i just had a friend of mine who is currently out of work replace my front end new control arm shafts,ball joints anll new bushings, center link, tie rods and ends,coil springs, everything that could have been replaced was. I brought the car to sears to have the front end alignment done and they told me they couldn't get it in spec. because there wasn't enough room on the studs for shims and the rod ends were butted up against each other on one wheel below is the print out they gave me, the car drives fairly straight right now but i would like to know how this can be corrected and what would be the problem driving it as is until i can get it corrected Thanks Chris front left front right actual spec range actual spec range -1.8 deg 0 deg 1.0 deg camber -1.4 deg 0 deg 1.0 deg -1.0 deg -1.0 deg 0.0 deg caster -0.3 deg -1.0 deg 0.0 deg 0.25 deg 0.13 deg 0.25 deg toe 0.16 deg 0.13 deg 0.25 deg FRONT ACTUAL SPEC RANGE CROSS CAMBER -0.3 deg -0.8 deg 0.8 deg CROSS CASTER -0.7 deg -0.8 deg 0.8 deg TOTAL TOE 0.41 deg 0.25 deg 0.50 deg
What you can do is purchase some offset upper control arm shafts (Moog K 5250) This will often allow you to align a car where the frame has sagged or is out of spec for one reason or another. http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?catalog=11&partnum=K5250&a=FR11-K5250-697753
What will driving it as is do and how bad does the alignment look I'm an electrician so I have no idea and the guy there wasn't that good at explaining it
Might be worth a second opinion... o No: In 2000, I had my '70 Riv aligned only to find out the alignment was wrong because the shop's digital aligment equipment was out of calibration. Shop was unaware of the calibration issue until my dad drove my car to the shop with his caster/camber tool and demo'd the measurements to the manager. Shop had machine calibrated and then properly aligned my car at no charge.
I really can't make any sense on what you listed. Can you just state what the final camber, caster, and toe was?
Larry is correct. The Moog K5250 offset shafts will do the trick. They will provide 1 degree of positive camber when installed as per the directions. I spoke to Moog as a matter of fact today about it. They said that they are able to be installed with the 'wheel side" facing the engine in instances where more negative camber is required. Chad- The imaging aligners they have out now are self calibrating. So there is no need for periodic calibrations anymore. They use video cameras. The easy way to identify an imaging aligner is that they dont have conventionl heads, they have an irridescent "target". Sometimes with a bunch of black dots
front left camber -1.8 deg actual 0 deg 1.0 deg camber spec range caster -1.0 deg actual -1.0 deg to 0.0 deg caster spec range toe 0.25 deg actual 0.13 deg 0.25 deg toe spec range front right camber-1.4 deg actual 0 deg 1.0 deg camber spec range caster -0.3 deg actual -1.0 deg to 0.0 deg caster spec range toe 0.16 deg actual 0.13 deg 0.25 deg toe spec range FRONT CROSS CAMBER -0.3 deg actual -0.8 deg 0.8 deg spec range CROSS CASTER -0.7 deg actual -0.8 deg 0.8 deg spec range TOTAL TOE 0.41 deg actual 0.25 deg 0.50 deg spec range i had everything in columns but the auto correct undid it all in the first post
They're really cambered in. Yikes. All things being equal and you put the offset shafts in with the shims that are in there, you'll wind up with -.8 on the left and -4 on the right for camber. Almost right on the money. -.5 is what your after. And btw- .600 is the shim thickness limit per stud
Looks like you have some - camber on both sides. As the body rolls in a turn, the outside tire camber will go positive. The - camber will help handling. You may get some wear on the inside edge of the tire going straight.. Caster looks like it is in spec.
is it something that can wait a season or should i wait to drive it until the offset shafts are installed low on cash that may be mid june to get it done and the tires have less than 2k on them really don't want to chew them up so i have to replace them
Update I put the upper control arm shafts in reversed, I was changing out the brake booster vacuum line and noticed the words tire side on the shafts were facing the engineou: flipped them around and am going to have the alignment redone today hopefully. I think that should solve my issue what do you guy's think?
i would understand that the alignment specs listed in the shop manuals (70-72) would be based on fibreglass/bias belted tires. does anyone have specs for using radial ply tires?
id put the camber at about -.25 to 0 and set caster up in the positive range 1-2 degrees put toe at stock setting positive caster will help tracking on hwy neg caster just helps turning at low speed (parking lot) this isnt needed with todays tires and power steering put some caster in her and shel thank you
A Q's re the offset upper arm pivots- Any one know how much neg camber you can get? I 'm running 2 deg positive castor, but 0 deg camber. I'd like to get more neg camber. Cheers, Chris
flipping the shafts around did clear up everything all in the green now:grin: and just got the car back from the body guy who changed out all the body bushings, that with the whole front and rear suspension bushings new shocks and springs make it feel and sound like a whole new car very few rattles to track down now
