I have new upper and lower control arms that im replacing on my 72 mav ,also have new tie rods inner and outer my question is will I be able to drive this car to the frontend alignment shop after doing all of this ,I know nothing about alignments
I wud take measurements of tie rods on the car now, and lower control arms to some point on the car under the fender b4 I took anything loose. Take note pic of the camber plates at the inner point of the lower arms to get them close to where they need to be. I wud then drive to an alignment shop. Some shops know very little if anything abt alignment of these older cars -- don't even have spec's in their computers. I wud try to find some shop that works on old cars, esp., older Mustangs.
That is a gud idea, but he don't know much about alignment! Plus some shops are hesitant about doing old cars and/or going out of "realm of what" they feel may get them legal/litigation issues. The first alignment after I did the Borg conversion had me set 0.4 both sides, car was worse than b4 they touched it. This was done by a fellow Maverick owner who works for Firestone , he's no teenager and been there several years. Go figure -- at least the work was free. I told him I need the caster out to +3deg if he cud put that much in the stock setup. They thought that was way to much, never did nothing like that. Long story short, carried the car to old school shop and after two visits carried the struts out as far positive as they cud which is Left 1 1/2 - Right 2 deg and that made hugh improvement in the handling. Before that, afraid to go over 50mph and that was uncomfortable. Cost was $80.00 versus wud have been near $100.00 at Firestone. Plan to replace the strut rods w/ AM units to get the caster out to at least 3deg this spring.
I have a guy who is old school that will do my work ,he does everybodys vintage vehicles around here and is good at it,i was just trying to get it close enough so I could drive it there thanks for help everyone! Mojo those are some good tips
Yes. Take a measurement of the tie rod lengths (at least it will get you into the "ball park". Get four 12" x 12" linoleum floor tiles (the cheap ones work fine). Put a thin layer of grease on the shinny sides, and face them together - so, you will have two "sandwiches" of tiles. Remember - the shinny sides greased together. After you are done changing out the control arms & tie rods; jack-up the front-end, place a "sandwiched" tile under each front tire, and then slowly let down the car. Note: you may have to start with the tiles slightly inboard (towards the center line) of the car, in order to end up with the tires resting squarely on the tiles. Now, you have an easy way to adjust the ties-rods. Center your steering wheel, and use a bungee cord or rope to secure it. At mid-point - run a string from the front of one front tire to the rear tire, cross over to the other rear tire. and then back to the front of the front tire on the other side of where you started. (Making a big "U" - from front-to-back-to-front). Be careful not to run the string over any raised lettering! If you are lucky, you will have no gaps between the front tire's forward & rear side, to where the string is touching the tire. If there are, adjust the rod(s) until there is no gap. Meaning that the string is touching both the front and rear of the front tires - equally. If you are very close, you will have no problems driving to an alignment shop. It is VERY dangerous to drive with a much "out-of-alignment" front-end. Perhaps other members can also give their "know how" in explaining. I used this method, used a "plumb-bob" and a protractor, was careful, and I got my front-end in real good. (caster, camber, and toe-in)
