I recently bought a 65 nova ss, the passenger side front wheel is cocked out alittle at the bottom. Is this a common suspension bushing etc? should i just take it to an alignment shop and see if they could fix it or tell me what i need?
Jack the front of the car up and put it on jack stands. Take a 2X4, slide it under the front tire, lift up like a lever against the ground and try to move the tire from side to side. Have a friend watch for any movement in the ball joints. Don't forget to watch the inner control arm bushings too. While you are at it, slide underneath and pry or shake the tie rod ends and idler arm don't forget the idler arm pivot. Any movement at all is a bad sign. Beware of alignment shops of the chain store type and tire stores. They are notorious for ripping off their customers. A good local hole in the wall garage is a safer bet. If you can find out where taxi owners take their cabs to get work done that is usually a good place.
I forget if those have a cam on the lower a-arm or not. If so equipped, crawl under it and check and see if the cam looks maxed out. I would look over the bushings carefully and the upper a-arm shafts. The tip off for those is rust trails running down the inner body. Bent lower a-arms have the opposite effect, still go over the whole thing carefully, maybe get a HAMBer to help, most of them work for cheap beer. Bob
Replace them or the idler arm. That model of Nova had eccentric cams on the lower control arms to move it in and out to adjust the camber and if it has the stock ones the threads on the bolt get rounded off around the washer/cam on the side with the nut on it. Make sure that both cam washers register the same when you look at them. I think it was those that we used to swap the eccentrics from 67 or so Mustangs into as they had fine threads on the bolts and held better. It's been over 30 years since I worked on one though.
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