Alignment settings

[freighdog]

Does anyone have some numbers for front suspension/steering alignment for my '67 Dart?

Looking to finish my rebuild this week and my local garage may be able to set their rig up if I give them the numbers.

Unless anyone knows a place near Chipping Norton that can help?

Cheers.

[Blue]

1/16" to 1/8" toe in, 1/2 degree negative camber and as much caster as you can get whilst maintaining those other parameters is what I'd aim for. I'm no expert so don't take that as gospel but I'm happy with my cars set up like that. If Roger is looking in he's Mr alignment.

[freighdog]

Thanks Blue, that's a good start anyway.

[Pete]

I always go for as much caster as possible (which is not much, I got lucky and got 3 degrees which is unusually high) and 1/8" Toe in.

[Dave999]

if its a manual steer car as much castor as possible might make your shoulders a bit sore if you like to do 3 point turns....

power steering and it should be no problem......

the manual gives slightly different settings for either side but given that very few roads have a camber for drainage these days you don't need to try to bias the car to run straight on a 1970s style A road,

motorways and city streets are pretty much flat.

however you may find that one side of the car has more adjustment in it than the other. which means you are limited by the worst case side. this is a normal feature....might have been deliberate to facilitate bias for cambered roads (or it could be rubbish Quality control) but of course that only works if you drive on the right in a LHD car like in the US.... no help here in the UK on LHD and RHD chassis (both US and some Aussie workshop manuals have the settings for a LHD car in a LHD car country)

steer clear of the settings in the workshop manual they tend to introduce negative castor to lighten the steering in the middle. great for granny driving a 2.5 tonne c body no good for anyone else.


initial set up

front end of adjuster bolt fat bit on the washer in. to push the upper A arm balljoint back as far as possible to get max castor
back disk on the adjuster, thin bit in, to get max castor and probably horrible positive camber
wind the back disk round till the wheels are upright probably 1/2 to 3/4 turn (spirit level or plumb line). push car back and forth after each adjustment.

set toe in to about 2 mm closer at the front of the tyre from the rear of the tyre with a long bit of thread a felt tipped pen and some pins in the centre of the tyre tread. tie thread to 1 pin pull taught under car to the other wheel's pin, mark, (do back of wheel roll car forward with pins in place put string back under the front of the wings.

A smidge of a wind on the track rod should see the dot on the tread about 2mm outside the pin on 1 wheel that will get you reasonably safe

you will have no camber so cornering will be odd 1 wheel isn't leaning enough meaning its contact patch it strikes the wrong arc
the steering wheel may be a tad off centre
too much toe in
and potentially too much castor for a manual steering car to be comfortable at slow speed.

but it will probably feel ok a speed
and the steering wheel should self right should anything snap or you let go
(don't drive if it tends to try to wind forcefully to one lock or the other)

drive to the place to get it done right..


or invest in a churchill wheelforce 1900 tracking camber castor set. £50-100 on ebay cheap becasue designed for 13 -15 inch wheels and modern cars have 17 -20

Dave

[freighdog]

Thanks Dave for some great information. I've actually changed my UCA's to SPC ones, so there should be plenty of adjustment in those. Looks like everyone else took your advice on the alignment gear, can't find any for sale anywhere!

[Dave999]

pops up reasonably regularly

you get 2 wheel clamps

2 long bars with swinging protractors on

a big rubber band to connect them

same clamps can be used with the camber and castor attachment

all spirit level based but quite effective..

standard fair in many garages until laser alignment came in

if you get a set with no handbook i can scan mine.

if you are coming through west london you can borrow my set ona Bust it or lose it then replace it basis

Dave

[Roger]

Thanks Dave for some great information. I've actually changed my UCA's to SPC ones, so there should be plenty of adjustment in those. Looks like everyone else took your advice on the alignment gear, can't find any for sale anywhere!

God choice on the SPC arms

[Dave999]

alignment specs that work with an aussie charger

might be of relevance

chrylser alignment .jpg (83.78 KiB) Viewed 2624 times

[freighdog]

Thanks Dave!

[Steve]

I guess that's German you are all speaking??

[Demon James]

I guess that's German you are all speaking??

See now, if you hadn't sold that laser wheel alignment tool, you would've understood every word