Quote:
Originally Posted by nba1341
Here is what I got for alignment specs
Front roadside 1/4 positive both sides
canister 1 1/2 - 2°
16 tow in
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Thanks for posting the alignment specs. I reading them as:
Camber: +.25*
Caster: +1.5* - +2*
Toe In - 1/16"
First the alignment shop should have been able to give you a computer print out of the starting and finshing alignment specifications. There should be camber, caster and toe settings for both the right front and left front wheels.
Now for your settings, Ron's information is on the mark.
Toe settings:
First to help you understand toe settings, here is a brief description:
Toe would be the angle of the tires as rotated on a vertical axis. Toe-In would basically be pigeon toed and Toe-Out would be duck-footed. Your toe-in setting of 1/16" is within the acceptable range.
Camber settings:
Camber is how much the tire/wheel is tilted. If the tires/wheels are tilted in at the top, as you are looking straight at the front of a car, this would be negative camber.
So Negative camber would look like this: /-----\
and Positive camber would look like this: \-----/
Your positive camber settings are contributing/causing the tires to rub the fenders. Like Ron said, you need to change the positive camber to negative camber.
Caster settings:
Caster is the angle of the steering axis. If you were to draw a line through the ball joints on the upper and lower control arms you would have 0 degrees Caster. If the lower control arm is moved toward the front of the car you would be increasing positive caster. Like I posted earlier - The easiest way to describe it would be to think of a bicycle and angle of the front wheel fork. If the fork that connects the handle bars to the front wheel were to be straight up and down (0 degrees Caster) you would constantly need to steer to keep the bike going in a straight line. Now if the front fork were installed at an angle (think chopper - Positive Caster), you could take your hands off of the handle bars and the bike would continue to track in a straight line.
The Caster settings that you posted would be acceptable, but I am surprised with the way you are describing the manners of your car at highway speeds. I would go back to the alignment shop (or another alignment shop) one more time and ask them to:
- change the camber from the positive setting to between 0.25* and 0.50* Negative camber
- increase the Caster to at least 2.0* Positive Caster.
There are two ways to set Caster on our early model Mustangs. One way (the easy way) is to pull the front wheels forward by tightening down on the strut rods as much as possible. The other way is by adding shims to the front mounting bolt of the Upper Control Arm. The problem with adding shims to the control arms, is it changes the camber setting, so there is a lot of back and forth and trial and error to get all of the settings correct.
A lazy shop (or one that does not know how to properly align an older car) will crank down on the strut rod and say "That's all of the Caster that is available". You need to find a shop that knows older cars and is willing to put in the time and effort. It will, also, cost more then aligning a modern car.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Tim
