Front end alignment

[John H.]

Re: Front end alignment

My friend took his '61 back to the alignment shop Friday and got the same results as before. The shop could not get enough caster on the right side. Or was it camber? Well, it wouldn't adjust to specs. Any ideas here? We were careful with the upper outer to be sure it was centered correctly and seems to adjust things. Just not enough. Can it be offset to the front or back in order to gain some? Thanks.

David -

Did the shop loosen the clamp bolt at the top of the upright? If not, you can't adjust either camber or caster; that upper outer shaft moves fore-aft in the bushings to set caster, and has an eccentric center section to set camber as it rotates. Photo below shows the aluminum caster shim - if you add another one, it will provide more positive caster adjustment capability.

[Jim D.]

Re: Front end alignment

I bought one of these years ago and do my own alignments. It makes it very simple. http://www.spcalignment.com/PROD_DIR...txt&cmd2=91000

[David H.]

Re: Front end alignment

Great input everyone! Thanks for the responses. I will pass them along. The Caster/Camber tool looks interesting. As they say, "If you want it done right, you should do it yourself".

[Timothy B.]

Re: Front end alignment

I will never pay a shop to align my car. After doing the alignment myself the car is straight and I know what the settings are, plus, I learned something new.

It's amazing the at home things we all learn from each other with a computer to communicate.

I watched a you tube video about how to level the floor tiles under the tires so the car sits perfectly flat for alignment. This fellow used a bucket with water, a piece of 15' small plastic hose taped into the bucket submerged into water and created a suction to bring water into the hose. He taped the hose to a 2' level and walked around the floor to find the high spot then used the water and inch markings on the level to tell him exactly how many tiles to put on the other tire locations to be perfectly level.

I just need to perfect the changeover from inches to degrees..