Cavedawg

This is a question for alignment gurus out there! Have a 66 coup, 289, mostly stock except front disc brakes, and some other stuff. Daily driver for my son in college. A few weeks ago, I took it in to get aligned just as precaution bc I swapped out drag link and wanted to make sure the toe was correct before sending him back to college. When we got it back, it would be fine but when you went over hill at say 40-45 mph the front end would seem to raise up and stay throwing the alignment out and causing the tires to squeal and steering to become touchy. We took it back and they said they tightened the lower control arm pivot bolts b/c they were not seeming tight enough. During the drive home, it did same thing again. Called them and told them it was doing it again. They said to check and see if the lower control arms were pinching. I have rack in my garage so lifted it up and checked, took bolts out, measured sleeve of old bushings and new ones and determined there was a slight diff. Used grade 8 washers to make up for this and reinstalled and torqued to correct specs. Also torqued the strut/radius rods to specs as well. Drove it and same thing, tire squeal and front end lifting up. So for you experts out there, any suggestions? I'm taking it back for third time but wanted some input first. Btw, all of the front end is basically new, new lower control arms, new upper bushings, upper and lower ball joints, new tie rods, idle arm, strut arm bushings, etc. It was fine before alignment shop but now it's crazy, if we drive it for too long, it will destroy the front tires which are new. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Cavedawg

barnett468

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look at the shock towers to see if they are cracked.

remove front springs and move suspension arms to see if they are loose or move freely.

bop11

Have you checked for bent shocks? They could be holding the arms up. The 66 and earlier had camber adjusted by shims under the upper A arm. Later 'stangs had an eccentric on the lower A-arm. As Barnett said check the upper arm attachment points for cracks. Also it is possible to tighten the lower arm bushing so tight that it actually squeezes in the lower arm bushing mounting points. This would cause the bushing to drag. The mount is made of a channel and a angle and needs to be spread so the bushing can turn freely, then torqued to 75-100 ft-lbs.

Mach428

None of the comments explain why the front end is raising up. The lower control arm will have very little to do with ride height.

Perhaps you are trying to connect the dots between the alignment shop and this problem. Could it be that the front end parts installed by you are incorrect?

You mention a lift in your garage. i would suggest having someone slowly raise the vehicle to remove weight from the front end and notice if anything looks out of place. You should have the same effect of raising the vehicle on a lift as you have going over a hill. Something is not allowing the vehicle to return to its normal ride height.

I doubt that the shop had anything to do with this, even if camber eccentrics and caster strut arms are totally out of alignment, neither would affect the ride height.

Cavedawg

Ok, update on what's been done and results. Took back to alignment shop and the owner, who is a friend, worked on it personally. He said he suspected the spring perches of being frozen. He could watch it hang up when lifting it. Also, the left outer tie rod ends were wrong he said. The ones I replaced were a different diameter then the right side ones. The right side was slightly larger however I compared the ones I took off and they were exact replacements but apparently the previous owner many years ago did the swap. Picked up car and took home. He didn't replace the spring perches so my son and I drilled and installed grease zerks on the spring perches. (the perches had poly bushings that were replaced when we rebuilt front end about year and a half ago.) After greasing the perches, we removed the shocks and replaced them just to make sure they were not binding. (they were new as well) Then we drove Mustang and it only hung up once. Figured the grease was still working it's way through the bushing assembly. Seemed ok after that. Next day my son took out and said it was doing it again! So now it's back in shop, took right spring and perch out, had a little rust on perch boot shaft and will clean and polish and reinstall. Haven't taken left side out just yet but will tonight. Even though the left tie rod ends were incorrect size (glad friend saw this and made right) it had no bearing on the issue. Seems the perches are freezing up. I think with the removal and cleaning/polishing of the internals of perches, this will eliminate this problem. I will update as soon as I get it back on road. Thanks

Caveman

bop11

Did this car have Granada disc brakes installed on it? If so, the Granada spindles have a different taper than the original Mustang and need inserts to correct them. Doesn't explain the hang up but would the incorrect links. A set of rubber coil spring seats are only about $20, which might be a good investment to determine if the seats are the culprit.

dodgestang

Granada conversion has been known to cause front end lift at start up that doesn't settle back down until you tap the brakes.

http://themustangsource.com/forums/f...e-swap-390314/

http://themustangsource.com/forums/f...-setup-387424/

http://www.mustangsandmore.com/ubb/F...ML/012778.html

The link to cloney's old site with all the details from when he fought the issue with Granada brakes on his car no longer works but I think I found it on the way back machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20040918...t350clone.com/

You need to click 'tech', then 'suspension', then 'our story' on the left menus

At the same time though....you say it was fine before the shop aligned it...did you give them the specs or did they use 'stock specs'....because you don't want to use stock specs anymore.

John keeps his recommendation for alignment specs on his site here:
http://opentrackerracing.com/technical/