Alignment Problems
 

:( Well, heres the story..... i had my truck put in the shop for a complete rebuild on the front end, including new steering parts and chassis. Things went together right but when it came time to have the alignment done it went down hill. The toe and camber went very smoothly, but when the caster was being done, they had nothing but troubles with it. Is it possible that the two upper control arms are not identical from each other causing my caster to be off by say 10 degrees? What i mean is, is it possible that if they aren't identical could someone have switched them around causing the problem in the long run? Or is this a sign of possible front end collision coming to haunt me. I have seen no signs of my truck being hit anywhere. The shims for the control arms were ground down so now the caster is sitting at 8 degrees on one side and 9 on the other. Needing some info on what to do, appreciate all replies! Thanks!

Aaron :bowtie:

I had a Firebird that had a bent subframe and was impossible to line up. I had just rebuilt the whole front end [with the front cap off] and there were no visible signs that it had ever been hit. The alinment guy put in an offset upper control shaft to solve the problem. I don't know if they make such an animal for a 67-72.

You may have put the upper control arms on backwards. IE. rhs on lhs and vice-versa. I did this once on a rebuild and shop had the same problem. Fortunately, there was a C-10 just around the corner that we could check. DOH!:eek:

Are they unable to shim the control arms enough to correct caster? How much is the reading off ( - or + ). When installing the upper control arm shaft and ends, its possible to have the shaft forward or rearward by 1/4 or more which throws the caster WAY off.

Have them do a SAI (Steering Axis Included angle). If its off by a few degree's or more, the frame is diamond shaped and will need to pulled. If SAI is ok and Camber can be adjusted ok, it sounds like they may be doing something wrong with the upper arms.

Problem Solved (I hope)
 

Well, so far its good news.... the problem was the control arms were backwards and have probably been that way since i bought the truck in July of 01. A big relief to know it wasn't severe front end damage that was causing it. They did grind the shims down to correct at first but it didn't take much off the problem with ball joints being off so we'll see how today goes with alignment!

Aaron:bowtie:

Jeeeez! I actually helped someone out for once! Good to hear it's ok.:)

Brad -- Not only did you help, you had to admit your mistake to do it. So we'll give you 2 points for this one!

I would have said, "I once had a friend who put his control arms on backwards."

Mike

LOL