'59 Front End Alignment Question

[RICH MUISE]

The latest reply from the Hamber...
"As far as I know (and I've done a lot of these when I was fixing cars for a living), there is really no adjustment on the '59 upper arms themselves. Any manual I've seen tells to center the shaft on the arm & tighten it up. Camber and caster is done via shims only. You could bias the shaft in relation to the arm a bit, I've never seen it done.

Took a quick look for the specs, I'll post them later when I dig them up."

[lalessi1]

Thanks Rich. That is the information I was looking for. I am going to leave the arm positioned to the rear as I have it, get it on an alignment machine and go from there. I will also calculate how the caster changes as the control arm moves on the shaft.

[RICH MUISE]

What he said makes sense as far as the info you'd find in a manual. Afterall, the Ford manuals were not written with suspension/aftermarket steering modifications in mind.

[gasman826]

I was working with lower control arms in a '64 Galaxie.  The lower control arm shaft is a crank that provides more caster/camber adjustment.  The lower control arm appears interchangeable with a '57 but the shaft is not...there is a frame difference.  I will play with the upper control adjustments and lower adjustments when I get the alignment gauges on it.

[RICH MUISE]

Lynn....The Hamb member with the '59 finally got back and posted quite abit more info. It's post #233, page 8. I posted the link because he's got pics.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/working-on-the-59.940138/page-8#post-11544153

[hiball3985]

That was an interesting read but nothing new really, same basic way to do a 57. I disagree with his theory on toe in. I've found that going to radial tires need more toe in due to the flex on the radial side wall, some radial sidewalls are only like 1/8", that always scares me, I run 1/8 toe in.  But thats just my take of how it works. My old straight axle truck with 10.5 x 16 x 31 tires need almost 1/4 toe in to handle correctly.

I feel once suspension parts like spindles, springs, wheel offsets. tire sizes etc. have been modified from OEM it's all an experiment for each individual car to find what works best.

[lalessi1]

I made a deal with a shop less than a mile away to put the car on the alignment machine for $25, They won't touch anything, just measure the camber and caster and the toe in as is. I just put in my 3/4" spacers and the car sits where I think is as low as practicle. The spacer raised the car 1 5/8". I actually calculated how much a shim would affect caster and camber before I read that in the Shop Manual and I got it right (amazing how that works). I am really interested in seeing how this all works out. BTW, I am leaning to the 1/8" toe in, I look at toe in as preloading the outside cornering tire making for quicker turn-in response?

[hiball3985]

Lynn, that will be interesting to see where things come out at when tested. While playing with the toe in I also noticed a better/quicker return to center with 1/8"

[lalessi1]

Well this morning I put my car on an alignment machine with no shims, here are the results:

        Left side    -2.3 Degrees camber      +1.6 Degrees caster

        Right side  -1.8 Degrees camber      +1.1 Degrees caster

I am going to shoot for -1 Degree camber and +3 Degrees caster. 1/8" toe in. I am going to supply the shims and let the shop do the alignment Monday morning. We will have to cheat on the maximum shim thickness difference between shim stacks to get there.

[hiball3985]

Looks like you will get close the numbers you want hopefully. I never got the caster I would have liked but being on a rake isn't helping either. I just can't get motivated to pull the front apart to add spacers. I wanted to cheat on the max difference in shims front to rear but I chickened out not knowing what may happen by doing that. Damn Granada spindles 

[gasman826]

The down side of exceeding the MAX shim differential is the adjustment bolts may start to bind in the upper control arm shaft. 

[lalessi1]

I need 1/16 more than the max on one side and 1/8 more on the other. I don't think that should be enough to create a major problem, but I will keep an eye on the bolts.

[lalessi1]

Just back from the alignment shop and here are the results at this point.

        Left side    -1.2 Degrees camber      +2.9 Degrees caster

        Right side  - .8 Degrees camber       +3.2 Degrees caster

I will remove a 1/16" shim on each bolt on the right side to get the camber bumped up a 1/4 degree.

[hiball3985]

Good for you Lynn, those are some great numbers.

[jwtdvm]

It is correct that an early mustang has a similar set up concerning the upper control arm shaft--They are designed to be centered in the arm. You can get away with spinning the shaft one revolution but I would not go beyond that. You want a fair amount of threads into the bushing/nuts on the end of the control arm. Spin them one time into the front bushing to increase caster a little bit