Alignment at home and aftermarket UCAS too.

[Kern Dog]

The "V" at the end is slanted 20 degrees, you just turn the wheel till it lines up parallel with the side of your car, when it is, thats 20 degrees of turn

Really??
I’ll check on that. No disrespect but that sounds too easy!

 

[Jeff Peterson]

 

[Kern Dog]

In the opening posts, I mentioned that I had some doubts about the alignment numbers that the car has currently. I was thinking that maybe I've been hornswaggled by the shop that has been doing my alignments.
The car seemed to drive fine since the last alignment in Feb last year but when I raised it up, I noticed the left wheel had positive camber. I had the alignment guy set it to .75 negative . Raising the car one inch would not have resulted in a change that much. What the heck happened?
I'm wondering if I have a bad LCA bushing. I've found that sometimes, a bad lower bushing does allow the control arm to move in toward the engine and that would create positive camber. If the drivers side is bad, I'll replace both sides. These are maybe 10 years old but with maybe 8000 miles. I'd be disappointed to see them going bad so soon.
The QA 1 UCAs came in today.

Excellent packaging!

It looks like these use the standard Mopar upper ball joint.

You can see the pad on the left for the upper bumpstop. Also, Zerk fittings for the urethane bushings.

I called the QA 1 tech line. The man suggested to use the same lubricant for the bushings as the ball joints. This was a surprise since in the past, I was told that urethane bushings needed a different, much thicker poly type lube.

These look well built. Nice welds, nice powdercoated finish. They are heavy too. I'll weigh them and compare them to stock units.
I have a few household things to tend to but I do want to get knuckles deep into the nuts and bolts. I am still waiting for the toe plates but I can still get started with what I have.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

"hornswaggled"....now that's a word you don't hear every day!

Almost any of the tubular UCA's are heavier than the thin stamped stockers.

 

[kreauto]

That bump stop is not on the RMS arms. They can be put on backwards. Having the bump stop plate on there, eliminates that form happening. I had to make a plate to mount the stop onto so it would hit the arm. I like those UCA you got. Just remember toe in or out excessive will remove your tire tread faster than caster or camber. Camber makes it corner, caster makes it stable at speed, toe keeps both sides equal. I’ve seen guys put their own tie rods on and drive 10 miles to the alignment shop and ruin a set of tires getting there. A tape measure and a scribe mark on the tires is very accurate for toe.

 

[ckessel]

Greg, before fully mounting those arms, see if you have enough room to get a grease gun coupler on the bushing fittings. May have to put 45 or 90* ones in.

 

[Kern Dog]

I tore a page from my old playbook.
Back when I had a Camaro, the street scene here in California was lowered vehicles with loud stereos.
There were still a group of street racers but they were not the ones out cruising the suburbs on weekends looking for the chicks.
I didn’t know much about caster then but I did know camber and toe. My goal after lowering cars and trucks was to set the camber to slightly negative. There were no affordable tools then and was no precision like we can get today. It was a 2’ level and a block of wood.

Pretty basic. Cut a 1x4 or 2x4 to be just long enough to rest against the rim edges and tie wire it to a level.

For the 18” wheel, this one is 19 1/2”.

Now keep in mind, this crude setup worked back then to get cars sort of close so we could then go to get an alignment at Montgomery Wards or Sears auto centers!

The goal back then was to have the bubble rest off center with the edge at the line.

Oddly, this is the drivers side. What you’re seeing there is positive. It was aligned to be .75 negative. It has been moving around so Something is wrong, either there are bad bushings somewhere or something is bent. Camber can also shift when the k member is damaged. I’ve seen the attachment hole for the LCA get egged out. This allows sideways movement of the LCA and dramatically affects camber and toe. A bad LCA bushing does the same thing. Time to get under this and get a look.

 

[eldubb440]

I know you saw this in the other thread, but I'll post it here to show how great minds think alike

 

[Kern Dog]

Yeah, Mark. Your picture reminded me of the old days!
Looking around, nothing seems obvious.

I’ll put a wrench on every bolt but nothing looks loose.
The Lower bushings look fine.

I’m able to wiggle the left wheel but I can’t be on the other side to see what is moving. I’ve heard some people say that the offset bushings are likely to wear faster due to the center being moved over and the rubber bushing being really thin.

 

[Kern Dog]

It looks like the movement is in the lower ball joint. These were replaced when I rebuilt the front end in 2003. How did OEM stuff last 80,000 to 100,000 miles while the aftermarket junk craps out at under 20,000 miles??
I have a new spare.

