46 ford pickup...solid axle. Installing a SBC, I will be running radial tires. I've read a couple articles that state the angles should be different for radial as opposed to bias ply, is that true? What should ideally be my Camber and Caster settings. I need to have it fixed anyways so I may as well do it right.
Mount the tires and wheels and ride on. Nothing to be changed or worried about on that old girl. As with all vehicles make sure your steering gear is properly ajusted, your tie rod ends, kingpins and alignment all in good shape and you'll ride smooth and straight for many years.
Drive it and if it tracks straight and the steering re-centers on a turn then that's as good as it gets.
It needs to be done, the Camber is +1/8 deg. on rt side and + 2 1/2 deg. on the left. It leans terrible. The Axle was dropped 3" and the camber was never set. I am expecting my steering box order any day now. The tie rods and ends I'll order soon.
Quite a few heavy truck repair places can straighten/align an I-beam axle. I seem to remember that Round The Clock Truck Repair, in Plainfield, did suspension repair on big trucks.
That would be your best bet but since the camber is + 1/8 degree on the right side I'd set the left side at +3/8 and call it pretty close. You may want a bit more but I wouldn't want more than 1/2 degree + camber in the left wheel. The 1/4 degree difference is because I like 1/4 more + on the drivers side to compensate for the crown on the road as that has worked for me 99% of the time. The local guy may set it slightly different for the roads in your area if they have a high crown or are a bit flatter depending on local weather conditions. Caster is adjusted with caster shims between the leaf springs and axle when you have the front end aligned. Too little will let the car wander and too much may make the steering a bit harder at low speeds than you want. Usually the shops that do bigger trucks and or motorhome suspension can readily do an I beam. A lot of times that is the shop in town that calls it's self an automotive spring shop. Here it's White Front Garage.
Darkk, For camber you want it to be just what it was stock from the factory. In the real world you will not notice in the way that it drives with radio tires with stock camber. Then you will want to adjust your caster when you set up your front end. This can be done in a variety of ways, if you are running a cross leaf for instance or coils you would do it with the radios rods and if you are running parallel leaf springs you would do it with caster shims. So what you want to know is what was th camber set at originally for your axle. Yur axle guy should be able to find that out for you or google specs for your specific vehicle they will be on line somewhere and google will be able to find the info for you.
Actually it's a 46 Ford 1/2 ton pickup with SBC, will be running the stock parallel leaf setup with original cross steer link rods. The axle has been dropped 3" so I'll have to figure out how to get all the tie rods and rods figured out. the spring is now in the way of the tie rod and cross arm. It has 48 car spindles with cast in steering arms and 13" drum brakes 5x5 1/2 that someone rebuilt already. They just screwed the camber and the rods are all trashed. I'd like to keep the original steering box and whatever else I can save. I'm rebuilding the box right now.
Run it like mr48chev said 0 to 1/8° pos in the right & 1/4 to 3/8° pos in the left. 1/16" toe in. Caster doesnt need to be over 4° or you pick up corner wear on the tires. Thesr specs will wear tires great. We align 10 to 12 street rods & rat rods minimuim a year and use these specs.
This is slightly off-topic... but you are the perfect teachers.... I have a ford- solid- drop- front- axle. Looking normal, the DROP is down, the spring eyes are up. I need the DROP on top, and re-mount the springs so the eyes point up. Can you picture this??? You can see the spring eyes are now ABOVE the tires. Now, I can mount my flat-bed trailer deck leaving lots of tire clearance ! Here's the question, What about caster/camber ? The old tie rods are welded to the axle center, but toe-in/out is fully adjustable.
The Jalopy Journal
