Front end rebuild 1972 Duster

[Kern Dog]

Thanks, man.
I’m just a dude that fumbles around until I get it right.
The right side: with the front alignment cam bolt OUT and the rear cam bolt IN, I have about 5 7/8 degrees of positive caster. That is great! The camber number shows about 1/2 degree negative. Looking at the specs listed for many cars over the years, there is a variance listed or a range to be within. I seem to recall that the guideline is that the right side should have the greater amount of negative camber simply due to the crown/angle of the road. This is more important in regions with snow and greater rainfall. Out here in California, the roads don’t have that much crown. I aligned these two cars with 1.0 degrees of negative camber on both sides.

For the Duster, I’d like to have equal camber numbers and if the caster is within 1 to 1.25 degrees, I’m hoping it will drive right.

 

[Kern Dog]

I used these washers….

My best guess is that these are 3/32”.
You can see them peeking out from between the knuckle and lower ball joint.

Here is what difference they made.

These alone made a 1/2 degree of negative camber to arrive at 3/4 degree, not a bad number. The caster reading is obtained on the right by turning the wheel to the right by 20 degrees.

Twenty degrees is the angle at the end of the gauge.

You simply turn the wheel until the angled edge is parallel with the side of the car. Get as close to that angle as you can, then ZERO the CASTER bubble by turning the knob on the middle gauge.

Once the gauge is zeroed, turn the wheel to the left until the angle on the edge of the other side of the gauge lines up parallel the the car. That is 20 degrees off center for a total sweep of 40 degrees from when you zeroed the gauge. This was my number.

That is approximately 5 3/8 degrees of caster. That is pretty dang good. With this, I can dial back the left side to match the right. I had to do similar things to my red Charger to obtain equal numbers.

 

[Kern Dog]

The left side front cam bolt was all the way OUT so the only way to reduce camber and caster was to adjust the rear bolt out a bit. Here is where I ended up.

That is the left side. Here is the right:

That is close enough for me. Now I’ll set the toe. Have you seen these things before?

 

[Kern Dog]

The following will seem like I am lying but this is the absolute truth.
Somehow, after it all has been apart, adjusted and everything, the toe numbers came in almost perfect with no adjustment needed.

Yeah. Sometimes I am just really lucky. I first started the car and spun the wheel full left, then counted the turns to full right. I counted 3 1/2. I then turned 1 3/4 turns to center the steering and make it equal both directions. Then I set up a DeWalt laser to first align the left front wheel.

I got 1 5/8” to the rim bead at the back of the rear tire and the front.

Now this car has the famous 1973-76 11” A body disc brake swap that often makes the front track wider but I also have a 68-70 B body 8 3/4” axle that is 3” wider overall compared to a stock axle. The track front and rear turned out to be the same because the front wheel is also 1 5/8” in from the laser line.

Next, toe plates and tape measures.

Now I checked the measurements at the rear and front. Equal numbers indicates zero toe. A bigger measurement at the front means toe OUT. A bigger measurement at the rear means toe IN. You want some toe IN for street driving. The understanding is that due to rolling resistance of the tires, a little toe IN makes it so the tires will be near zero toe when driving. Here is what I got…..

 

[Kern Dog]

Here we go.

71 1/8”.

The front number was less, 70 15/16”.

That makes the toe 3/16” IN.
How the heck did it land here before I made adjustments??? I had the tie rod ends out, I rotated the sleeves back and forth but in a huge stroke of blind luck, they ended exactly where I would have set them. I tightened down the collars on the tie rod sleeves and will take it for a drive in a moment.

 

[Kern Dog]

Success!
It drives straight, feels solid, is quiet and corners well. There are numerous things to do to this car but the front end and brakes are sorted out.

 

[PlymCrazy]

The plate gets threaded on until it bottoms out.

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Then the gauge gets stuck on...

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You have to "level it" using the bubble on the outer edge.

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Next, you look at the outer bubbles to see where the camber is.

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Holy crap...I'm at 2 degrees of NEGATIVE camber??
My goal is for 1 degree NEGative camber and as much caster as I can get. The offset UCA bushings as installed will get the most caster possible with stock upper control arms but sometimes the camber can be a variable. Here is the caster number that I got:

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6 1/2 degrees of caster? That is great! The problem is, the camber is too negative. By taking some negative camber out, it means losing some of the caster. Remember, I set the front alignment cam OUT and the rear cam IN. If both cams are OUT toward the fender, the camber goes positive. If both go IN, the camber goes negative. Getting the numbers you want can be an exercise in compromise where you settle for what you can get. In the end, I was able to get 1 degree negative camber and 6 degrees of positive caster.
On the right side, I had the opposite problem with camber. I could get just shy of 6 degrees of caster but that was at ZERO camber. Trying to get into negative camber resulted in losing caster.
The fix?

