What camber/caster #s for 62-65?

[miller]

Figured I'd ask here, from those running one of these cars.
64 Sport Fury, with most of the normal upgrades...later disc spindles, radial tires, and so on.

Numbers on the radial tires chart work for you? Mine wanders, so going to re-do what the alignment shop screwed up.
Just curious what's working on your's. Thanks!

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

If your car wanders, check for toe out and or steering gear box adjustment.
I just aligned my 65 Satellite non power steering.
Left caster 1.3 Right caster 1.6
Camber 0 both wheels
Toe 1/16 of a degree in.
I set the left caster .3 less on the left to compensate for road crown.
This car drives straight, the caster makes it steer a little hard at parking speeds but adds stability at highway speeds.
I can get you the factory specs if you would like. Would be curious to see what your car was set to.

 

[Bill Monk]

This has been posted before but worth a re-post.
https://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/front-end-alignment.html

 

[bigaadams]

any car that was factory stock with bias ply tires has a very different driving characteristic over that of the radial and thus aligned to the tires as equipped. One has to have a look at this in a manner that is funny but is true to life. As the cartoon car as it speeds along you seen the tire patch more to rear of the rim simulating speed...well the actual truth is, the bias ply tires have this characteristics. The patch does move and this in effect is adding positive caster effect at speed but yet at slow parking lot maneuvers allows easy turning with the near neutral caster. The radial tire does not have this rolling effect and thus added caster is needed to ensure your car does not wander about following every crown, crack and curve. The so called radial tuned suspension of the era as was plastered on x cars with callouts....was nothing more than this practice as the car was stock with radial from the factory.

 

[miller]

If your car wanders, check for toe out and or steering gear box adjustment.

Appreciate that, Scott!
Power steering on the car, stock gear box/pump. Toe in is 1/8". I replaced all the seals/o-rings in the gear box, besides flushing the box itself. Going back together with it, per the service manual, adjusted gear backlash. Might do a re-look on that, to be sure it's right.

Good idea on road crown. Basic alignment, set for max caster, but keeping camber at 0. Entire front end, rebuilt myself, stockish, but with needed parts change for disc up front.
I even went through the pain, of pulling every cotter pin, re-checked tightness of all the hardware, just to be sure nothing was loose.

That dang, new and improved alignment guy, college age, turned most of my settings up side down, saying it was all way off. Drives like constant steering, to keep it straight.

 

[383man]

My 63 has stock front suspension that I rebuilt when I put it on the road. I set my front end for the most positive caster I can get which is only about 2 degrees pos as you cant get much more out of stock suspension. But pos caster gives the car better stability on the road as I would go as high as 5 pos if it would. Camber I like to set around 0 on my car and toe about 1/16 in. I run radial tires on all four corners on my car also and it drives like a dream with radials on it. Ron

 

[miller]

Thanks for that, Ron.
Your numbers are same as I had mine set, except 1/8" toe in. Yeah, radials all four corners.
I need, but don't know why, to see if I still have the alignment print-out. Doesn't matter if it still doesn't track right. Going to re-visit my front end, this weekend, to see if anything looks off.
I've double-checked everything under there, but have to be missing something. Fairly wide radials all around.

Didn't even get the steering wheel straight, so when I do that, maybe I'll re-set toe to a 1/16", and see what it does.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Might wanna take the tie rod ends from the spindles maybe you have a tight ball joint

 

[miller]

Yep. Gonna jack up the front end, wheels off the ground, and start checking everything, for play. Probably check the torque on the steering box mount bolts, too.

I've done a handful of Mopar front ends, none acted like this. Must not of been holding my mouth right!

 

[miller]

Maybe yes, maybe no, finding part of my problem.
On my 64, like many others on these things, had upgraded the suspension both front and rear. 67 8 3/4" rear, 73ish front disc spindles, and so on.
Decided to try the tight string bit, from rear tires to front, to look at the toe-in adjustment. Just looking at the front, appeared to be 1/16"-3/32".
But, at the rear tires, string across front and rear surface of the tires, string was 1/8" to a little more. Several different things could do that. Bottom line, angle of the dangle is wrong. If the string touched both edges of the rear tires, that 1/16" at the front would close up. I'm guessing I have 0 toe-in.
When the alignment was done, I know he installed readers on all four wheels, to get his numbers.
Killed time yesterday, straightening my bent wheel well, when I lost that tire tread.
Have to get measurements only from the front tires, to see what I have.

 

[383man]

Might wanna take the tie rod ends from the spindles maybe you have a tight ball joint

Yes of course you always make sure all the front end parts are in good shape before you align it. Good luck , Ron

 

[miller]

Might wanna take the tie rod ends from the spindles maybe you have a tight ball joint

Assuming you mean loose ball joint. New ones are tight.

Yes, Ron. Every bushing, every ball joint new Moog. Also new tie rods, since the ones on the car were kinda poor. All four same size radials new, on 64 15" police wheels.
Will keep one eye closed, looking at the 1/16".

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Yes new parts are tight but over the years I have seen ball joint studs that are tight during spindle rotation. Make sure you have the weight of the vehicle supported by the lower control arm.

 

[miller]

A little update...

Checked the toe setting, caveman style, measuring tape, carpenters square, and tape for measurements on the floor. (I had eye-balled toe on both sides, outer edges of tires, and sure looked like toe 'in'. Axle changes threw things off.)
As I suspected, 1/16" toe OUT. No wonder it wandered!

Centered the steering wheel, set toe in at 1/8", and test drove. Much better, tracking straight now.
Has anyone tried one of those camber/caster gauges, I've seen in tool sections? They worth having?

 

[Ron H]

I had same issues when I went to radials, disks, etc. on my '63. Two shops simply aligned the car to the oem spec's and it was a **** result. Installed a FFB and the toe-in, caster was adjusted (as posted above) by a shop that knew what they were doing finding a nice-firm straight ride no wandering. Also had an issue with the wheel not fully returning from turns and that was also resolved. Great posts here describing the necessary adjustments that I wished I knew about sooner than I finally did! Some pro align shops obviously don't know this thinking it's just a matter of oem adjustments and throw up their hands all we can do...

 

[miller]

Yep, almost laughable...almost. Pain in the rear, doing the hands and knees stuff. Had to measure a handful of times, to get it in. Fun, when it's hard, just to get up off the floor!
Out of two alignment shops in town, first one I checked on, same aged guy as the other, at least admitted they were '****' on Mopars! At least, he might of listened!