front end alignment?

[sneezys72]

I took my truck in today to get aligned. It's pulling to the right. I lowered (drop spindles and 1.5 "drop springs) it a couple of months ago with no probs. I took it to a local shop that said "72 chevys (pickups, chevelles, etc)are notorious for buckeling the cross member and collapsing the frame". I now need to take it to a "frame shop to have the frame bent back into place". He also said because I lowered it he can't get to the nuts on the upper control arm shaft to add shims to help with the camber. Does this sound right, the buckeling/collapsing or do I need to go somewhere else. Sounds fishy to me!

[Green Machine]

Short answer - I would get a second opnion, lots of lowered trucks around without problems.

[rodstored-72]

sneezy,
i am getting my alignment done right now & as soon as i hear from the guy i will try to let you know. i have lowered mine 4.5" & 5". i told him that it was lowered like that before i took it to him & he did not say anything to me. i agree with the post above! i would just take it somewhere else. if this guy that i am using turns out to be good then i will give you the info. if you want. he is in mesa though.

good luck!
rodstored-72

[sneezys72]

Thanks Green and Rodstored. I called the guy and told him I would pick it up and not to do anything. By the time he called me back it was done. Rodstored, please let me know your guy, if I have a problems I'll look him up. Thx again

[QKENUF4U]

i can use the info restored.

[jasonrmorrow]

I don't know about those crossmembers "buckling" sounds really really odd to me. First time i've heard of it anyways...

I work for a Toyota dealer and do all the alignments in the shop and have a 64 i've had mine on the rack but will need to realign after this weekend since bags went in...

we happen to have nice new machines that take all the guesswork out of "shimming". After initial setup the program tells me how thick of a shim i need at each of the 4 shim locations to bring the alignment into spec...all i have to do is loosen the nuts and remove or place shims as the program tells me.

as for not being able to reach the nuts...well with the newer machines you can "freeze" the measurements and then jack up the front end, the measurements will stay the same as if the weight was on the wheels, then you can gain a ton of access to the nuts, lots of room in these big wheelwells.

Even if you can't "freeze" the measurements, all you have to do is remember how many .10ths you need to go, or write it down.

Before i worked for toyota i had my truck aligned (3/5 drop with springs only) at a Fountain Tire, they had the newer machine and an old guy whose done a ton of chevy trucks, its setup perfect when i checked it at toyota, and only a total of 8 shims on the whole truck.

[ChevLoRay]

I dropped mine 2.5/4.0 and replaced all components on the front and rear axle assemblies. When it was on the rack, it was aligned to factory specs with no problems at all. In fact, that was in the fall of '01, and it still tracks straight and drives great. A little play in the steering, compared to the rack and pinion on my Tundra and the wifes' Lexus, but honestly, it drives as good as it did when the '69's were new, as I remember...probably better with discs and better tires/shocks than in '69.

Yep, get yourself a trustworthy front end person.

[sneezys72]

Thx to all. Just got it back from a friend of my dads. First guy was wrong about bent frame. Only needed 1 shim on pass side. All better now.