DIY Alignment tols/tips

[Ferdobuffalo]

Hey all,
I will be doing a DIY alignment. I am looking for leads and recommendations on alignment gauges and tools.

Also, if anyone is willing to sell or loan me alignment gauges and tools please contact me.

Thank you.
/r
Brad

'67 coupe
Woodbridge VA

[Tims65]

Brad,

Good for you on all of your DIY projects! To me that's what these cars are all about, the sense of accomplishment you get from working on them.

Sorry, I can't help with alignment equipment, but post up the alignment specs you plan to use. The stock alignment specs are terrible for these cars with modern radial tires.

Here's a copy of a post I put up on another forum regarding alignment specs for early Mustangs
The stock alignment specifications were good for the bias ply tires of the day. Today’s new radial tires will accentuate the poor manners of the stock suspension's geometry.

These cars were intentionally designed to understeer (if you enter a corner to fast the front tires will loose traction first and the car will push straight ahead), as opposed to oversteer (where the rear tires loose contact, often resulting in the car spinning). The "Shelby" drop helps to correct this inherent understeer, by allowing for a greater change in camber during cornering.

Camber is how much the tire/wheel is tilted. If the tires/wheels are tilted in at the top, as you are looking straight at the front of a car, this would be negative camber.

Caster is the angle of the steering axis. If you were to draw a line through the ball joints on the upper and lower control arms you would have 0 degrees Caster. If the lower control arm is moved toward the front of the car you would be increasing positive caster.

Toe would be the angle of the tires as rotated on a vertical axis. Toe-In would basically be pigeon toed and Toe-Out would be duck-footed.

To help more clearly understand the three alignment settings for our cars, there are some good illustrations here - http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/brochure/info/tmpInfoAlignment.jsp

The original stock alignment setting for '64 - '66 Mustangs are:
Caster: -0.5*
Camber: -0.5*
Toe-In: 9/32"

The Performance alignment settings for the "Shelby" drop are:
Caster: +1.5° to +2.5°
Camber: 0 to -.5°
Toe: 1/8"

The biggest difference being in the Caster setting. A positive Caster setting will help the car to track straighter and return to center more quickly after a corner. The easiest way to describe it would be to think of a bicycle and angle of the front wheel fork. If the fork that connects the handle bars to the front wheel were to be straight up and down (0 degrees Caster) you would constantly need to steer to keep the bike going in a straight line. Now if the front fork were installed at an angle (think chopper - Positive Caster), you could take your hands off of the handle bars and the bike would continue to track in a straight line.

So even if you have not done the "Shelby drop" modification, you will still benefit from an increase in Positive Caster in a street driven car. I would suggest at least 1 full degree positive caster.

Hope that helps.

Tim

[KenAsh]

Brad,

Good for you on all of your DIY projects! To me that's what these cars are all about, the sense of accomplishment you get from working on them.

Sorry, I can't help with alignment equipment, but post up the alignment specs you plan to use. The stock alignment specs are terrible for these cars with modern radial tires.

Here's a copy of a post I put up on another forum regarding alignment specs for early Mustangs

Hi Brad,

Tim provided a nice summary with important details. I will add, if you can get a copy of October 09 CarCraft, they have a nice DIY'fer section on performing your own alignments. I have a set of the "toe-In plates they mentioned in the article and will loan them to you if you pay the two way UPS charge.

Good Luck!

[atlanticbluestang]

Hi Brad,

Tim provided a nice summary with important details. I will add, if you can get a copy of October 09 CarCraft, they have a nice DIY'fer section on performing your own alignments. I have a set of the "toe-In plates they mentioned in the article and will loan them to you if you pay the two way UPS charge.

Good Luck!

http://image.carcraft.com/f/toc/29417145+w200/ccrp_0910_cover_large.jpg

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_0610_1967_ford_mustang_alignment_tricks/index.html

[KenAsh]

http://image.carcraft.com/f/toc/29417145+w200/ccrp_0910_cover_large.jpg

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_0610_1967_ford_mustang_alignment_tricks/index.html


You da man!

Go Ravens!:D

[Oldstyl]

Go Ravens? Maybe I can't talk to you anymore ;)

Go REDSKINS!!

[Ferdobuffalo]

Thank you all for the info and offer of tools. I will keep you posted of how things turn out.
/r
Brad