groho

Good catch JMD! Look at the bolt alignment on the LCA; either the LCA bushing is completely shot or the bolt is bent. I did a quick mock up PDF to show you what I'm seeing. Before you can get reasonably specs, you're gonna have to correct or replace that LCA bushing. And JMD is right, the LCA and UCA are both pointed forward. From my experience simply put, the LCA should be fairly perpendicular and the UCA should provide the adj for +/- caster.

RC65

You might try checking with your local Mustang club and see where they go for alignment? I took my car about 50 miles for mine, but this guy definitely knew what he was doing with the 65/66 cars!

JMD

I am going to have to give all the credit to 65t5, he for sure caught what I suspected but missed seeing in the pictures until he pointed it out.

chucks_truck

Thank you everyone for the replies! And yes I agree with you that there is the wrong amount of shims on both sides. I need to ask around my local club and find someone who specialized in Mustangs. I live in a small town so I will probably have to go out of town also....

But I know the LCA mount isn't bent because I can push it back out to make it straight again....

scottybaccus

OK, I'm starting to get a feel for this deal. Here's my take.

The Ford unibody cars have particular dimensions for aligning the lower control arm to the body. This is measured from the grease zert on the lower ball joint, to particular points marked by holes in the sub-rail structure of the floor pan. I have this info for a '67, but not the earlier cars. (40 3/8") My '62 Falcon is actually longer, go figure.
Anyways, if the lower control arms are not aligned and equal, then the base caster and camber can be thrown off. (as well as wheelbase and track) If the alignment tech did not check this, he may have needed to dial in too much of either from the top using shims on the upper control arms.

If this were my car, I would do the following:
Remove the springs so that the suspension can be supported at ride height without resistance.
Align the lower control arm to the factory dimensions. You can order the spec diagram from this guy for about $6: Pat (carpaper@execpc.com), or on eBay by the email name. He includes basic alignment specs and the chassis drawing with dimensions and details on how they are measured. It's all from old Ford service data of some type.
Once the lower arms are set for the correct placement of the lower ball joint, your wheelbase should be correct and you can dial in the caster and camber at the upper arm with shims. So long as the structure isn't tweaked, it should all come out in spec and equal. The Shelby drop brings with it minor changes in alignment specs, but you should be able to get back to stock before accounting for that. The Shelby drop does have potential to bind the upper ball joint, unless a wedge shim is used on the upper ball joint. You can google that.
Once you have the alignment specs you want, you can reinstall the springs and confirm everything after a trip around the block to settle the front end.

Remember that the desired spec is the center of an acceptable window, i.e. caster between -.25 to +.75 degrees, camber between +.5 to +1.5 degrees, toe 1/8" to 1/4" (these are for a '67 Mustang) You don't need to hit it exactly and minor difference from side to side won't matter much.

Oh, one more thing. If you order up a chassis drawing, remember that most dimensions are measured on the floor after dropping plumb bobs from the critical points. There's not a lot that you can stretch a tape in a straight line.

JMD

I learned enough in HIGH SCHOOL auto class, and remember enough from nearly 30 years ago that I could have aligned the car better in my driveway than these shops did with all of their equipment.

ALL an alignment shop needs to do is to bring the adjustable strut rod to STOCK length, and then set the caster and camber using the TOP control arm adjustment ONLY.

After this is done, the way the wheels fit in the wheel opening can be FINE TUNED with the adjustable strut rod, and then the alignment done again on the UCA.

The ADJUSTABLE STRUT ROD should not be used to align the car, it is mostly used for the benefit of getting the wheel where you need it in the wheel opening. This is the error that the shops keep making.

jlg2002

Several posters here are all over the issue. Adding my $.02:
There are two ways to align the 60's era Mustangs depending on the year model - 64.5 - 66 use shims only to set both camber and caster by differential bias. 67 and up use a cam in the LCA bushing to set camber and the strut rod length for caster and do not use any shims on the UCA bolts. The following article from Modified Mustangs and Fords magazine gives a pretty good explanation of the process:
http://www.mustangandfords.com/techa...ent/index.html

As far as the car being discussed in this listing, the UCA shims need to be removed and the strut rod set to the factory dimensions (or replaced with a fixed length Strut Rod). Looking at the amount of LCA deflection in the photos, the LCA bushing will probably need to be replaced due to shift caused by that adjustable Strut Rod.

chucks_truck

So another thing I forgot to mention was the first shop that tried aligning it said to get the adjustable strut rods in the first place because he said he could not attain the +2 degrees of caster I was seeking. So like everyone is saying, maybe these guys don't know what they're doing.... I have looked at some of the Fastrax caster gauges and have thought about doing it myself, but I would rather have someone who specializes in older suspensions to do it....

Coupe

I have a fastrax and learned how to do it, my wife helped. I think she can do it on here own now, money well spent since the knowledge can never be take from me.

chucks_truck

How easy was it for you to do? Did you have to get those rotation pads for the front wheels to sit on so you could turn the wheel with weight on the car?