Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I have the front end apart on my '39 Packard Six for other maintenance and now is the time to correct my alignment. Should the wheels tilt to the outside at the top the wheels when the car is sitting on the ground? I know when it's jacked up they will be different. It is not clear in the Tech manual as to where the Negative or Positive angle is.

The 51 manual gives positive camber as more space at the top.

Cars with modern radial tires pretty much always have negative camber as that makes the tire contact patch larger on the outboard wheel when going through a turn.

However, positive camber has the advantage of that the contact patch grows as the car is loaded and the suspension compressed.

The relevance of these considerations is highly dependent on the suspension design. For the same reason as the 3rd paragraph, when going through a turn, the contact patch may be increased on the outer tire, giving the same effect as the 2nd paragraph.

It's a balance of tire dynamics and control arm design which determine the optimal settings. Car manufacturers will literally just pull a car in different directions when stationary to study the reaction of the suspension system and thus calculate an optimal design and settings.

So I would interpret that as positive camber. That was the standard of the day.

The alignment information can be found in the Service Counselor/Letters section under specifications.

Here is one that lists the compiled information from the mid-1930s through 1942, which I retrieved using the Service Index on the left-hand menu.