Front End work and alignment

Posted by Jim McDermaid On 2014/12/30 12:37:29

As I am moving to a house with a large garage I can finally do some needed work on my 1954 Cavalier.
Before I go for new tires I want to go over the front end. The car has over size tires and it tends to wear the inside tread and it wanders a bit following barely perceptible ruts in the road.

I wondered if the oversized tires affected the point of road contact which could affect Camber and Caster
I have a little vertical play in the King-Pins and a little slop in the steering nothing really serious.

Having read through the service manual in detail, I should be able to check some of the alignment with the car on jack-stands in a level garage.

So it looks like the tires hit the road essentially vertical when straight ahead making the spindle sit level as the Camber is all in the king pin.

The Caster and Camber is adjusted at the top of the vertical member of the front suspension.

I'm thinking I can check the Toe-In which shows to be 1/16 inch with a chalk line on the tires and a long ruler.

I have a new Kantor's King-Pin set I thought I would install at this time.

The steering box (which I assume to be Gemmer) has some adjustment capability which is done by checking end play in the steering shaft and play in the pitman shaft.

Soooooooo . . . . I am looking for guidance from the experts on this Forum because I like working on this car and I don't want to go to a shop for this.

I am more used to working on my Model T Ford :)

Jim