Roadster pickup gets Hillbilly wheel alignment

Well, maybe not Hillbilly, but home grown at least.--Set car on reasonably level garage floor and block tire so car can't roll foreward or backward---use carpenter level and felt marker to put a line on floor of garage directly below rear side of rear axle tube, on each side of car, as close to the brake flange as you can get it.---use a reasonably straight peice of board to connect the 2 marks on the garage floor. Use tape measure and measure 112" towards front of car, on each side of car and mark garage floor again. Use trusty board to connect the 2 marks same as at the back. Lay long side of carpenters level on floor, and place short arm against front of beam axle (or tube axle), as close as you can get to the kingpin and mark floor at each side of car. The new marks transferred from the front axle to the floor must both be the same distance from the line transfered up from the rear axle. If it isn't, adjust 4-bars or hairpin clevis's untill they are-----this ensures that front and rear axles are parallel. (this is done making the assumption that the rear axle is setting squarely in the chassis--I know mine is because I built the chassis and 4-bars.) What I do next is to clamp a peice of 1" x 1/2" x 10" long flat bar to the I-beam with a c-clamp on each side of the car, again as close to the kingpin boss as I can get, with the bar extending about 1/2" above the I-beam, and about 6" below it. I have 2 magnetic angle finders, and I put one on each of the bars. They should read at 4 to 6 degrees negative caster (that is to say, top of kingpins tipped back towards rear of car)----both sides should be exactly the same---adjust 4 bars or hairpin clevises to achieve this--(sometimes it is a good idea to have helper with pipe wrench to tweak axle a bit so you can get the 4-bar bolt back in)---he's not bending the axle, he's actually tweaking the spring-pack). I have made up a wooden jig for checking the toe-in, (which should be about 1/8" on cars running a solid axle)---entire front end alignment took 2 hours, start to finish, and cost nothing. Crude as it may sound, I have used this method on 5 different cars now, and they drove straight and never pulled to one side or the other, and never gave uneven tire wear.

Simple, almost no tools method of setting toe in. Plumb bob, string, pencil and wrench required.

- Pick the same groove in both front tires.
- Put the plumb bob string in the groove with the bob in front of the tire.
- Let the bob sag to the floor.
- Mark the floor with your pencil
- Repeat on back of tire.
- Repeat on other tire.
- Measure between marks at rear of tires.
- Measure between marks at front of tires.
- Subtract.
- The difference it toe-in.
- Adjust until it's where you want it.

I'm doing mine bass ackwards. I built jigs to hold the strut / spindle assembly to the chassis jig pads, with adjustments to set caster/camber/toe-in/track width. Now I'm welding the strut mounts and lower control arms in place. there may be a little movement when I weld it , but there should be plenty of adjustment to bring it back in alignment when it cools down. (Weld slow/little at a time). That's the theory anyway.

Have you ever had to bend a straight axle to get it to align? Does ot stay aligned when done or is it weaker once it's been tweeked?

Thanks Henry, your method looks easier, but what I was going to do was simply measure the distance across the outer tread edges on the front at the hub height and then measure the outer tread edge distance across the rear of the tires at hub height, but maybe the frame is in the way of the rear measurement so draping the plumb bob down over the tire to get a tangent point will work even if the frame and engine get in the way of measuring across the rear of the tires. I still wonder even after a home grown "hillbilly" alignment will a regular shop using lasers and modern technology be able to set up the frame with the four-bar setup on front and rear, that is will alignment machines be able to treat the alignment on a four-bar frame setup?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Poor mans toe-in jig----consists of 2x4 wood and one 3/8" x 4" long full thread bolt. This will work on full fendered cars, with wheels and tires in place.--Place on one side of axle with wooden block against sidewall of tire. Turn bolt in untill it touches tire (I turn it in untill it will just hold a sheet of paper between tire and bolt head.)----slide it out from under car and measure from bolt head to opposite side that was touching the tire. Repeat on other side of axle, and measure again. Those are your toe dimensions.

Don,

The frame was in the way, so I had to transfer the measuring points to the floor.

With an inclinometer and a good tape, you can do a darn good job.

I made sure my frame was square by cross-measuring from corner to corner. Then I made sure my rear axle was perpendicular to the centerline of the chassis by measuring from both the front and back of the frame on both sides, dropping a plumb bob where necessary. I set the rear axle east-to west by measauring from the frame rail to the opposite axle flange on both sides. I set the rear pinion angle by adjusting the ladder bars with an inclinometer on the face of the yoke.

To locate the front axle, I started by making sure that the rear mounting points for the hairpins were in the right spots by measuring from both the front and back tips of the frame rails. Then I set both hairpins to exactly the same length and bolted the rear rod end to the chassis. I bolted the axle to the hairpins, hooked up the shocks, and set the chassis on the floor. I adjusted the panhard bar so I had equal distance from the framerails to the center of the kingpins on both sides. I double checked the front axle location by measuring from centerline of the rear axles to the centerline of the front axle on both sides. I have flat-top kingpins, so I was able to set the caster by putting an inclinometer on the top and adjusting the hairpin clevises equal amounts. (I had no axle twist). I didn't do anything with camber, I guess for now I'm trusting Super Bell.

The trick is to do all of this as early in the assembly process as possible. Some settings (like caster) will change as you add weight to the body, but if you get them really close early, it will take only minor adjustments later on.

You can find good shops that can handle 4-bar and solid axle alignments, but it takes some questioning up front.

How was that for a Don Shillady-length post?

Back in high school when the rprice of an alignment would have set me back 6 months I set the alignment on my 67 Dodge Charger (after replacing a lower control arm that somehow got bent when the curb jumped out in front of me). I used a carpenters square and some trigonometry to set the camber. I used a string to measure from and back fo the tires to set the toe. I enver did manage to set the caster but the car didn't pull when I was done.
I appreciate the creativity and ingenuity on these boards. You guys are awesome.
Brianrupnow--that is a great truck!