First off, this is my first time working with a solid axle, nothing like A Frame and shims. Here's what I'm dealing with on a take over job and little info on part's other than I'm dealing with a new So Cal drop axel and original spindles on a little pick-up. So my basic question is. When I look at the tire's from the front, it clearly has positive camber. What is an except able positive angle if there is such a thing ? Currently I'm only interested with the wheels straight and not KPI. This is only a starting point. Thanks, John
Could be that the spindles are on upside down. I can never remember how to tell top from bottom on them but if you get them on upside down you will got odd camber.
Spindles are on correctly and thanks for the specs and advise both of you. Today I'll be taking home my protractor to get a better look at the angle of the dangle. There may not be enough positive caster either, but the protractor will tell me once I level this project also. This did come to mind but since I haven't played with these, I have more questions. Does adding more positive caster, decrease positive camber ? Because toe will be affected just by rolling back the axle to add caster causing the toe to be readjusted, right ? I say this because I already read some of your guy's posting on camber and it's affect's to everything else.
Modern tools are of no help to me. I have all the old school stuff that serves me well. It's old school teachers that I'm looking for.
Alignment stuff hurts my head. As you say, everything affects everything. Apparently it was also baffling to a lot of people then, too, so Ford opened a special mechanics' school in about '36 to train the dealerships, and put out a neat little Red book summarizing it all that hurts my head whenever I pick it up... Go buy a repro '32-37 Service bulletin set, available from every obsolete Ford store on the planet, and you will get that info in a bulletin from about '36 too...it gives you what you need, a process starting from tires and wheels and progressing through all the alignment steps in an order designed to take care of all the overlapping effects. Ran into this in earlier bulletins...the camber spec I gave was from a postwar bulletin collecting all the info. When the cars were new, the contemporary bulletins opened up the spec to 2 degrees max, 1/4 min.
You have pos. camber now, but is there weight on the front axle? With the weight of the engine, you will see a little decrease in camber. On a side note, I'd rather have camber a little pos. rather than neg.!
To make a good safe handling early Ford front end, its best to use your imagination some. With the tires and wheels the car will run are on, car sitting at ride height, do this. Draw an imaginary vertical line through the tire, and the king pin. Those lines should meet at the ground. Using an 18 inch long level, lay it on the front of the spindles, and lay the top back one half bubble or 1/4 inch. Yes that's a lot, good for high speed stability. For toe in, if bias play, 1/16 to 1/8. If radial, 1/16 down to .030. Much less. Then, keep those fronts blown up, 30 or more PSI. These figures work great for several roadsters I have built over the last forty years . To bend the steering arms on stock Ford spindles to clear a dropped axle, use a big torch and a pipe wrench, and let it cool slowly. They are forged steel, they can be heated and cooled without harm.
Not offended at all. Given that I already mentioned that I have the tools to measure with, stop and ask yourself, "Is my reply within the scope of the question asked?"
Update. Camber is within spec. It's hard looking at something that I have no control of. This axel as I mentioned right in the beginning is aftermarket. Having it bent is not an option. I have seen original axel's after accidents that got bent like a pretzel but never broke. On the other end of things, I've seen aftermarket axel's break just because you looked at them wrong (exaggeration of course, you know what I'm say'n though) Next up is to set this truck up to the correct ride height so I can get an accurate caster reading.
Ford gives full process, starting with checking wheels, getting centerlines, etc., then a worling order to take care of the relationship of caster and camber. Massive equipment is assumed, presumably workarounds with simpler and more primitive finding of angles can be worked in.
^^^^^ Bruce, you know as well as I do. "Modified" suspension's mean's all factory specs are now only a guide line at best. This truck has split bones, so caster is fixed unless I cut and re-weld them. I'd rather see hairpin's on it, but it's not mine. It's all tweak (very limited), test, and see from here on out.
Are the bones bolted through the frame, or already on additional under frame tabs. Could be easier to modify that area to set caster right.
If you're locked in on most things...I'd say just look it over for anything that's out of the ballpark, like no caster at all, or 15 degrees caster...get toe-in within spec, even though spec might not be proper solution with modern tires that's easy to readjust and experiment with... Check wheelbase on both sides, see if everything is parallel or perpendicular to the world as expected, etc. The things you cannot reasonably changed then can only be judged by road behavior once the thing is rolling!
3banjos, it has under mount's already. Bruce, I've set toe already because it will affect static (wheels in straight position) camber reading. The caster is at around 5 degrees now. Need to recheck after below info posted under anyone. It's amazing what 1 degree of tilt over a 26" length looks like to the eye. Anyone, the next step will be to stack 1/8" & 1/4" ply under the tire's to get this thing sitting like it will be with final wheel and tire combo. It sit's on roller's now that are smaller than the final O.D. size tire's it will finally roll on.