chucks_truck

Hey everyone,

I have a 1966 Mustang Coupe that I have completely gone over and replaced all the front suspension components and I have recently performed a Shelby drop on it.

I have gone to multiple shops to get the car aligned to the +2 degrees caster and 0 degrees camber and for some reason the right side is pulled forward about an inch and a half (I have adjustable strut rods) to achieve the correct numbers. I have had the wheel wells rolled to compensate for the drop, but I don't believe that one side should deviate that much. It just looks plain wrong too.

I'm not sure if it is a frame issue and I have measured multiple points on the car to verify that each side it completely different. I'm not sure what to do at this point....Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks, Chuck

Coupe

I had to add the opentracker lower arm camber kit to achieve my numbers, no mater what I did after my arning drop I could not hit my numbers.

67t5ponycoupe

It sounds like the the shock tower is twisted where the upper A arm bolts to the tower. I have seen this quite a few early cars with this problems. My 66fb driver had this problem. Had to take it to a frame shop and have the shock tower pulled. There is a frame shop in my town that is owned by a Mustang guy, so that helps. If you post a picture of the shock tower from inside the engine bay I may be able to tell if it is twisted. Check and see how may shims are installed on the upper A arms. If the front of the upper A arm on the right side has a ton of shims your shock tower is twisted.

jp1967stang

I needed lower cambers also with my shelby drop

chucks_truck

So here are some pics of the passenger shock tower. Now that I look at it more, it is definitely bent inwards. I hope I don't have to take the whole tower out or anything....I will have to find someone to look at it. Thanks for the good tip!





Look how far forward the LCA is towards the front of the car.

JMD

If the LCA mount is bent, then it probably could be pulled by a shop with a frame machine. (is the mount bent, or does it just LOOK bent because of a mal-adjusted LCA?)

It MIGHT be that the shops don't know how to handle an "old style" alignment, and are relying on the adjustable strut a little too much.

chucks_truck

I think its just the LCA is being pulled so much that the mount looks bent, but I'm pretty sure its not. The UCA is really tweaked towards the front of the car too. I have taken it to a few different shops and have had the same results, unless all of them are aligning it wrong....

gjz30075

Did you use a template for drilling for the Shelby drop? Is it possible you didn't flip the template over for the passenger side?

Tough to tell on the shock tower. Maybe a good comparison to another 67 would help.

67t5ponycoupe

Judging from the amount of bolt sticking out of the shock tower from the upper A arm I would say, at a minimum there are not enough shims in the front of the upper A arm and too many in the back.

JMD

Nice catch, looking at the two pictures it seems as if the top A arm is adjusted to the front of the car, and it seems as if the bottom control arm is adjusted to the front of the car also. If I am looking at that right, then I think it is clear that all three alignment shops have no idea of how to align the car.

They are trying to set the caster by moving the bottom control arm (which was not even adjustable in stock form) to match the upper control arm that started out too far forward, duh....

I am sorry, but where has commons sense gone to?

Someone correct me if I am looking at the pictures wrong, so I wont humiliate myself for calling the folks at all three alignment shops dumb asses.