Align your car at home?

[Mike DC]

 
This might have made the Mopar LCA bushings work better from the factory - A newer bushing design with the center layer of steel in the rubber.  IIRC modern Mustangs have them on the front LCA.





The extra metal layer stiffens the bushing for lateral movement (handling), but it doesn't stiffen the rubber up as much in other ways like twisting forces (normal up-down suspension movement) or big impacts (car hitting curbs/potholes).  So you can run a bigger bushing without it feeling too floppy in handling.   

Part of the reason to want these things in our cars' LCAs (if it was possible) would just be longevity.  With softer twisting resistance the bushing would last much longer in daily usage.  And it might have prevented the problem of Mopar K-frames getting fatigue cracks around the LCA mounting tubes.  Too bad this bushing design wasn't around 50 years ago.   

[Dino]

I got these Longacre toe plates today. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't they be flat and parallel to each other in order to have a correct reading? These are not straight. This is with one end touching. Maybe I should just stick with strings.

https://a.co/d/0anAYBb1

[Kern Dog]

It is hard to tell with the blurry picture.
If the plates are not bent or warped, having the slits at a slightly different height will not matter.

[Dino]

It's not the slits, it's the gap between two plates. They don't lay flat against each other. This picture is s bit better. The.gap is like this on both sides.

[70 sublime]

Is this gap on both ends of the plates to measure from  ?

If you put both plates on the floor like you would have them on under the car but slide them tight together I bet you will get the exact same number if you measure front and back distances from the slots

[Kern Dog]

You put ONE of those plates against the left wheel and the other plate against the right wheel, then attach the tape measure to one, then measure to the other.
Those plates do not both lay together to obtain the toe measurement.

[Dino]

Right, and since they are not perfectly straight, they are not parallel to each other so I don't see how these will give me an accurate reading.

[Kern Dog]

For toe plates, there are numerous ways to get the numbers.
You can do this:

[Dino]

Haha that's cool!

[Kern Dog]

It shows that setting the toe is the easiest part of alignment.

[Back N Black]

Good timing. I need to align mine after I set the ride height. I guess I need to go find some sheet metal and toe plates. Thanks for the write up!

You don't need sheet metal plates, card board works just fine. Used it many times.

[Kern Dog]

I thought of alternatives. I thought of using plastic cutting board sheets.
I didn't consider cardboard. That is easy and cheap, like my sister.
(Kidding, sis!)

[tomonty]

This whole thread has been great. I'm about to rebuild the front end on my 70 since it has been sitting for over 10 years and all the ball joints are trash. Figured I'd upgrade the UCA's to the QA1's, replace the bushings, and put in a Hotchkis sway bar, etc.

Really appreciate the great pics/explanations. Will come in handy when I go to do the alignment. 

Mike

[Kern Dog]

I have now done 3 alignments with this method and all three cars drive great.
Good luck with your project.

[Dino]

I diy aligned the car yesterday. Stock UCAs with offset bushings. Rear bushings were turned all the way in and front bushings out. I adjusted the front bushings inward and set camber to -0.5 degrees. I got +4 degrees caster on the driver side, and +2 degrees on the passenger side. Maybe I needed to adjust the rear bushing instead or maybe it doesn't matter? The negative camber actually looks like it's a bit too much. Toe is set to 1/8" in. The steering wheel is slightly off center. All in it's a huge improvement and the car seems to ride very nicely, but there's more testing to do. No doubt I can make more improvements. I used a Longacre caster/camber gauge, and two metal plates with grease in between under the wheels. If I'm going to do alignments on all my cars, I will probably invest in some more alignment tools.

[Kern Dog]

I would think that caster numbers with that amount of spread isn't ideal. Maybe the strut rod on the passenger side has a thicker bushing?
The camber you have is not a problem. I run a full degree and it not only looks fine, the car drives fine too.

[b5blue]

  If it "feels" right your okay. After my last overhaul I used Hotchkis adjustable strut rods and bought all the alignment tools. Later I had it checked after swapping to a Borgeson power steering conversion. My UCA's have staggered offset bushing like you and my numbers are pretty close to ideal.

[John_Kunkel]

I got +4 degrees caster on the driver side, and +2 degrees on the passenger side.

How fast have you driven it? Excessive caster can cause a high-speed shimmy.

[Dino]

I got +4 degrees caster on the driver side, and +2 degrees on the passenger side.

How fast have you driven it? Excessive caster can cause a high-speed shimmy.

About 70 but it was on winding back roads. I can take it out onto the freeway tomorrow.

[Kern Dog]

I understand that as you increase caster, you may also increase bump steer.
I haven't noticed a problem like that. The car seems to track straight and hold a line without feeling twitchy or unpredictable.

[Dino]

It started snowing so I had to postpone the test drive. The summer tires don't do so well on the white stuff.

[b5blue]