than that there is Radial tire pull. a very v common problem and the previous recommendations a bout swapping the tire side to side is standard check for this. Also rear axle steer if the springs are severly arched is possible as the spring gets longer as it is compressed flatter which can move the position of the rear axle. other than that there os no magic no phantom stuff. assuming the front end is in good condition . I have seen a siezed shocjk hold a car out of alignement but that is rare. Measure also to see the wheelbase is the same both side of the car. Short side always pulls. infact the condition is known as short side pull and was used by some aligmnment guy including me to offset for the tendancy of the crown of the road to pull the car slighty toward the ditch as you drove. By puttng a 1/2 degree + caster in the drivers side that made that side just a wee bit shorter and would hold the car straight even on a crown road.
Don
Author of
Return to Deutschland (True Adventure)
Old Reliable (Mopar)
http://stores.ebay.ca/Don-Dulmage-Enterprises
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Schuyler 62 Dodge Dart 440 wagon w/ Poly 318
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On Aug 5, 2009, at 8:03 AM, Ollie wrote:



Its hard to find a front end man that knows what he is doing on our cars. After much searching I was lucky to find one. Older fellar like us. You need to work everything in tandom. Height adj and camber and castor adj. He has a old front end machine and does it all by hand measurements not computer.
Ollie
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