[gto_ron]

Merry Christmas Forum Members..

I'm reassembling my 64 GTO after a frame-off restoration. Is there a seat-of-the -pants way to get the front wheels aligned in my garage? They just have to be close enough so I can drive it to the nearest alignment shop. Right now they have no alignment shims in place and are completely unaligned since I rebuilt the front suspension.

Ron
64 GTO ragtop

[74vetteman]

This is how i did mine.
For materials you’ll need a long string and a sheet of Masonite. Cut the Masonite into squares. Use two squares under each front wheel, polished side to polished side. This allows the wheels to move around and not bind up when you make adjustments.

Set camber, caster and toe-in in that order, because each affects the others in that order. With a power steering car, crank in as much positive caster as possible with the strut rods. Then, according to how sportingly you drive, you can set the camber.

Anchor the string at the back end of the car somewhere. The string needs to be at a height equal to the center of the axles and parallel to the side of the car. Make sure that it is parallel. Measure from the sidewalls of the rear tire to the string; it should be the same. Now you are ready to see what you’ve got.

You can check the camber now. Use a stick or a board 90 degrees to the ground (straight up) at the string. Measure from the top of the wheel to the stick and then from the bottom of the wheel to the stick. If there is a difference, it is camber. If the top of the wheel is closer to the stick, it’s positive camber. If the bottom is closer to the stick, it’s negative camber. By measuring the distances, you can mathematically calculate the degrees of camber.
At the front of the car, measure from the rear of the front tire sidewall to the string. Write that measurement down. Now, measure from the front sidewall to the string and write that measurement down. Compare the two measurements. (And you are going to have to do this to both sides of the car, so don’t get carried away on one side.) If the front measurement is greater than the rear measurement, you have toe-in. Some toe-in is good. There should be about 1/16” difference between the measurements. If there is a huge difference, You have to adjust the tie rods to make it change.

The tie rods, Get things loosened to where you can rotate the sleeves with a pair of pliers or even your hands. Make your adjustments. Anyway, do half of your adjusting on one side then go through the same procedures on the other side of the car and make what adjustments are necessary to get about 1/8” toe-in total for both sides.

Once you string your car, you may never go to an alignment shop again.

[cucumber1949]

This is what I did until I could get it to the shop.

http://www.nationaltbucketalliance.c...ment/index.asp

[sqzbox]

Alot of trouble just to get to the alignment shop! How far from home is the shop? I have just tossed a few shims in the upper A arm till the wheels are vertical to the ground top to bottom, and adj. the tie rods kind of till they align with the edge of the rears (if tires ar the same width) and drive it to the shop. If the rears are wider, adj tie rods in an inch on each rear tire.

[OneMoreTime]

the string fling method is good nuff to go 200 at bonneville so it must work for me and saves the trip to the alignment shop..of course you gat get it "close enuff" by eyeball to drive slowly to the alignment shop..

Sam