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Mopar guru Andy Finkbeiner has those "shims" that get placed between the lower ball joint and steering knuckle (As seen above) I just took some washers I bought and used them like so:

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This tilts the bottom of the steering knuckle out by a slight amount. The "shims" from Andy were listed to be 2 degrees and look to be about 3/16" thick. The washers I used were 1/8". I used these in my Charger and (along with QA-1 upper control arms) was able to get 8 degrees of caster and 1 degree of negative camber. I won't get that amount of caster with this car but the camber should come into that range.
More to come...

I used these washers….

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My best guess is that these are 3/32”.
You can see them peeking out from between the knuckle and lower ball joint.
View attachment 1716295167

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Here is what difference they made.

View attachment 1716295169

These alone made a 1/2 degree of negative camber to arrive at 3/4 degree, not a bad number. The caster reading is obtained on the right by turning the wheel to the right by 20 degrees.

View attachment 1716295171

Twenty degrees is the angle at the end of the gauge.

View attachment 1716295172

You simply turn the wheel until the angled edge is parallel with the side of the car. Get as close to that angle as you can, then ZERO the CASTER bubble by turning the knob on the middle gauge.

View attachment 1716295175

Once the gauge is zeroed, turn the wheel to the left until the angle on the edge of the other side of the gauge lines up parallel the the car. That is 20 degrees off center for a total sweep of 40 degrees from when you zeroed the gauge. This was my number.


View attachment 1716295176

That is approximately 5 3/8 degrees of caster. That is pretty dang good. With this, I can dial back the left side to match the right. I had to do similar things to my red Charger to obtain equal numbers.

What a great tutorial on this alignment tool. Now I want one

...Have you seen these things before?

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Slick. Adding these to my wish list too. LOL

 

[QuickDart360]

The PST kit came today.
I was already ahead of the game a bit before the stuff arrived. I used some of my new/unused stuff including urethane strut rod bushings, offset upper control arm bushings, lower control arm bushings and upper ball joints.

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You may wonder why I’d buy a whole kit when all I really needed was lower ball joints and grease boots. I know, it seems odd but have you tried to find grease boots for ball joints? If there are some available that fit like stock that you can buy without having to buy a ball joint with it, I’d love to know. You can get grease seals for tie rod ends but they are like umbrellas. They do keep dirt out (sort of) but the grease can just weep out as you drive. This means more frequent lube jobs and grease blobs on the underside of the car.

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Of course, the upper and lower control arm hardware is still loose and won’t be tightened until the car is on the ground.

I mentioned this front sway bar earlier…

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It won’t look familiar. It is from a 1973-87 Chevy 2WD C-30 1 ton truck and it measures 1 1/4”.
In 2000 I was in the early days of tinkering with my ‘70 Charger and looking for ways to improve the handling. I was under my ‘84 Chevy truck and noticed that the shape was similar to the Charger front sway bar. I found that with a little work, the Chevy bar could be modified to fit the car. The ends of the bar had to be cut back and new holes drilled for the end links. The Chevy bar fit but was slightly narrow from end link to end link. The B body chassis is a bit wider than the 67-76 A body so it turns out that the A body is a better fit.

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I’ve made 5 of these for myself and friends. One is in my 67 Dart, another in my Jigsaw Charger, another was put in a 71 Challenger.

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The end links are just the right width for this car.
I know, aftermarket sway bars are available but cheap upgrades like this are right up my alley. You can get a bar like this at a junkyard for less than $40. I already had bushings and hardware so this setup was cheap. I haven’t seen any aftermarket bars of this size for this car so that is a plus.


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This car still has stock .85 torsion bars and parts store shocks. Even with a worn out front end, it rode and handled quite well.
All four ball joints were bad. All the bushings were too. I did use the shorter length strut rods with the coarse threaded ends.

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The last thing to do is to slide in the torsion bars. I have a few bad core plugs to replace though. I’m going to have more room to reach them with the bars out of the way.

I was able to source some ballpoint grease boots thru Spohn performance parts. They carry a very good quality grease boot with metal seal ring! I have a question. For the urethane strut rod bushings do you just use them the thickness they come in? Or do you match the thickness to stock bushings. Another member I don't recall screen name advised to match to original bushing size.

 

[Kern Dog]

The bushings have that inner sleeve that rides on the strut rod. I tightened the washer and nut until it bottomed. The caster numbers that I got could not have been reached if these urethane bushings were thicker than the rubber ones.