Question on upper control arms and alignment

megaivtes

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past few weeks i upgraded my drums with a Right Stuff disc conversion which included lower ball joint. After disconnecting the steering linkage and reconnecting my steering wheel was off kilter.
I realized that something is not right and frontend is more squirrely than previous so I'm going to continue the upgrade and go with PST upper control arms, cam bolts and tie rod's.
You can see from pic that it needs alignment and i'm pretty sure it looked that way previously, although i did not notice tire wear. Looks like driver side has negative camber.
At some point i'll visit what I perceive as steering box slop, but first...
Questions:
1. When taking to an alignment shop that's familar with these...do most shoot for +1/2" camber?
2. are idler arm and pitman arm replacement recommended also at this time?
Anything i'm missing?
Screenshot_20220712-203708_Photos.jpg
 

bearman

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When your rebuilding something everything gets replaced in my project. Also everything that is taken off is marked or a pic is taken to reinstall as it was. Then off to alignment shop. Just my 2 cents.
 

topside

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I'd shoot for 0 to -1 degree of camber, and as much positive caster a you can get, which with aftermarket upper arms is usually around 5 degrees.
Generally a bit more pos RF than LF helps with the crown in the road.
Toe-in of 1/16" works fine, no more than 1/8".
 

Kern Dog

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Do not have the car set up with positive camber. That style was used before radial tires and power steering.
Every car nowadays can benefit from some negative camber. I run 3/4 degree of NEGative camber, 4 degrees of POSitive caster and 1/8" toe IN.

Bad mu fu.jpg


My tires wear evenly and the only squealing is from the rear tires!
 

megaivtes

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appreciate all comments. being this is the 1st time getting into the front end suspension on my 67 Satellite, I would have inadvertently given the alignment shop stock specs from the service manual.
From what i've read there's things to look for when going thru this process...ie, like setting ride height prior to alignment procedure.
Any other tips are appreciated as I will soon add..new torsion bars, UCA, tie-rods, idler and pitman arms, new bump stops.
 

toolmanmike

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Here's a chart from a FABO thread.

skosh chart alignment.gif
 

twecomm

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Replace the items on your "soon add" list before you spend money on an alignment twice. It will make a huge difference. Properly setting ride height is very important, before alignment. I wouldn't expect just any tire shop that does alignments to understand how to properly align a B Body car. Ask other Mopar owners for someone in your area for names / recommendations of who they have used for alignments that got it right first time ! Not everyone who's competent of aligning todays cars knows what to do with these older cars to really get it right.
Many agree on using the the " Skosh" alignment specs in this article. Turn of the screw: front end alignment for performance on classic Mopars
 

WileERobby

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Replace the items on your "soon add" list before you spend money on an alignment twice. It will make a huge difference. Properly setting ride height is very important, before alignment. I wouldn't expect just any tire shop that does alignments to understand how to properly align a B Body car. Ask other Mopar owners for someone in your area for names / recommendations of who they have used for alignments that got it right first time ! Not everyone who's competent of aligning todays cars knows what to do with these older cars to really get it right.
Many agree on using the the " Skosh" alignment specs in this article. Turn of the screw: front end alignment for performance on classic Mopars
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This.
 

Frank Mopar

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Specs dont matter, you can only get so much out of a stock suspension. Here is what happens. You put in all the caster you can. Start dialing out caster until your camber is where you want it. Match up both sides. Then set the toe.


If you want more caster, aftermarket adjustable uppers are what you want. IMHO
 

YY1

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If it's "worse" now than before you made changes-

STOP

Find out what's wrong before changing any more parts.
 

YY1

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...and if you set the ride height different than book spec-

Explain this to the actual person that will work on your car (not just the service writer), and be clear that you do not want the height set differently than you have it.
 
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