Front end alignment at home

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Subscribed... I did a quick toe in adjustment on the cuda. Drivers tire wore out in no time. I had to replace it, well both fronts because you don't just replace one. $500 later...then an alignment on top of that... $180.
 
grimreaper said:
I use 1/8" steel plates with grease between for my turnplates. I marked the top one with a mark with the wheels straight and marks that show 20 degrees in each direction using a protractor. The bottom one I just put a single mark and I ensure that the top plate mark for straight is aligned with the bottom plate mark to begin. You could just use tape marks on the floor established with a protractor if you prefer.
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Yup. These cars were not built with lasers. You don't need one to align them as accurately as they will ever be
 
I set mine at home on a level slab in the garage as I do not trust the local shops to crank on my new refurbed A-Arms. Have not yet found a shop that will let me under and supervise so.

Most but toe, is eyeball. You can get caster close by adjusting to max. Camber is pretty easy to eyeball and if you choose, a small level can help, the caster will naturally sort of follow the camber setting short of Toe adjustment, and stringing it out for the toe will get you very close. This is based on pure stock bushings and factory ride height dimensions.

Have been out driving 3 years now with no tire wear. Granted only about 1k or so a year. Most Mopar cars I have aligned on a rack have followed closely unless the owner wanted a specific setting.
 
For my iPhone I used "iAlign" and "CamberMeas".
CamberMeas had the added benefit of being able to enter your steeringbox's ratio, so it tells you how many turns to turn your steeringwheel to come up with 20° of tire rotation left or right.
 
I've been setting Toe for years on all my cars with just fishing line, ruler and 1/8 steel & grease slip plates. Too easy to pay someone.
But never had an accurate way to measure Caster, at least one that I was confident in.

So when this late 80s Hunter F111 optical popped up on Craigslist for $300, I grabbed it. The first few times it was a pita to setup and calibrate each wheel sensor without having a real alignment rack. But after some trial & error and ruining the 2 front tires on my Focus ST, its working good. I plan to fab up 12"-18" tall platforms to sit the car on to make the process a bit easier

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72bluNblu said:
The gauge doesn't have to be perfect, remember that you're measuring two different locations and getting the difference basically. So if the gauge is a little crooked it actually comes out in the math (which is being done by the gauge). The car doesn't have to be level, you want it at ride height- so the alignment numbers you set are the ones that you're running down the road with. The thing you don't want to do is have the car sitting differently than it does on the road, like if you use turntables in the front and leave the rear on the ground. That raises the front a couple inches, and changes your caster reading. Some guys will do their alignments with a person or weight in the front seat for the same reason, it does change things a little. That's more of a race thing, for a daily like mine the weight balance changes a little when I haul stuff, have a passenger, go to the store, etc. The floor should be level, or mostly so. The 20* measurement comes from the gauge. The best way to measure it is with the turntables. The SPC gauge has a pointer on it, you can use just the gauge to get that reading. There's more room for error doing it that way, because you're just eyeballing the pointer. But it will totally still work, you might just want to check the final alignment a couple times to make sure you get similar readings each time.
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Good information about setting up your ride height and marking the left and right 20 degree turn points. I forgot to mention that. There has to be one 20* point to the left and to the right to set up the gauge for a caster reading.

The Longacre gauge actually has two flats on it that you line up parallel with the side of the car. Making an additional mark on the floor with a Sharpe pen and a protractor will also aid in hitting the 20* left and right angles to help set up the gauge for an accurate caster reading.

The nice thing about using pairs of 18 gauge sheet metal on the floor is that they are so thin, it won't affect the height sensitive settings and it allows the wheels to move while you make your adjustments. I also jounce the car lightly between adjustments.
 
diymirage said:
so...how would one adjust camber on a 71 duster?
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This is my understanding of this stuff. Caster can be thought of as the angular measurement of the relationship between the upper and lower ball joints. Think of a chopper motorcycle at one end of the adjustment range (positive caster) with the wheel sticking way out in front of the steering stem and a fluttering shopping cart wheel (negative caster) wheel bent backwards from hitting too many objects.

If you could draw a line between the two ball joints, the line could be perpendicular to the ground (0 caster) or leaning backward like a chopper (positive caster) or forward like a shopping cart wheel (negative caster).

On Mopars, the upper control arm pivots are used to position the upper ball joint to set both camber and caster. However, by having and adjustable strut rod, the lower control arm can also be pulled forward or backward to add or reduce caster. Don't adjust it too far or you can induce binding of the upward and downward movement.
 
1969383S said:
I set mine at home on a level slab in the garage as I do not trust the local shops to crank on my new refurbed A-Arms. Have not yet found a shop that will let me under and supervise so.

Most but toe, is eyeball. You can get caster close by adjusting to max. Camber is pretty easy to eyeball and if you choose, a small level can help, the caster will naturally sort of follow the camber setting short of Toe adjustment, and stringing it out for the toe will get you very close. This is based on pure stock bushings and factory ride height dimensions.

