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Hey folks,
I noticed on my long trip that Verdi was pulling to the right pretty hard. Plus, around 65 mph she had a bit of a front end shimmy. I called a local tire company and asked if they could do an alignment. They said they would have to get her up on a rack to see. Anyone had any experience, good or bad, with front end alignments? Anything to watch out for? Anyone done it themselves?
She is a Chevy Chevette, 1983 donor.
Thanks,
WillThe front end on my FiberFab is a Chevette and I was told that the shop could not do an alignment. I haven’t taken it anywhere else yet, but that was disappointing news.
When my Chevette powered f/f needed to be done the service writer also said it could not be done I went back and talked to an older tech
he said give me that car he had it done ,,when got back not a trouble ever since that was 4 years ago . the only thing i can say is talk to the tech they know more than a service writer GOOD LUCK Dan.I found a shop open weekends that will work on my chevette front end. It’s still hard for me to capitalize chevette. Hmmm, what was the builder thinking? Chevy 283 bored out, Turbo 400 transmission, Nissan 260Z rear end, and chevette front end???????
Yeah, an old timer or an old alignment shop (even better if they’re the same) are the only ones that don’t even bat an eye when I bring in my old cars for alignment.
Talk to your local hot rod shops, or customizing shops, see who they recommend
TDREPLICA Map
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I ran into the same thing with mine last year. Most new shops need the computer specks, gee these cars are not in the computer. I found one older guy still working at a tire store did it no problem.
If you tell them, “I want an eighth inch toe-in, a half degree negative camber and about 2 degrees positive castor,” and they don’t look at you like you’ve got two heads, then stay and chat. It means they know at least as much as you do about what they’re supposed to be doing.
In general, all cars need a little bit of toe-in in the front. That’s the tendency of the front tires to be not quite parallel at rest. A sixteenth-inch or a little more is usually good. When you’re moving forward, the tiny bit of “play” in all the suspension parts will tend to let the tires go almost exactly parallel. If you’re toed out in front, the car will tend to wander at speed.
Camber is the tendency of the tires to stand perpendicular to the ground. Zero degrees is straight up and down. Negative camber is what you want–just a little–so when you’re turning the outside tire, which is the one with all the weight on it, doesn’t want to tuck under and run on the side wall. Negative camber looks like this: / The tops of your tires will be just a little bit closer together than the bottoms.
Autocross guys used to say–back in the old days, probably changed now–that a car turned much better with a lot of negative camber. They might go 3 degrees, maybe more. That’s too much for a street car. Half a degree, a bit less, is usually close to what the factory wanted, and won’t wear your tires out all that fast. (VWs call for 0, I believe)
Castor is the angle of the steering axis, with zero perpendicular to the ground. Positive castor means the top of the axis is leaning back toward the driver, giving a tendency of the tires to want to track straight. Think about “Easy Rider,” those guys with long-extended choppers leaning back in their seats at 80 mph with their hands behind their heads. That’s what a lot of castor will do. Our VWs have not too much of this from the factory, and as we lower the front end (or the torsion springs wear out) castor tends to diminish. We like to use castor shims, which pop the lower beam out a quarter inch, restoring a degree or two of positive castor. With 2 or 3 degrees your steering wheel will tend to stay put when you’re going straight down the highway at 60. Some of the Speedster guys go with 5 degrees or more, which may be necessary in a short wheelbase car. But it tends to weird out the steering a bit. So, 2-3 degrees will sound to a knowledgeable alignment guy like a sensible number.
Fron there you might talk about how you drive the car, how much weight you load in it, etc., and your technician can advise you on what might work best. I told my guy to make it track straight on the highway (castor, which is, in fact, non-adjustable on the VW except with these special shims) and turn decent, without wearing out my new tires. He endorsed my specs and set them as instructed.
–You Ford and Chevy guys running live axles in back have only the front to worry about. Cars with IRS (the VW, the Datsun Z, etc.) need to have the rear suspension aligned as well. In back, with the VW, toe is out, not in. Camber is set according to ride height, mostly, and I think castor is not adjustable. But other set-ups are more adjustable on every axis, and some might want a toe-in, depending on how they’re constructed.
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