The angle of the king pin from vertical level If your running parallel leafs there are wedge shaped shims available … they go between the spring and spring pad on the axle.
My guess is the caster is wrong. The car will drive better with the axle "leaned back". The illustration above is great. Other possibilities are worn tie rod ends / drag link, or is it possible that your drag link is too small in diameter ( weak )?
It is somewhat "back yard building" but I use an angle finder that I bought from Lowes. It has a magnetic base. It will get you real close. The shims ( wedges ) are offered in 2* increments. You would place the shim from the front side, to tilt the axle back.
To be clear --- the top of the kingpin needs to be more towards the rear of the car than the bottom of the kingpin.
I had a similar experience with my 30 Ford. Scared the life out of me. Had my tires re-balanced and no more problems. Mike
Use some kind of angle finder on the spindle top or side ?- backing plate bolts ?- ….at ride height / not jacked up or on a lift.
Typically it`s a steering linkage or caster alignment problem. I would swap in some new ball joints -- you need new ones anyway, but I don`t really think that is your problem. What suspension do you have? With leaf springs I assume straight-axle. You have ball joints? or kingpins?
You need to keep the drag link parallel with the tie rod.When you raised the car did you adress the drag link? I am not sayiny this caused yer problem but it seems it drove good BEFORE you raised it....just thinkin outside the box....since thats where I live......
Redlineracer42 brought up a good point about the drag link. Maybe you should post a pic of your set up.
Check your toe in too. I ran 10 degrees of caster and never had a problem. My buddy had the same set up as me , but didn't have enough toe and the car shook violently when he hit a small bump. All he had to do was add some toe and everthing was good. Maybe after the first drive all the new parts went where they wanted and now everthing needs to be adjusted again. Just a thought.
Temporary are fine …. Get real ones from 4x4 supply. Or cut and reweld the spring pads. I like to set the toe with the wheels off I clamp strait edges on the rotors and measure across between them. They need to be as long as the tires are tall so you end up with it toed in 1/16 to 1/8 inch w the wheels on
I accidentally created "death wobble" on my 49 Ford F1. The steering link was bent down. One day I put a floor jack under it and "jacked" it back straight. After that I had nasty "death wobble" when I hit a bump at about 30-35MPH. I went through and replaced all spring bushings, tie rod ends, etc...no help. After several weeks of fighting this I remembered straightening the steering link. Of course when I straightened the link it changed the toe-in setting. I went back and adjusted the toe-in and sure enough...no more "death wobble" Bobby
Measure between the top and bottom mounting points add 4" to that number to allow for bounce. Go to a good parts store and ask to see a Monroe catalog look up shocks that have the correct type ends and the required length ( can be longer but not shorter)see what they fit, try and pick a car of about the same size weight as yours, Install them on your car problem solved.
/\/\/\ +1 Monroe has a good catalog.. That being said, I did find a site with KYB shocks that had their dimensions, i was having a difficult time finding a set of Monroes that had the dimensions I needed with the correct end type and sizes, I did alot of searching... You want your dimension about half way between full compression/full extension.. Tom
Many typical shocks have between 4" and 7" of stroke. I just targeted the mid range. I do not recall my exact size but I think I had 13-1/2" at ride height and I used a shock that was like 17" extended and 10-1/2" compressed (my memory is fuzzy as I did front and back, and had bought like (2) sets of shocks before I found some I liked). The stroke was not perfect, but it does not bottom out. BTW, the thing you want is "not" to bottom the shock, so make sure on your selection that the majority of the stroke is on the bottom side if possible. Constant bottoming will break the shock ans/or mounts. Tom
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