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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

.Don't use a chalk line. Use a tape measure. Chalk line is string that can stretch. I have a couple of mini saw horses i use on each side of each wheel to hook the end of the tape measure over. Just a 3' piece of flat bar steel with a couple of 2x4 legs about 5" high.

If steering gear needs adjusting then that should be the FIRST thing corrected because it is the easiest to do. Then test drive. Also check wheel bearing adjustment.

The camber can be cheked with a common carpenters level but requires somekind of accurate cut spacers to keep level out and away from the tire since tires can have irregularities in them. HOWEVER, for a Q&D check just set level up against side of tire.

There is probably a way to chek caster with a carpenters level too but i hav'nt tried it. I haave a rather cheap triangulaar type level for cheking caster and it is easier if u have two such triangular levels , one for each wheel.

According to my 56 manual it indicates 0 * camber so i'm guessing the 54 specs are the same. However i recommend at least 1/2 to maybe 1 full degree of positive camber (leaning out at top).

I set my 56 at about 1* POSITIVE caster (top of king pin setting back) (not negative as spec)). The neg caster(top of king pin leaning forward) will cause alot of hunt and roaad compliance at speeds over 45 or 50 mph. Setting positive caster will cause more low speed effort at the steerring wheel but not likely noticed with power steering. It WILL make the car track streighter and eleminate alot of road compliance.

If u are running somekind of boutique, reproduction period correct tires then i would be suspicous of the tires. Maybe swap fronts to rears or even from side to side to see if there is any significant change in the steering problems. It could be tires. But then again, i've had problems even out of modern radials when they get well worn, but not chronic problem.

Thanks for the guidance
Chalk line was a poor choice on my part.

What I was planning was to spin the wheel and mark a line around the circumference on the tread and then measure it front to back using a long steel yard stick or piece of flat bar or piece of rigid conduit. Thinking the toe-in was -0- when the wheels are straight ahead.

I plan to set the car level on it wheels to make my checks.
The only play in the steering linkage I can feel is a bit of King-pin movement but it is very slight.

I haven't checked for end play in either the steering wheel or the pitman shaft, but I can do that on the way home from work.

I'm running some old wide whitewall L78-15 tires I believe these are bias ply. I notice more wear on the inside tread edge. I was thinking of getting some better new wide whitewall radial type.

On a perfect new surface road the car tracks straight as an arrow. On roads with a little wear to the surface the car seems to follow the little rifts. Is this what you call road compliance and hunt? It feels like one of the tires wants to ride in the rift or follow a crack.

Most of my driving is city streets under 50mph.

Jim

If you use a level to check the camber, be sure your floor surface is level, if not you will need to compensate for the slope in your readings to get the true measurements.

Have you thought of using one of the new laser rulers to check the toe-in? Seems like they would be more accurate than a standard ruler.

(o{}o)