Maybe I should replace both. It used to be that you’d replace everything to get it done once, get it aligned and not have to deal with it again for awhile.

Can I trust Moog?
The sway bar end links are from them but I have barely 1200 miles on them. Who else makes a decent lower ball joint?

 

[eldubb440]

measure in years, not miles; you'll be happier

 

[Kern Dog]

These wheels have a domed center cap that makes it difficult to use the gauge, so….

The bore is barely large enough to fit the gauge in there.

The gauge is magnetic but this car has aluminum hubs from Dr Diff. I have to hold the gauge in place.
Now, this is with the car in the air with the tires hanging. It is just a test. Actual alignment numbers are taken with the car at rest on the tires.
Left side:

Yep, this confirms positive camber.

By my guess at the center of the bubble, that is 5/8 of a degree. Now the right side.

This is where it should be.

That looks like 5/8 degree negative.
Next, I’ll lower it to sit on the tires.

 

[Kern Dog]

Here we go.

I pushed down on the front a bit to settle it. The plates did slide as expected. The left side continues to shift around. With the greased plates under the tires, the camber on the left side changed.

Now it looks like 1/8 degree negative??
The right side is supposed to be .75 or 3/4 degrees negative.

That is maybe 3/8 degree.
How about caster? I was told there was 5.5 degrees on the right and 5 on the left.
Here is the left:

That is 3 degrees. Next, the right side.

Well, there is 3 1/4.
For years I have bragged about the great caster numbers that I was able to get. It looks like I have been lied to. I feel like the kid that had a mom that always told him he was the best looking boy in school when in fact, I’m ugly.

 

[Kern Dog]

What is really annoying is that there was room to adjust. The UCA cam bolts were not all the way in at the rear. They were near the center. The rear cam bolts adjusted IN more would have given both negative camber and more caster.

Some other threads with helpful info:

Caster, Camber and alignment options.

70 Charger front end has gone MASSIVELY positive camber!

 

[Rusty knuckles]

I might have missed it but doing the string line toe method, what are you guys measuring from to get your string square? I measured off the seam where the rocker and Floorplan pinch together.

 

[kreauto]

Your doing great Kern Dog. Just remember to keep the wheel straight ahead to take your camber readings after your bounce.

 

[kreauto]

Rusty knuckles its ok to go off the pinch weld however if the rear is off slightly then the front won’t be squared to the rear axle. In my opinion and experience I always eye ball all four edges of tires therefore assuring even if the rear is off ever so slightly the car will still go down the road straight. 4 wheel alignment does exactly that by adjusting the rear toe to match the front and square it.

 

[Rusty knuckles]

Rusty knuckles its ok to go off the pinch weld however if the rear is off slightly then the front won’t be squared to the rear axle. In my opinion and experience I always eye ball all four edges of tires therefore assuring even if the rear is off ever so slightly the car will still go down the road straight. 4 wheel alignment does exactly that by adjusting the rear toe to match the front and square it.

I ask because I was checking my alignment this morning and measuring the toe I'm exactly where I want to be between the tires (make shift toe plates). The rear axle is square to the string. My left front is good. My right front is too far towed in. So I'm not sure what measurements to believe.

 

[Kern Dog]

I might have missed it but doing the string line toe method, what are you guys measuring from to get your string square? I measured off the seam where the rocker and Floorplan pinch together.

I haven't done that yet. My plan was to establish caster and camber first.
The Junkerup video showed that Chris ran strings based on the unibody pinch welds under the rocker panels. I may do that just for fun but my intention was to just use the toe plates to set toe, then drive the car to see if I needed to clock the tie rod ends at all to get the steering wheel straight.
I called the local NAPA auto parts store. NAPA has stepped away from Moog parts but is selling off what stock they still have. The man said that they do have a RH lower ball joint so I'm going to go get it.

 

[Ray70Chrg]

I ask because I was checking my alignment this morning and measuring the toe I'm exactly where I want to be between the tires (make shift toe plates). The rear axle is square to the string. My left front is good. My right front is too far towed in. So I'm not sure what measurements to believe.

when you were adjusting the left side, make sure the steering wheel did not move. If it did bring it back to "straight ahead" and look at the right side to see if it came back to a workable distance. You may have to go back and forth a couple of times to get it perfect. That's what I had to do using the string method. I also found that the string at the midpoint of the wheel is the best location. I did mine that way yesterday and after a lot of little adjustments, back and forth, I was able to dial it in exactly. Hope this helps.