Please help me think through this alignment issue

[markberry]

We've discussed this before, and I'm convinced it was built that way. It is an early car and I think someone got sloppy when fitting things in the jig. By "eyeball" I'd guess it is almost two degrees positive. All the suspension parts are new/renewed and the car sits level.
So Mark, what is the status of your front suspension now?

Well as I said, a 5/16" shim had been welded on the top of the passenger's shock tower from a previous repair to fix an alignment issue. when I removed the engine and found a buckle in the passenger's longitudinal frame, I took the car to a collision repair shop and had the frame straightened (by the way, they said it was the most difficult frame straightening they had ever done! all the body men were astounded at how strong the car's construction was!)but left the shim on. I then bought the offset, delrin, upper trunion bushings from speedwell and made another 5/16" shim for the drivers side shock to match the one that had previously been welded under the passenger's side shock so as to make everything match. I then measured the camber on both sides (the passenger's side still had about 1 degree more positive camber than the driver's)and oriented the offset bushings to provide 0 degrees camber on both sides. this worked well and ended the bumpsteer problem I had but.... Now that the car is undergoing a complete restoration I thought now would be a good time to cut that shim off of the shock tower and renew everything back to it's factory configuration. I didn't know what I'd find under that shim, but I figured now would be the time to fix whatever had gone wrong. well, apparently the person that fixed the car originally didn't have access to the equipment or couldn't straighten the frame to fix the alignment, so he drilled and tapped this 5/16" plate, bolted the shock to it and the rest of the suspension to the shock then positioned the whole assembly on the shock tower where it would solve his problem and welded it down. So now, after having had the frame straightened and that shim removed, I'm hoping I won't have to use the offset bushings when I reassemble the car! Anyway, I hope that long winded story answered your question about the bushings! But I mainly wanted to point out how previous damage and seemingly harmless (albeit improper) repairs caused me to have to look for alternative means to fix the problem. In short, I would take the car to a frame shop and have it measured for squareness. That should point out the reason for your problem and give you the correct answer for the fix!
regards
Mark

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Thanks for the explanation. I may take it to frame shop but I can see no visible damage or twisting.

 

[markberry]

You're welcome. I would take it to a frame shop if you can, Alot of those guys have pretty light schedules these days. I would think that any misalignment which would result in only 1-2 degrees of camber difference could be hard to see depending on different things. AT least it would support or rule out the idea that the problem lies in the frame of the car itself, rather than in some component of the steering and suspension system. My factory service manual has a section in it which shows a detailed drawing of the body and it's measurements. I took a copy of that with me to the body shop for their use.
good luck
Mark