DIY Front End Alignment

[S-31]

I was wondering if anyone here has a process they would use to align the front end of their truck themselves? My 63 is lowered in front with 3" springs and one coil cut off of those, and the rear is lowered with 5" springs. Im getting ready to rebuild the front end with new ball joints, control arm bushings, idler arm, etc and there arent any alignment shops around here that i really trust to put a wrench on my truck. Im sure with all the guys on here that do all their own work that somebody has come up with a method to do this. Any ideas?

[protrash64]

It's really rough, but you can measure across the tread on your front tires, once in front and once behind, to get two measures to compare. Then adjust your tie rod ends until they match.

This just gets them aimed straight relative to each other. Usually stock specs call out some kind of toe out/caster/camber combo. Like I said, its low tech garage way to at least check whats going on.

[Tx Firefighter]

I air the tires up enough to make the bottom bulge go away them set the camber by using a large carpenter's square between the ground and tire sidewall. Set the camber so the tire is vertical to the square with about a 32nd of an inch gap at the top.

Set the toe with a tape measure checking between front and rear centers of the tire treads. Set it 1/8 inch toe in or so.

When you drive the truck, if it drives too light, adjust the caster more positive by adding an equal thickness shim to each side on the rear stud. If it steers too heavy (not likely) subtract an equal thickness shim from each to reduce caster.

It seems kind of dirty but I do all my own trucks this way and never get less than 50k miles from a set of tires and my trucks all drive hands off straight.

[TR65]

S31,

You can do a very credible alignment and probably better than you can get on a high buck machine with simple tools. It takes a lot of figuring and careful measurement but then you really know what you have. (from a parctical perspective set the toe as close to zero within the specs, that gives the best tire wear)

Toe
The method Protrash mentioned can be very exact if you mark the edges of the tread you are measuring to then measure with a good tape measure, with the marks forward then roll the truck and measure with the marks toward the rear, then you can calculate the toe and set it to any value you want within 1/32" if you are careful. Double check that the numbers are repeatable.

Camber
A little electronic angle tool (they use them to set the angles on saw blades, good to 0.1 degrees) about $30 from Harbor Freight. You can use that to set the camber using a steel bar that locates on the rim flanges. (great tool for setting drive shaft operating angles too)

Caster
Caster setting requires ball plates so you can rotate the steering without distorting the suspension. There are a lot of ways to trick that including greased steel plates, greased floor tiles (grease between two plates or two tiles) ... etc. Then use the angle measuring tool to measure camber change with steering angle. It gets complicated but you can calculate good numbers with this method. This link gives the formulas.

http://www.hunter.com/pub/undercar/2573T/index.htm

Remember to always roll the truck to a stop before a measure so the suspension is in a realistic state.

I have a friend that uses simple tools like this to check the calibration of multi thousand $ machines, as a professional suspension problem solver.

Good luck,

TR

[S-31]

Thanks for all the info guys, the caster and camber part is what i've had a hard time trying to figure out. Ive set the toe on tons of straight axles (school buses) but haven't ever had to deal with the caster/camber on anything with ifs. When i replace the upper control arm bushings do you think it would be a good starting point to put the alignment shims that are currently on the control arm back in the same place they were? Or start from scratch? Thanks

[Tx Firefighter]

Rebuild your suspension and reinstall the current shim packs then go from there.

[apachedaddy]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Rebuild your suspension and reinstall the current shim packs then go from there.

This will get you in the ball park, but the caste/camber will still be off a little because of the 3 inch drop up front. I'm sure you will need to add shims to kick the tops of the tire back out from the lowering. I would just go to Firestone i paid 80 bucks and i have a lifetime guarantee on the alignment.

[TR65]

Yep,

What Tx and Apache said.

TR

[LostMy65]

Thanks for this thread.

[willyp]

S-31, I took my 66 with a 4/6 drop to Blacks Tire on the corner on skibo and cliffdale next to the kangaroo gas station. They did a good job. They even let me run down the block to Home Depot to get a roll of painters tape so the alignment tools wouldnt scratch my freshly painted wheels before they started the work. They also aligned my steering wheel and let me stand in the bay while they worked. She drives straight as an arrow.

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

Great info all the way down. One thing that can be done that makes it easier at least i think so . Is to put the front end on jack stands under the lower ball joint. You do not have to have the tires on to set the front end. Measure off the rotors, as well super easy to get to the shim pack that way as well. Camber and caster gets done first and toe last .

I set mine up myself but still have plans to have it done with a 4 wheel alignment. As a front wheel is a good start , but a true 4 wheel is a better way to go to ensure proper alignment from the rear the wheels to the front

[1963c-10]

Originally Posted by willyp

S-31, I took my 66 with a 4/6 drop to Blacks Tire on the corner on skibo and cliffdale next to the kangaroo gas station. They did a good job. They even let me run down the block to Home Depot to get a roll of painters tape so the alignment tools wouldnt scratch my freshly painted wheels before they started the work. They also aligned my steering wheel and let me stand in the bay while they worked. She drives straight as an arrow.

They do good work there.