Have been out driving 3 years now with no tire wear. Granted only about 1k or so a year. Most Mopar cars I have aligned on a rack have followed closely unless the owner wanted a specific setting.
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This can work with stock bushings and close to stock ride heights. It can even work with the offset UCA bushings in stock UCA's, you still can't really get yourself in too much trouble because there isn't much of a range for your adjustment. Really only a few degrees, and the camber bolts are all you really have to work with if you have all stock parts (unless you start changing the ride height, which most people want to set for cosmetic reasons). Sure the toe changes when you change the camber/caster and it has to be adjusted after, but you don't use the toe to change your caster/camber settings.

The problem with this is you don't actually know what your caster numbers really are. You'll know if your camber is relatively close, but even with that you're not going to eyeball down closer than a few tenths of a degree. With stock bushings, depending on your ride height, you might barely have any positive caster at all. If you end up with cross caster you can end up with a pull, and you won't really know where it's coming from. Could be caster, could be a little cross camber, could be a little of both in the same direction. And if you have some kind of damage you don't know about it can throw you out of range, and again you'd only know if it pulled. And if it pulls left you might not notice if you drive crowned roads. But heck, the stock components have very little adjustment, so you can't even set up a whole lot of cross caster without doing the adjustments opposite of each other. So, yeah, if the car drives straight and you got the toe relatively close it's probably not going to wear tires. Toe is it the biggest tire wearing adjustment anyway. Camber only starts wearing tires if you're over a degree in one direction or the other, that's pretty obvious. Caster doesn't really wear tires. So just because you aren't wearing tires doesn't mean your alignment is right, the car could still be handling poorly because of lousy caster numbers without wearing out the tires.

The other issue is, it really only works with stock suspension stuff. That limited range and number of adjustments means a lot of what you get for your alignment is just what you get, there isn't a lot you can do about it other than changing your ride height to get beack in range unless you need to replace damaged parts. If you have adjustable UCA's, adjustable strut rods, poly or Delrin bushings, significantly lowered ride heights, etc, you need to know what the numbers are because you have the possibility of being a lot further off. There's a much larger range of adjustment, and more ways to adjust things too. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't get lucky and still set max caster and eyeball it and have it drive straight, I did that on my Duster. But what I didn't know is that by setting max caster I ended up with more than +8* of caster. No kidding. Didn't pull, didn't wear tires, camber was a little less than -1*, toe was right on. And it drove darn straight too! Sure took some elbow grease to turn the wheel though!

The other thing is, at 1k miles a year it would take a year to notice any strange tire wearing patterns unless you completely screwed up the toe setting. If your alignment is only a little off, the odd tire wear could take over a year to show up. And with mileage like that, even if you were a little off you'd still "time out" on your tires before an abnormal wear pattern caused problems. So what I'm saying is, yes, that can work, but it's because you have stock suspension parts and low annual mileage. And a decent knowledge of suspension parts, I'm sure there's plenty of folks that can't "eyeball it" and have it be close, you obviously know what you're looking for.
 
Agree for sure, but you can only adjust the caster as far as the camber will allow for it, with pure stock stuff! Just trying to throw some info out there. I lean towards pure stock rubber everything in the resto world and how to deal with such.

Being an alignment guy from the long past, I have watched guys in the shop before me and the bad practices with all models of cars, so darn if I bring my restored A-body to a young late model trained alignment tech that does not even realize he needs to unload the suspension before trying to crank my upper a-arm cam bolts. Heck I still have the all the special tools for some of the crazy alignment models. IE Chevy Chevett! And more.

And if after doing an alignment as I have, you will quickly know if your caster angles or more are bad after the first drive. At that point I would wonder about the frame geometry. I understand the caster deal with radials and such but the cars are what they are! When you modify it with coil overs and such that is a whole different deal.
 
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diymirage said:
so...how would one adjust camber on a 71 duster?
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jbc426 said:
This is my understanding of this stuff. Caster can be thought of as the angular measurement of the relationship between the upper and lower ball joints. Think of a chopper motorcycle at one end of the adjustment range (positive caster) with the wheel sticking way out in front of the steering stem and a fluttering shopping cart wheel (negative caster) wheel bent backwards from hitting too many objects.

If you could draw a line between the two ball joints, the line could be perpendicular to the ground (0 caster) or leaning backward like a chopper (positive caster) or forward like a shopping cart wheel (negative caster).

On Mopars, the upper control arm pivots are used to position the upper ball joint to set both camber and caster. However, by having and adjustable strut rod, the lower control arm can also be pulled forward or backward to add or reduce caster. Don't adjust it too far or you can induce binding of the upward and downward movement.
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Yes if you have adjustable strut rods that totally changes things. Most resto’s do not so you are limited to the full swing of the original upper A’s. Not sure how the Bigger ball joints and brake upgrades that are so prevalent to pre 71/72 models effect this.

Can we all agree that A-Body upper A-arm cam guides are fragile at best. If not under engineered.
 