[Sick5]

Originally Posted by TR65

S31,

You can do a very credible alignment and probably better than you can get on a high buck machine with simple tools. It takes a lot of figuring and careful measurement but then you really know what you have. (from a parctical perspective set the toe as close to zero within the specs, that gives the best tire wear)

Toe
The method Protrash mentioned can be very exact if you mark the edges of the tread you are measuring to then measure with a good tape measure, with the marks forward then roll the truck and measure with the marks toward the rear, then you can calculate the toe and set it to any value you want within 1/32" if you are careful. Double check that the numbers are repeatable.

Camber
A little electronic angle tool (they use them to set the angles on saw blades, good to 0.1 degrees) about $30 from Harbor Freight. You can use that to set the camber using a steel bar that locates on the rim flanges. (great tool for setting drive shaft operating angles too)

Caster
Caster setting requires ball plates so you can rotate the steering without distorting the suspension. There are a lot of ways to trick that including greased steel plates, greased floor tiles (grease between two plates or two tiles) ... etc. Then use the angle measuring tool to measure camber change with steering angle. It gets complicated but you can calculate good numbers with this method. This link gives the formulas.

http://www.hunter.com/pub/undercar/2573T/index.htm

Remember to always roll the truck to a stop before a measure so the suspension is in a realistic state.

I have a friend that uses simple tools like this to check the calibration of multi thousand $ machines, as a professional suspension problem solver.

Good luck,

TR

can i still do all this even with an air ride. and im assuming as long as im set to ride hight

[HemiChallenger71]

I use string to get vehicles close before driving to alignment shop. Piece of string from front to rear tires and set toe on both sizes with the steering wheel locked.

[CRGRS 66]

This is a great thread, thanks to the OP for posting this. THis will come in very handy when I get to this point!!!

[nimrod]

Originally Posted by Sick5

can i still do all this even with an air ride. and im assuming as long as im set to ride hight

Yes. Set your ride height, then adjust away.

[luvbowties]

Originally Posted by HemiChallenger71

I use string to get vehicles close before driving to alignment shop. Piece of string from front to rear tires and set toe on both sizes with the steering wheel locked.

There's a lot to be said for aligning using a string. Properly used, it can begin by setting front end into synch with rear. Applying several procedures with string can yield a great, nearly 4-wheel alignment. If 1 setting may come up a bit short, it would be caster; but setting caster after lowering and adding pwr steering needs to be trial'ed & error'd to get best "feel" anyway--all in my opinion, of course.

Using string methods, by my front-end specialist friend with my tad of contribution, made my '66 drive superbly. Put on a machine later & found our best-feel setting on caster was close to 1987 specs--much more + caster we ended with resulted in greater road-feel: ever added ps & it was just way too easy to turn? Other settings showed to be quite acceptable. This sold me on accuracy of a piece of twine and a good tape measure.

A good tip, I think, is to use carpenter's string[used in laying out footing for a new building], as it'll pull tighter w/o breaking, thus greater accuracy.

Google should give plenty of insight into this too-often-characterized as a backyard, get-by technique.

Hope others may learn and enjoy this project.
Sam

[HemiChallenger71]

You'll find a lot of alignment racks (especially older ones) wont fit 4 door long bed trucks. The string is your friend with those.

[LostMy65]

What are some symptoms of certain features out of alignment?
For example,
when I'm driving straight, all is fine. But when I turn, it pulls me that direction. Same when I turn the opposite direction.
I guess I might search for 'Alignment Troubleshooting'

[LostMy65]

Another question;
Will 10" wide front tires be more prone to unsteady steering over 8" front tires, or does it not make any difference?

[LostMy65]

Okay, I put a framing square on the ground, and measured to the top edge of the rim and to bottom edge of rim. The top is 5/16" in.
I ran a string from the back tires to the front tires, making sure the strings on both sides of the truck were the same distance apart front and back (parallel), and each front wheel is toed in 1/8" (1/4" total).
My steering gets a little unsteady side to side at speeds above 50. And rather scary 60+.
.
I've been reading lots of threads trying to learn what does what.
.
I guess I'll try to shim the top out to get it closer to 1/8" in at top.

[LostMy65]

Found this post:

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

On the front axle what it is for is to correct "caster".





The more caster the less rolling resistance and the more high speed stability you have.

When you just bolt the axle on and lower the front more than the rear your axle ends up leaning forward loosing caster. So adding the shims brings the caster to where it needs to be.

To give you an idea about caster, your truck would typically have 2-3 degrees positive caster. Stock it was probably 1 at the most. And on the other end is a Bonniville land speed record cars will have something like 18 degrees positive caster!

A BMW 3 series will have something like 4 degrees while a 7 series designed for high speed Autobahn driving it runs up to 7 degrees.

The less caster the more the tires "bite" around tight corners while the higher degree is for high speed straight line driving.

Brian

[LostMy65]

Finally spent some time checking caster today.
Referring to the "Make it Handle" thread, it's recommended the wider the tires, the more positive caster needed. Mine was really close to zero caster.
I adjusted the upper arms back to pivot the lower ball joint forward resulting in more positive caster.
I hope to have things back together and give it a test drive by Wednesday.
I'll post back after I get it out for a test drive.

[cg285]

one important thing to remember (know) is if you add a shim to one side then both camber and caster are changed. if you want to change only one setting you will have to make equal changes on BOTH sides of the control arm. camber by adding/subtracting both sides equal, caster by adding one side and subtracting the other side.

[LostMy65]

Good advice.
Thanks