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You guys are awesome. Just for clarity, it's an all stock rebuilt suspension on a 69 Dart. 340.
 
1969383S said:
Yes if you have adjustable strut rods that totally changes things. Most resto’s do not so you are limited to the full swing of the original upper A’s. Not sure how the Bigger ball joints and brake upgrades that are so prevalent to pre 71/72 models effect this.

Can we all agree that A-Body upper A-arm cam guides are fragile at best. If not under engineered.
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I've never had to deal with the rust issues so prevalent on most of the Mopars in the US. I can only imagine how quickly those eccentrics would be eaten up and rendered nearly impossible to adjust.

I have wondered about simply altering the stock strut rods by machining the relief that stops the large cupped washers from sliding farther down the strut rod body or trimming the rubber bushings a bit thinner to allow the lower control arm to be pulled forward an 1/8" or a bit more.

It wouldn't take much, and would be virtually undetectable on a stock front end. I don't see how doing something like this could not add more positive caster without having detrimental effects.
 
I have this Longacre setup. It works good. It needs bungees to hold it against the rim cause you tend to bump it working on a garage floor making adjustments. The rim clamps are aluminum so we put tape to protect a painted rim. You can buy plastic coated clamps.

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I start out the alignment like in the picture below and bring the rear adjuster out for desired camber you want. That will give you max caster for that side. Then do the same for the other side.

Note the smaller positive caster measurement between the two sides. Now, lower the higher caster side to match the lower side. You will need to bring the front cam adjuster inward to maintain your desired camber number. This probably will take some going back and forth to hit your target caster and camber numbers.

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You can make your own turn tables from plexiglass and degree them. Some guys use Vaseline between the plates and some use salt crystals. It’ll get you pretty darn close.
 
Up to 1/2 degree more caster on drivers side can be useful to counteract road crown if you drive a lot on highways with crown.
 
jbc426 said:
I've never had to deal with the rust issues so prevalent on most of the Mopars in the US. I can only imagine how quickly those eccentrics would be eaten up and rendered nearly impossible to adjust.

I have wondered about simply altering the stock strut rods by machining the relief that stops the large cupped washers from sliding farther down the strut rod body or trimming the rubber bushings a bit thinner to allow the lower control arm to be pulled forward an 1/8" or a bit more.

It wouldn't take much, and would be virtually undetectable on a stock front end. I don't see how doing something like this could not add more positive caster without having detrimental effects.
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Even with no rust issues those tabs are weak.
 
LJ67barracuda340 said:
just checked and reset my Barracuda's alignment with this gauge... works great and has payed for itself over and over. Also it gets set to MY specs.

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Magnetic gauges are great if you’re using steel rims and/or hubs.

I’ve got an old snap on magnetic gauge like that. Unfortunately that’s not very helpful on my Duster, which has aluminum hubs and wheels. Which is why I use the SPC gauge.

jbc426 said:
I've never had to deal with the rust issues so prevalent on most of the Mopars in the US. I can only imagine how quickly those eccentrics would be eaten up and rendered nearly impossible to adjust.

I have wondered about simply altering the stock strut rods by machining the relief that stops the large cupped washers from sliding farther down the strut rod body or trimming the rubber bushings a bit thinner to allow the lower control arm to be pulled forward an 1/8" or a bit more.

It wouldn't take much, and would be virtually undetectable on a stock front end. I don't see how doing something like this could not add more positive caster without having detrimental effects.
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With the regard to altering the strut rods it depends on whether or not that 1/8” will cause the LCA to bind in its range of travel. Sure, it’ll give you more caster, but that’s not the point of the strut rod. The point is to locate the LCA and not have it bind up. Could be an 1/8” shorter would be great. Or heck, it could be a 1/4” shorter is what you need. Or it could be that it was already a bit short of ideal and that 1/8” causes binding. Without checking for binding and setting the length accordingly you don’t know. Which is why adjustable strut rods are so handy, especially if not all of your suspension parts are stock.
 
autoxcuda said:
Never had problems with those. Neither have most other Mopar people in So Cal with native cars.
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No issues with the UCA eccentrics on any of mine either, although all of my A-bodies were historically Northern California cars. Heck even my Challenger, which was a Utah and then a Florida car before I got it, has no issues with the eccentrics. Everything else on that car has rust issues, but the eccentrics were fine.
 
1969383S said:
Even with no rust issues those tabs are weak.
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The tabs seam less that perfect but them and the top of the shock brackets were the only things left on my Canadian Fish once I got the inner fenders off. The car had only seen the winter from '67-'76. They had already been hack repaired once in the 70's. I got a surprise!!! I didn't know FABO yet to ask for a front clip so I had to rebuild the whole thing from scratch. I bought the car in '76 and figured scraping her wasn't an option.
Also I remove the dust cap, the cotter pin and nut lock. Slide on a large washer and another nut. Then the magnetic tool will go right over the nut to stick to the washer

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